"Separate[s] the man from the myth. . . . Both the newcomer and the experienced Roman historian will find a wealth of entertainment and information." (Publishers Weekly) Spartacus (109?–71 bce) has been a source of endless fascination, the subject of myth-making in his own time, and of movie-making in ours. In this riveting, compact account, Aldo Schiavone rescues Spartacus from the murky regions of legend and brings him squarely into the arena...

Introduces readers to the panoply of public entertainment that flourished in Palestine from the first century BCE to the sixth century CE. Drawing on a trove of original archaeological and textual evidence, Zeev Weiss reconstructs an ancient world where Romans, Jews, and Christians intermixed amid a heady brew of shouts, roars, and applause to watch a variety of typically pagan spectacles.