Miracula: Weird and Wonderful Stories of Ancient Greece and Rome

by Paul Chrystal

Overview

Occasionally scandalous and always fascinating, a cornucopia of surprising and little-told yarns from the classical world.
 
Both humorous and shocking, Miracula is filled with astonishing facts and stories drawn from ancient Greece and Rome that have rarely been retold in English. It explores “the incredible” as presented by little-known classical writers like Callimachus and Phlegon of Tralles. Yet, it offers much more: even familiar authors such as Herodotus and Cicero often couldn’t resist relating sensational, tabloid-worthy tales. The book also tackles ancient examples of topics still relevant today, such as racism, slavery, and misogyny. The pieces are by turns absorbing, enchanting, curious, unbelievable, comical, astonishing, disturbing, and occasionally just plain daft. An entertaining and sometimes lurid collection, this book is perfect for all those fascinated by the stranger aspects of the classical world, for history enthusiasts, and for anyone interested in classical history, society, and culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781836390503
Publisher:	Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date:	04/12/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	472
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Paul Chrystal is a contributor to several history and archaeology magazines, and TV and radio programs. He is the author of more than 160 books published on a wide range of subjects, including, most recently, The Book in the Ancient World: How the Wisdom of the Ages Was Preserved.

Table of Contents

Cover Half-title Page Title Page Copyright Contents Foreword by Philip Matyszak Preface Introduction 1. Strangely Strange and Oddly Normal THE SCIENCES 2. Agriculture 3. The Climate and Natural Disaster 4. Roman Waste 5. Astronomy and Space Travel MEDICINE 6. Medicine and the Medical Arts 7. Physiology 8. Embalming 9. Deformity and Disability 10. Female Genital Mutilation (fgm) LANGUAGE 11. The Greek Alphabet Derived from the Phoenician Alphabet 12. The Written Word and Bad Books 13. The Pontius Pilate Stone, Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera and Jesus of Nazareth 14. The Spoken Word: Rough-Speaking Romans 15. Graffiti 16. Aphorisms: True Or Not So True? SEX AND SEXUALITY 17. Fetishes and Voyeurism 18. Pederasty: The Sexual Pursuit of Boys by Men 19. Sex: From Buttocks Partialism to Zoophilia 20. Satyrs and Satyriasis 21. Priapus and Priapism 22. Candaules, ‘Dog Throttler’, Father of Candaulism (and Voyeurism) 23. Lesbianism and Sappho 24. Hermaphrodites and Other Wondrous Beings 25. Gender Reassignment, Miraculous Births and Sexual Ecstasy 26. Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs 27. The Roman Joy of Sex 28. Dildos SOCIAL SCIENCES 29. Bad Parenting, Good Parenting? 30. Sexism and Misogyny 31. Domestic and Sexual Abuse 32. On Being a Left-Hander, and Toilet Etiquette 33. Men and Boys HISTORY AND ETHNOGRAPHY 34. Aethiopians and Black People 35. Sparta and the Spartan Stasi 36. The Death of Pyrrhus: History’s Best-Aimed Tile 37. Mithridates: Professional Poisoner 38. Socrates: He Danced Alone 39. The Celts 40. Dinner with Attila the Hun, ad 450 GREEK AND ROMAN SOCIETY 41. Children and Schooling 42. The Games 43. The Law 44. Public Services 45. Food and Feasting 46. Drink and Drinking 47. Slaves and Revolting Slaves 48. The Public Baths, Sex and Hair-Pulling 49. The Hell that Is Urban Living 50. Parking Restrictions and Potholes 51. All Creatures Great and Small 52. Pets MYTHOLOGY 53. The Graeae: The Oldest Triplets the World Has Ever Seen 54. Philomela and Procne 55. The Unicorn 56. Charon: A Life Underground 57. Talos: The World’s First Automaton 58. Cerberus: Guard Dog from Hell THE MILITARY AND WAR 59. The Military 60. War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity 61. Women at War 62. Torture SUPERSTITION AND THE DARK ARTS 63. Superstition 64. Entombing a Vestal Virgin 65. Omens, Prodigies and Oracles 66. Spells, Curses and Voodoo Dolls 67. Witches and Witchcraft 68. Werewolves and Lycanthropy 69. Witch-Lite: The Bogeywoman Is Coming to Get You 70. Ghosts TRAVEL AND ARCHAEOLOGY 71. Wild Travel and Exploration 72. Explorers – Gorillas or Hairy Women? 73. Skeletons from the Far East Found in Roman London Epilogue FURTHER READING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PHOTO ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INDEX

Editorial Reviews

"Entertaining to dip in and out of."

Publishers Weekly

"The efforts of a Robert Ripley or the Weekly World News are more recent examples, but the tradition of paradoxography—writings about the unusual, the miraculous, and the absurd—runs back to Hellenistic Greece and beyond, including Aristotle, Callimachus, Cicero, and Pliny alongside lesser-known practitioners. In this connection the historian Chrystal’s new Miracula is both a continuation and a commentary, presenting oddities, trivia, and twice-told tales from the ancient world and contextualizing them for the reader. Here are marvels from pygmies to the Polyphagus (Nero’s personal cannibal), the war-cats of Cambyses to the longest word in ancient Greece."

The New Criterion