The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rome

The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rome offers thirty-one original essays by leading historians, classicists and archaeologist on the largest metropolis of the Roman Empire. While the Colosseum, imperial palaces and Pantheon are famous features of the Roman capital, Rome is addressed in this volume primarily as a city in which many thousands of men and women were born, lived, and died. The clearly written and succinct chapters discuss numerous issues related to the capital of the Roman Empire: from the monuments and the games to the food- and water supply, from policing and riots to domestic housing, from death and disease to pagan cults and the impact of Christianity. Richly illustrated and designed as a readable survey accessible to all audiences, the Companion explains ground-breaking new research against the background of current debate and reaches a level of sophistication that will be appreciated by the experts.

Paul Erdkamp is Professor of Ancient History at the Free University of Brussels (VUB). Previously, he was Research Fellow at the University of Leiden. He has published two monographs: Hunger and the Sword. Warfare and Food Supply in Roman Republican Wars (1998) and The Grain Market in the Roman Empire (2005), and is editor of The Roman Army and the Economy (2002), A Companion to the Roman Army (2007) and A Cultural History of Food in Antiquity (2012). His research interests include the ancient economy, army and warfare, ancient historiography, in particular Polybius and Livy, and social and cultural aspects of food in classical antiquity. Professor Erdkamp is currently co-chair of the Roman Society Research Centre, in which various departments of ancient history and archaeology at European universities participate.