Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World
Vicki Le?n, the popular author of the Uppity Women series (more than 335,000 in print), has turned her impressive writing and research skills to the entertaining and unusual array of the peculiar jobs, prized careers and passionate pursuits of ancient Greece and Rome. From Architect to Vicarius...
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Vicki Le?n, the popular author of the Uppity Women series (more than 335,000 in print), has turned her impressive writing and research skills to the entertaining and unusual array of the peculiar jobs, prized careers and passionate pursuits of ancient Greece and Rome. From Architect to Vicarius (a deputy or stand-in)--and everything in between--Working IX to V introduces readers to the most unique (dream incubator), most courageous (elephant commander), and even the most ordinary (postal worker) jobs of the ancient world. Vicki Le?n brought a light and thoughtful touch to women's history in her earlier books, and she brings the same joy and singular voice to the daily work of the ancient world. You'll be surprised to learn how bloody an editor's job used to be, how even a slave could purchase a vicarius to carry out his duties and that early Greeks had their own ghost-busters with the apt title of psychopompus. In addition to stand-alone profiles on callings, trades, and professions, Le?n offers numerous sidebar entries about actual people who performed these jobs, giving a human face to the ancient workplace. Combining wit and rich scholarship, Working IX to V is filled with anecdotes, insights, and little-known facts that will inform and amuse readers of all ages. For anyone captivated by the ancient past, Working IX to V brings a unique insight into the daily grind of the classical world. You may never look at your day-to-day work in the same way!
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780802715562 (0802715567)
ASIN: 802715567
Publish date: May 29th 2007
Publisher: Walker & Company
Pages no: 312
Edition language: English
This is a rather flippant (and rather funny) jobs guide to the ancient Greco-Roman world (with a few side-trips to Ptolemaic Egypt). If one were a slave, and slaves were common, I'd definitely rather be a sandaligerula, whose job was to change her master or mistress' shoes, than be doomed to work ...
Not as good as Leon's other books, though her humor is still there. Intersting though. I would hate to be an arm hair picker.
Hell, what are we all complaining about?! At least we're not Roman aquarii, fishing around down in sewers or funeral clowns (we call those preachers these days) or bath slaves ewww ewww...a lot of careers in the ancient world weren't things that DeVry or Virginia College would prepare you for.Vicki ...