The Ancient Guide to Modern Life

April 15, 2011

British comedienne and classics lover Haynes (The Great Escape, 2007) presents a wonderfully whimsical yet instructional view of Greco-Roman history.

The author fuses educational narrative and jocular commentary to guide the reader through aspects of ancient life still of interest today: politics, law, philosophy, religion, the role of women, the urban-rural dichotomy, entertainment and money, among others. The idea that the past bears upon the present often becomes a meaningless abstraction, but Haynes offers practical examples of this aphorism with welcome wit and a wink. Classics scholars are unlikely to learn anything new--the author clearly writes for a general audience--but they will surely chuckle at her candid accounts of celebrated ancients, especially "Rome's most articulate grouch, Juvenal." Haynes sets the record straight on topics as diverse as the nature of gladiatorial salutes and the unexpected origin of "Who watches the watchmen?," while providing illuminating context for controversial issues, like slavery and Roman views on Christians and Jews. She adds personality to simplistically clichéd historical figures such as Plato, Cicero and Nero. Her writing is speculative at times, necessarily so given the nature of her sources--ancient writers can be frustratingly biased and limited in scope. On rare occasions, the author takes it too far--e.g., her confidence in the solution to Socrates' enigmatic last words. But such examples are limited, and most often Haynes' more unsubstantiated ideas are inquisitively phrased and constructively provocative.

Will have readers grabbing for the classics.

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May 15, 2011
If youve never read The Aeneid, you may have wondered why the Trojans were so stupid as to fall for the Trojan Horse gambit? Did they really think the Greeks would leave them a going-away present after 10 years of war? Haynes, British TV commentator, stand-up comedian, and devoted classics student, spells it all out in this delightfully entertaining and enlightening guide to the ancient world. In a jaunty, freewheeling style more akin to a comic monologue than a discourse on the classics, she moves through various overarching subjects (politics, law, religion, women, the arts, money), both describing how each was approached in the classical world and reflecting on what the attitudes and actions of the Greeks and Romans can tell us about our own behavior in the very different (but shockingly similar) modern world. Along the way, tasty anecdotes drop from the pages as readily as grapes falling into a toga-clad hedonists mouth: satirist Juvenal, for example, ranting that what makes Rome intolerable in August is all the bad poets wandering about reciting verses. The classical world has never been more approachable nor nearly as much fun.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)