The historical Greeks and Romans lived in a global teeming with animals. Animals have been imperative to historical trade, warfare, love, literature and artwork. contained in the urban they have been discovered as pets, pests, and parasites. they can be sacred, sacrificed, liminal, employees, or intruders from the wild. past the town domesticated animals have been herded and bred for revenue and wild animals have been looked for excitement and achieve alike. experts like Aristotle, Aelian, Pliny and Seneca studied their anatomy and behaviour. Geographers and tourists defined new lands by way of their animals. Animals are to be noticeable on each attainable inventive medium, woven into textile and inlaid into furnishings. they're the topic of proverbs, oaths and desires. Magicians, physicians and fanatics became to animals and their elements for his or her crafts. They paraded sooner than kings, inhabited palaces, and entertained the bad within the area. particularly actually, animals pervaded the traditional international from A-Z.

In entries starting from brief to lengthy, Kenneth Kitchell bargains perception into this typically missed international, masking consultant and exciting examples of mammals, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. commonplace animals equivalent to the cow, puppy, fox and donkey are taken care of besides extra unique animals comparable to the babirussa, pangolin, and dugong. The proof adduced levels from Minoan occasions to the overdue Roman Empire and is taken from archaeology, old authors, inscriptions, papyri, cash, mosaics and all different inventive media. each time attainable reasoned identifications are given for historical animal names and the realities at the back of animal lore are introduced forth. Why did the ancients imagine hippopotamuses practiced blood letting on themselves? How do you capture a monkey? Why have been hyenas considered hermaphroditic? was once there quite a vampire moth? Entries are followed by way of complete citations to old authors and an intensive bibliography.

Of use to Classics scholars and students, yet written in a method designed to interact an individual drawn to Greco-Roman antiquity, Animals within the old global from A to Z finds the level and value of the animal international to the traditional Greeks and Romans. It solutions many questions, asks a number of extra, and seeks to stimulate additional study during this very important box.