Ebook: Disabilities and the Disabled in the Roman World: A Social and Cultural History

1. Introduction: Disability History and the Ancient World. Past, Present and Future / Christian Laes -- 2. Disability and Infirmitas in the Ancient World: Demographic and Biological facts in the longue durée / April Pudsey -- PART I. THE ANCIENT (NEAR) EAST -- 3. Disabilities from Head to Toe in Hittite Civilisation / Richard Beal -- 4. Mesopotamia and Israel / Edgar Kellenberger -- 5. Ancient Persia and Silent Disability / Omar Coloru -- 6. Egyptian Medicine and Disabilities: from Pharaonic to Graeco-Roman Egypt / Rosalie David -- 7. India: Demystifying Disability in Antiquity / M. Miles -- 8. Disability in Ancient China / Olivia Milburn -- PART II. THE GREEK WORLD -- 9. The Greek vocabulary of disabilities / Evelyn Samama -- 10. Ability and Disability in Classical Athenian Oratory / Martha Lynn Rose -- 11. Disabilities in Comedy and Tragedy / Robert Garland -- 12. Legal (and Customary?) Approaches to the Disabled in Ancient Greece / Matthew Dillon -- 13. The Hellenistic Turn in Bodily Representations: Venting Anxiety in Terracotta Figurines / Alexandre Mitchell -- 14. Plutarch's 'Philosophy' of Disability: Human after All / Michiel Meeusen -- PART III. THE ROMAN WORLD -- 15. Roman Perfect bodies. The Stoic View / Bert Gevaert -- 16. Foul and Fair Bodies, Minds, and Poetry in Roman Satire / Sarah Bond and T.H.M. Gellar-Goad -- 17. The 'Other' Romans: Deformed Bodies in the Visual Arts of Rome / Lisa Trentin -- 18. Mobility Impairment in the Sanctuaries of Early Roman Italy / Emma-Jayne Graham -- 19. Mental Disability? Galen on Mental Health / Chiara Thumiger -- 20. Madness and Mad Patients According to Caelius Aurelianus / Danielle Gourevitch -- 21. Disability in the Roman Digest / Peter Toohey -- PART IV. THE LATE ANCIENT WORLD -- 22. Hysterical Women? Gender and Disability in Early Christian Narrative – Anna Rebecca Solevåg -- 23. Augustine's Sermons and Disabilities / Martin Claes and Anthony Dupont -- 24. Infirmitas in Monastic Rules / Jenni Kuuliala -- 25. The Coptic and Ethiopic Tradition on Disabilities / Carol Downer -- 26. The Disability Within: Sexual Desire as Disability in Syriac Christianity / John Martens -- 27. The Disabled in the Byzantine Empire / Stephanos Efthymiadis -- 28. What Difference did Islam Make? Disease and Disability in Early Medieval North Africa / Matthew Gaumer -- 29. Impotent Husbands, Eunuchs and Flawed Women in Early Islamic Law / Hocine Benkheira -- 30. Disability in Rabbinic Judaism / Lennart Lehmhaus and Julia Watts Belser -- PART V. THE ENDURANCE OF TRADITION -- 31. Then and now. Canonical law on disabilities / Irina Metzler -- 32. The Imperfect body in Nazi Germany: Ancient Concepts, Modern Technologies / Toon Van Houdt;This volume is a major contribution to the field of disability history in the ancient world. Contributions from leading international scholars examine deformity and disability from a variety of historical, sociological and theoretical perspectives, as represented in various media. The volume is not confined to a narrow view of 'antiquity' but includes a large number of pieces on ancient western Asia that provide a broad and comparative view of the topic and enable scholars to see this important topic in the round. Disability in Antiquity is the first multidisciplinary volume to truly map out and explore the topic of disability in the ancient world and create new avenues of thought and research.