The comprehensive organization of Theater and Spectacle in the Art of the Roman Empire is perfect, starting with the Greek basis of the performance festival, alert to the distinctions between the Eastern and Western Empire, and to differences of ideology and practice in events that were otherwise similar. It will be an indispensable resource not only for specialists in this ... Read moregrowing topic but also, because of its wonderful illustrations, for a much broader public. -Jeffrey Rusten, Cornell University, editor of The Birth of Comedy Theater and Spectacle in the Art of the Roman Empire is a superb book by a superior scholar whose vast erudition, lightly worn, is evident on every page. It is very well written, very clear, and extraordinarily well informed on a wide range of topics. There is no one else today who commands the range of material Katherine M. D. Dunbabin controls in this book on the artistic side, and her command of the latest literature on the documentary side is exceptional. This is a book that no one who is interested in sport and spectacle, especially in the history of drama, can possibly ignore. -David Potter, Francis W. Kelsey Collegiate Professor of Greek and Roman History and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the Department of Classical Studies, University of Michigan, author of Constantine the Emperor Show Less