BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN WOMEN

The Lightmans have created a massive, illuminating alphabetical listing of 447 Greco-Roman women, who are each profiled in entries that range from a few lines to a few pages. The intriguing information is often presented in a lively manner, profiling women who influenced the times in which they lived. Through their lives, a picture of this particular era, from 6th-century b.c. to a.d. 476, emerges (with details often omitted from other history texts covering the same period) that powerfully evokes the past roles of women. Sources for the information are given following every entry. The format gives rise to one small problem, in that so many of those included have the same name. The book, by necessity, covers 15 Cleopatras; students seeking information on the one who got mixed up with Mark Antony will have to cover almost a dozen entries before locating her. The same is true for all the Agrippinas, Julias, Livias, etc. The glossary and bibliography will be useful to more scholarly readers; the hope is that less-practiced researchers won’t be frustrated by the stumbling blocks of the volume’s organization, and barred from its entertaining, solidly educational gems. (b&w illustrations, map, glossary, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12-15)