Two thousand years ago, the denizens of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds performed an amazingly diverse and challenging array of tasks to earn their daily bread. Personal entrail-reader to the emperor; war-elephant troop commander; mopper-up of dead gladiators; armpit-hair plucker; stage actor; orgy planner: these are just a few of the career opportunities that beckoned for our ancient Mediterranean ancestors. In Orgy Planner Wanted author Vicki Leon describes - in uniquely vivid and energetic style - 144 ancient career options, from the glittering to the gory, and from the strangely familiar to the entirely strange and entirely unfamiliar. Each of the book's ten chapters focuses on a particular professional area - from sex to showbiz, from cookery to slavery and from divination to hairdressing - looking in detail at specific jobs in each category.
Sidebar profiles tell the stories of some 30 named jobholders - the likes of Spurrina Vestricius (personal entrail-reader to Julius Caesar), Publius and Lucius Sestius (traders in garum - a pungent fish-based forerunner of Worcestershire sauce), and Paris (a celebrated actor-dancer whose abortive attempts to teach the Emperor Nero to dance would ultimately lead to his demise). Orgy Planner Wanted offers a unique perspective on the world as it was 2000 years ago, and looks certain to be one of the most intriguing and unputdownable popular history titles of 2007.
- ISBN10 1847243738
- ISBN13 9781847243737
- Publish Date 5 February 2008 (first published 6 September 2007)
- Publish Status Transferred
- Out of Print 14 November 2012
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Quercus Publishing
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 272
- Language English