War and Masculinity in Roman and Medieval Culture

Jaakkojuhani Peltonen, Elina Pyy, Jussi Rantala

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040417553
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Byzantine History
• Index: History

The chapters in this volume highlight the complexity and diversity of approaches to how ancient and medieval cultures understood martial masculinity and the significance warfare had on masculine values during the premodern era. They also point to how these ideals were manifested in numerous environments, covering topics from multiple points of view and using a variety of sources and methods.

In the ancient and medieval periods, "manliness" was often understood as the ability to demonstrate bravery in war and eagerness to use violence in different situations. While certain marginal groups, such as philosophers and Christians, promoted more peaceful ideals of masculinity, war and masculinity were tightly connected to the cultures and societies of antiquity and the Middle Ages. Indeed, in Roman and later medieval culture, warfare played an essential role in constructing ideals of proper manliness and masculinity. This constructed masculinity manifested itself not only in written culture but also in everyday life, both visually and bodily.

War and Masculinity in Roman and Medieval Culture is intended for those interested in ancient Roman and medieval culture, particularly researchers and students of gender and masculinity in Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 Take It Like a Roman: Pain and Masculinity in Imperial War Epic
• 2 Beyond Lucretia: War and Sexual Violence in Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita
• 3 Women and War: Unveiling Female Agency in Roman Historiography: Livy and Early Rome
• 4 War Scenes in Pompeian Homes? Military Virtus and the Roman Domestic Realm
• 5 The Roman Imperial Rhetoric of Emasculation in Visual Representations of War
• 6 Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: The Viri Fortes in Ammianus Marcellinus’ Res Gestae
• 7 Brains and Brawn: Intellectual and Physical Manliness in Agathias’ The Histories
• 8 War and Masculinity in Tenth-Century Byzantium: The History of Leo the Deacon
• 9 Warriors and Women in Northern Europe (400–1000 CE)
• 10 Saints Day Sermons and Knightly Virtues: Late Medieval Sermons on Saint George
• Index