Man and Animal in Severan Rome

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Steven Smith, Man and Animal in Severan Rome: The Literary Imagination of Claudius Aelianus (Greek Culture in the Roman World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)

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A really great contribution to Classics/Animal Studies because it argues that collections of anecdotes about various unusual animal behaviors are more than mere compilations. In the case of Aelian, Smith argues that the animal behaviors described reflect the author’s attitude towards the superficiality of the imperial court of the time. Writing about animals as a way of talking about human behaviors, here, is a subtle form of imperial resistance. - SUSAN A. CURRY