Miracula - by Paul Chrystal (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Occasionally scandalous and always fascinating, a cornucopia of surprising and little-told yarns from the classical world. Both humorous and shocking, Miracula is filled with astonishing facts and stories drawn from ancient Greece and Rome that have rarely been retold in English. It explores 'the incredible' as presented by little-known classical writers like Callimachus and Phlegon of Tralles. Yet, it offers much more: even familiar authors such as Herodotus and Cicero often couldn't resist relating sensational, tabloid-worthy tales. The book also tackles ancient examples of topics still relevant today, such as racism, slavery, and misogyny. The pieces are by turns absorbing, enchanting, curious, unbelievable, comical, astonishing, disturbing, and occasionally just plain daft. An entertaining and sometimes lurid collection, this book is perfect for all those fascinated by the stranger aspects of the classical world, for history enthusiasts, and for anyone interested in classical history, society, and culture."--

Book Synopsis

Occasionally scandalous and always fascinating, a cornucopia of surprising and little-told yarns from the classical world.

Both humorous and shocking, Miracula is filled with astonishing facts and stories drawn from ancient Greece and Rome that have rarely been retold in English. It explores "the incredible" as presented by little-known classical writers like Callimachus and Phlegon of Tralles. Yet, it offers much more: even familiar authors such as Herodotus and Cicero often couldn't resist relating sensational, tabloid-worthy tales. The book also tackles ancient examples of topics still relevant today, such as racism, slavery, and misogyny. The pieces are by turns absorbing, enchanting, curious, unbelievable, comical, astonishing, disturbing, and occasionally just plain daft. An entertaining and sometimes lurid collection, this book is perfect for all those fascinated by the stranger aspects of the classical world, for history enthusiasts, and for anyone interested in classical history, society, and culture.

Review Quotes

"The efforts of a Robert Ripley or the Weekly World News are more recent examples, but the tradition of paradoxography--writings about the unusual, the miraculous, and the absurd--runs back to Hellenistic Greece and beyond, including Aristotle, Callimachus, Cicero, and Pliny alongside lesser-known practitioners. In this connection the historian Chrystal's new Miracula is both a continuation and a commentary, presenting oddities, trivia, and twice-told tales from the ancient world and contextualizing them for the reader. Here are marvels from pygmies to the Polyphagus (Nero's personal cannibal), the war-cats of Cambyses to the longest word in ancient Greece."-- "The New Criterion"

"Entertaining to dip in and out of."-- "Publishers Weekly"

About the Author

Paul Chrystal is a contributor to several history and archaeology magazines, and TV and radio programs. He is the author of more than 160 books published on a wide range of subjects, including, most recently, The Book in the Ancient World: How the Wisdom of the Ages Was Preserved.