Vicki Leon

Hell, what are we all complaining about?! At least we're not Roman aquarii, fishing around down in sewers or funeral clowns (we call those preachers these days) or bath slaves ewww ewww...a lot of careers in the ancient world weren't things that DeVry or Virginia College would prepare you for.

Vicki Leon, in the course of researching the ancient world for serious books, would run across these weird or simply obscure references to jobs that no longer (thank GOODNESS) exist. She kept her notes. show more She patiently accumulated information. And now, in this book (called "Working IX to V" in the USA), delivers an amusing, browsable capsue description of ~150 weird and wonderful ancient jobs. I chuckled and giggled my way through this book, using it as what Jerry calls a "between" book, and thoroughly enjoyed it all.

Don't plan to sit down to a long winter's afternoon of reading, and this book will repay your purchase price. Go on, have fun, and not incidentally learn just how much our ancestors were like us...they hated their jobs too! show less

This was a nice idea, but the execution could have been better. Its strongest feature is the diversity in the women depicted: old and young; single and married; rich and poor; spanning many centuries; women of different ethnicities and nationalities—this work shows a very broad spectrum, and it does not shrink from mammoth task of representing women throughout human history. I also like that it doesn’t take a moral stand. Here are women who ignored the conventions of their times, but not show more all of them are heroes. It’s up to the reader to learn about their accomplishments and see their place in history—regardless of the type of role model each woman was (or wasn’t). For example, one of the women mentioned here was a slave-owner who helped John Wilkes Booth. Another woman mentioned was Harriet Tubman. Two radically different women who were motivated by completely different forces—one a villain and one a hero—and I never expected to find them side-by-side in a history book. This book doesn’t “side” with either of them; it simply lists some of their accomplishments. Some of these women made the world a better place. Others didn’t.

Perhaps the biggest flaw is the limited space. Each woman gets only one page, which is only a handful of sentences, so there is very little historical context for any of them. For this reason, some of the quotes from these women are robbed of their power. Worse, some of the most interesting and groundbreaking things that they did are not even mentioned. For example, Eleanor of Aquitaine was “uppity” and ahead of her time in many respects, but you wouldn’t necessarily know that from reading this book. She was a duchess in her own right, and she controlled many lands in her own name, but that isn’t mentioned here. Because of this, she was a very eligible lady, but that also isn’t mentioned. When she split with her first husband, the king of France, she was able to retain the rights to her land—also not mentioned. What is mentioned is how powerful her husbands were. She went to war herself, leading some 300 women in the Second Crusade. That is utterly amazing to me, but it isn’t mentioned here. Instead, this book talks about her son, King Richard the Lionheart. Yes, her son was interesting, but so was she. I wanted to read more about her. Instead, I learned about three of her male relatives. Reading this book was like looking at a photograph that focuses on the wrong object. It was interesting, of course, but it could have been so much better. show less

Just slightly too cute to be good. Working IX to V is an account of various professions in the Classical world, that world being roughly Periclean Athens to Imperial Rome. Jobs covered include:

* ornatrix (hairdresser; we learn that Romans were fond of bleached blondes, which was done with a mixture of pigeon manure and urine);

* popa, the guy who wacked sacrificial animals in the head with a sledgehammer just before the cultrarius cut their throats;

* stercorarius, who had the unenviable job show more of emptying cesspools;

* vigil, combination fireman and cop;

* alipili, who was a professional armpit plucker;

* and liturgist, who was originally a public philanthropist.

Author Vicki León writes the Outrageous Women and Uppity Women series, so it’s not surprising that she emphasizes women’s roles. Interspersed with the job descriptions are little vignettes describing various people who are known to have worked in those professions. These include Sentia Secundus, a female glass blower; Lycoris, an actress and part-time courtesan (or perhaps vice versa); and the court poetess to Hadrian, Julia Balbilla, who cut a graffiti poem into the one of the statues of Amenhotep III at Thebes (usually known by their classical name, The Colossi of Memnon).

All well and good; however, León injects an excess of sophomoric humor. Her language is consciously modern;

(describing the sandaligerula a slave whose job was to carry her mistress’s sandals)
“After the partygoers went in to diner, the shoe-schleppers enjoyed a little downtime…”

(describing the pularius, whose job was to interpret the behavior of sacred chickens)

“The Roman army had spiritual specialists, but their holy men didn’t hold services or try to boost morale among the grunts.”

The book is illustrated with line drawings copied from classical or neoclassical originals, most of which have “cute” captions; for example, Canova’s The Three Graces is used in the article on prostitution, with the caption “You didn’t win Call Girl of the Year? Awww. Group Hug”.

This might not be a bad book for a grade school or middle school student interested in Classical history; that’s who the level of writing seems pitched to. However, León doesn’t hang back when it comes to describing some of the nastier aspects of classical life, such as boy prostitutes, hookers, courtesans, and gladiatrices. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if the average sixth-grader knows more about sex than I do, it still is a bit much to explain why the plays of Aristophanes are full of radish jokes. show less

Easy nonfiction read when I was feeling a little overwhelmed and down. Lot's of fun. Actually learned a good deal of random sex and fertility gods, goddesses, cults, and rituals. Refreshing LGBT accepting, though very obviously written from an overeager ally (you know the type). I found this book unfortunately pretty repetitive by about halfway through and the short nature of all the texts made me a little annoyed. Definitely a highbrow bathroom book.

I have over 250 highlights in this thing show more though. Pick it up for yourself. show less