Naked statues, sleek gladiators and fighting elephants. Answers to interesting questions about the ancients

Why did the Greeks not wear pants, but added marble powder to wine? What kind of diet did the gladiators eat and how much did the talented athletes earn? What can be learned about military medicine from the "Iliad"? These are just some of the questions Garrett Ryan answers.

He writes simply and interestingly, and also focuses not so much on characters and events as on details from everyday life. How they treated relationships and why they broke up, how operations were performed and which contraceptives were used, when beards were in trend and when they were not. The author does not claim to be comprehensive, but claims to be fascinating.

In this book there are oracles and spies, Rome and Athens, Sparta and Carthage, Caesar and Nero, pagans and Christians, lions in the arena and pets. There is nothing but boredom and an attempt to tell the most exhaustive history of antiquity.