Toxic Masculinity in the Ancient World

Dr Melanie Racette-Campbell is an Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Winnipeg. She works on Roman masculinity, Augustan literature, and classical reception in the Renaissance and in modern pop culture. Her book The Crisis of Masculinity in the Age of Augustus was published in 2023 and she is working on the next one, on Cicero, masculinity, and the city of Rome. Dr Aven McMaster is Professor Emerita of Ancient Studies from Thorneloe University at Laurentian. Her research interests are Latin poetry, gender and sexuality, and reception. She is also a co-host of the podcast ‘The Endless Knot’.

• AcknowledgementsNotes on ContributorsAbbreviationsPreface - Donna ZuckerbergIntroduction: Toxic Masculinity and Classics - Melanie Racette-Campbell and Aven McMasterI: Violence against Others and Self1. Plutarch and Punishment: Slavery and Toxic Masculinity in Aulus Gellius 1.26 - Tristan K. Husby2. Attempted Rape as Rite of Passage: Constructing the Christian Feminine Ideal - Kim Passaro and Brian P. Sowers3. Engendering Justice in a Gendered World: The Case of Thucydides’ Athenians - Jessica Penny Evans4. Manliness as Motive for Action: A Discussion of (Toxic) Masculinity in the Antigone and the Lysistrata - Davide Morassi5. Toxic Masculinity as a Lens for Middle Byzantium: The Case of Nikephoros II Phokas - Mark Masterson6. Boy Toys: A Ciceronian Invective - Joanna Kenty7. There’s No Crying in Government: Romulus, Brutus, and the Toxic Suppression of Grief - Jaclyn NeelII: Ancient Critique8. Toxic Masculinity in Petronius’ Satyrica - Jordan D. G. Mitchell9. Real Roman Men and the Greeks Who Hate Them: Disciplina, Cato the Elder, and Plutarch - Elizabeth Manwell10. (Toxic) Masculinity between Hegemony and Precariousness: Alternatives to Heteronormativity in Briseis’ Portrait of Achilles (Ov. Her. 3) - Simona Martorana11. ‘Angry, Reckless, Savage’: Problematising the Hypermasculine Germani - Rhiannon Evans12. Toxic Masculinity in Xenophon’s Account of the Trial of Sphodrias - Kendell Heydon13. Criticism of Roman Men and the Conspicuously Moral Masculinity of Scipio Aemilianus - Charles GoldbergIII: Ancient Meets Modern14. Scipio Africanus and the Construction of Fascist Italian Masculinities - Samuel Agbamu 15. Insult to Injury: Senecan Stoicism, Misogyny, and the Semantics of ‘Special Snowflake’ - Michael Goyette16. Toxic Manhood Acts and the ‘Nice Guy’ Phenomenon in Ovid - Melissa Marturano17. Violence, Victimhood, and the Rhetoric of Erotic Curses - Britta Ager18. ‘Legitimate Rape’ and Toxic Masculinity from Todd Akin to Soranus - T.H.M. Gellar-Goad19. Toxic Masculinity in the First-Year Classics Classroom - Jayne Knight and Jonathan WallisBibliographyIndex LocorumIndex

The volume deservedly shows that the concept of toxic masculinity is a useful theoretical tool in studying the ancient gender system. In this attempt the book succeeds excellently; thus I highly recommend it to everyone interested in premodern masculinities.