Within the burgeoning field of disability history, L. has made several important contributions; his newest book is essential reading for scholars of Roman antiquity. As the ‘first synthesis’ on disability specifically for the Roman world (p. viii; p. 21), L. brings together a vast collection of varied material (mostly literary sources, but also visual artefacts and osteological findings) spanning from 200 bc to ad 500. Acknowledging the methodological difficulties of the disability historian's work, L. establishes his approach as comprehensive and comparative, using all available sources to glean ‘new perspectives’ (p. 21) on disabilities from head to toe: learning disorders or intellectual handicaps, mental disorders, sensory handicaps (visual, auditory), speech disorders and mobility handicaps; these disabilities shape the six chapters of the book.
In the introduction, L. addresses the use of terminology: examining modern definitions of disability, handicap and impairment (terms that have no ancient Greek or Latin equivalents), alongside ancient concepts of teratology and monsterology. Clear definitions are rare, though a broad vocabulary exists for specific impairments. In every chapter, L. provides a list of terms for different disabilities, for example caecitas for blindness, surdus for deaf, mutus for mute, balbus for stuttering and paralyticus for lame (and partial paralysis), but with a warning: context is key to accessing and assessing meaning.
Chapter 1 offers an introduction to the landscape of ancient disability, starting from birth. While a visibly ‘abnormal’ or ‘weak’ baby was unlikely to survive long after birth, either because of a medical condition or deliberate neglect (infanticide), a baby with a handicap not immediately visible, such as blindness or deafness, might survive (pp. 26–7). L. outlines the challenges faced by parents choosing whether to discard or rear a deformed or disabled child (e.g. poverty, shame and fear versus emotional attachment, faith in recovery and a single heir), arguing that we cannot know who survived, how and why; though we do know that there were ‘survivors’ and many of them. Who were these survivors and what was life like for them in the Roman world?
Each chapter opens with the biography of a well-known disabled person from antiquity, a ‘historical icon’, raising key questions about his/her associated handicap; a list of these, and other lesser known disabled persons, appears in a separate index (in addition to a general index and an index locorum), making the book a convenient reference work.
Chapter 2 is the longest chapter (pp. 37–79), exploring mental and intellectual disabilities, and presenting the emperor Caligula as archetype of the ‘madman’. Suetonius’ Life of Caligula is utilised to underscore significant problems in the categorisation and classification of individuals with intellectual disabilities or mental illness; the ancient evidence for mental disorders is ‘speculative and vague’ (p. 42). Still, L. provides an analysis of clinical classifications, including mania, melancholia and morosis, and psychotherapy treatments, including self-therapy.
Chapter 3 focuses on blindness, starting with the blind bard Homer as recounted in Pseudo-Herodotus’ Life of Homer. L. examines this literary fiction to expose ‘important everyday details about blindness’ (p. 84), namely: the causes of vision loss, the position of the blind in social, legal and labour contexts, the treatment, both medical (ophthalmological practices) and religious (healing cults), of blindness, and accommodations for the visually impaired.
Chapter 4 examines deafness and muteness, beginning with the story of the Lydian King Croesus’ deaf-mute son, as told by Herodotus in his Histories. L. reviews the medical sources on audiology, legal passages on the (limited) rights of deaf-mutes and the evidence for the existence of sign language. The sources on deafness are few: only four stories from antiquity positively refer to deaf-mutes. More commonly, sources emphasise silence or refer only to the inability to speak.
Chapter 5 focuses on speech defects, opening with the stuttering orator Demosthenes. The vagueness of Demosthenes’ impediment is symptomatic of the ‘confusion and uncertainty’ (p. 135) by which many ancient sources communicate speech defects. L. explores the general causes of speech defects, provides examples of some striking cases, including the emperor Claudius, and outlines the (limited) evidence for ‘speech therapy’.
Chapter 6 examines a range of mobility impairments, starting with King Philip II of Macedon, who had a limp (and impaired vision) as a result of injury in battle. While stories about wounded warriors who suffer injuries to the eyes and legs are fairly common, ancient authors seldom comment on the impact of these injuries in everyday life. Searching for answers, L. investigates the osteological evidence from tombs in Italy, the medical treatment of fractures and the use of prosthetics, and accommodations in labour and life for those with mobility impairments.
L. offers readers a comprehensive reference guide to a topic that has long been overlooked: disability and the disabled. Each chapter brims with stories about the blind, deaf, mute and lame, across time and place, though these stories present polarities in the spectrum – the rich, old man to the poor beggar, the politician to the slave; the lives of those in between rarely feature in the ancient sources (p. 103). Indeed, as L. knows all too well, little or no attention is paid to the lived experiences of the ‘ordinary’ disabled wo/man: no first-hand account survives, and our (able-bodied) sources are indifferent to the day-to-day realities of living with a disability. L. has endeavoured to sketch the history of disability in Roman antiquity by creatively laying ‘all the pieces of the puzzle next to each other’ and drawing upon anthropological and comparative approaches in an effort to make sense of it all (p. 132).
L. frequently draws upon Christian sources, which offer the richest comparative material for disability in Late Antiquity: demons and exorcisms in Chapter 2; Jesus’ healing of blind, deaf and lame men in Chapters 3, 4 and 5; Gregory of Tours on blindness in Chapter 3; St Augustine on deaf-mutes and sign language in Chapter 4; Moses’ speech problems in Chapter 5; and the paralysis of St Petronilla in Chapter 6. Each chapter concludes with a story from the Christian tradition, challenging readers to consider the ‘impact of Christianity on notions of disability’, (pagan) past, present and future (p. 188).
L. has written an engaging and wide-ranging book, with ample bibliography and a dense set of footnotes. His assertion that ‘cross-cultural bridges’ can be built ‘between the present and past’ (p. 79) also recognises that, depending upon circumstances, a particular defect or disability could ‘be viewed and interpreted in many different ways’ (p. 169). A few spelling and typographical errors exist, and no images are included in the study, which is unfortunate, but otherwise the book is rich with information. As a first synthesis of the Roman material, L. offers a valuable resource and reference work for future study.
