As the intellectual fruits of colloquia that took place at the Maison de la Recherche at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 2012 and 2013, the chapters in this volume offer detailed and often insightful comment on various aspects of negative representation from the Archaic period through to the second century a.d. At the time when it was sent out for review, the emphasis on alterité and Othering in general seemed somewhat out of kilter with current scholarly trends — at least within the Anglo-American academy — whether as a result of a general sense of ennui following its heyday during the 1990s or an ideological shift which led scholars either to eschew top-down analyses of ancient cultures and societies in favour of subaltern perspectives (for example, those of women, children, foreigners or slaves) or to stress the more dialogical and transactional aspects of encounters between Greeks, Romans and their various ‘others’. Although the point is not made explicitly, the twenty-eight papers that make up Anne Queyrel Bottineau's La Représentation négative de l'autre dans l'Antiquité: hostilité, réprobation, dépréciation appear bent on reversing this trend. Three years on, in an age of rampant demagoguery, fake news and spiteful invective, whether directed at ‘immigrants’ or ‘deplorables’, the contributions to this volume feel timely and pertinent — albeit for all the wrong reasons.

This is very much a book for anyone interested in the power of words and the way in which this power was harnessed to insult (whether via invective or obscenity), goad, blame and depreciate an enemy, echthros, or villain, the kakos or poneros, or in exploring the tensions and differences that riddled ancient societies, the personalities and prejudices of key protagonists, their petty hates and rivalries. The decision to focus almost exclusively on verbal antagonism in literary sources might at first seem surprising; however, this is justified on the basis that our ability to impute malign intent to vase-painters or sculptors is in most cases limited. A lot of it is rather traditional fare, with some overlap in subject matter between individual chapters, but we learn some interesting things along the way in nine sections ordered partly by theme and partly by chronology.

Although supposed to highlight continuities arising, at least in part, from the intertextual relationships linking different sources and authors, along with other factors (for example, critical reflection upon criticism of Others, or the importance of memory or feelings), the reader is left wondering whether a rather more streamlined and/or even-handed approach would have enhanced not only the volume's internal coherence but also its impact overall. There are also some disappointing omissions: for example, discussion of graffiti of any period (aside from passing reference in Pierrot's chapter to some intriguing doodles on ostraka from the Kerameikos thought to depict long-haired ‘nobles’ (agathoi) (figs 2–3)).

After a short introduction and summary of chapters by the editor, the book begins with a section titled ‘Dichotomie enter deux mondes, antagonismes et interactions’ comprising four chapters spanning the Archaic and Classical periods. The first uses Artemidorus’ Oneirokritika to argue that networks of enmity, the inverse of those comprised of friends (philoi), were equally prevalent and important in terms of the day-to-day workings of Greek society (Chandezon). Discussion of the ontological status of the ‘base’ (kakoi) in the Theognidean corpus (Hunzinger) is followed by a somewhat polemical defence of the idea that an overtly antagonistic relationship between a serf class — likened explicitly to medieval villains — and members of the nobility was one of the defining characteristics of Archaic Greek society (Pierrot), and a study of the stigmatization of democrats in the Athenaion Politeia (Caire). Pierrot's bibliography takes the form of an insert.

A section on forms of blame (‘Regard et discours sur l'abus des formes de blâme: réserve et pratique’) then redirects our attention first towards Greek historiography with chapters on Herodotus’ condemnation of Greek ideas about Egypt (Haziza), Polybius’ use of disparagement (Guelfucci) and then Greek oratory (Guieu-Coppolani; Hesk). The theme of blame is further developed in a following section that encompasses discussion of Greek tragedy (Fartzoff), Prost's comparison of the tactics outlined in Cicero's advice to Quintus with Plutarch's treatise on How to tell a Flatterer from a Friend, and Vigourt's examination of how omens thought to signal divine displeasure were both discussed and interpreted under the High Empire. ‘Dérision, stigmatisation et satire sur la scène’ contains chapters on Attic comedy (Corbel-Morana; Cuniberti) and negative representation of all philosophers in Lucian's The Symposium (Marquis). Chapters on Xenophon's portrait of Artaxerxes II (Pontier) and a piece by the editor on the treatment meted out to the Thebans by Isocrates (Queyrel Bottineau) follow before a section devoted to negative representation in oratory. ‘Passion, politique et rhétorique: anéantir par la violence du verbe’ encompasses the works of Lysias (Bearzot), Demosthenes (Bianco; Gotteland) and the techniques that Cicero used with such devastating effect to eviscerate Mark Antony and his supporters in his thirteenth Philippic (Ferriès). We return to historiography again with discussion of evidence for anti-Spartan discourse in Herodotus and Plutarch (Queyrel Bottineau) and Benferhat's chapter stressing the importance of inuidia in Roman political life citing examples drawn from Tacitus. A further four chapters devoted to the representation of various types of foreigner examine representations of eunuchs (Lenfant), anti-Macedonian sentiment in Ptolemaic Egypt (Rodriguez), anti-Athenian discourse in Chariton's novel (Romieux-Brun) and ancient stereotypes concerning Bithynians (Grandjean).

A final section focusing on excess and monstrosity pairs Parmentier's discussion of the way in which Jewish and Christian sources drew upon earlier authors and motifs in their characterization of Herod the Great with Paré-Rey on the portrayal of Medea's infanticide in Senecan tragedy. The contributions are rendered at least partially accessible to non-Francophone audiences by the inclusion of an abstract at the beginning of each chapter. Although predominantly Hellenic in focus this book will have widespread appeal given the overall breadth of subject matter and approach. The extent to which Antiquity, too, could be a thoroughly nasty place, is amply demonstrated.