This book has been written as a cultural history exploring the relationship between animals and people in the Roman world. Its intended audience is the undergraduate taking a relevant course and the visitor to museum exhibitions. It draws primarily on written sources and on depictions of the interactions of animals and people in sculpture, mosaics, wall decorations, the minor arts, etc. Some use is also made of archaeological evidence. In the introduction a theoretical perspective is promised, but the somewhat digressive style does not really allow this to emerge coherently.

Unlike Toynbee’s seminal Reference Toynbee1973 book, Animals in Roman Life and Art, which was structured around individual species, this book takes a thematic approach. After the introductory chapter, there are chapters on: animals as pets; animals within husbandry, transport and warfare; their use as food; their role in the arena and in hunting; their role in mythology; their role in religion; and how what is termed ‘hyper-masculine male identity’ was represented via them. A concluding chapter seeks to draw everything together. As is important in a book that draws so heavily on visual imagery, it is amply illustrated. There are nearly 100 colour plates of items mainly from Italy and often taken by the author himself. I found some a little over-reduced, making it difficult to see the feature being discussed, but on the whole they are a very useful part of the discussion.

One overall theme is the different identities animals acquired in the minds of people in the Roman world and how depictions could act as metaphors. Certainly, the general reader will come away with a better grounding in the fact that dogs were not just man’s best friend, nor cockerels just the harbinger of morning, nor dolphins merely playful aquatic animals. The author’s wide knowledge of ancient literature and visual resources allows him to find many different meanings for many animals, though he does note, perhaps regretfully, that ‘Sometimes … one has to accept that in certain contexts there is no hidden meaning to be found’ (p 26).

Another theme developed through the book is the exploitation of exotic animals, especially for the games in the arena. This led to large-scale slaughter there and the extinction of some species in their home territories. This was clearly widespread and had a large impact. Leopards had disappeared from Cilicia and lions from Greece early in the Imperial period, whilst many species retreated south from North Africa and the Lower Nile. The list goes on. The author is clearly as uncomfortable with this as many readers will be. It has to be remembered, though, that conspicuous consumption and destruction of rare and exotic items, which was what was happening in the arena, has been the hallmark of the elite for centuries. It is only relatively recently that it has become a mark of distinction for them to preserve what previously their ancestors had destroyed. What Ferris’ discussion does bring out is the very large industry that must have been involved in supplying the arenas around the Roman world. This was big business and is perhaps frequently overlooked in considerations of the economy.

The book has a tendency towards sweeping statements, which, given the wide chronological and spatial framework, are not sufficiently contextualised. It is possible that some of the intended readership would not appreciate this. It would be hard, for example, to justify the statement ‘a great deal of beef eaten would have been sacrificial’ (p 63) across the Empire. There is also a tendency to concentrate on the exotic. Ivory is discussed many times. Leather is only mentioned in passing, yet the development of vegetable-tanned waterproof leather was one of the wonders of Roman technology. Where would the Roman Empire have been without its army, and where would the army have been without its leather boots and tents? The bias is to be expected, given the source material, but this reviewer was left feeling that cultural histories should deal with the mundane as well as the rare.