October - 2025

Disability Studies and the Classical Body: The Forgotten Other (Routledge, 2021, 294 pages, $160), edited by Ellen Adams, is a collection of studies on physical and mental disabilities in Greco-Roman antiquity. Following a general introduction that encompasses various topics, including theoretical definitions of ancient disabilities, the case studies are divided into four sections. These sections address, respectively, ancient patients in clinical settings, the creation and use of services and supports for people with disabilities, people with disabilities in funerary contexts, and the relationships between disability studies and the reception of Classics. The authors' goals are to emphasize the need to pay attention to disabilities like aspects of identity such as gender, sexuality, and ethnicity, as well as, more broadly, to combat ableism in classical studies.

Women and the Army in the Roman Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2024, 360 pages, US$135), edited by Lee L. Brice and Elizabeth M. Greene, reframes the female presence in the military contexts of the Roman Empire, starting from the premise that women were an integral part of camps, fortresses, and military communities, and were not merely exceptions. The work addresses four assumptions that historically rendered these women invisible: the prohibition of women in camps, the prohibition on soldiers' marriage, their absence in the epigraphic/literary record, and the preconceived views of scholars. Thus, drawing on letters and archaeological remains from the camps themselves, the book highlights how these women operated in "less visible" positions, emphasizing their roles in maintenance, hospitality, textile production, and social networks. This analysis paves the way for understanding women as active actors, albeit within structured conditions of invisibility or limitation, thereby articulating agency and subordination in the Roman military world.