The Wadjet Eye (12 page)

At the Circus Maximus in Rome, games always ended in death—death for the animals, death for the gladiators, death for the entertainers. That such depravity was considered entertaining must have sickened outsiders like Damon and Artemas. Many historians now attribute the Romans' lust for these excessively violent spectacles to insanity caused by lead poisoning. The Romans drank from goblets made of a metal alloy that contained lead.

The games at the Circus Maximus usually were held in the daytime before crowds numbering as many as a quarter million. The most popular event was the chariot race, but as the population developed an increasing delight in gladiator combat, the Romans eventually built the Coliseum. The opening performances there continued nonstop for one hundred days, costing hundreds of gladiators and thousands of animals their lives.

While the Greek games honored the body and the Egyptians abhorred killing for sport, the Romans sought entertainment in bloodlust, accentuating basic cultural differences, deepening mutual distrust, and straining already brittle relationships. Nowhere was the clash of cultures more evident than in the inhuman brutality at the Circus Maximus.

The very first bibliographies were created to catalog the Library of Alexandria's 700,000 scrolls.

Allen, Thomas B.
Shadows in the Sea.
New York: Lyons & Buford, 1996.

Casson, Lionel.
Travel in the Ancient World.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.

Connolly, Peter, and Hazel Dodge.
The Ancient City: Life in Classical Athens and Rome.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Davison, Michael. The Glory
of Greece and the World of Alexander.
New York: Abbeville Press, 1980.

Faulkner, Raymond O. The Ancient
Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.

Foreman, Laura.
Cleopatra's Palace, In Search of a Legend.
New York: Random House, 1999.

Foster, E. M.
Alexandria: A History and a Guide.
Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1961.

Freeman, Charles.
Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Goodenough, Simon.
Egyptian Mythology.
New York: Michael J. Friedman/Fairfax Publishers, 1997.

Grant, Michael. The
World of Rome.
New York: Penguin Books, 1960.

Hamilton, Edith. The
Greek Way.
New York: W. W. Norton, 1930.

Herodotus. The
Histories.
Translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Heuer, Kenneth.
City of the Stargazers.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972.

Hippocratic
Writings. Translated by Francis Adams. Chicago: William Benton, 1952.

Liberati, Anna Maria, and Fabio Bourbon.
Ancient Rome: History of a Civilization That Ruled the World.
New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1996.

Montet, Pierre.
Everyday Life in Egypt.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981.

Plutarch.
Lives.
Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1914.

Sandison, David. The
Art of Ancient Egypt.
San Diego: Laurel Glen, 1997.

Strabo's Geography: Book 17.
Translated by Horace Leonard Jones and edited by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996.

Weigall, Arthur. The
Life and Times of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt: A Study in the Origin of the Roman Empire.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1924.

Wilson, Keith D.
Cause of Death: A Writers Guide to Death, Murder and Forensic Medicine.
Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 1992.

Zambucka, Kristin.
Cleopatra: Goddess/Queen.
Honolulu: Harrane, 1989.