Orgy Planner Wanted: Odd Jobs and Curious Callings in the Ancient World

Vicky Léon's book is specifically designed to inform the reader about the careers and jobs of ancient people, with a particular focus on Greek and Roman employment. Some of the careers are fairly standard, for example the charioteer, physician, farmer and cook. Others are decidedly more obscure and little studied, such as the jobs of clock watcher, amulet maker, garum manufacturer, silphium importer and gymnasiarch. The book is packed with descriptions and explanations of 150 of these ancient careers and jobs, and as an extra is peppered with sporadic notable examples of the ancient individuals pursuing such careers.However, the book is really more of an introductory work. The 150 listed careers barely scratch the surface of the plethora of forms of ancient employment, and each description is barely two pages long in this standard paperback sized book - barely more than enough to give a basic overview of what the job involved and perhaps a couple of examples of known individuals in the employment and a mention in passing of the archaeological and textual evidence which allows us to know about the job in question - and so functions best as an introductory book to one of the aspects of the ancient world, aimed at early to mid teens who are perhaps just beginning an interest in history with a view to maybe studying it more in depth in their future education. The book is not written in a professional academic journal kind of manner but a humorous manner, so not a university level work or a challenge to read, but it can be enjoyed by historians of any stage of development. And that said, it does offer interesting titbits of knowledge and facts about many obscure and esoteric ancient jobs.Probably the most annoying aspect of the book was its constant use of cheesy Americanisms, which was really cringeworthy. I get that the book is meant to be a bit humorous and flow a bit more conversationally than most books, but there's no need to apply belittling modernisms to get the point across, to me these downplayed the actual seriousness of some of these careers. For example, using the word "oops" when talking about lost battles or Caesar burning down the Great Library of Alexandria, calling female gladiators "gals", having Caesar say the word "yikes", and generally using out-of-place phrases like "A-List celebs" and "cool". The end result is that it ends up making some events, which were serious and important business of their day, seem casual and even comical, downplaying their significance and ultimate importance in history.A nice introductory work with some interesting obscure facts, but this is really a basic overview and also the liberal use of Americanisms throughout provides an inaccurate impression of events. Overall, enjoyable, just be aware of the humorous and introductory nature of the work.

Vicki Leon has her own style, which is seemingly peculiar to California, where she lives - according to the book's cover. This volume relates details of some 150 jobs titles, although some are brief biographies specific to certain people who lived in the Roman Empire. Reading this as a book, a number of interesting details of life in Rome and its provinces emerge. Taking diet as an example, we learn that a lot of people at the ground floor of society would not have cooked at home; wooden Roman tower block flats were built without running water and were dangerous to light fires in, so that scenario created jobs in public baths and toilets, hot, cooked and fast food, laundry, hairdressing and shaving, as well as tasks such as urine collection (the liquid was used in tanning and laundry processes). Food was proportionately more vegetarian than omnivorous (which simplifies cooking) - particularly in the army - and spices and flavourings were both desired and sought after.The jobs you can immediately think of based on movies - soldier, charioteer, gladiator - were at the bottom of the social order although careers and fortunes could be made by successful practitioners. The jobs that are still with us include cooks and all the other people involved in food preparation, as well as entertainers, undertakers (morticians), and a huge number of jobs in the transport industry. Again, the best people could become rich and famous, as could sex workers; their industry was more reputable then than now although not by much. Anyone who worked, it seems, was looked down on by the ruling class, then as now.As this book is a collection of short essays, each about a person or a job, it makes easy reading for a traveller who can only turn a few pages between train stops. The author's style sometimes jars, but is quick-fire witty and I got used to it by the end of the book. What I didn't glean from this volume was any more than I already knew about the pecking order of the social divisions. Rome was a slave economy, but what was a slave worth? Freedmen get mentioned often but with no clear indication as to how upwards mobility worked. The equestrians (knights) get mentioned without a contextual setting. The author probably knows all the answers, but possibly didn't notice which were missing from the finished manuscript. That said, it was a worthwhile purchase which is sure to become a useful reference tool in my modest library. And the orgy planner of the title? Originally a religious mystery event, orgies quickly degenerated - through alcohol it seems - to take on the excesses for which we currently would use the term.

Disappointing.I appreciate that it is difficult to find the strange jobs of cultures 2000 years ago but many (1/2) of these in her book are not only still recognisable and on going they still only pay a pittance.However may main problem is that too much is written in a foreign language.It may be difficult to believe but not all of us speak American!!!!!!!!!!!. Gasp!.You can decipher the meaning in context but in an English edition book I would have liked it to be Anglicised.Despite that as I like trivia it is welcome in my collection.