Paul and Seneca Among the Condemned

James R. Unwin is a senior policy analyst at the Ministry for Primary Industries in Wellington, New Zealand.

In this profound and courageous investigation, James Unwin reaches beyond conventional scholarship on Paul and Seneca to retrieve an understanding of their respective uses of spectacle imagery to subvert the power structure of Roman militarism and imperialism. Unwin guides readers through the spectacle landscapes of the early Empire, recovering the mostly neglected Neronian and Corinthian amphitheaters. Writing with rare lyricism and passion, Unwin demonstrates that Paul and Seneca imaginatively placed themselves among the “disposable and discarded” of society, to envision alternative ways of life, through Stoic philosophy and political theology. Unwin’s retrieval of Paul among the condemned fortifies readers to resist the power of modern nation-states whose policies dehumanize refugees, migrants, and all the dispossessed of the earth.

• AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsList of IllustrationsIntroduction: Grim Worlds of the CondemnedPart I: Rome, Corinth, and their Spectacular LandscapesChapter 1: Sites, Sponsors, and Spectators: The Popularity of Roman and Corinthian ArenasChapter 2: The Stands and the Sand: Ideology and Representation of Arenas Empire-WidePart II: Paul, Seneca, and their Spectacles of DeathChapter 3: “Thrown Down but not Destroyed”: Arenas of Suffering and StruggleChapter 4: “In Honour and Dishonour”: Criticising Performances and Confronting DeathEpilogue: Mimicry or Subversion of Grim WorldsBibliographyAbout the Author