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Tom Palaima agrees that people's fascination with watching violence against others doesn't change.
The Lure of the Arena: Social Psychology and the Crowd at the Roman Games
By Garrett G. Fagan
Cambridge University Press
374pp, Pounds 60.00 and Pounds 22.99
ISBN 9780521196161 and 185967
Published 17 February 2011
Readers who are lured to Garrett Fagan's The Lure of the Arena for graphic descriptions of violent acts will not be disappointed. Given the universal questions about human nature and human societies that Fagan poses in trying to explain the phenomenon of the Roman amphitheatre, they will be rewarded with catalogues, drawn from many societies and periods of human history, designed to prove that "the Romans were by no means alone in finding the sight of people and animals tormented and killed both intriguing and appealing".
Cultures closer to our own in time have been more creative in devising forms of violence for their men, women and children, poor and simple- minded or wealthy and well educated, to witness and enjoy together.
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