Fearmongering in Greek and Roman Literature and Beyond

This volume provides, for the first time, a focused study of scare tactics and fearmongering in a broad range of Greek and Roman authors and genres, showing how alarmist tactics were used in both antiquity and today.

Scare tactic rhetoric is a timely topic; fear in current politics can justify actions and decisions and be used to control what is debated in the public arena, with the truth often shaped and even removed from what was being said. The ancient world was no different. In this volume, an international selection of scholars discusses how and why alarmist tactics were used in a variety of genres in Greco-Roman literature, including oratory, historiography, drama, philosophy, and children’s stories, to convey political messages and ideas. They also draw parallels between ancient and contemporary fear.

Fearmongering in Greek and Roman Literature and Beyond is suitable for students and scholars in Classics and Ancient History, Rhetoric and Rhetorical Theory, Ancient Societies and Politics, as well as those operating in adjacent fields of study, along with the general reader interested in the ancient world, psychology, politics, and the exploitation of rhetoric.

Priscilla Gontijo Leite is Adjunct Professor of Ancient History at the Department of History at the Federal University of Paraíba (João Pessoa/ Brazil). She has published numeous papers and books, for example Ética e retórica forense asebeia e hybris na caracterização dos adversários em Demóstenes (2013) and Religião e Jogos de Poder: o Contra Mídias de Demóstenes (2017).

Ian Worthington is Professor of Ancient History at Macquarie University, Sydney. He has published extensively on Greek History and Greek oratory. His most recent publications are The Military Legacy of Alexander the Great: Lessons for the Information Age with Major Michael Ferguson (2024) and The Last Kings of Macedonia and the Triumph of Rome (2023).