This volume aims ambitiously ‘to identify the defining characteristics, functions and discourses of pollution in Rome’ (xviii) during antiquity and from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. It forms the proceedings of a conference held in 2007 at the British School at Rome, which brought together scholars with a wide range of specialisms all linked by an interest in the concept of pollution and its discourse through the lens of a single city: Rome.

Theories from Mary Douglas's Purity and Danger (1966) are prominent in the majority of the papers in this volume, with a particular focus on her much-quoted statement that ‘dirt is matter out of place’ (see e.g. 11–18). Another theme linking this diverse collection of papers is the idea of pollution and purity as political weapons, especially wielded by religious authorities (3). Furthermore, the majority of the papers consider how pollution as metaphor interacts in multiple, and often conflicting, ways with pollution as a lived reality.

The volume opens with an overview by Bradley of the literature and history of scholarly research into pollution and propriety in anthropology and sociology, in antiquity and beyond antiquity. Although rather lengthy, this chapter does provide a helpful starting point for those new to this subject area. The publication, like the conference itself, is, then, divided into two sections focusing first on antiquity and then modernity. It is possible that more cross-fertilization between period specialists may have been encouraged by a more thematic structure, but this is a minor quibble.

Religious pollution and purification form the main themes in Part I: Antiquity. Lennon provides us with an overview of pollution, religion and society in literary sources, including epic and poetry alongside political rhetoric and history, with a particularly interesting discussion of blood as a polluting substance. Fantham continues this theme, pursuing the limited use of the verb polluere, before embarking on a thorough ‘how to’ guide to purification in ancient Rome. Schultz considers the question of ridding the city of a polluting presence through the specific case of unchaste Vestal virgins, in which she sensibly draws a distinction between ritual murder and human sacrifice, with the latter being a subset of the former. While the killing of unchaste Vestals cannot be considered as sacrifice because they were not pure, they can be considered as a form of ritual murder akin to the killing of hermaphrodites, who also might be seen as perverting the natural order. Hopkins moves the focus onto a particular monument: the Cloaca Maxima. He presents an intricate argument, based on in-depth topographical and architectural analyses, for the sacred nature of the Cloaca. As well as providing a wealth of detail about this major feature of Rome's urban landscape, this chapter also challenges the assumption that the sacred and profane worlds were necessarily kept apart (contra Lennon, 50). Bradley also presents an interesting study of the links between topography, urban landscape, pollution, specifically the treatment of criminals, and the rhetoric of ‘up’ and ‘down’ in his micro-scale study of the Capitoline Hill. Davies' contribution to Part I is a departure from the other chapters as she does not consider religion directly, but rather looks at pollution more broadly in Republican Rome, in which she presents an interesting discussion on the interplay between euergetism, engineering and pollution.

While Part II of this volume focuses on ‘Modernity’ (from the Renaissance to Fascist Rome), it has much of interest to offer a Classical scholar. Numerous papers deal with the reception of monuments from antiquity and their use in various programmes of purification. In her discussion of the water management of Counter-Reformation Rome, Rinne presents a detailed and interesting account of the fate of the Roman water supply and management system, as well as of particular monuments, such as Trajan's Column in 1575 (fig. 11.3) and the Cloaca Maxima in 1889 (fig. 11.6). The veneration given to certain monuments is also discussed by Syrjämaa. While the ruins contributed to a discourse of picturesque decay, scientifically-excavated ruins, in contrast, were part of a vision of a clean and modern city. This chapter presents a powerful challenge to our sense of how to present the past, what it means to be authentic and at whose cost. In Salvante's discussion of Fascist Rome, we hear not only how Mussolini redesigned the city to ‘develop spatial continuities between the buildings of antiquity and those of modernity’, but also how he demolished working-class neighbourhoods to ‘liberate’ ancient monuments and save them from what he considered to be the dens of moral deviation so typical of cities (251). Ancient monuments, however, were not always to be understood as uncomplicatedly positive. In his discussion of Fra Girolamo Savonarola in fifteenth-century Rome, Assonitis explores an ‘anti-Renaissance’ (152) viewpoint wherein antiquities and classical learning were considered a ‘most pernicious plague’ (145).

As will have become clear, an important thread running through Part II is audience and viewpoint in approaches to, and considerations of, pollution, particularly when moral pollution is linked to physical pollution and programmes of cleansing. This also comes through strongly in Gentilcore's discussion of the various theories and practices related to plague in seventeenth-century Rome. Stow follows on from Gentilcore and looks specifically at the case of the Jewish ghettos in Rome from c. 1500–c. 1800. The creation of a multiplicity of perspectives through conflicting religious beliefs is also brought out neatly by James' consideration of Catholic and Protestant contrasting reactions to the catacombs, which, importantly, also led to competing archaeological interpretations.

The volume ends with an envoi from Goldstein where she presents a challenge to Mary Douglas asking what happens when rituals of purification do not work and what happens if the constitution of the order or system is what is at issue (as, arguably, for criminal clans in Italy). As such this is a refreshing and brave departure from the rest of the book. Overall, though, this volume is as entertaining and thought-provoking as the conference itself and provides a novel way of thinking about the city of Rome, both past and present.