The noise-lovers: cultures of speech and sound in second-century Rome

This chapter provides an examination of an ideal of the ‘deliberate speaker’, who aims to reflect time, thought, and study in his speech. In the Roman Empire, words became a vital tool for creating and defending in-groups, and orators and authors in both Latin and Greek alleged, by contrast, that their enemies produced babbling noise rather than articulate speech. In this chapter, the ideal of the deliberate speaker is explored through the works of two very different contemporaries: the African-born Roman orator Fronto and the Syrian Christian apologist Tatian. Despite moving in very different circles, Fronto and Tatian both express their identity and authority through an expertise in words, in strikingly similar ways. The chapter ends with a call for scholars of the Roman Empire to create categories of analysis that move across different cultural and linguistic groups. If we do not, we risk merely replicating the parochialism and insularity of our sources.Accepted manuscrip

Well-Being in the Arts and Crafts Sector

This chapter focuses on the studies referring to arts and crafts as non-professional activities, practiced within rehabilitation programs or during free time. Arts and crafts indeed represent two work sectors that may provide positive experiences similar to those associated with leisure activities. Compared to modern factory or office work, these professions impose fewer restrictions in goal setting and task performance, and provide opportunities for creativity and selfexpression. At the psychological level, this twofold structure of arts and crafts can be well explained adopting Gollwitzer's mindset theory of action phases in the process of goal pursuit. The theory proposes a distinction between deliberative and implementation mindsets, that operate through different cognitive processes. The spatial and social environments in which artists and craftsmen work also contribute to their experience. Studies conducted by economists showed that professional artists often work under severe objective conditions, such as low income and lack of regular employment