The role of violence in pre-modern societies is currently seeing increased interest from classicists, ancient historians, and medievalists. Hot on the heels of a number of recent studies, Pimentel and Rodrigues’ collection of essays on ancient and medieval violence adds to this growing body of literature with a wide-ranging set of case studies that consider issues of violence in literature, art, archaeology, and history from the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt to sixteenth-century medieval Europe. Such a wide-ranging topic may seem ambitious in a single volume, even one that runs to nearly 600 pages and features 32 separate chapters, but the editors make clear that they are not aiming for comprehensive coverage but are rather providing snapshots of the research of several authors working on violence in different periods, with the aim of illustrating diachronic aspects of the theme. Curiously, despite the parity between ancient and medieval implied by the title, the distribution of material is weighted heavily in favour of the ancient world, with only 7 of the 32 chapters focusing on the medieval period. The vast majority of the studies are concerned with very specific manifestations of violence in a relatively narrow timeframe and only a small number make explicit comparisons between the two periods. Consequently readers must make any connections between ancient and medieval themes largely on their own. However, the editors’ brief introduction does go some way towards addressing this hurdle to their supposed diachronic approach by discussing the role of violence throughout human history and pointing (albeit briefly) to many of the themes that will crop up in later chapters.