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Ancient Rome as a Museum
Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting
Steven Rutledge
424 pages
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77 in-text images and 6 maps
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246x189mm
978-0-19-957323-3
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Hardback
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26 April 2012
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- Extensively illustrated throughout.
- Contains a thorough bibliography for further research into the subject.
- Considers in detail how cultural objects from across the Roman Empire constructed, reflected, and challenged a specific Roman identity.
In antiquity, Rome represented one of the world's great cultural capitals. The city constituted a collective repository for various commemoratives, cultural artefacts, and curiosities, not to mention plunder taken in war, and over its history became what we might call a 'museum city'. Ancient Rome as a Museum considers how cultural objects and memorabilia both from Rome and its empire came to reflect a specific Roman identity and, in some instances, to even construct or challenge Roman perceptions of power and of the self. In this volume, Rutledge argues that Roman cultural values
and identity are indicated in part by what sort of materials Romans deemed worthy of display and how they chose to display, view, and preserve them.
Grounded in the growing field of museum studies, this book includes a discussion on private acquisition of cultural property and asks how well the Roman community at large understood the meaning and history behind various objects and memorabilia. Of particular importance was the use of collections by a number of emperors in the further establishment of their legitimacy and authority.
Through an examination of specific cultural objects, Rutledge questions how they came to reflect or even perpetuate Roman values and
identity.Readership: For students and scholars of classics, classical archaeology, and ancient history studies; art historians and those interested in museum studies and the history of collecting.
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Steven Rutledge, Associate Professor of Classics, Department of Classics, University of Maryland. Steven H. Rutledge is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is author of Imperial Inquisitions: Prosecutors and Informants from Tiberius to Domitian (Routledge, 2001), and the author of numerous articles on Roman history and culture.
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"it makes sense to claim that late Republican and Imperial Rome was, in effect, a museum. The virtue of Steven H. Rutledge's Ancient Rome as a Museum lies in its revolution of the paradox ... What were rare books to a fighting machine? Must Rome become a nation of curators? Rutledge explores this dilemma sympathetically, reaching far beyond the logic whereby precious things and natural curiosities were merely symbols of territorial gain." - Nigel Spivey, Times Literary Supplement
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List of Maps
List of Illustrations
Modern Abbreviations
Ancient Abbreviations
1: Introduction: Museums and Muses
2: Collecting and Acquisition
3: Viewing, Appreciating, Understanding
4: Displaying Domination: Spoils, War Commemoratives, and Competition
5: Constructing Social Identity: Pietas, Women, and the Roman House
6: The Monster and the Map
7: Imperial Collections and the Narrative of the Princeps
8: Access and Upkeep
9: Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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