Rome, Empire of Plunder
Rome, Empire of Plunder
Carolyn MacDonald, University of New Brunswick
Dan-el Padilla Peralta, Princeton University, New Jersey
Bringing together philologists, historians, and archaeologists, Rome, Empire of Plunder bridges disciplinary divides in pursuit of an interdisciplinary understanding of Roman cultural appropriation - approached not as a set of distinct practices but as a hydra-headed phenomenon through which Rome made and remade itself, as a Republic and as an Empire, on Italian soil and abroad. The studies gathered in this volume range from the literary thefts of the first Latin comic poets to the grand-scale spoliation of Egyptian obelisks by a succession of emperors, and from Hispania to Pergamon to Qasr Ibrim. Applying a range of theoretical perspectives on cultural appropriation, contributors probe the violent interactions and chance contingencies that sent cargo of all sorts into circulation around the Roman Mediterranean, causing recurrent distortions in their individual and aggregate meanings. The result is an innovative and nuanced investigation of Roman cultural appropriation and imperial power.
- Examines Roman cultural appropriation from literary, historical, and archaeological perspectives, providing a more complete and nuanced picture
- Applies a range of contemporary theories of appropriation and cultural interaction
- Discusses Roman appropriations from, and interactions with, various cultures across the Mediterranean, avoiding focus on Greece alone
Product details
No date availableHardback
9781108418423
336 pages
235 × 158 × 23 mm
0.63kg
13 b/w illus. 3 maps
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I. Interaction:
- 1. The comedy of plunder: art and appropriation in Plautus' Menaechmi Basil Dufallo
- 2. Citation, spoliation, and the appropriation of the past in Livy's AUC Ayelet Haimson Lushkov
- 3. A second first Punic War: respoliation of Republican naval monuments in the urban and poetic landscapes of Augustan Rome Thomas Biggs
- 4. Buried treasure, hidden verses: (re)appropriating the Gauls of Pergamon in Flavian culture Stefano Rebeggiani
- 5. Interactions: microhistory as cultural history Matthew P. Loar
- Part II. Distortion:
- 6. Repurposing plunder in Vitruvius' De architectura Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols
- 7. Appropriating Egypt for the Ara Pacis Augustae Jennifer Trimble
- 8. Monolithic appropriation? The Lateran obelisk compared Grant Parker
- 9. Distortion on parade: rethinking successful appropriation in Rome Carolyn MacDonald
- Part III. Circulation:
- 10. The traffic in shtick Amy Richlin
- 11. Agents of appropriation: shipwrecks, cargoes, and entangled networks in the Late Republic Carrie Fulton
- 12. Import/export: empire and appropriation in the Gallus Papyrus from Qasr Ibrim Micah Myers
- 13. Annexing a shared past: Roman appropriations of Hercules-Melqart in the conquest of Hispania Megan Daniel
- 14. Circulation's thousand connectivities Dan-el Padilla Peralta
- Bibliography.
