Read more
"This book offers the first in-depth investigation of souvenirs from the Roman Empire commemorating places, people, and spectacles. Straddling spheres of religion, spectacle, leisure, and politics, souvenirs offer a unique resource for exploring the experiences, interests, imaginations, and aspirations of people living in the Roman world beyond elite, metropolitan men. Popkin shows how souvenirs generated and shaped memory and knowledge and constructed imagined cultural affinities across the empire's heterogeneous population. At the same time, souvenirs strengthened local and regional identities and excluded certain groups from the social participation they afforded so many others. Adopting a fundamentally multidisciplinary approach, this book demonstrates how souvenirs-affordable, portable, and widely accessible-were critical to shaping how Romans perceived and conceptualized their world and their relationships to the empire that shaped it"--
List of contents
1. Introduction: Souvenirs of the Roman Empire; Part I: 2. Souvenirs of cult statues; 3. Souvenirs of cities and sites; 4. Memory, knowledge, cultural affinities; Part II: 5. Souvenirs of the circus and arena; 6. Souvenirs of the theater; 7. Imagining the Roman Empire; 8. Conclusion: Rethinking Rome.
About the author
Maggie Popkin is Robson Junior Professor and Associate Professor of Art History in the Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University. She is the author of The Architecture of the Roman Triumph: Monuments, Memory, and Identity (Cambridge, 2016) and numerous articles on Greek and Roman art and architecture. She has received fellowships from the Fulbright Organization and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.
Summary
Shows how souvenirs constructed memory, knowledge, and cultural affinities in the Roman Empire and demonstrates how material culture reveals the experiences and aspirations of ordinary ancient Romans. It will appeal to scholars, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates in classical studies, art history, archaeology, and related disciplines.
