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The first full-length study of how Italian colonialism in Africa used the history of Roman imperialism on the continent to legitimise and promote its own imperial endeavours. Agbamu looks at a broad range of cultural documents to examine how the discourse of colonialism as 'the return of Rome' to land rightfully Italian was disseminated.
List of contents
- Introduction
- 1: The Fall of Italia Risorta: Ethiopia, Roman Africa, and the Invention of Italy
- 2: 'There, Too, Is Rome': The Roman Empire and the Conquest of Libya
- 3: Modernizing Antiquity: Decadence and Futurism in Roman Africa
- 4: Technology and Power: Screening Imperialism in Giovanni Pastrone's Cabiria (1914)
- 5: Redeeming Italia Irredenta: Fascism's March on Africa
- 6: Italia tandem imperium habet suum: Fascist Italy's Roman Empire
- 7: Carmine Gallone's Scipione l'Africano: Restaging Rome, Reincarnating Romanità
- 8: The Arco dei Fileni: The Realization of Romanità in Africa
- 9: The Decline and Fall of the Fascist Empire
- 10: Conclusion: Memories of Mare Nostrum
About the author
Samuel Agbamu is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and Lecturer in Classics at the University of Reading. He holds a PhD in Classics from King's College London, where he also studied for a PGCE in Classics. Prior to taking up his Early Career Fellowship, Sam taught at schools in London and Cambridge.
Summary
The first full-length study of how Italian colonialism in Africa used the history of Roman imperialism on the continent to legitimise and promote its own imperial endeavours. Agbamu looks at a broad range of cultural documents to examine how the discourse of colonialism as 'the return of Rome' to land rightfully Italian was disseminated.
