Ancient Rome as a Museum

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.

ISBN 0199573239   Pages 424 ISBN13 9780199573233 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 1116 Publisher Oxford University Press   Published in Oxford Imprint Oxford University Press   Series title Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture Representation Format Hardback   Height (mm) 253 Publication date 26 Apr 2012   Width (mm) 196 DEWEY 937   Spine width (mm) 28 DEWEY edition DC23   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly

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

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

 Be the first to write a customer review