The Monuments Of Ancient Rome

Accompanied by the masterpieces and memories of illustrious figures, we follow the arc of a city and a civilization from its beginnings to its height and fall, leafing through pages of history from the various eras. Rome was the final act of antiquity, and a dramatic conception of a new world."--BOOK JACKET.

This book offers the first critical study of the architecture of the Roman triumph, ancient Rome's most important victory ritual. Through case studies ranging from the republican to imperial periods, it demonstrates how powerfully monuments shaped how Romans performed, experienced, and remembered triumphs and, consequently, how Romans conceived of an urban identity for their city. Monuments highlighted Roman conquests of foreign peoples, enabled Romans to envision future triumphs, made triumphs more memorable through emotional arousal of spectators, and even generated distorted memories of triumphs that might never have occurred. This book illustrates the far-reaching impact of the architecture of the triumph on how Romans thought about this ritual and, ultimately, their own place within the Mediterranean world. In doing so, it offers a new model for historicizing the interrelations between monuments, individual and shared memory, and collective identities.

Helen Nagy, "Miniature Votive Altars in the Collection of the American Academy in Rome"; Gareth Schmeling, "Urbs Aeterna: Rome, a Monument of the Mind"; Susan Martin, "Transportation Issues in the City of Rome"; Anne H. Groton, "Id est quod suspicabar: Suspecting the Worst in Plautus"; Helen F. North, "Lacrimae Virginis Vestalis"; Michael C. J. Putnam, "Horace c. 3.23: Ritual and Art"; Herbert W. Benario, "Three Tacitean Women"