The Politics of Roman Memory

The Politics of Roman Memory PDF Author: Marion Kruse
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812296478
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
What did it mean to be Roman after the fall of the western Roman empire in 476, and what were the implications of new formulations of Roman identity for the inhabitants of both east and west? How could an empire be Roman when it was, in fact, at war with Rome? How did these issues motivate and shape historical constructions of Constantinople as the New Rome? And how did the idea that a Roman empire could fall influence political rhetoric in Constantinople? In The Politics of Roman Memory, Marion Kruse visits and revisits these questions to explore the process by which the emperors, historians, jurists, antiquarians, and poets of the eastern Roman empire employed both history and mythologized versions of the same to reimagine themselves not merely as Romans but as the only Romans worthy of the name. The Politics of Roman Memory challenges conventional narratives of the transformation of the classical world, the supremacy of Christian identity in late antiquity, and the low literary merit of writers in this period. Kruse reconstructs a coherent intellectual movement in Constantinople that redefined Romanness in a Constantinopolitan idiom through the manipulation of Roman historical memory. Debates over the historical parameters of Romanness drew the attention of figures as diverse as Zosimos—long dismissed as a cranky pagan outlier, but here rehabilitated—and the emperor Justinian, as well as the major authors of Justinian's reign, such as Prokopios, Ioannes Lydos, and Jordanes. Finally, by examining the narratives embedded in Justinian's laws, Kruse demonstrates the importance of historical memory to the construction of imperial authority.

The Politics of Roman Memory

The Politics of Roman Memory PDF Author: Marion Kruse
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812296478
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book

Book Description
What did it mean to be Roman after the fall of the western Roman empire in 476, and what were the implications of new formulations of Roman identity for the inhabitants of both east and west? How could an empire be Roman when it was, in fact, at war with Rome? How did these issues motivate and shape historical constructions of Constantinople as the New Rome? And how did the idea that a Roman empire could fall influence political rhetoric in Constantinople? In The Politics of Roman Memory, Marion Kruse visits and revisits these questions to explore the process by which the emperors, historians, jurists, antiquarians, and poets of the eastern Roman empire employed both history and mythologized versions of the same to reimagine themselves not merely as Romans but as the only Romans worthy of the name. The Politics of Roman Memory challenges conventional narratives of the transformation of the classical world, the supremacy of Christian identity in late antiquity, and the low literary merit of writers in this period. Kruse reconstructs a coherent intellectual movement in Constantinople that redefined Romanness in a Constantinopolitan idiom through the manipulation of Roman historical memory. Debates over the historical parameters of Romanness drew the attention of figures as diverse as Zosimos—long dismissed as a cranky pagan outlier, but here rehabilitated—and the emperor Justinian, as well as the major authors of Justinian's reign, such as Prokopios, Ioannes Lydos, and Jordanes. Finally, by examining the narratives embedded in Justinian's laws, Kruse demonstrates the importance of historical memory to the construction of imperial authority.

The Art of Forgetting

The Art of Forgetting PDF Author: Harriet I. Flower
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807877468
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Elite Romans periodically chose to limit or destroy the memory of a leading citizen who was deemed an unworthy member of the community. Sanctions against memory could lead to the removal or mutilation of portraits and public inscriptions. Harriet Flower provides the first chronological overview of the development of this Roman practice--an instruction to forget--from archaic times into the second century A.D. Flower explores Roman memory sanctions against the background of Greek and Hellenistic cultural influence and in the context of the wider Mediterranean world. Combining literary texts, inscriptions, coins, and material evidence, this richly illustrated study contributes to a deeper understanding of Roman political culture.

Cultural Memories in the Roman Empire

Cultural Memories in the Roman Empire PDF Author: Karl Galinsky
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 1606064622
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Memory studies — one of the most vibrant research fields of the present day — brings together such diverse disciplines as art and archaeology, history, religion, literature, sociology, media studies, and neuroscience. In scholarship on ancient Rome, studies of social and cultural memory complement traditional approaches, opening up new horizons as we contemplate the ancient world. The fifteen essays presented here explore memory in the Roman Empire, addressing a wide spectrum of cultural phenomena from a range of approaches. Ancient Rome was a memory culture par excellence and memory pervades all aspects of Roman culture, from literature and art to religion and politics. This volume is the first to address the cultural artifacts of Rome through the lens of memory studies. An essential guide to the material culture of Rome, this book brings important new concepts to the fore for both scholars of the ancient world and those of social and cultural memory throughout human history.

Empire and Memory

Empire and Memory PDF Author: Alain M. Gowing
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781139445825
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
The memory of the Roman Republic exercised a powerful influence on several generations of Romans who lived under its political and cultural successor, the Principate or Empire. Empire and Memory explores how (and why) that memory manifested itself over the course of the early Principate. Making use of the close relationship between memoria and historia in Roman thought and drawing on modern studies of historical memory, this book offers case-studies of major imperial authors from the reign of Tiberius to that of Trajan (AD 14–117). The memory evident in literature is linked to that imprinted on Rome's urban landscape, with special attention paid to the Forum of Augustus and the Forum of Trajan, both which are particularly suggestive reminders of the transition from a time when the memory of the Republic was highly valued and celebrated to one when its grip had begun to loosen.

Gender, Memory, and Identity in the Roman World

Gender, Memory, and Identity in the Roman World PDF Author: Jussi Rantala
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 9048540097
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
This volume approaches three key concepts in Roman history - gender, memory and identity - and demonstrates the significance of their interaction in all social levels and during all periods of Imperial Rome. When societies, as well as individuals, form their identities, remembrance and references to the past play a significant role. The aim of this volume is to cast light on the constructing and the maintaining of both public and private identities in the Roman Empire through memory, and to highlight, in particular, the role of gender in that process. While approaching this subject, the contributors to this volume scrutinise both the literature and material sources, pointing out how widespread the close relationship between gender, memory and identity was. A major aim of this volume as a whole is to point out the significance of the interaction between these three concepts in both the upper and lower levels of Roman society, and how it remained an important question through the period from Augustus right into Late Antiquity.

Cultural Memory in Republican and Augustan Rome

Cultural Memory in Republican and Augustan Rome PDF Author: Martin T. Dinter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009327755
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 493

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Book Description
Explores how cultural memory theory intersects with the literature, politics, history, and archaeology of Republican and Augustan Rome.

Children, Memory, and Family Identity in Roman Culture

Children, Memory, and Family Identity in Roman Culture PDF Author: Véronique Dasen
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0199582572
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
Investigations into the daily life of Roman families show that children were key actors in the process of the construction of social memory: they were the pivotal point of the transmission of family tradition and values in both elite and non-elite families. This collection of essays draws together the perspectives of various disciplines to provide a multifaceted picture of the Roman family based on a wide range of evidence drawn from the 1st century BCE to Late Antiquity and theChristian period. The contributors define the notion of memory, discuss the role of children in the transmission of social memory and social identities, and also deal with threats to familial memory, in the cases of children deliberately or accidentally excluded from tradition, long believed to beinvisible, such as those born at home to slaves, or outcast because of illness or their unusual status, for example as the offspring of an incestuous relationship.

The Politics of Public Space in Republican Rome

The Politics of Public Space in Republican Rome PDF Author: Amy Russell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107040493
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
This book explores how public space in Republican Rome was an unstable category marked, experienced, and defined by multiple actors and audiences.

Memory and Mourning

Memory and Mourning PDF Author: Valerie M. Hope
Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited
ISBN: 9781842179901
Category : Architecture and society
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This volume challenges boundaries between traditional academic disciplines and utilizes current approaches in Scholarship. It-highlights how death was interwoven with Roman life and brings together diverse evidence such is poetry, oratory, portraiture, epigraphy, and funerary monuments. These chapters individually and collectively demonstrate the significance of studying the evidence for Roman death and death rituals, and how concerns for memory and mourning both shaped and were reflected in that evidence. --Book Jacket.

The Architecture of the Roman Triumph

The Architecture of the Roman Triumph PDF Author: Maggie L. Popkin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316578038
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
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.