Rome, Empire of Plunder: The Dynamics of Cultural Appropriation

by Matthew P. Loar (Editor), Carolyn MacDonald (Editor), Dan-el Padilla Peralta (Editor)

Overview

Bringing together philologists, historians, and archaeologists, Rome, Empire of Plunder bridges disciplinary divides in pursuit of an interdisciplinary understanding of Roman cultural appropriation - approached not as a set of distinct practices but as a hydra-headed phenomenon through which Rome made and remade itself, as a Republic and as an Empire, on Italian soil and abroad. The studies gathered in this volume range from the literary thefts of the first Latin comic poets to the grand-scale spoliation of Egyptian obelisks by a succession of emperors, and from Hispania to Pergamon to Qasr Ibrim. Applying a range of theoretical perspectives on cultural appropriation, contributors probe the violent interactions and chance contingencies that sent cargo of all sorts into circulation around the Roman Mediterranean, causing recurrent distortions in their individual and aggregate meanings. The result is an innovative and nuanced investigation of Roman cultural appropriation and imperial power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108304917
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/19/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Matthew P. Loar is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He is currently writing a book on the Cacus myth in Augustan Rome.
Carolyn Macdonald is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of New Brunswick. She is currently writing a book on literary and visual responses to Rome's appropriation of Greek art.
Dan-el Padilla Peralta is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at Princeton University, New Jersey. He is currently writing a monograph on the religious world of the Middle Republic.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Figures; Contributors; Introduction; Part I. Interaction: 1. The comedy of plunder: art and appropriation in Plautus' Menaechmi Basil Dufallo; 2. Citation, spoliation, and the appropriation of the past in Livy's AUC Ayelet Haimson Lushkov; 3. A second first Punic War: respoliation of Republican naval monuments in the urban and poetic landscapes of Augustan Rome Thomas Biggs; 4. Buried treasure, hidden verses: (re)appropriating the Gauls of Pergamon in Flavian culture Stefano Rebeggiani; 5. Interactions: microhistory as cultural history Matthew P. Loar; Part II. Distortion: 6. Repurposing plunder in Vitruvius' De architectura Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols; 7. Appropriating Egypt for the Ara Pacis Augustae Jennifer Trimble; 8. Monolithic appropriation? The Lateran obelisk compared Grant Parker; 9. Distortion on parade: rethinking successful appropriation in Rome Carolyn MacDonald; Part III. Circulation: 10. The traffic in shtick Amy Richlin; 11. Agents of appropriation: shipwrecks, cargoes, and entangled networks in the Late Republic Carrie Fulton; 12. Import/export: empire and appropriation in the Gallus Papyrus from Qasr Ibrim Micah Myers; 13. Annexing a shared past: Roman appropriations of Hercules-Melqart in the conquest of Hispania Megan Daniel; 14. Circulation's thousand connectivities Dan-el Padilla Peralta; Bibliography.