The Architecture of the Roman Triumph: Monuments, Memory, and Identity

by Maggie L. Popkin

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107103573
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/22/2016
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.31(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Maggie L. Popkin is Assistant Professor of Art History at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio.

Table of Contents

Introduction. The triumph, memory, and 'being Roman' in the city of Rome; 1. The triumphal route; 2. Building memories: the era of the Punic Wars (264–146 BC); 3. Spectacle and memory: the reign of Trajan, Optimus Princeps (AD 98–117); 4. Monuments and memory distortion: the reign of Septimius Severus (AD 193–211); Conclusion; Appendix. Victory monuments built along the triumphal route during the Punic Wars: topography, dating, and history.