CUP (2015) p/b 360pp £25.99 (ISBN 9781107519060)
This book is volume 35 in the Yale Classical Studies series and the fruit of a three-day conference held at Yale University in 2005. There are thirteen essays plus the Introduction. The volume focuses on three main areas: the imperial building programme and its impact on the city of Rome in terms of its space and its image; the representation of the emperor and the performance of rituals/ceremonies representing the imperial values; and the means of communicating with the various groups with the city. The essays cover, among others, topics dealing with the Late Republic, Augustus, Nero, Antonine Rome and Constantine and a variety of monuments. The focus is essentially the relationship between emperor and the city. All of the essays are specifically commissioned for the volume apart from the essay by P.Zanker (No. 2 ‘By the emperor, for the people: “popular” architecture in Rome’).
The essays examine the impact of the principate or monarchy on the urban fabric, but also, to some extent the transformation from Republican Rome and the change in the relationship between the urban population and the government under the new system. Zanker examines, through a range of buildings, what he calls ‘cultural patronage’ and the importance of Greek culture in the provisions by the emperor for the urban plebs. They responded by offering honours and, in a sense, helped shape the monarchy. This relationship is explored by E. Flaig in his study of how Nero lost support from, or ‘acceptance’ by, the plebs (essay 10). E. Mayer (Essay 4 ‘Propaganda, staged applause of local politics? Public monuments from Augustus to Septimius Severus’) studies the variety of monuments in Rome and the Empire dedicated to, not by, the emperor ranging from Augustus to Septimius Severus in terms of senatorial ways of honouring the emperor, and what this tells us of the relationship between senators and emperors. Essay 6 by M.T. Boatwright and Essay 7 by E. Marlowe examine this relationship in Antonine Rome and under Constantine.
J.E. Packer (Essay 5 ‘Pompey’s Theater and Tiberius’ Temple of Concord’) approaches the question of the use of space and demonstrates the links between republic liberalitas and that of the emperors, especially in terms of the Greek cultural influences. Most of the essays consider the ways in which emperors used the same basic designs for buildings erected for the citizens but then enlarged and developed them expressed an architectural dynamism. W.Eck (essay 3) examines the importance of space and context for the relationship between imperial and senatorial representation. The control of the emperor over public space left individuals with the only option of private display in Rome, while in the provinces display offered no competition with the emperor.
Kootbojian’s essay (No. 9) examines the specific cuirass portrait (statua lorica) beginning with that of Julius Caesar within the pomerium and then the Prima Porta statue of Augustus, which he sees as an ‘anti-triumphal’ gesture. K. Fittschen (essay 8) addresses the question of the creation and spread of portrait head types. Mayer also seeks to show that there was no centrally prescribed image, but rather groups honouring the emperor sought to do justice to what they perceived the self-image of the emperor to be. Essays 11 and 12 deal with funerals: Arce (No.12) examines imperial funerals, specifically those of Pertinax and Septimius Severus, as a political event; E. d’Ambra (No. 11) considers the funeral pyre as a piece of ephemeral architecture and its relationship with the permanent structures.
The volume, designed primarily for Higher Education teachers and students, has an extensive bibliography and a useful index. All of the essays provide the reader with a wealth of detail and offer a wide range of material. Readers will find, in these essays, much to engage and stimulate them to consider different approaches and ideas on the issues examined by the contributors.
Terry Edwards—Maidstone