Souvenirs and the Experience of Empire in Ancient Rome
Souvenirs and the Experience of Empire in Ancient Rome
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USDIn this book, Maggie Popkin offers an in-depth investigation of souvenirs, a type of ancient Roman object that has been understudied and that is unfamiliar to many people. Souvenirs commemorated places, people, and spectacles in the Roman Empire. Straddling the spheres of religion, spectacle, leisure, and politics, they serve as a unique resource for exploring the experiences, interests, imaginations, and aspirations of a broad range of people - beyond elite, metropolitan men - who lived in the Roman world. Popkin shows how souvenirs generated and shaped memory and knowledge, as well as constructed imagined cultural affinities across the empire's heterogeneous population. At the same time, souvenirs  strengthened local identities, but excluded certain groups from the social participation that souvenirs made available to so many others. Featuring a full illustration program of 137 color and black and white images, Popkin's book demonstrates the critical role that souvenirs played in shaping how Romans perceived and conceptualized their world, and their relationships to the empire that shaped it.
- Provides examples of a multi-disciplinary approaches to ancient material and visual culture, demonstrating how these approaches reveal new knowledge about the role of material and visual culture in ancient Roman society
- Draws together evidence from around the Roman Empire from the arenas of religion, travel and leisure, politics, sport, and theater, allowing readers to see interrelationships among diverse geographical and cultural spheres in the Roman Empire
- Offers a wide-ranging illustration program in full color
Reviews & endorsements
'… showcase(s) a truly unexpected range of ancient memorabilia, many of which are usually kept within museum stores …' Mary Beard, Times Literary Supplement
‘As the author ably demonstrates, ancient Roman souvenirs are of interest on many accounts, not least for the window on the world they provided to their ancient owners…This is an unusually perceptive, engaging, and thoroughly readable study, originating in a small but representative sample of artifacts rarely featured in the archaeological literature. The author is to be congratulated for both recognizing their value and making them sing.’ Karl M. Petruso, American Journal of Archaeology
‘This book demonstrates that objects purchased and then transported home created not just memories of travel, but also articulated the meaning of those places, people or spectacles…This is a beautiful book…also a great read and thought-provoking, and it allows readers to run further with the ideas presented.’ Ray Laurence, The Classical Review
‘This is an unusually perceptive, engaging, and thoroughly readable study, originating in a small but representative sample of artifacts rarely featured in the archaeological literature. The author is to be congratulated for both recognizing their value and making them sing.’ Karl M. Petruso, American Journal of Archaeology
Product details
July 2022Hardback
9781316517567
346 pages
261 × 184 × 21 mm
0.89kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction: Souvenirs of the Roman Empire
- Part I:
- 2. Souvenirs of cult statues
- 3. Souvenirs of cities and sites
- 4. Memory, knowledge, cultural affinities
- Part II:
- 5. Souvenirs of the circus and arena
- 6. Souvenirs of the theater
- 7. Imagining the Roman Empire
- 8. Conclusion: Rethinking Rome.
