Globalizing Roman Culture: Unity, Diversity and Empire

ISBN-13: 9780415351768 / Angielski / Miękka / 2005 / 224 str.

Richard Hingley

Opis

Richard Hingley here asks the questions: What is Romanization? Was Rome the first global culture?
Romanization has been represented as a simple progression from barbarism to civilization. Roman forms in architecture, coinage, language and literature came to dominate the world from Britain to Syria. Hingley argues for a more complex and nuanced view in which Roman models provided the means for provincial elites to articulate their own concerns. Inhabitants of the Roman provinces were able to develop identities they never knew they had until Rome gave them the language to express them.
Hingley draws together the threads of diverse and separate study, in one sophisticated theoretical framework that spans the whole Roman Empire. Students of Rome and those with an interest in classical cultural studies will find this an invaluable mine of information.

Spis treści

Globalization and Roman Culture: unity, diversity and empire. 1. The past in the present The changing past. The power of the past. A discourse of Western domination. The potential of archaeological research. Anachronism. 2. Changing concepts of Roman identity and social change Classical inheritances. Civilization. Barbarity. Interpreting Romanization in the context of Western culture. Modernist Romanization. Critical assessment. Native reactions. The ghost of modernism. Reintroducing power relations. Re-constructing Roman Culture in a global context. 3. Roman imperialism and culture Defining Roman elite culture. Culture. Roman culture. Writing about elite culture. Barbarians. The opportunity of conquest. Civilizing missions? Classical education. Elite culture as imperial discourses. 4. The material elements of elite culture Projecting Roman elite identity. Dress and appearance. Creating urban space. Creating domestic space. Standardized developments? 5. Fragmenting identities Spreading Roman culture? Soldiers. 'The empire writes back'. 'Discrepant experiences' in the landscape. Consuming Culture. Pottery and consumption. The limits of connectivity. 6. 'Back to the future'? Empire and Rome. Enabling and imposing.

O autorze

Specialist in Roman studies, with a particular focus upon Roman imperialism and the context of Roman research. Lecturer in Roman archaeology at the University of Durham. Author of Roman Officers and English Gentleman (Routledge 2000) and Images of Rome (Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2001).