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Art and Architecture in Ancient Rome
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Week One. Beginnings: An introduction to “the idea of Rome”: what uses does it have in today’s
culture? Just like Heinrich Schliemann’s use of “Troy” in archaeology, the Renaissance painters and
Jacques-Louis David used Roman history for contemporary political critique. Also: a brief overview of
major Iron-Age societies, and a look at the archaeological evidence for early Rome. The wider blend of
Villanovan, Etruscan and early Italic influences are explored by a look at votive figurines, jewelry, and
craft.
Literature: Virgil, The Aeneid. Artwork: Etruscan tomb murals,
Villanovan funerary urns, early Italic archaeology.
Optional Journal Reading:
•
Andreas Kalyvas, ‘The Tyranny of Dictatorship: When the Greek Tyrant Met the Roman Dictator’,
Political Theory, vol. 35, no. 4 (Aug., 2007), pp. 412-442.
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Clifford Ando, ‘Was Rome a Polis?’, Classical Antiquity , vol. 18, no. 1 (Apr., 1999), pp. 5-34.
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Andrew Meadows and Jonathan Williams, ‘Moneta and the Monuments: Coinage and Politics in
Republican Rome’, The Journal of Roman Studies , vol. 91, (2001), pp. 27-49.
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Nijboer, A.J.; Van Der Plicht, J.; Bietti Sestieri, A.M.; De Santis, A. (1999-2000). "A high
chronology for the Early Iron Age in central Italy". Palaeohistoria, vol. 43/44 (University of Groningen:
Laboratory for Conservation & Material Studies), 163–176.
•
Francesco Buranelli, ‘The Bronze Hut Urn in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’, Metropolitan
Museum Journal , vol. 21 (1986), pp. 5-12, and Lawrence Richardson, A New Topography of Ancient
Rome (Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins Press, 1992), p. 74 (online at Google Books).
Week Two. Carthage: Magna Grecia and the Roman conquest of Spain give examples of a PanMediterreanean culture adopted by the emerging Romans, but the origins of Carthage show an
alternative model of expansion. Perpetual debates about class lead to caste conflict, Plebs vs. patricians
in civil war. Power in Rome was a dangerous business, as witnessed by the life histories of Marius and
the Gracchi brothers. In a life-long conflict of values, Scipio Africanus and Cato showed two different
sides of Roman life. Of the great general, and the great ethicist, whose is the more appealing character?
Carthagian art shows a fascinating alternative to the Roman interest in realism.
Literature: Livy, The History of Rome. Artwork: The Temples at Paestum,
Greek vases, Carthagian sculpture, Celtic Iron Age coinage.
Optional Journal Reading:
•
Robin Osborne, ‘Why Did Athenian Pots Appeal to the Etruscans?’ World Archaeology , vol. 33,
no. 2, Archaeology and Aesthetics (Oct., 2001), pp. 277-295.
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Michael C. Astour, ‘Ancient Greek Civilization in Southern Italy’, Journal of Aesthetic Education ,
vol. 19, no. 1 (Spring, 1985), pp. 23-37.
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John K. Papadopoulos, ‘Magna Achaea: Akhaian Late Geometric and Archaic Pottery in South
Italy and Sicily’, Hesperia, vol. 70, no. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 2001), pp. 373-460.
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Anthony S. Tuck, ‘The Etruscan Seated Banquet: Villanovan Ritual and Etruscan Iconography’,
American Journal of Archaeology , vol. 98, no. 4 (Oct., 1994), pp. 617-628.
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Marco Pellecchia and Riccardo Negrini et. al., ‘The Mystery of Etruscan Origins: Novel Clues from
Bos taurus Mitochondrial DNA’, Proceedings: Biological Sciences , vol. 274, no. 1614 (May 7, 2007), pp.
1175-1179.
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Marshall Joseph Becker, ‘Childhood among the Etruscans: Mortuary Programs at Tarquinia as
Indicators of the Transition to Adult Status’, Hesperia Supplement , vol. 41 (2007), pp. 281-292.
Week Three: Caesar: The Invasion of Gaul. Roman imperial expansion was swift, brutal, and violent.
Julius Caesaer’s genocide in Gaul wrought genetic, cultural and economic changes across western
Europe. The fused, hybrid nature of Romano-Celtic art and religious belief shows the long-lasting
influence of the Celtic world.
Literature: Catullus. The most intensely personal, and sexually explicit, poet
in the Roman tradition died young, at thirty. His verses evoke the
sophisticated, luxurious world of the 1st-century Roman nobility. Artwork:
The Pergamon Alterpiece shows the flowering of Hellenistic art among the
Greek city-states of Asia Minor, but its history stresses the hegemonic
potential of Roman authority.
Optional Journal Reading:
•
Glenn Markoe, ‘The Emergence of Orientalizing in Greek Art: Some Observations on the
Interchange between Greeks and Phoenicians in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries B. C.’, Bulletin of the
American Schools of Oriental Research , no. 301 (Feb., 1996), pp. 47-67.
•
Ann Kuttner, ‘Republican Rome Looks at Pergamon’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology , vol.
97 (1995), pp. 157-178.
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Veit Rosenberger, ‘The Gallic Disaster’, The Classical World , vol. 96, no. 4 (Summer, 2003), pp.
365-373.
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Peter Forster and Alfred Toth, ‘Toward a Phylogenetic Chronology of Ancient Gaulish, Celtic, and
Indo-European’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , vol.
100, no. 15 (Jul. 22, 2003), pp. 9079-9084.
Week Four : Augustus: Ovid. Under Augustus, Rome reached new heights of economic prosperity and
military conquest. While re-found unity contributed to a sense of revitalization, corruption among
imperial elites was a serious problem.
Literature: Ovid. The Metamorphoses has had a profound effect
on the visual, literary and dramatic spheres of “western” culture.
From Kafka to Norval Morrisseau, La Fontaine to the PreRaphaelites, Ovid’s stories have had an incredible afterlife. Do
they inspire us? Artworks: The Dying Gaul, imperial Roman
portraiture, ruins in Tunisia, the Ara Pacis. Try the works of
Rosemary Sutcliff, if you are sick of “dry journal articles!
•
Valerie M. Hope, ‘Trophies and Tombstones: Commemorating the Roman Soldier’, World
Archaeology , vol. 35, no. 1 (Jun., 2003), pp. 79-97.
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Matthew Leigh, ‘Early Roman Epic and the Maritime Moment’, Classical Philology , vol. 105, no.
3 (July 2010), pp. 265-280.
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Almudena Orejas and F. Javier Sánchez-Palencia, ‘Mines, Territorial Organization, and Social
Structure in Roman Iberia: Carthago Noua and the Peninsular Northwest’, American Journal of
Archaeology , vol. 106, no. 4 (Oct., 2002), pp. 581-599.
Week Five: Hadrian: Under a succession of hard-working administrators, Rome enjoyed unparalleled
dominance over large stretches of Europe, northern Africa and the near East. Religious institutions like
the cults of Serapis, Isis and Mithras show the syncretic, adaptable aspect of Roman belief systems.
Artworks: The Antinous motif in Roman sculpture; Hadrian’s villa; the
Nabateans at Petra. Literature: Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars. Suteonius mixes
biography, history and titillation in one masterly volume, but there
unexpectedly poignant scenes in his narrative, illustrating that the truth really is
stranger than fiction! What are your favourites? Roman decadence explored:
what is it about this world that is so fascinating?
Optional Journal Reading
•
Sara Paton, ‘Knossos: an imperial renaissance’, British School at Athens Studies , vol. 12 (2004),
pp. 451-455.
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Matthew B. Roller, ‘Demolished Houses, Monumentality, and Memory in Roman Culture’,
Classical Antiquity , vol. 29, no. 1 (April 2010), pp. 117-180.
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Basil Dufallo, ‘Appius' Indignation: Gossip, Tradition, and Performance in Republican Rome’,
Transactions of the American Philological Association , vol. 131 (2001), pp. 119-142.
Week Six: Constantine: We leave Rome, not at its sack in the early 5th century, or even in the dawn of
Rome’s spiritual and cultural successor, Constantinople. Instead, we go back to the early first century
BCE, to the world of Plautus and Pompeii, of dramatic revolutions that reshaped the look of theatre, and
the mystery religions painted on the walls of Roman houses.
Literature: Apuleius, The Golden Ass. Artworks: Roman sarcophagi and their
survival in Byzantine and Renaissance art. The Arches of the Forum. The
Coliseum. The painting cycles of Pompeii.
Optional Journal Reading:
•
Greg Woolf, ‘Beyond Romans and Natives’, World Archaeology , vol. 28, no. 3 (Feb., 1997), pp.
339-350.
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Corrie Bakels and Stefanie Jacomet, ‘Access to Luxury Foods in Central Europe during the Roman
Period: The Archaeobotanical Evidence’, World Archaeology , vol. 34, no. 3 (Feb., 2003), pp. 542-557.
Paul Zanker, ‘The Domestic Arts in Pompeii’, pp. 135 – 207, in Pompeii : public and private life
(Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2000, ©1998) @ Google Books.