In 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.
Author(s): Maggie Popkin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 346
City: Cambridge
Cover
Half-title page
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction: Souvenirs of the Roman Empire
PART I
2 Souvenirs of Cult Statues
3 Souvenirs of Cities and Sites
4 Memory, Knowledge, and 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
Notes
References
Index
