Empire and Memory
The Representation of the Roman Republic in Imperial Culture

How the memory of the Roman Republic manifest itself after the Republic's demise.

Alain M. Gowing (Author)

9780521836227, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 August 2005

194 pages
20.6 x 13.5 x 1.9 cm, 0.315 kg

'I thoroughly enjoyed reading and thoroughly recommend this book, with which [Gowing] provides a thoughtful and thought-provoking treatment of issues that concern classicists specifically and students of cultural memory in general.' Ben Tipping, Harvard University

The memory of the Roman Republic exercised a powerful influence on several generations of Romans who lived under its political and cultural successor, the Principate or Empire. Empire and Memory explores how (and why) that memory manifested itself over the course of the early Principate. Making use of the close relationship between memoria and historia in Roman thought and drawing on modern studies of historical memory, this book offers case-studies of major imperial authors from the reign of Tiberius to that of Trajan (AD 14–117). The memory evident in literature is linked to that imprinted on Rome's urban landscape, with special attention paid to the Forum of Augustus and the Forum of Trajan, both which are particularly suggestive reminders of the transition from a time when the memory of the Republic was highly valued and celebrated to one when its grip had begun to loosen.

1. Historia/memoria
2. Res publica tiberiana
3: 'Caesar, now be still'
4. Rome's new past
5. Remembering Rome.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]