Rome, Empire of Plunder
The Dynamics of Cultural Appropriation

An interdisciplinary exploration of Roman cultural appropriation, offering new insights into the processes through which Rome made and remade itself.

Matthew P. Loar (Edited by), Carolyn MacDonald (Edited by), Dan-el Padilla Peralta (Edited by)

9781108418423, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 October 2017

336 pages, 13 b/w illus. 3 maps
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.63 kg

Bringing together philologists, historians, and archaeologists, Rome, Empire of Plunder bridges disciplinary divides in pursuit of an interdisciplinary understanding of Roman cultural appropriation - approached not as a set of distinct practices but as a hydra-headed phenomenon through which Rome made and remade itself, as a Republic and as an Empire, on Italian soil and abroad. The studies gathered in this volume range from the literary thefts of the first Latin comic poets to the grand-scale spoliation of Egyptian obelisks by a succession of emperors, and from Hispania to Pergamon to Qasr Ibrim. Applying a range of theoretical perspectives on cultural appropriation, contributors probe the violent interactions and chance contingencies that sent cargo of all sorts into circulation around the Roman Mediterranean, causing recurrent distortions in their individual and aggregate meanings. The result is an innovative and nuanced investigation of Roman cultural appropriation and imperial power.

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Figures
Contributors
Introduction
Part I. Interaction: 1. The comedy of plunder: art and appropriation in Plautus' Menaechmi Basil Dufallo
2. Citation, spoliation, and the appropriation of the past in Livy's AUC Ayelet Haimson Lushkov
3. A second first Punic War: respoliation of Republican naval monuments in the urban and poetic landscapes of Augustan Rome Thomas Biggs
4. Buried treasure, hidden verses: (re)appropriating the Gauls of Pergamon in Flavian culture Stefano Rebeggiani
5. Interactions: microhistory as cultural history Matthew P. Loar
Part II. Distortion: 6. Repurposing plunder in Vitruvius' De architectura Marden Fitzpatrick Nichols
7. Appropriating Egypt for the Ara Pacis Augustae Jennifer Trimble
8. Monolithic appropriation? The Lateran obelisk compared Grant Parker
9. Distortion on parade: rethinking successful appropriation in Rome Carolyn MacDonald
Part III. Circulation: 10. The traffic in shtick Amy Richlin
11. Agents of appropriation: shipwrecks, cargoes, and entangled networks in the Late Republic Carrie Fulton
12. Import/export: empire and appropriation in the Gallus Papyrus from Qasr Ibrim Micah Myers
13. Annexing a shared past: Roman appropriations of Hercules-Melqart in the conquest of Hispania Megan Daniel
14. Circulation's thousand connectivities Dan-el Padilla Peralta
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]