Rome the Cosmopolis

A collection of essays exploring key aspects of the relationship between Rome and its empire.

Catharine Edwards (Edited by), Greg Woolf (Edited by)

9780521030113, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 November 2006

268 pages, 18 b/w illus.
23.3 x 15.4 x 1.4 cm, 0.379 kg

'… a rich and rewarding collection, which amply demonstrates that the recognition of the cosmopolitan nature of the city of Rome opens up the possibility of new literary, archaeological, historical, and artistic narratives of the city.' Journal of Roman Studies

Rome stands today for an empire and for a city. The essays gathered in this volume explore some of the many ways in which the two were interwoven. Rome was fed, beautified and enriched by empire just as it was swollen, polluted, infected and occupied by it. Empire was paraded in the streets of Rome, and exhibited in the city's buildings. Empire also made the city ineradicably foreign, polyglot, an alien capital, and a focus for un-Roman activities. The city was where the Roman cosmos was most concentrated, and so was most contested. Deploying a range of methodologies on materials ranging from Egyptian obelisks to human skeletal remains, via Christian art and Latin poetry, the contributors to this volume weave a series of pathways through the world-city, exploring the different kinds of centrality Rome had in the empire. The result is a startlingly original picture of both empire and city.

List of figures
List of contributors
Preface
List of abbreviations
1. Cosmopolis: Rome as World City Catharine Edwards and Greg Woolf
2. The triumph of the absurd: Roman street theatre Mary Beard
3. Incorporating the alien: the art of conquest Catharine Edwards
4. Inventing Christian Rome: the role of early Christian art Jas' Elsner
5. Slavery and the growth of Rome: the transformation of Italy in the second and first centuries BCE Willem Jongman
6. Rivalling Rome: Carthage Richard Miles
7. Migration and the metropolis Neville Morley
8. Germs for Rome Walter Scheidel
9. Embracing Egypt Caroline Vout
10. The City of Letters Greg Woolf
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]