Rome's Cultural Revolution

by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill

• ISBN13: 9780521896849
• ISBN10: 0521896843
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-11-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The period of Rome's imperial expansion, the late Republic and early Empire, saw transformations of its society, culture and identity. Drawing equally on archaeological and literary evidence, this book offers an original and provocative interpretation of these changes. Moving from recent debates about colonialism and cultural identity, both in the Roman world and more broadly, and challenging the traditional picture of 'Romanization' and 'Hellenization', it offers instead a model of overlapping cultural identities in dialogue with one another. It attributes a central role to cultural change in the process of redefinition of Roman identity, represented politically by the crisis of the Republican system and the establishment of the new Augustan order. Whether or not it is right to see these changes as 'revolutionary', they involve a profound transformation of Roman life and identity, one that lies at the heart of understanding the nature of the Roman Empire.

Author Biography

Drew Wallace-Hadrill is Professor of Classics at the University of Reading.

Table of Contents

Cultures and Identities

Culture, power and identity

Dress, language and identity

Building Identities

Roman Italy: between Roman, Greek and local

Vitruvius: building Roman identity

Knowledge and Power

Knowing the ancestors

Knowing the city

The Consumer Revolution

Luxury and the consumer revolution

Waves of fashion

Epilogue: a cultural revolution?

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.