Representations of War in Ancient Rome (Paperback)

Sheila Dillon

ISBN 10: 0521130832 / ISBN 13: 9780521130837

Published by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2009

About this Item

Paperback. War suffused Roman life to a degree unparalleled in other ancient societies. Through a combination of obsessive discipline and frenzied (though carefully orchestrated) brutality, Rome's armies conquered most of the lands stretching from Scotland to Syria, and the Black Sea to Gibraltar. The place of war in Roman culture has been studied in historical terms, but this is the first book to examine the ways in which Romans represented war, in both visual imagery and in literary accounts. Audience reception and the reconstruction of display contexts are recurrent themes here, as is the language of images: a language that is sometimes explicit and at other times allusive in its representation of war. The chapters encompass a wide variety of art media (architecture, painting, sculpture, building, relief, coin), and they focus on the towering period of Roman power and international influence: the 3rd century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D. This is the first book to examine how Romans represented war, in visual imagery and literary accounts. Spanning a broad chronological range the essays consider audience reception, the reconstruction of display contexts, and the language of images, which could be either explicit or allusive in representations of war. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780521130837

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Representations of War in Ancient Rome (Paperback)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521130832
• ISBN 13: 9780521130837
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

War suffused Roman life to a degree unparalleled in other ancient societies. Although the place of war in ancient Roman culture has been the subject of many studies, this book examines how Romans represented war, in both visual imagery and in literary accounts. Spanning a broad chronological range, from the mid-fourth century BC to the third century AD, the essays in this volume consider audience reception, the reconstruction of display contexts, as well as the language of images, which could be either explicit or allusive in representations of war. They also analyze the construction of the Romans' view of themselves, their past, and their future.

About the Authors

Sheila Dillon is Associate Professor of Art History at Duke University. She is the author of Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture: Contexts, Styles and Subjects (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Katherine E. Welch is Associate Professor of Fine Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She is the author of The Roman Amphitheater: From its Origins to the Colosseum (Cambridge University Press, 2006).