Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity

by Karl Galinsky (Editor)

Overview

What and how do people remember? Who controls the process of what we call cultural or social memory? What is forgotten and why? People's memories are not the same as history written in retrospect; they are malleable and an ongoing process of construction and reconstruction. Ancient Rome provided much of the cultural framework for early Christianity, and in both the role of memory was pervasive. Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity presents perspectives from an international and interdisciplinary range of contributors on the literature, history, archaeology, and religion of a major world civilization, based on an informed engagement with important concepts and issues in memory studies. Moving beyond terms such as 'collective', 'social', and 'cultural memory' as standard tropes, the volume offers a selective exploration of the wealth of topics which comprise memory studies, and also features a contribution from a leading neuroscientist on the actual workings of the human memory. It is an importamt resource for anyone interested in Roman antiquity, the beginnings of Christianity, and the role of memory in history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198744764
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/17/2016
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Karl Galinsky, Floyd A. Cailloux Centennial Professor of Classics and University Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Texas at Austin

Karl Galinsky is Floyd A. Cailloux Centennial Professor of Classics and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Figures
List of Contributors
Introduction, Karl Galinsky
Part I: Memory and Roman Writers
1. Memory as Motive in Tacitus, Alain Gowing
2. Forgetful Theseus and Mindful Aeneas in Catullus 64 and Aeneid 4, Brigitte Libby
3. Knowledge of Religion in Valerius Maximus' exempla: Roman Historiography and Tiberian Memory Culture, Jorg Rupke
Part II: Memory and Roman Emperors
4. Augustan Reconstruction and Roman Memory, Eric Orlin
5. Qualis artifex pereo: The Generation of Roman Memories of Nero, Charles Hedrick, Jr.
Part III: Roman Honorific Statues: Memory or Just Honour?
6. In the Web of (Hi)stories: memoria: Monuments and Their Myth-historical 'Interconnectedness', Karl-Joachim Holkeskamp
7. Marius, Sulla, and the War over Monumental Memory and Public Space, Elke Stein-Holkeskamp
8. Monuments, Memory, and Status Recognition in Roman Asia Minor, Diana Ng
Part IV: Memory in Roman Religion and Early Christianity
9. The Crafting of Memory in Late Roman Mortuary Spaces, Nicola Denzey-Lewis
10. Memory, Performance and the Sayings of Jesus, John Kloppemborg
11. Sweet Memory: Archaeological Evidence of Jesus in Jerusalem, Jodi Magness
12. Moving Peter to Rome: Social Memory and Ritualized Space After 70 CE, Milton Moreland
Part V: A Perspective from Neuropsychology
13. The Neuroscience of Memory, Ann-Kathrin Stock, Hannah,Gajsar, and Onur Gunturkun
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Similarly, perhaps the most unique and interesting feature of this book is the final essay; one does not frequently encounter neuroscientific discussions of memory, neuronal networks, and brain plasticity in books on Roman or early Christian history! Between these two bookends, Libby's discussion of memory and intertextuality, Hedrick's quadrangular model of memory, history, experience, and fantasy, Stein-Hölkeskamp's prefiguration of the collapse of the Republic in Sulla's take-over of Roman monumental memory, and Denzey Lewis' presentation of a pagan response to the Empire's Christianization stand out as especially read-worthy. ... these essays provide an admirable example of the uses to which historians of antiquity are putting the amorphous field of memory studies." --Rafael Rodríguez, Enoch Seminar

From the Publisher