Roman Imperialism and Local Identities

by Louise Revell

Overview

In this book, Louise Revell examines questions of Roman imperialism and Roman ethnic identity and explores Roman imperialism as a lived experience based around the paradox of similarity and difference. Her case studies of public architecture in several urban settings provides an understanding of the ways in which urbanism, the emperor and religion were part of the daily encounters of the peoples in these communities. Revell applies the ideas of agency and practice in her examination of the structures that held the empire together and how they were implicated within repeated daily activities. Rather than offering a homogenized “ideal type” description of Roman cultural identity, she uses these structures as a way to understand how these encounters differed between communities and within communities, thus producing a more nuanced interpretation of what it was to be Roman. Bringing an innovative approach to the problem of Romanization, Revell breaks from traditional models and cuts across a number of entrenched debates such as arguments about the imposition of Roman culture or resistance to Roman rule.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521174732
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/18/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

A scholar of Roman architecture and Latin epigraphy, Louise Revell is Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Southampton.

Table of Contents

1. The context of the argument; 2. Living the urban ideal; 3. The Roman emperor; 4. Addressing the divine; 5. A question of status; 6. Being Roman.

Editorial Reviews

'… Revell produces a convincing argument of how the shared ideology of being Roman is there, how it gets local responses and how it can be studied through the material world.' De novis libris iudicia

From the Publisher