The language of the urban domestic architecture as an expression of identity in the Roman world

[EN] This volume reveals the results of the International Seminars “Il linguaggio dell’architettura domestica urbana come espressione d’identità”, which took place in Rome on February 25th, 2020 and “The language of urban domestic architecture as an expression of identity in the Roman world. The African and Eastern provinces”, which was held online on March 18th, 2021. These forums were framed within the line of research of the Archaeology of political spaces: urban domestic architecture of Roman ages developed in Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma (CSIC) and the Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla. The different case studies analysed throughout the nine chapters of this book make up a significant cast at a spatial level that includes general reflections on Roman houses and their Etruscan and Greek influences, the residential spaces of the city of Rome, as well as the expansion of the lifestyle of Roman society to the western and eastern provinces. For all these reasons, this publication can be considered a solid base and a framework for projecting broader questions about the urban domestic space in the Roman Empire.[ES] En el presente volumen se exponen los resultados de los Seminarios Internacionales “Il linguaggio dell’architettura domestica urbana come espressione d’identità”, que tuvo lugar en Roma el 25 de febrero de 2020 y “The language of urban domestic architecture as an expression of identity in the Roman world. The African and Eastern provinces”, que se celebró online el 18 de marzo de 2021. Estos foros se enmarcaron dentro de la línea de investigación de la Arqueología de los espacios políticos: arquitectura doméstica urbana de época romana desarrollada en la Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma (CSIC) y la Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla. Los distintos estudios de casos analizados a lo largo de los nueve capítulos de este libro componen un elenco significativo a nivel espacial que abarca reflexiones generales sobre las casas romanas y sus influencias etruscas y griegas, los espacios residenciales de la ciudad de Roma, así como la expansión del estilo de vida de la sociedad romana a las provincias occidentales y orientales. Por todo ello, esta publicación puede considerarse una sólida base y un marco de trabajo para proyectar cuestiones más amplias sobre el espacio doméstico urbano en el Imperio Romano.Esta publicación ha sido posible gracias a la Ayuda Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación de la Agencia Estatal de Investigación: Arqueología de los espacios políticos. Arquitectura doméstica urbana romana (IJC2018- 037041-I); al Proyecto del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) y Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI): Vivere In Urbe. Arquitectura residencial y espacio urbano en Augusta Emerita (PID2019-105376GB-C44) y al Proyecto FEDER-UPO: La creación y trasmisión de modelos adrianeos en el mediterráneo. Villa Adriana y la Bética (UPO-1266148).Peer reviewe

Agamben’s Grammar of the Secret Under the Sign of the Law

This paper suggests that a grammar of the secret forms a concept in Agamben’s work, a gap that grounds the enigma of sovereignty. Between the Indo-European *krei, *se, and *per themes, the secret is etymologically linked to the logics of separation and potentiality that together enable the pliant and emergent structure of sovereignty. Sovereignty’s logic of separation meets the logic of relation in the form of abandonment: the point at which division has exhausted itself and reaches an indivisible element, bare life, the exception separated from the form of life and captured in a separate sphere. The arcanum imperii of sovereignty and the cipher of bare life are held together in the relation of the ban as the twin secrets of biopower, maintained by the potentiality of law that works itself as a concealed, inscrutable force. But the ‘real’ secret of sovereignty, I suggest, is its dialectical reversibility, the point at which the concept of the secret is met by its own immanent unworking by the critic and scribe under the *krei theme, and subject to abandonment through the work of profanation; here, different species of the secret are thrown against one another, one order undoing the other. The secret founded upon the sacred is displaced by Agamben’s critical orientation toward the immanent: what is immanent is both potential and hiddenness

Suetonius on the emperor: studies in the representation of the emperor in the Caesars

A study of Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars as a gallery of portraits of Roman emperors. The object is to make sense of Suetonius' methods of depicting emperors as emperors and to ask what light is cast on contemporary perceptions of the role of the Emperor. In order to set the Caesars in context, the work is approached from three different angles, the literary, the social and the ideological.The first part looks at the literary background of the Lives. The question here is of how far the rubric method and the actual choice of rubrics can be accounted for in terms of literary tradition as opposed to the author's understanding of what was significant about an emperor. The second part considers the impact of the author's position in society on his presentation. An attempt is made to discover the viewpoint of one who was simultaneously an equestrian official and an antiquarian scholar. His view of society is related to his views of the emperor's place in society and his functions as an administrator. The last part examines the relationship between his representation of the emperor and the ideals desiderated in or attributed to autocratic rulers. Discussion centres on the use of virtues and vices as categories of estimation and on their relationship to official and theoretical 'ideologies'. Since it is argued that Suetonius shares the views of other Roman sources, discussion of individual virtues and vices ranges far beyond the Caesars

Arcs de triomphe romains et honneurs grecs : le langage du pouvoir à Rome

[Une version abrégée de cet article a été lue le 4 mai 1989 devant la Cambridge Philological Society. Je remercie de nombreux amis, en particulier Mary Beard et Paul Cartledge, pour leurs observations et discussions éclairées, exprimées à cette occasion et par la suite. Les commentaires de Michael Crawford, Fergus Millar, Simon Price et Peter Wiseman m’ont permis d’améliorer grandement une première ébauche. Ils ne peuvent être tenus responsables des imperfections qui demeurent.] « Il a été..

CLARA Review: Berg, R. & I. Kuivalainen (eds) Domus Pompeiana M. Lucretii IX 3, 5.24. The Inscriptions, Works of Art and Finds from the Old and New Excavations: Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum 136, Societa Scientiarum Fennica. Vantaa 2019, 323 p.

Twenty-five years or so have now slipped by since Piero Guzzo, then Soprintendente of the Archaeological Excavations of Pompei, called on the international community of archaeologists for help. Back then, this incomparable site showed many signs of severe neglect, and large areas were in urgent need of conservation work (more recently, the Grande Progetto Pompei has changed much of that). What made that neglect more reprehensible was the failure to publish adequately what had been excavated. Guzzo instituted a new policy of putting such resources as there were into conservation rather than new excavations, and appealed to the Italian and international academic community to help with the neglected task of study and publication. The initiative turned Pompeii into a beehive of international projects; among those who responded to the call were the Finnish scholars who had a long-standing commitment to the site. As Paavo Castrén explains in his preface, there was a long tradition in Finland going back to the philologist, Veikko Väänänen, carried forward by Heiki Solin and himself; now the University of Helsinki and Institutum Romanum Finlandiae took up the challenge

Suetonius on the emperor

A study of Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars as a gallery of portraits of Roman emperors. The object is to make sense of Suetonius' methods of depicting emperors as emperors and to ask what light is cast on contemporary perceptions of the role of the Emperor. In order to set the Caesars in context, the work is approached from three different angles, the literary, the social and the ideological.The first part looks at the literary background of the Lives. The question here is of how far the rubric method and the actual choice of rubrics can be accounted for in terms of literary tradition as opposed to the author's understanding of what was significant about an emperor. The second part considers the impact of the author's position in society on his presentation. An attempt is made to discover the viewpoint of one who was simultaneously an equestrian official and an antiquarian scholar. His view of society is related to his views of the emperor's place in society and his functions as an administrator. The last part examines the relationship between his representation of the emperor and the ideals desiderated in or attributed to autocratic rulers. Discussion centres on the use of virtues and vices as categories of estimation and on their relationship to official and theoretical 'ideologies'. Since it is argued that Suetonius shares the views of other Roman sources, discussion of individual virtues and vices ranges far beyond the Caesars.</p

Civitas Romana: The Fluidity of an Ideal

Citizenship (civitas, politeia) is tightly bound up, etymologically and institutionally, in both classical Greek and Roman thought and practice, with the city (civitas, polis).ERC Advanced Grant project, Impact of the Ancient City (ImpAncCit); the project received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement n° 693418

Imperial Rome: a city of immigrants?

While it is clear that Rome was both of exceptional size as a city, and had an exceptional number and range of immigrants, it is extraordinarily difficult to have a clear idea either of its absolute size, or its demographic balance between locals and immigrants, citizens and non -citizens, freeborn and freed, slave and free. This paper argues that the impression of precise numbers given for recipients of handouts of grain or cash understates the fluidity of the population, and that the impression of high numbers of freedmen and slaves derived from funerary epitaphs may make as much sense for Rome as it does for Herculaneum, where the demographic balance is better attested