Theoretical Approaches to Roman Imagery and Iconography

This chapter presents a selection of interdisciplinary approaches used within the study of Roman visual culture. Iconology, creolization, hybridization, and entanglement are discussed alongside the problems of ‘Romanization’. Emphasis is given to the idea that images, like objects, have a biography and live a social life. Images in this sense can have a range of meanings depending on context and user. The role of images in Roman imperialism and memory is explored, with case studies including funerary contexts, the conquest of Egypt in 30 bce, the formation of Nemausus as a colony, and the siege of Jerusalem in 70 ce.

The prayers of evocatio and devotio: Between religious ritual and Roman law

This paper, which is a work in progress and a continuation of previous articles that were published on the Roman concepts of evocatio and devotio, will explore a new approach: the juridical context and implications of these religious and magical rituals. After reminding briefly the traditional interpretation (religious prayers pronounced only in a context of war) and the results of our previous articles 1 (evocatio was not limited to military context, and evocatio and devotio included magical elements very similar to formulas of execration (defixiones), we will ask questions that seem to be innovative: on the one hand, “can we compare these prayers with juridical contracts?”, and on the other hand, “had these rituals juridical and political consequences?”, such as the loss of status of a person (in this case, the devotio of enemies) and the loss of status of a place/city (in the case of evocatio). Were these religious rituals a way of making possible the symbolical destruction of a territory and the transfer of a divinity's statue to Rome, and consequently a way of making possible the real destruction of this territory and justifying its conquest? To carry out this study, we will analyze different texts that mention evocatio and devotio, and we will contrast them with texts that refer to juridical concepts (such as consecratio capitis et bonorum, exsecratio, bellum iustum, and damnatio memoriae). We will also analyze the case of cities (Veii, Praeneste, Falerii Veteres, and Carthago) that probably lost their juridical and political status after a war and after religious rituals such as evocatio and devotio. It would not be the first time that religion was used for political reasons, to justify Roman imperialism.

Rhetorical and Postcolonial Readings of John 4 and 8: its Hermeneutical Application in Korea

This article explores rhetorical and postcolonial readings of John 4 and 8. These Johannine chapters contain rhetorical characteristics and the rhetorical technique of “comparison” that is implicitly indicated in John 4:3-9 and 8:48-58. These approaches suggest that the Johannine author deliberately employed them in order to present Jesus as Christ/Messiah who embraced nations—Jews, Samaritans, and all Gentile nations, just as Abraham is seen as the father of all nations. Rhetorical and postcolonial readings further highlight Jesus’s messianic act of passing through Samaria, which challenged and decolonized the Jews’ (pre)dominant claim of their religious and ethnic superiority over Samaritans under the colonization of the Roman Empire and the hegemony of Roman imperialism. Furthermore, the highlight is reread and re-evaluated for Koreans in the Korean peninsula, which is in a difficult political and diplomatic position that requires reconciliation and reunification between the two Koreas. All these hermeneutical attempts and outcomes encourage and motivate one to go beyond religious and ritual readings of the Gospel of John and place more emphasis on political and ideological readings of Jesus’s interactions with Samaritans and Jews in the gospel.

‘One Harmonious Body’

This paper examines aspects of Dionysius of Halicarnassus’s reception of Herodotus, including his use of ethnographic polarity and his assessment of Herodotean scope and unity, to argue that Dionysius’s adulation of Herodotus is related to his own articulation of nascent Roman imperialism. In particular, Dionysius’s response to Herodotus’s variegated but monolithic narrative is connected to a rhetoric of empire germane to his own interests as a critic and historian. I first recall some contours of Dionysius’s admiration of Herodotus and the consistency of purpose expressed across Dionysius’s corpus, before analyzing his ethnographic spin on Roman history. Later, Dionysius’s use in On Demosthenes of a speech by Xerxes is read as reinforcing some of the imperial themes of his own work, including the emphasis on a global rhetoric that replays the Greek repulse of a barbarian foe.

First Results and Perspectives of a New Archaeological Project in the Armenian Capital Artaxata: From Artashes-Artaxias I to Roman Imperialism

The paper deals with the first results of the Armenian-German Artaxata Project which was initiated in 2018. The city of Artaxata was founded in the 2nd century BC as the capital of the Artaxiad kingdom. The city stretches over the 13 hills of the Khor Virap heights and the adjacent plain in the Ararat valley. The new project focusses on Hill XIII and the Lower city to the south and the north of it. This area was investigated by magnetic prospections in 2018 and on the basis of its results, in total eleven 5 × 5 m trenches were excavated in 2019. On the eastern part of Hill XIII several structures of possibly domestic function were uncovered. They were laid out according to a regular plan and in total three phases could be determined. According to 14C data, the first phase already dates to the 2nd century BC while the subsequent two phases continue into the 1st/2nd century AD. In the 2019 campaign, the overall layout and exact function of the structures could not be determined and more excavations will be undertaken in the forthcoming years. North of Hill XIII the foundations of piers of an unfinished Roman aqueduct on arches were excavated. This aqueduct is attributed to the period 114–117 AD when Rome in vain tried to establish the Roman province of Armenia with Artaxata being the capital.

Cosmopolitanism, Imperialism, and the Idea of Law

The cosmopolitan idea that humans have wider and more universal allegiances than to their immediate communities is presented by Cicero in On the commonwealth in both Platonic and Stoic forms. In On laws the more evidently Stoic idea of law as prescriptive right reason governs his argument. The chapter explains what Cicero takes its universal prescriptive force to consist in, and the way he conceives it to be embodied in the law codes of well-regulated constitutions of particular states, whether the Roman Republic at its best or any other ‘good and stable nation’. In On the commonwealth he had argued for the thesis that such states cannot exist or conduct their affairs without justice, which in Book 3 is the focus of a full-scale debate, particularly concerned with the justice or injustice of imperialism, not least Roman imperialism.

Roman Colonization in Twentieth-Century Historiography

This chapter discusses the development of the Roman colonial discourse after the pivotal studies of Niebuhr and Mommsen. It shows how a juridical perspective on Roman colonization prospered especially in Italy, where the new sociological wave that had fundamentally changed German scholarship never really took root. The approach of scholars like Ettore di Ruggiero and Plinio Fraccaro, characterized by fluid juridical categories and sensibility for historical change, resulted in very innovative studies and crucial new insights, which however have found little support in the international academic community. The chapter shows how the marginalization of this academic tradition can be explained by the fact that in recent scholarship, Roman colonization is predominantly studied in the context of Roman imperialism or urbanism. It provides several examples of how specialized juridical insights and discussions strongly affect historical reconstructions of Roman imperial strategies and fundamentally alter our understanding of Roman colonial landscapes.