Etruscan Orientalization

The terms ‘orientalizing’ and ‘orientalization’ have been employed to describe an art historical style, historical period, and process of cultural interaction between East and West within the early first-millennium BCE Mediterranean. With particular focus on Etruria and Italy, this historiography explores the Orientalist framework at the heart of ‘orientalizing’ terms while outlining how modern political movements and ideologies of nationalism and colonialism have influenced interpretations of ‘orientalizing.’ By showing the political viewpoints underlying the origins of the term and the ways in which these positions have continued to shape modern interpretations of the effects of eastern imported objects, ideas, and practices in Etruria, this work argues that the term ‘orientalizing’ should no longer be used. Instead, the period should be fit into existing chronological periodizations, and the process of cultural change should be interrogated outside of an Orientalist discourse.

Roman Colonies in Republic and Empire

The Romans founded colonies throughout Italy and the provinces from the early Republic through the high Empire. Far from being mere ‘bulwarks of empire,’ these colonies were established by diverse groups or magistrates for a range of reasons that responded to the cultural and political problems faced by the contemporary Roman state and populace. This project traces the diachronic changes in colonial foundation practices by contextualizing the literary, epigraphic, archaeological, and numismatic evidence with the overall perspective that evidence from one period of colonization should not be used analogistically to explain gaps in the evidence for a different period. The Roman colonies were not necessarily ‘little Romes,’ either structurally, juridically, or religiously, and therefore their role in the spread of Roman culture was more complex than is sometimes acknowledged.

Cities and the Meanings of Late Antiquity

The last half century has seen an explosion in the study of late antiquity, largely prompted by the influence of the works of Peter Brown. This new scholarship has characterised the period between the third and seventh centuries not as one of catastrophic collapse, but rather as one of dynamic and positive transformation. Where observers formerly had seen only a bleak picture of decline and fall, a new generation of scholars preferred to emphasise how the Roman Empire evolved into the new polities, societies, and cultures of the medieval West, Byzantium, and Islam. Yet research on the fortunes of cities in this period has provoked challenges to this increasingly accepted positive picture of late antiquity and has prompted historians to speak once more in terms that evoke Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This study surveys the nature of the current debate, examining problems associated with the sources historians use to examine late-antique urbanism, as well as the discourses and methodological approaches they have constructed from them. It aims to set out the difficulties and opportunities presented by the study of cities in late antiquity, how understanding the processes affecting them has issued challenges to the scholarly orthodoxy on late antiquity, and how the evidence suggests that this transitional period witnessed real upheaval and dislocation alongside continuity and innovation in cities around the Mediterranean.

The Functions and Use of Roman Coinage

In this publication Fleur Kemmers gives an overview of 21st century scholarship on Roman coinage for students and scholars in the fields of ancient history and Roman archaeology. First, it addresses the study of numismatics as a discipline and the theoretical and methodological advances of the last decades. Secondly, it provides guidelines for how to consult numismatic reference works, including those available online. Recent scholarly approaches and insights in the functions of Roman coins as both vehicles of political communication and instruments for state payments are critically assessed. Furthermore, the publication reviews the evidence for a conscious monetary policy on the part of the Roman authorities. Finally, the impact of Roman expansion and imperialism on monetisation and coin use in Rome´s Empire is discussed.

Roman Imperialism

Rome engaged in military and diplomatic expansionistic state behavior, which we now describe as ‘imperialism,’ since well before the appearance of ancient sources describing this activity. Over the course of at least 800 years, the Romans established and maintained a Mediterranean-wide empire from Spain to Syria (and sometimes farther east) and from the North Sea to North Africa. How and why they did this is a source of perennial scholarly controversy. Earlier debates over whether Rome was an aggressive or defensive imperial state have progressed to theoretically informed discussions of the extent to which system-level or discursive pressures shaped the Roman Empire. Roman imperialism studies now encompass such ancillary subfields as Roman frontier studies and Romanization.

Imperial Cult

As political power in Rome became centered on the emperor and his family, a system of honors and titles developed as one way to negotiate this new power dynamic. Classified under the collective heading ‘imperial cult’, this system of worship comprises religious rituals as well as political, economic, and social aspects. This article surveys the range of ancient literary sources and modern scholarly debates on how individuals became gods in the Roman world. The case studies illustrate how cult practices, temples, and priesthoods were established, highlighting the careful negotiation required between the emperor, imperial family, Senate, and populace in order to make mortals into gods.

Spartan Oliganthropia

The population of the Spartiates declined from some 8,000 to fewer than 1,000 in the Classical and Hellenistic eras. The causes and consequences of this decline are important for an understanding not only of ancient Greek history, but also of the study of pre-industrial populations and population dynamics more generally. This work surveys a range of representative modern scholarship on this phenomenon and discusses topics such as family planning, elite under-reproduction, wealth polarization, and notions of eugenic exclusivity, and suggests avenues for further research.

Water Culture in Roman Society

Water played an important part of ancient Roman life, from providing necessary drinking water, supplying bath complexes, to flowing in large-scale public fountains. The Roman culture of water was seen throughout the Roman Empire, although it was certainly not monolithic and it could come in a variety of scales and forms, based on climatic and social conditions of different areas. This discussion seeks to define ‘water culture’ in Roman society by examining literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence, while understanding modern trends in scholarship related to the study of Roman water. The culture of water can be demonstrated through expressions of power, aesthetics, and spectacle. Further there was a shared experience of water in the empire that could be expressed through religion, landscape, and water’s role in cultures of consumption and pleasure.