Spectacle and Society in Livy's History
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A01=Andrew Feldherr
ancient history
ancient roman history
ancient rome
Author_Andrew Feldherr
authority
avarice
camillus
Category=DSBB
Category=NHB
Category=NHC
Category=NHD
civic identity
cultural studies
devotio
devotiones
drama
enargeia
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
imperator
imperium
language of power
latin historiographic tradition
livy
morning rituals
patria
political authority
politics
public spectacle
res publica
restoration
roman citizens
roman historian
roman noble
sacrifice
spectators of history
the battle of aquilonia
vision
visual culture
visual imagery
visual monument
Product details
- ISBN 9780520210271
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 15 Aug 1998
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Public spectacle--from the morning rituals of the Roman noble to triumphs and the shows of the Arena--formed a crucial component of the language of power in ancient Rome. The historian Livy (c. 60 B.C.E.-17 C.E.), who provides our fullest description of Rome's early history, presents his account of the growth of the Roman state itself as something to be seen--a visual monument and public spectacle. Through analysis of several episodes in Livy's History, Andrew Feldherr demonstrates the ways in which Livy uses specific visual imagery to make the reader not only an observer of certain key events in Roman history but also a participant in those events. This innovative study incorporates recent literary and cultural theory with detailed historical analysis to put an ancient text into dialogue with contemporary discussions of visual culture. In Spectacle and Society in Livy's History, Feldherr shows how Livy uses the literary representation of spectacles from the Roman past to construct a new sense of civic identity among his readers. He offers a new way of understanding how Livy's technique addressed the political and cultural needs of Roman citizens in Livy's day.
In addition to renewing our understanding of Livy through modern scholarship, Feldherr provides a new assessment of the historian's aims and methods by asking what it means for the historian to make readers spectators of history.
Andrew Feldherr is Assistant Professor of Classics at Princeton University.
