Civic Monuments and the Augustales in Roman Italy

Margaret L. Laird

2015 ira. · Cambridge University Press

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The combination of portrait statue, monumental support, and public lettering was considered emblematic of Roman public space even in antiquity. This book examines ancient Roman statues and their bases, tombs, dedicatory altars, and panels commemorating gifts of civic beneficence made by the Augustales, civic groups composed primarily of wealthy ex-slaves. Margaret L. Laird examines how these monuments functioned as protagonists in their built and social environments by focusing on archaeologically attested commissions made by the Augustales in Roman Italian towns. Integrating methodologies from art history, architectural history, social history, and epigraphy with archaeological and sociological theories of community, she considers how dedications and their accompanying inscriptions created webs of association and transformed places of display into sites of local history. Understanding how these objects functioned in ancient cities, the book argues, illuminates how ordinary Romans combined public lettering, honorific portraits, emperor worship, and civic philanthropy to express their communal identities.

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Margaret L. Laird is a Lecturer in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Delaware. She has received grants from the American Academy in Rome, the Getty Foundation, the Graham Foundation, the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. She is co-editor of Walls and Memory: The Abbey of San Sebastiano at Alatri (Lazio), from Late Roman Monastery to Renaissance Villa and Beyond (2005). She has published in the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome and has contributed essays to several edited volumes.