01-19-2011, 04:41 PM
Rome's Cultural Revolution, by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill
A friend of mine offered me this book, and I really liked; I will just make a short description.
It starts by explaining what he mean with revolution (to avoid any confusion with the Marxist concept), and identity.
In another chapter he discusses the use of the toga by the romans as a specific roman way of dressing (even if it was restricted to the elite, and at the beginning it had an Hellenistic origin and was saw as non-roman…) to distinguish from other peoples (specially greeks).
He then presents the problem of the Romanization in Italy and dual identity. We see the tombs of the Celtic elite in the north of Italy on the IV BC as pure Celtic, being more and more influenced by Rome as the centuries pass; before the social wars, they are a mix of Celtic and roman, but by the time of Augustus, they are fully Romanized. The use of Latin besides the local languages is seen as double identity: the populations considered themselves as Oscan (or whatever they were) and roman at the same time switching but without seeing any contradiction, until they would abandon the ancient identity.
In another chapter, the author presents how the authority of the elite in religious and tradition in Rome was challenged by a generation of antiquarian, justifying the intervention of Julius Caesar and especially of Augustus to return to the old traditions (and actually innovating and transferring the monopoly of deciding what was tradition to the Emperor).
Another chapter discusses the luxury and how the romans perceive it. It was bad, and there was a lot of legislation against it, but with the empire they finally stop trying to forbidden it, because it was useless.
In another chapter (in some way, a continuation of the precedent) we are presented with several objects that were imported as luxury and it’s imitations in more humble materials to the lower strata: lamps, candelabra, pottery, dishes (in silver or bronze for the rich, clay for the poor). Anyway, there was a true consumption market that affected the entire roman world. As time passed, the west side of the empire started to produce its own products, selling them to its main region, and not just copying the original eastern models but adapting them.
My biggest criticism is that it fails to prove that there was a cultural revolution. I would like to see discuss certain items in a more meticulous ways (he jumps from one subject to the other sometimes). Otherwise its great book and I really recommend it.
A friend of mine offered me this book, and I really liked; I will just make a short description.
It starts by explaining what he mean with revolution (to avoid any confusion with the Marxist concept), and identity.
In another chapter he discusses the use of the toga by the romans as a specific roman way of dressing (even if it was restricted to the elite, and at the beginning it had an Hellenistic origin and was saw as non-roman…) to distinguish from other peoples (specially greeks).
He then presents the problem of the Romanization in Italy and dual identity. We see the tombs of the Celtic elite in the north of Italy on the IV BC as pure Celtic, being more and more influenced by Rome as the centuries pass; before the social wars, they are a mix of Celtic and roman, but by the time of Augustus, they are fully Romanized. The use of Latin besides the local languages is seen as double identity: the populations considered themselves as Oscan (or whatever they were) and roman at the same time switching but without seeing any contradiction, until they would abandon the ancient identity.
In another chapter, the author presents how the authority of the elite in religious and tradition in Rome was challenged by a generation of antiquarian, justifying the intervention of Julius Caesar and especially of Augustus to return to the old traditions (and actually innovating and transferring the monopoly of deciding what was tradition to the Emperor).
Another chapter discusses the luxury and how the romans perceive it. It was bad, and there was a lot of legislation against it, but with the empire they finally stop trying to forbidden it, because it was useless.
In another chapter (in some way, a continuation of the precedent) we are presented with several objects that were imported as luxury and it’s imitations in more humble materials to the lower strata: lamps, candelabra, pottery, dishes (in silver or bronze for the rich, clay for the poor). Anyway, there was a true consumption market that affected the entire roman world. As time passed, the west side of the empire started to produce its own products, selling them to its main region, and not just copying the original eastern models but adapting them.
My biggest criticism is that it fails to prove that there was a cultural revolution. I would like to see discuss certain items in a more meticulous ways (he jumps from one subject to the other sometimes). Otherwise its great book and I really recommend it.
