Book contents
- Making the Middle Republic
- Making the Middle Republic
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Charts
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Maps
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Historical Sources
- Part II Material Sources
- Part III Architecture and Art
- 9 No Longer Archaic, Not Yet Hellenistic
- 10 On Architecture’s Agency in Fourth-Century Rome
- 11 Becoming Historical in Oscan Campania
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
10 - On Architecture’s Agency in Fourth-Century Rome
from Part III - Architecture and Art
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2023
- Making the Middle Republic
- Making the Middle Republic
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Charts
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Maps
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Historical Sources
- Part II Material Sources
- Part III Architecture and Art
- 9 No Longer Archaic, Not Yet Hellenistic
- 10 On Architecture’s Agency in Fourth-Century Rome
- 11 Becoming Historical in Oscan Campania
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
When assessing the evolution of the early Roman Republic, scholars typically designate a break between the fifth/fourth centuries and the end of the fourth century BCE/beginning of the third, based on political, legal, and military milestones. Archaeologists detect a similar break, as members of the new nobilitas turned to architecture as a vehicle for self-representation. Where most scholarship characterizes buildings and the broader cityscape as a reflection of political change, this chapter deploys theories of object agency and object-scapes to argue for their agency in effecting such change. Questioning whether Romans were conscious, at the time, of a new era dawning, I suggest that circumstantial evidence supports a hypothesis that, at least in the later Republic, they were.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Making the Middle RepublicNew Approaches to Rome and Italy, c.400-200 BCE, pp. 210 - 229Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023