Roman Landscape: Culture and Identity (New Surveys in the Classics, Series Number 39)

This book tackles how and why 'landscape' (farms, gardens, countryside) set the scene in the first centuries BCE and CE for Romans keen to talk up and about (but also to scrutinize and understand) what it meant to be a citizen. It investigates what 'landscape' means now and reflects upon how contemporary approaches to 'landscape' can enrich our understanding of ancient experience of the interface between natural and artificial space. It encourages examination of 'landscape' from a range of angles, suggesting alternative ways of thinking about what landscape represents. These methodological approaches (presented initially via a set of key terms and definitions and then deployed thematically across four chapters), combined with a detailed interdisciplinary bibliography and a series of case studies of literary texts and material sites, enable readers to use this survey as a starting point for developing their own in-depth study. Introduction : Surveying the scene Landscape and aesthetics Those happy fields? DIY landscaping Landscape : time and motion Italy and the villa estate, or, of cabbages and kings. Philosophical landscapes : Cicero, loca, and imagines ; Varro's exopolis : landscape and Italy Columella : landscape and the body of history Statius, landscape, and autarky : between authenticity and delight Ekphrasis: Pliny's artful landscapes Spaces and places. Landscape as background and foreground Landscape and scale : gardens Imagined landscapes : the Villa "Farnesina" Total immersion : Livia's garden room (Villa ad Gallinas Albas, Prima Porta) Landscapes encircling the city : the Horti Sallustiani and Porticus of Pompey Envoi : Getting (away from) it all at Hadrian's villa. This survey explores how and why Romans of the late Republic and early Principate were fascinated with landscaped nature. Thematic discussions and case studies work through what 'landscape' represented and how studying Roman identity in terms of place, environment and the natural world helps us better to understand Rome itself. "This book tackles how and why 'landscape' (farms, gardens, countryside) sets the scene in the first centuries BCE and CE for Romans keen to talk up and about (but also to scrutinise and understand) what it meant to be a citizen."--Publisher's description