[Spectacle in the Roman World]

I have the two earlier books by Dodge and would love to have this one.

 

We are happy to announce that Duckworth Publishers is giving away one copy of the upcoming book - Spectacle in the Roman World by Hazel Dodge to one lucky member.

 

This book offers an introduction to the main forms of spectacle in the Roman world (human and animal combat, chariot racing, aquatic displays), their nature, context and social importance. It will explore the vast array of sources, from literary to archaeological material, that informs the subject. It will examine the spectacles with special emphasis on their physical setting, and will also consider the variation in the provision of venues and their context across the Empire. A final section will review the modern reception of Roman spectacles, especially those involving gladiators.

 

Hazel Dodge is Senior Lecturer in Classical Archaeology, Trinity College Dublin. She is author (with Peter Connolly) of The Ancient City (1998) and editor (with J.C.N. Coulston) of Ancient Rome: The Archaeology of the Eternal City (2000). All you have to do is to reply to this mail, confirming that you are interested.

 

The winner will be chosen randomly from all replies, deadline is the 20th of August 2010

 

All you have to do to enter the draw is to post here

 

cheers

viggen

[Does the Curia Pompeia survive?]

Ave

Gaius Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Curia Pompeia in 44 BC as we all know but does the actual structure still survive?. I know that Augustus had inaugurated the Curia Julia in honour of his great uncle but did he actually demolish the former building to do this? If I visit Rome again it would be fascinating to visit the actual place of Caesar's murder. Thanks in advance.

 

This is an entry from Richardson, L., Jr.,_A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome_(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), 104:

 

"_Curia Pompeii_: a meeting place for the senate, an annex of the Porticus Pompeii(q.v.), where Julius Caesar was assassinated (Cicero,_Div._2.23; Plutarch,_Caes._66.1-2,_Brut._14.1-2). Augustus later removed the statue of Pompey that stood in the curia, and the curia was walled up (Suetonius,_Iul._88,_Aug._31.5); later it was converted into a latrine (Cass. Dio 47.19.1). It seems likely that the enormous base of blocks of tufa on a platform of concrete behind Temple B in the Area Sacra di Largo Argentina (q.v.) is part of the fill that destroyed the curia and the latrine south of this the one meant by Dio.

G. Marchetti Longhi,_L'area sacra del Largo Argentina_(Rome, 1960), 76-8: Nash[,_Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome_, 2nd ed. (London, 1968)], 1.148."

 

The Porticus Pompeii mentioned above was itself the annex of the Theatrum Pompeii, the first stone theater to be erected in Rome (dedicated in 55 B.C.; previously, because of religious considerations, all theaters had been temporary structures, built of wood).

 

See also Coarelli, Filippo, "Curia Pompei, Pompeiana," in E. V. Steinby, ed.,_Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae_(Rome: Edizioni Quasar, 1993-2000), 1.334-5.

 

Minimus Maximus