Death and the Emperor

Penelope J. E. Davies is Associate Professor of Roman Art and Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. Her book Death and the Emperor was first published by Cambridge University Press in 2000. It won the Vasari Award, sponsored by the Dallas Museum of Art.

Davies sets out to ask, How did the Romans bury Caesar? And with what monuments did they sing his praises? . . . The architectural elaboration of these structures, their siting in the capital, the lines of vision and approaches that exposed them to view, the paths their complex outworks formed for visitors to walk, are all picked out with skill and presented with care in Death and the Emperor. (Times Literary Supplement) This concise and lucidly written book is a very valuable new contribution to the studies of Roman imperial cult, political propaganda, and topography, and has the added benefit of discussing complex scholarly disputes in a manner that the non-specialist will probably follow with ease. . . . There is material in this volume that will be immensely useful to researchers in many areas: archaeology, history of architecture, iconography, history of religion, and Roman political propaganda, to name just a few. I strongly recommend it to scholars interested in any or all of the above topics. (Bryn Mawr Classical Review) Even though its focus is on only seven specimens of architecture, the book touches upon a broad array of aspects of Roman imperial culture. Elegantly written and generously illustrated . . . this book should be of great interest to the general public as well as to the scholarly community. (American Journal of Archaeology)

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Monuments 2. An Image of Things Achieved 3. An Imperial Cosmos: The Creation of Eternity 4. Fire, Fertility, Fiction: The Role of the Empress 5. The Dynamics of Form 6. The Power of Place Conclusion Abbreviations Used in Notes Notes Bibliography Index