Reading Greek and Hellenistic-Roman Spolia

Irene J.F. de Jong, Ph.D (1987), University of Amsterdam, is professor emeritus of Ancient Greek. She has published widely on Homer, tragedy, Herodotus, and ancient narrative. Recent publications include Narratology and Classics: a Practical Guide (OUP 2014) and (with M. de Bakker) Speech in Ancient Greek Literature (Brill 2022).Miguel John Versluys, Ph.D. (2001), is Professor of Classical & Mediterranean Archaeology at Leiden University and PI within the Gravity Grant program Anchoring Innovation. His research focuses on the cultural dynamics that characterise the global ancient world. Recent publications include Visual style and constructing identity in the Hellenistic world. Nemrud Dağ and Commagene under Antiochos I (Cambridge 2017) and the edited volume Canonisation as innovation. Anchoring cultural formation in the first millennium BCE (Leiden 2022).

"However, one of the most interesting aspects is the remark on the term “appropriation”, widely used by authors in the book, and that of “incorporation,” preferred by Vout. [...] These considerations enrich the book and contribute to further stimulating thoughts." Alessio Sassu in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2025.01.35

• ForewordPrefaceList of FiguresNotes on ContributorsPart 1: Introduction1 Innovating Objects? Spolia and the Question of AppropriationIrene J.F. de Jong and Miguel John Versluys2 How to Deal with ‘Things from Outside’: An Anthropological PerspectivePieter ter Keurs3 Triumphus and the Taming of Objects: Spoliation and the Process of Appropriation in Late Republican RomeMiguel John Versluys4 Spolia as Exempla / Exempla as Spolia: Two Case Studies on Historical (Dis)Continuity and MoralityChristoph PieperPart 2: Case Studies5 Herodotus’ Framing of the Persian Spolia at PlataeaIrene J.F. de Jong6 Herodotus and the Persian Spolia on the Acropolis of AthensJ.Z. van Rookhuijzen7 ‘A City Is Not Adorned by What Comes from Outside, but by the Virtue of Its Inhabitants’: Polybius on the Pragmatics of SpoliationRutger J. Allan8 Spoils of Sicily and Their Impact on Late Republican Rome: An Archaeological PerspectiveSuzan van de Velde9 Luxuria peregrina (Livy 39.6): Spolia and Rome’s Gastronomic RevolutionLidewij van Gils and Rebecca Henzel10 Showing and Telling Spolia: The Triumphal Procession of Aemilius Paullus in Plutarch and Diodorus SiculusMichel Buijs11 ‘The Glory of Alexander and Philip Made Spoil by Roman Arms’: The Triumph of Aemilius Paullus in 167 BCERolf Strootman12 Between Triumph and Tragedy: Josephus, Bellum Judaicum 7.121–157Luuk Huitink13 Judaea at the Tiber: Sacred Objects from Judaea and Their New Function in Imperial RomeEric M. MoormannPart 3: Conclusion14 ‘Spolia’ as Category: Greek and Roman PerspectivesIndex