The Politics of Public Space in Republican Rome

Taking public space as her starting point, Amy Russell offers a fresh analysis of the ever-fluid public/private divide in Republican Rome. Built on the 'spatial turn' in Roman studies and incorporating textual and archaeological evidence, this book uncovers a rich variety of urban spaces. No space in Rome was solely or fully public. Some spaces were public but also political, sacred, or foreign; many apparently public spaces were saturated by the private, leaving grey areas and room for manipulation. Women, slaves, and non-citizens were broadly excluded from politics: how did they experience and help to shape its spaces? How did the building projects of Republican dynasts relate to the communal realm? From the Forum to the victory temples of the Campus Martius, culminating in Pompey's great theatre-portico-temple-garden-house complex, The Politics of Public Space in Republican Rome explores how space was marked, experienced, and defined by multiple actors and audiences.

1. Introduction; 2. Roman concepts: publicus and privatus; 3. The definition of political space in the Forum Romanum; 4. The Forum between political space and private space; 5. Gods, patrons, and community in sacred space; 6. Greek, Roman, public, and private: the space of art and the art of space; 7. Pompey and the privatisation of public space on the Campus Martius; 8. Conclusion: the death of public space?

Amy Russell is Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham. Her research concerns Roman political history broadly defined, ranging from detailed analyses of the Republican tribunate of the plebs to new interpretations of the Augustan Ara Pacis.