The Roman Street: Urban Life and Society in Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Rome

Every day Roman urbanites took to the street for myriad tasks, from hawking vegetables and worshipping local deities to simply loitering and socializing. Hartnett takes readers into this thicket of activity as he repopulates Roman streets with their full range of sensations, participants, and events that stretched far beyond simple movement. As everyone from slave to senator met in this communal space, city dwellers found unparalleled opportunities for self-aggrandizing display and the negotiation of social and political tensions. Hartnett charts how Romans preened and paraded in the street, and how they exploited the street's collective space to lob insults and respond to personal rebukes. Combining textual evidence, comparative historical material, and contemporary urban theory with architectural and art historical analysis, The Roman Street offers a social and cultural history of urban spaces that restores them to their rightful place as primary venues for social performance in the ancient world.

Author: Jeremy Hartnett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 05/09/2017
Pages: 380
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.08lbs
Size: 10.32h x 7.41w x 0.99d
ISBN: 9781107105706

Review Citation(s):
Choice 01/01/2018

About the Author
Hartnett, Jeremy: - Jeremy Hartnett is Associate Professor and Chair of Classics at Wabash College, Indiana, where he holds the Anne and Andrew T. Ford Chair in the Liberal Arts. He is the author of numerous articles and chapters on Roman urban history, the history of photography, and collegiate pedagogy, and has been awarded fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Michigan Society of Fellows, and the Archaeological Institute of America.