Suchergebnisse

Recent publications on urbanism and the rural environment in Late Antiquity, most of which explore a single region or narrow chronological niche, have emphasized either textual or archeological evidence. None has attempted the more ambitious task of bringing together the full range of such evidence within a multiregional perspective and around common themes. Urban Centers and Rural Contexts seeks to redress this omission. While ancient literature and the physical remains of cities attest to the power that urban values held over the lives of their inhabitants, the rural

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Contributors -- List of Abbreviations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Gauging Violence in Late Antiquity -- Part I Assessing Violence in Late Antiquity -- 1 Perceptions of Barbarian Violence -- 2 Violent Behavior and the Construction of Barbarian Identity in Late Antiquity -- 3 Violence in the Barbarian Successor Kingdoms -- 4 Justifiably Outraged or Simply Outrageous? The Isaurian Incident of Ammianus Marcellinus 14.2

Materiality, things, and power -- The phenomenon of the community festival -- Community, tradition, and festivals in Lombardy -- Community, tradition, food, and festival in Piedmont -- Feasting and living paganism in Northern Italy -- Theoretical foundations and diverse perspectives -- Analyses and conclusions

Abstract
In Renaissance Italy, the political power of authorities found one of its expressions in material symbols of sovereignty. The placing of inscriptions, sculptures and columns and the commissioning of frescoes in streets, piazzas and public spaces, for example, were essential ways of communicating political or spiritual authority to the populace. Sometimes perceived as representations of a top-down form of communication, in the urban context these same material emblems of power became political objects through which to express dissent, as in the case of public loggias, speaking statues or graffiti on walls and civic palaces. Presenting case-studies from various cities in northern Italy, this article investigates the dialectics between the people and the authorities in the urban fabric, especially in everyday life. Combining a spatial and a material approach to politics, this article reveals the dynamic and relational nature of political public spaces.