The Public Life of Monuments

Part One: Notes on “The Public Life of Monuments: The Summi Viri of the Forum of Augustus”

Introduction: “Monuments and Memory”

• Simple definition for monument: “a structure created to commemorate a person or event.” Monuments are used to recreate/reconstruct the past, providing a simplified meaning to complex events. “Highly selective” nature of society’s collective memory. Monuments preserve the past, making one particular historical interpretation or meaning of past events fixed or concrete. This creates the illusion of one shared belief within a society.

• However, the meaning of monuments evolve with the viewer. The authority of monuments derived from “their public’s willingness to make their monuments and the essential illusions that they express their own”

• Focus: summi viri within the Forum of Augustus

• Aims of the article: “understanding the role of memory in different eras of the Roman empire,” Evolution of commemoration over time, relationship between Romans and their monuments. Explore the effects of monuments on public memory and visitor perception. Explore how a collection was “lived and experienced”

• Main Questions: “How did the collection of images and inscriptions shape public memory (and forgetting)? How did visitors perceive it? How did they appropriate it, and to what historical conclusions, what understanding of the Roman empire, might its viewers have been moved?”

“The Summi Viri as a Monument”

• summi viri a work of Augustan ideology and a reflection of historical memory. Represents an effort to restore the past, to establish “historical continuity.” Statues of Roman/Republican heroes within the Forum. Constructed representation of Rome’s past within a public destination

• Focus: “What does it ...

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...of the Empire.” Through commemorative sculpture, the local community is permitted to mix and interact directly with Rome’s foundation, heroes, and nobility.

Throughout this survey, we have seen the intense appeal of Roman culture and heritages which sparked a desire to emulate and appropriate. Roman art and architecture was open to incoming embassies, and “it is against the backdrop of elite ambassadors, administrators, and Roman writers that we should view the Marble Forum.” All copies look to Rome as a place of origin. Reproductions sought to emulate the monumentality of the originals, as most citizen, including those of Augusta Emerita, were unable to visit Rome in person. While each monument adopts a local meaning, both original and copy come to embody the collective cultural heritage of Rome, defining the relationship between the capital and its provinces.