Souvenirs and the Experience of Empire in Ancient Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2022)
In this book, Maggie Popkin offers an in-depth investigation of souvenirs, a type of ancient Roman object that has been understudied and that is unfamiliar to many people. Souvenirs commemorated places, people, and spectacles in the Roman Empire. Straddling the spheres of religion, spectacle, leisure, and politics, they serve as a unique resource for exploring the experiences, interests, imaginations, and aspirations of a broad range of people - beyond elite, metropolitan men - who lived in the Roman world. Popkin shows how souvenirs generated and shaped memory and knowledge, as well as constructed imagined cultural affinities across the empire's heterogeneous population. At the same time, souvenirs strengthened local identities, but excluded certain groups from the social participation that souvenirs made available to so many others. Featuring a full illustration program of 137 color and black and white images, Popkin's book demonstrates the critical role that souvenirs played in shaping how Romans perceived and conceptualized their world, and their relationships to the empire that shaped it.
“… showcase(s) a truly unexpected range of ancient memorabilia, many of which are usually kept within museum stores…squeeze[s] a lot of significance out of this, at first sight simple material”
– Mary Beard, Times Literary Supplement
“…an unusually perceptive, engaging, and thoroughly readable study, originating in a small but representative sample of artifacts rarely featured in the archaeological literature. The author is to be congratulated for both recognizing their value and making them sing.”
– Karl M. Petruso, American Journal of Archaeology
“…beautiful…a great read and thought-provoking, and it allows readers to run further with the ideas presented.”
– Ray Laurence, The Classical Review