Iain Ferris presents his readers with a beautiful, rich and stimulating book that offers essential answers to the questions of how the Romans thought about the(ir) world and how this impacted their identities in time. While reading, one has the impression of engaging with an academic periplus, as it were, whereby different shores introduce fresh perspectives on former strategies for visualising geographical information in the Roman world.
The first chapter (Maps of the Mind, 1–20) deals with pre-Roman concepts of geography, topography and space together with embodiments of the early empire through stories told, for instance, on the breastplate of the Prima Porta Augustus or the Ara Pacis. The next three sections (Strangers in a Strange Land, 21–42; Rome in Rome, 43–66; Rivers Without End, 67–86) turn their attention to the significance of Rome as a home (‘Heimat’) as well as the creation of physical manifestations of its mythological origins: The urbs gave monumental form to what nature had laid out in advance. Its walls, for instance, defined its hills as signs of a homely environment and its origin stories framed the Italian landscape by monumentalising its mythological past. Rivers played a huge role in such narratives. More so than mountains or hills, they were active agents in the formation of identities. They separated peoples and territories but could also be used as exploitable resources, e.g. for fresh water supply, to transport goods, individuals and ideas, or to discharge wastewater.
The notion of controlling the land in representative landscape art is discussed in ch. 5 (Staged Designs, 87–107). Corresponding depictions expressed the dialectic between human beings and nature through complex ordering processes — such as labour — resulting in the purposeful use of nature and its resources for the empire. As portrayals of Trajan’s column make clear, such representations occurred not only in the depiction of Italic ‘homelands’ but also when representing foreign landscapes. Much monumental art was created to reflect utopian visions of Rome or to bring visualisations of alien landscapes within city limits. Against this backdrop, ch. 6 (Landscapes of Desire, 108–23) explores Roman discourses about the city’s relationship with Egypt and its colonial landscapes, while ch. 7 (An Unseen Ruler, 124–49) depicts practices of mapping the (Roman) world. Maps and itineraries were records of learning, simultaneously embodying a narrative voyage through the empire. They were, however, not necessarily about getting to places, but rather about demonstrating control over them. Ch. 8 (Maps of the Body, 150–88) portrays the use of images of non-Romans — women and men alike — in imperial art as markers for the definition of Romanitas. The corresponding visual, literary embodied, topography reveals a complex strategy for expressing cultural values and dominance over others, sometimes even through the annihilation of subjugated peoples and their memory.
Ch. 9 (Moving Away from the Pulsebeat, 189–224) takes a thorough look at journey concepts as a way of establishing mnemonic chains between places, e.g. via the figure of the travelling emperor Hadrian and his peregrinations through the empire. Hadrian’s wall served as an important marker of imperial presence in Britain and successfully connected this particular Roman periphery to its imperial centre. Ch. 10 (Slouching Towards Empire, 225–55) focuses on theoretical issues relating to the conceptualisation of imperial Roman spaces. The Romans used many methods and instruments, such as the surveyors’ groma, the cadastral plot or the travel itineraries to order, understand and control individual places. Geographical knowledge is then added to ‘spark the imagination’ (254), to suggest connections between places, to provide them with meaning and to arouse emotions ‘to scare, to bewilder, or even to reassure’ (254). In doing so, actual and ‘emotional’ geographies were intertwined, focusing on subtle subtexts, atmospheres and perceptions.
F. successfully conveys a multivalent impression of Rome’s perceived place(s) in the world. Corresponding geographical information was created and presented through a process of selection, composition, editing, production, performance and display. It was therefore critically mediated by culture and ideology. Studying Roman representations of the world from today’s perspective thus often results in learning about narratives of control over the environment: ‘mountains show or present themselves: the country opens up before the power of Rome; as indeed does the naked, indigenous bodyscape of conquered peoples’ (86). And as becomes clear particularly in view of the expansion of empire, the relationship between Rome, Italy and the rest of the world had to be constantly re-thought, re-negotiated, marked and integrated into new narratives.
This extremely fruitful study provides further food for thought especially in view of people who lived in the empire but were not necessarily involved directly in its representation as leading decision-makers: What happened to individuals in peripheral border areas? How did they conceive the spaces they lived in and how did this shape their perception of themselves in relation to the Roman state? How did so-called ordinary people organise journeys within the empire and its cultural spheres but seemingly outside imperial ideologies — think, for instance, of dedications to local deities responsible for road forks (CIL 13.5070; 11474). Such further inquiries prompted by the present study are evidence of its great potential for intellectual connectivity, which will be of great interest and benefit to experts and students of the Roman world alike.
