Morphogrammata / The lettered Art of Optatian
Figuring Cultural Transformations in the Age of Constantine
Edited by Michael Squire Edited by Johannes Wienand
Paperback (Published)
(November 2016)
ISBN: 9783770561278
6.18 x 9.17 inches
Price: $118.00
On back order
This volume explores one of the most complex, multifaceted and momentous of all western cultural transformations: the refashioning of the Roman principate under Constantine in the early fourth century AD. It does so through the kaleidoscopic lens of one of antiquity’s most fascinating (and maligned) artists: Publilius Optatianus Porfyrius.
Optatian’s works are little known among classicists and historians. Nevertheless, his picture-poems uniquely reflect, figure, and shape the cultural dynamics of the period. By bringing together different disciplinary perspectives the volume demonstrates how the poems give unique form to the various political, intellectual and cultural currents of the age. Contributors champion Optatian as a uniquely creative artist – and one who anticipated some of our most pressing literary critical, art historical and philosophical concerns today.
Michael Squire is Reader in Classical Art at King’s College London, and has held research fellowships at Cambridge, Cologne, Harvard, Munich, Stanford and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. His research specialises in the interface between Graeco-Roman visual and literary cultures.
Johannes Wienand teaches ancient history at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, having previously taught or held research fellowships at Berlin, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Konstanz, Munich and Pittsburgh. He has published widely on the transformation of the Roman monarchy between the principate and late antiquity, with a particular focus on imperial representation and Christianisation.
- Edited by Michael Squire
- Edited by Johannes Wienand
Other Titles in this Series
Effigies
Ancient Portraiture as Figuration of the Particular. Translated from German by Ross Brendle
Volume 53
Similar Books
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Epigraphic “Shades” from Hellenistic Thrace
Contextualizing Inscriptions in Greek from Thracian Tombs
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Gold, Silver and Glass: Power Networks, Cultural Identities, Technology Transfers and Agency across the Old World (7th Century BC – 1st Century AD)
Proceedings of a Conference Held at the British Museum, 16–18 June 2023
Language and Power in the Roman Empire and Early India
Hierarchy, Ambiguity, and the Art of Reading the Signs in Cosmopolitan Cultures
Late Antique villae in the Balkans (3rd–7th c. AD): Current Research Questions and Perspectives
HAEMUS Companion to the Late Antique Balkans 1
Volume 4
Nurturing the Elite
Representations of Drinking, Eating, and Religious Vessels in Palmyrene Funerary Iconography
Volume 13
Roman Copies, Collecting, and Culture in the Bay of Naples and Beyond
Papers in Honor of Eugene J. Dwyer
The Compositional History of the Book of Kings
An Analysis of the Evaluative Frameworks in 1 Kings 14–2 Kings 25
Zooarchaeology of Ancient Greek Sanctuaries in Southwestern Sicily
Faunal Analysis from Selinus and Akragas as Evidence of Differences in the Treatment of Animals for Ritual Purposes
