Altera Roma
Art and Empire from Merida to Mexico
edited by John M. D. Pohl and Claire L. Lyons
Paperback (Published)
(July 2016)
ISBN: 9781938770012
6.3 x 9.21 inches
Price: $75.00
In stock
Altera Roma explores the confrontation of two cultures, European and Amerindian, and two empires, Spanish and Aztec. In an age of exploration and conquest, Spanish soldiers, missionaries, and merchants brought an array of cultural preconceptions. Their encounter with Aztec civilization coincided with Europe’s rediscovery of classical antiquity, and Tenochtitlan came to be regarded a “second Rome,” or altera Roma. Iberia’s past as the Roman province of Hispania served to both guide and critique the Spanish overseas mission. The dialogue that emerged between the Old World and the New World shaped a dual heritage into the unique culture of Nueva Espana. In this volume, ten eminent historians and archaeologists examine the analogies between empires widely separated in time and place and consider how monumental art and architecture created “theater states,” a strategy that links ancient Rome, Hapsburg Spain, preconquest Mexico, and other imperial regimes.
Introduction by John M. D. Pohl and Claire L. Lyons Ch. 1: Rome, Tenochtitlan, and Beyond: Comparing Empires across Space and Time by Walter Scheidel Ch. 2: The Visualization of Imperial Dominance: Hobbes's Leviathan, the Mexica Templo Mayor, and the Materialization of Authority by Eulogio Guzman Ch. 3: Monuments of Empire in Roman Spain and Beyond: Augusta Emerita (Merida), the "Spanish Rome" by Jonathan Edmonson Ch. 4: Aztec Art in Provincial Places: Water Concerns, Monumental Sculptures, and Imperial Expansion by Emily Umberger Ch. 5: Dramatic Performance and the Theater of the State: The Cults of the Divus Triumphator, Parthenope, and Quetzalcoatl by John M. D. Pohl Ch. 6: Aztec and Roman Gods in Sixteenth-Century Mexico: Strategic Uses of Classical Learning in Sahagun's Historia General by Andrew Laird Ch. 7: The Mexica Pantheon in Light of Graeco-Roman Polytheism: Uses, Abuses, and Proposals by Guilhem Olivier Ch. 8: Toward a New World's Laocoon: Thoughts on Seeing Aztec Sculpture through Spanish Eyes by Thomas B. F. Cummins Ch. 9: Death in the Hands of Strangers: Aztec Human Sacrifice in the Western Imagination by Cecelia F. Klein Ch. 10: Alia Herculanea: Pre-Hispanic Sites and Antiquities in Late Bourbon New Spain by Leonardo Lopez Lujan
John M. D. Pohl has directed numerous archaeological projects in North America and in Europe. He teaches in the Department of Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Claire L. Lyons is the curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Southern California.
- Edited by Claire L. Lyons
- Edited by John M. D. Pohl
Other Titles in this Series
Archaeological Research on the Islands of the Sun and Moon, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia
Final Results from the Proyecto Tiksi Kjarka
Volume 52
Berenike 1999/2000
Report on the Excavations at Berenike, Including Excavations in Wadi Kalalat and Siket, and the Survey of the Mons Smaragdus Region
Volume 56
Roman Foodprints at Berenike
Archaeobotanical Evidence of Subsistence and Trade in the Eastern Desert of Egypt
Volume 55
Recent advances in the Archaeology of the Northern Andes
In memory of Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff
Volume 39
Ceramics of Postclassic Cholula, Mexico
Typology and Seriation of Pottery from the UA-1 Domestic Compound
Volume 43
Settlement and Subsistence in Early Formative Soconusco
El Varal and the Problem of Inter-Site Assemblage Variation
Volume 65
Similar Books
Archaeological Excavations at Irmis Rka: An Investigation of a Multi-Layered Settlement in Southwest Georgia
Results from the 2020 Season: Early Bronze Age to Medieval Occupations
Catuvellaunia and Rome: Economic and Political Relations during the Final Decades Pre-conquest
The Role of Grain from Southeastern Britain and Its Potential for Maintenance of the Roman Military along the Frontier on the Rhine
Colour Concept “Secoli bui” a colori
Codici cromatici e architetture dipinte nell’età tardoantica e medievale
Crossing Disciplines in the Study of Archaeology and Prehistoric Art: Insights from the Sahara and Mediterranean Africa
Proceedings of the XX UISPP World Congress (5–9 September 2023, Timișoara, Romania) Volume / Session 18
Crossing Sacred Landscapes
Contacts and Continuities in the Desert Cults and Beliefs of Ancient Northern Arabia and the Arid Southern Levant
Cuneiform Artefacts from Archaeological Contexts: New Research on Ancient Iraq
Proceedings of a Conference Held at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, July 4–5, 2024
Volume 2
Dis/United States of Vulnerability
Literary and Cultural Transgressions in U.S. Poetry Since the 1960s
Volume 330
ENTANGLED AFRICA
Intra-African Relations Between Rain Forest and Mediterranean from Around 4,000 BCE to 1,500 CE
Exploring Prehistoric Pottery in Japan
A Study of Organic Inclusions, Adhering Materials, and Impressions of Woven Items
From Coast to Coast
Current Archaeological Research on Cultural Exchange along and across the Baltic Sea
Volume 19
Frontiers of the Roman Empire: The Frontier of the Roman Province of Raetia
Grenzen des Römischen Reiches: Die Grenze der Römischen Provinz Raetien
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
Harvesting the Margins of the Viking World
Decentralizing Economies in Late Iron Age Fennoscandia
Volume 6
Images of Anonymous Women
A Semiotic Approach to Image-Text Relations in Interpretation of Ancient Near Eastern Art and the Hebrew Bible
Volume 310
Journal of Urban Archaeology 13 (2026)
Featuring a special section, ‘Lost Towns and Cities: Rediscovering Urban Sites through Archival and Legacy Data’
Making and Meaning in the Bronze and Iron Ages
Chronology, Landscapes and Societies across Europe. Proceedings from the METALAGES2024 Colloquium (Florence, 23 October 2024)
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
Mobility and Archaeogenetics in Central Asia
People – Goods – Ideas. 3rd International Conference on Central Asian Archaeology in Bern, 11th–13th January 2024
Volume 24
Offa’s Dyke Journal: Volume 7 for 2025
A Journal for Linear Monuments, Frontiers and Borderlands Research
