Portraying the Individual in the Roman East
Local–Imperial Entanglements in Sculpture, Mosaics, and Paintings (First–Fourth Centuries AD)
Edited by Rubina Raja
Hardback (Published)
(May 2026)
ISBN: 9782503622750
8.5 x 11.02 inches
Price: $175.00
In stock
This volume reimagines Roman portraiture by looking beyond the empire’s core to its vibrant borderlands.
While the statues and busts of Rome have long captivated scholarly attention, the extraordinary diversity of portraits produced across the empire’s so-called peripheries has remained underexplored. As new discoveries and research projects, such as the Palmyra Portrait Project, expand our understanding of provincial visual culture, fresh questions emerge about the nature, function, and interpretation of Roman period portraiture.
This volume revisits portraiture by looking beyond the Roman empire’s core to its vibrant borderlands, revealing how traditions of representing the individual varied dramatically across cities, regions, and time. The contributions gathered here examine both adherence to, and departures from, mainstream portrait conventions, highlighting the creative negotiations between local identities and imperial visual norms, engaging with a wide range of media — sculpture, mosaics, and paintings — and addressing issues such as workshop practices and the circulation of resources. Case studies explore reworking and reuse, the reconstruction of display contexts, and the development of regional visual languages over time. In shifting the lens from centre to regional situations, this volume reveals portraits as powerful expressions of identities and cultural entanglement across the ancient Mediterranean and West Asia.
List of Illustrations
Portraying the Individual in the Roman East: Local–Imperial Entanglements in Sculpture, Mosaics, and Paintings (1st–4th Centuries AD)
Rubina Raja
1. Roman ‘Mummy Portraits’ — Panel Paintings, Painted Shrouds, and Stucco Masks: The Appropriation of the Graeco-Roman ‘Individual Portrait’ by the Death Industry of Roman Egypt
Christopher H. Hallet
2. Portrait Mummies from Antinoöpolis as Evidence for Élite Interaction between Egypt and Syria
Barbara E. Borg
3. Locally Crafted Empires: The Case of the Palmyrene Portrait Habit and the Legacy of Greek Art
Rubina Raja
4. Putting Portraits in the Big Picture: Otacilia Severa and Faustina the Elder in Palmyra
Olympia Bobou, Dario Calomino, Julia Lenghan, and Rubina Raja
5. Theoi Sebastoi Olympioi: Hellenising Imperial Images in the Greek East
R. R. R. Smith
6. Portraying the Emperor — Seeing the Emperor: Between Typology and Individuality in a Colossal Portrait in Sagalassos
Jane Fejfer, Jeroen Poblome, anf Peter Talloen
7. The Portrait Statues from the Artemision at Messene — Expressing Identity and Representing Power
Olympia Bobou and Christopher Dickenson
8. Funerary Portraits from Hierapolis in Syria
Michael Blömer
9. The Other Half of the Empire: On Early Depictions of Individuals in Sepulchral Art in the West
Dietrich Boschung
10. Funerary Portraits on the Rhine in the First Half of the First Century AD: Sartorial Expressions of Cultural Awareness and Ethnic Belonging
Maureen Caroll
11. Citizens, Emperors, and Gods: Portraiture in the Roman Central Balkans
Nadežda Gavrilović Vitas
12. From Periphery to Centre Stage: ‘Zenobia in Chains’ (1859) by Harriet Hosmer and ‘The Death of Cleopatra’ (1876) by Edmonia Lewis
Amalie Skovmøller
Index
Rubina Raja is Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art and between 2015-2025 she directed the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence: Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (grant DNRF119), Aarhus University. Currently she heads the Semper Ardens Advanced Grant project Locally Crafted Empires (funded by the Carlsberg Foundation) and the Lost Cities Rediscovered: Re-examining Excavation Histories in Late Ottoman and Mandate Western Asia project (funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation).
- Edited by Rubina Raja
Other Titles in this Series
The Sanctuary of Parthenos at Ancient Neapolis (Kavala) Volume I
Incised and Painted Ceramic Inscriptions from the Sanctuary and in Aegean Thrace
Volume 15
The Sanctuary of Parthenos at Ancient Neapolis (Kavala), Volume II
Pottery, Stone Inscriptions, and Small finds
Volume 17
Funerary Representations of Palmyrene Women
From the First Century BC to the Third Century AD
Volume 3
Die Basileia von Alexandria
Topographisch-urbanistische Untersuchungen zum ptolemaischen Konigsviertel
Volume 9
Hellenistic Sealings & Archives
Proceedings of The Edfu Connection, an international conference
Volume 10
The Painted Tetrarchic Reliefs of Nicomedia
Uncovering the Colourful Life of Diocletian's Forgotten Capital
Volume 12
Zerstorte Architektur bei Pausanias
Phanomenologie, Funktionen und Verhaltnis zum zeitgenossischen Ruinendiskurs
Volume 5
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