The Politics of Public Space in Republican Rome

This book explores how public space in Republican Rome was an unstable category marked, experienced, and defined by multiple actors and audiences.

In Republican Rome the Forum Romanum, the Capitoline, victory temples, and Pompey's theatre complex were less public than they appear. Using innovative spatial approaches to question the public/private divide, Amy Russell deploys archaeological and textual evidence to propose a new understanding of public space.Taking public space as her starting point, Amy Russell offers a fresh analysis of the ever-fluid public/private divide in Republican Rome. Built on the 'spatial turn' in Roman studies and incorporating textual and archaeological evidence, this book uncovers a rich variety of urban spaces. No space in Rome was solely or fully public. Some spaces were public but also political, sacred, or foreign; many apparently public spaces were saturated by the private, leaving grey areas and room for manipulation. Women, slaves, and non-citizens were broadly excluded from politics: how did they experience and help to shape its spaces? How did the building projects of Republican dynasts relate to the communal realm? From the Forum to the victory temples of the Campus Martius, culminating in Pompey's great theatre-portico-temple-garden-house complex, The Politics of Public Space in Republican Rome explores how space was marked, experienced, and defined by multiple actors and audiences.