resp logo

The Roman Emperor Seen from the Provinces
Imaging Roman Power in the Cities of the Empire from Augustus to the Tetrarchs (31 BC-AD 297)

RESP 


 

News


Welcome to the website of RESP (The Roman Emperor Seen from the Provinces): an interdisciplinary research project funded by the European Research Council (Consolidator Grant G.A. 101002763) as part of the Horizon 2020 Programme. The project is hosted by the University of Verona for five years (2021-2026), in partnership with King’s College of London and the Warwick University Manufacturing Group (WMG).

The aim of the research is to investigate how Roman Emperors and members of the imperial family were represented in the visual culture of the provinces, in the western cities and especially in the eastern ones, from the reign of Augustus to that of Diocletian (c. 31 BC – AD 297). The research relies on the integrated analysis of Roman provincial coins (based on the RPC online database) and of provincial sculpture to study the forms and tropes of imperial imagery in full-figure and the typologies of imperial portraiture. It combines the traditional approach of iconographic and typological studies with the use of 3D imaging and visualisation to understand the relationship between provincial visual and material culture and their metropolitan models.

The interaction between the subjects and the Emperor was a crucial aspect of the political, economic and cultural life that the provincial communities had in common with the Romans; yet each community also interpreted the forms and significance of this interaction in its own way, often using it as a means to construct, consolidate and express its distinctive local identity. By focusing on the view of from the provinces, the project will contribute to our understanding of crucial themes in the study of the Roman administration and of its consequences, such as the extent and manifestations of local autonomy from central control, the balance between strategies of imperial propaganda and expression of civic identity in the use of images and words, the ways and channels through which Roman culture was disseminated, filtered, copied and embraced, or transformed, adapted and reinterpreted across the provinces.

The view from the provinces

Public ceremony for the imperial vota on the reverse of a coin of Ephesus for the Emperor Macrinus (AD 218). © Bibliothèque nationale de France  https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8518038h

 

2022

  • 1 October: Prof. Will Wootton and Francesca Lam-March (PhD candidate) join RESP as King's College team members
  • 1 October: Prof. Mark Williams, Paul Wilson and MIke Donnelly join RESP as WMG team members, (Warwick University)
  • 1 September: Dr Julia Lenaghan, Francesca Bologna, Raffaella Bucolo and Giorgia Cafici join RESP as post-doctoral researchers
  • June: deadline for applying to three RESP  post-doctoral researchers' positions (see Job Opportunities in The Project activities section)
  • 2 May: deadline for applying to the RESP Senior post-doctoral researcher's position (see Job Opportunities in The Project activities section)
  • 28 April: deadline for applying to the RESP Studenstship 2022-25
  • 16 March: the RESP website is online
  • 6 March: RESP Studentship at King's College (see Job Opportunities in The Project activities section)

2021

  • 15 September: Dr Tinsae Dulecha joins RESP as DH Project Officer
  • 1 September: kick-off date of the RESP project in Verona