The Sculptural Environment of the Roman near East: Reflections on Culture, Ideology, and Power »

Public sculptures were the "mass media" of the Roman world. They populated urban centers throughout the empire, serving as a "plastic language" that communicated political, religious, and social messages. This book brings together twenty-eight experts who otherwise rarely convene: text-based scholars of the Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian realms from the fields of classics, history, and religion and specialists in the artistic traditions of Greece and Rome as well as art historians and archaeologists. Utilizing the full spectrum of ancient sources, the book examines the multiple, at times even contradictory, meanings and functions that statues served within the complex world of the Roman Near East. Moreover, it situates the discussion of sculpture in the broader context of antiquity in order to reevaluate long-held scholarly consensuses on such ideas as the essence of Hellenism (the culture that emerged from the encounter of Greco-Romans with the Near East) and the everlasting "conflict" among paganism, Christianity, and Judaism.

List of Figures and Maps IX

Acknowledgments XXIII

Introduction 1

List of Contributors 13

Abbreviations 17

I Encompassing Hellenism: The Dynamics of Extended Cultures

Reconsidering Hellenism in the Roman Near East: Introductory Remarks Glen Bowersock 21

The Nature of Syrian Hellenism in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Periods Maurice Sartre 25

The Jews in the Roman World Aharon Oppenheimer 51

II Origin, Production, and Fate

Marble Sculpture of the Roman Period in the Near East and Its Hellenistic Origins Gideon Foerster 69

The Sculptor's Studio at Aphrodisias: The Working Methods and Varieties of Sculpture Produced Peter Rockwell 91

The Classical Heritage in Late Antique Palestine: The Fate of Freestanding Sculptures Yoram Tsafrir 117

The Destruction of Pagan Statuary and Christianization (Fourth-Sixth Century C.E.) Frank R. Trombley 143

The Imperial Cult in the East: Images of Power and the Power of Intolerance John Pollini 165

III Two-Dimensional Landscapes: Re-Presenting Statues in Other Media

Statues on the Wall: The Representation of Statuary in Roman Wall Painting Eric M. Moormann 197

Narrative and Identity in Mosaics from the Late Roman Near East: Pagan, Jewish, and Christian Fergus Millar 225

The Missing Pieces: Miniature Reflections of the Hellenistic Artistic Landscape in the East Sharon Herbert 257

Statues and Inscriptions in Iudaea/Syria Palaestina Werner Eck 273

IV Engaging the Realm of the Gods

Baetyls as Statues? Cult Images in the Roman Near East Peter Stewart 297

Visualizing Deities in the Roman Near East: Aspects of Athena and Athena-Allat Elise A. Friedland 315

Roman Sculpture fromthe Exedra in the Temenos of the Qasr al-Bint at Petra Fawzi Zayadine 351

Sculptures from Southern Syrian Sanctuaries of the Roman Period Thomas M. Weber 363

The Statues of the Sanctuary of Allat in Palmyra Michal Gawlikowski 397

The Role of Sculpture in Worship at the Temples of Dura-Europos Susan B. Downey 413

Divine Statues in the Works of Libanius of Antioch: The Actual and Rhetorical Desacralization of Pagan Cult Furniture in the Late Fourth Century C.E. Ellen Perry 437

V Urban Landscapes and Perceptions

Imagining an Eastern Roman Empire: A Riot at Antioch in 387 C.E. Raymond Van Dam 451

Sculpture in Roman Palestine and Its Architectural and Social Milieu: Adaptability, Imitation, Originality? The Ascalon Basilica as an Example Moshe L. Fischer 483

Caesarean Sculpture in Context Rivka Gersht 509

Caesarea's Fortune: Ancient Statuary and the Beholder in a Late Antique City Kenneth G. Holum 539

Sculptures and Sculptural Images in Urban Galilee Ze'ev Weiss 559

VI Social, Political, and Religious Discourses

Roman Victory Displayed: Symbols, Allegories, Personifications? Benjamin Isaac 575

The Desolating Sacrilege: A Jewish-Christian Discourse on Statuary, Space, and Sanctity Yaron Z. Eliav 605

Idolatry in Late Antique Babylonia: The Evidence of the Babylonian Talmud Richard Kalmin 629

The Vitality of Egyptian Images in Late Antiquity: Christian Memory and Response David Frankfurter 659

Bibliography 679

Index 751