Penelope Davies

This proposal is to finish a book on the public art of Republican Rome. It has two aims: to explore the intersection of visual culture and politics from post-regal times to the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE; and to trace urban and artistic developments, with an assessment of technological advances and social contexts for change. It argues for a sophisticated and ideological exploitation of early Roman art by politicians. Its premise is that the governmental system exerted a profound effect upon artistic and architectural production, deliberately preventing the kinds of blanket urban intervention that kings and emperors could achieve, while implicitly encouraging experimentation and innovation.