Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity

What and how do people remember? Who controls the process of what we call cultural or social memory? What is forgotten and why? People's memories are not the same as history written in retrospect; they are malleable and an ongoing process of construction and reconstruction. Ancient Rome provided much of the cultural framework for early Christianity, and in both the role of memory was pervasive. Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity presents perspectives from an international and interdisciplinary range of contributors on the literature, history, archaeology, and religion of a major world civilization, based on an informed engagement with important concepts and issues in memory studies. Moving beyond terms such as 'collective', 'social', and 'cultural memory' as standard tropes, the volume offers a selective exploration of the wealth of topics which comprise memory studies, and also features a contribution from a leading neuroscientist on the actual workings of the human memory. It is an importamt resource for anyone interested in Roman antiquity, the beginnings of Christianity, and the role of memory in history.

1 - Memory as Motive in Tacitus
2 - Forgetful Theseus and Mindful Aeneas in Catullus 64 and Aeneid 4
3 - Knowledge of Religion in Valerius Maximus' exempla: Roman Historiography and Tiberian Memory Culture
4 - Augustan Reconstruction and Roman Memory
5 - Qualis artifex pereo: The Generation of Roman Memories of Nero
6 - In the Web of (Hi)stories: memoria: Monuments and Their Myth-historical 'Interconnectedness'
7 - Marius, Sulla, and the War over Monumental Memory and Public Space
8 - Monuments, Memory, and Status Recognition in Roman Asia Minor
9 - The Crafting of Memory in Late Roman Mortuary Spaces
10 - Memory, Performance and the Sayings of Jesus
11 - Sweet Memory: Archaeological Evidence of Jesus in Jerusalem
12 - Moving Peter to Rome: Social Memory and Ritualized Space After 70 CE
13 - The Neuroscience of Memory

Karl Galinsky is Floyd A. Cailloux Centennial Professor of Classics and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.