The Roman Empire had a rich and multifaceted visual culture, which was often variegated due to the sprawling geography of its provinces. In this remarkable work of scholarship, a group of
international scholars has come together to find alternative ways to discuss the nature and development of the art and archaeology of the Roman provinces. The result is a collection of
nineteen compelling essays — accompanied by carefully curated visual documentation, seven detailed maps, and an extensive bibliography— organized around the four major themes of provincial
contexts, tradition and innovation, networks and movements, and local accents in an imperial context. Easy assumptions about provincial dependence on metropolitian models give way to more
complicated stories. Similarities and divergences in local and regional responses to Rome appear, but not always in predictable places and in far from predictable patterns.
The authors dismiss entrenched barriers between art and archaeology, center and provinces, even “good art” and “bad art,” extending their observations well beyond the empire’s boundaries, and
examining phenomena, sites, and monuments not often found in books about Roman art history or archaeology. The book thus functions to encourage continued critical engagement with how scholars
study the material past of the Roman Empire and, indeed, of imperial systems in general.