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Archaeological Institute of America Lecture

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March 23, 2016
All Day
014 University Hall

Steven Tuck from Miami University; "Decorating the Emperor's Dining Room: Imperial Ideology and Literary Culture at Sperlonga"

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Please note that the new time is now 6:00pm

With its dramatic sculpture groups of Scylla and Polyphemus, the grotto of Tiberius’ villa at Sperlonga was one of the grandest dining spaces in the Roman world. This lecture explores the subjects of the sculptures, the meanings behind their selection and concludes that the major groups illustrate scenes, not Homer, but from Vergil’s Aeneid.  The works were metaphors for imperial politics and foundations for ideological display in the imperial world