Mapping out the poetic landscape(s) of the Roman empire: Ethnic and regional variations, socio-cultural diversity, and cross-cultural transformations

Project Information

MAPPOLA

Grant agreement ID: 832874

DOI

10.3030/832874

Project closed

EC signature date 26 April 2019

Start date 1 October 2019

End date 30 September 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 000 529,00

EU contribution

€ 2 000 529,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - MAPPOLA (Mapping out the poetic landscape(s) of the Roman empire: Ethnic and regional variations, socio-cultural diversity, and cross-cultural transformations)

Reporting period: 2024-04-01 to 2024-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The "MAPPOLA - Mapping Out the Poetic Landscape(s) of the Roman Empire" project is based on a very straight-forward observation: poetry was, and continues to be, one of the most affordable and readily available forms of artistic expression. In applying this to the Roman Empire, a system-in-motion that spans some 1,500 years and a territory stretching, at its peak, from Scotland to the Arabian peninsula and from Morocco to the Black Sea, the project sought to investigate a complex society's engagement with poetry, extending the scope from a primarily philological occupation with "the literary greats" to the manifold poetic landscapes that have formed and are still palpable within the surviving record of Rome's material culture. Moving away from a small, judiciously transmitted canon of texts – a segment of Rome’s artistic production that favours the poetry that was produced, enjoyed, and controlled, by a political, social, and financial urban elite, reinforcing their claim to cultural superiority –, the MAPPOLA project thus aimed to reassess the Roman verse inscriptions as evidence for poetry as a ubiquitous, inclusive cultural practice of the people of ancient Rome beyond the palaces of its urban aristocracy, thus fundamentally democratising scientific understanding of poetry as a cultural practice available to everyone, both in terms of production and consumption.

Consequently, the overall objectives of the project were: (1) to conduct investigations into the regional spread of the Carmina (Latina) Epigraphica, focusing in particular on hitherto under-researched and under-documented areas, including Rome’s Gallo-Celtic and Germanic provinces, its eastern, Hellenophone provinces, and Roman North Africa; (2) to investigate the attitudes towards inscribed poetry, both on the basis of internal evidence (such as relevant statements from within the Carmina Epigraphica themselves) and external data (such as information available for honourands and dedicators); (3) to analyse the evidence for the formation of distinctive sub-cultures and group dynamics (in social and religious terms); and (4) to examine the transformations of inscribed Roman verse across spatial and linguistic boundaries, with an especial emphasis on the afterlife of inscribed Latin poetry after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

MAPPOLA research informs cultural historical research generally and has bearings on societal discourse in which vertical ordering of artworks is increasingly perceived as problematic. Presenting an evidence-based overview, the MAPPOLA project breaks the mould for a long-term shift of paradigms in this regard.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The MAPPOLA project has discharged a complex course of research, in terms of data collection, data evaluation, methodological discourse, published research, and dissemination. We engaged in international workshops, seminars, and conferences, and we delivered against the ambitions of its five work packages, supported by epigraphic fieldwork. Here, welist the main aspects of each work package (WP):

WP1: The Emergence of Regional Poetic Habits: This WP examined the regional and spatial developments of the Roman poetical landscape and extensively investigatde the underpinning factors on regional, ethnic, and linguistic levels, including further evidence for the spread of a written culture. In so doing, we ascertained and interpreted the quantitative and qualitative differences between distinct geographical contexts of the Roman empire as well as investigate the role of migration and cross-culturalism, forced and voluntary, as potential driving factors. This is best evidenced in, and subject for future study on the basis of, the publicly accessible, aforementioned project database.

WP2: The Creation of Poetic Landscapes and Spaces: This WP scrutinised the dynamics and customs at a more microscopic level. It analysed in particular how different social strata contributed to, and engaged in, this cultural practice and conceived of ‘versescapes’ beyond individual texts. The main work in this field was a PhD project on one of the most commonly neglected, yet important group of displaced people, namely the Hellenophone society of the city of Rome, which, at the point of this report, was submitted and assessed, but not yet concluded by a final examination.

WP3: The Social and Cultural Relevance of Inscribed Verse: This WP pursued a broader approach, using a model that starts from the varied communicative contexts and constructs in which individuals and groups in the Roman empire chose to intervene through the medium of inscribed verse. The main work in this field was a PhD project on women's agency and authorship in the Roman verse inscriptions, which, at the point of this report, was in its final stages of composition, with submission and assessment imminent.

WP4: Hidden in Plain Sight: Subcultures and Subversion in the Latin Verse Inscriptions: Building on current research on , mobility, multiculturalism, and religious and other networks, this WP investigated the evidence for the ways in which specific groups within the Roman empire sought to assert and defend their identities. The core element to this WP was a PhD project on religious beliefs in the verse inscriptions of Roman North Africa, which was completed during the project period ("Dio, gli dèi e il divino"), currently being prepared for publication.

WP5: Interactions and Reimaginations: Based on the concept of a distinctive Roman song culture, subject to variation and change across time and space, this WP investigated who relied on this practice where and when at a number of important cultural and political crossroads and watersheds. This is best evidenced in, and subject for future study on the basis of the project database.

All relevant outputs are listed on our project webpage mappola.eu. All of this is underpinned and carried by our research data collection and repository, the MAPPOLA database (available at https://db.mappola.eu)

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

As a result of our course of research, and in addition to our contribution to the field of digital epigraphy, the project has advanced the field in three central areas:

(i) We have achieved a significantly improved understanding of the "locality" and "mobility" of poetry as Roman communal art across time and space. In particular, our research has highlighted conclusively the role of infrastructure, physical geography, economy and trade, and mobility of elite and non-elite groups in the development of local epigraphic habits.

(ii) We have developed a substantially improved notion of multilingual communities, radically questioning established narratives of a "Latin west" and a "Greek east". In particular, our research has demonstrated the need to overcome traditional disciplinary boundaries between Latin and Greek (or rather: Hellenophone) inscriptions, especially in areas in which they were clearly equally present. This will most emphatically be demonstrated in the PhD thesis related to WP2, on the Greek verse inscriptions from the City of Rome (see above).

(iii) We have a substantially improved understanding of the role of poetry and verbal art in migrant/marginalised groups and communities. In particular, our research has shown that poetry, rather than being an elite pastime, is, indeed, a truly democratic communal art, allowing for artistic expression in the context of otherwise marginalised groups, socially, ethnically, and economically.

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