Festivals, Ceremonies, and the Commemoration of Power

Abstract

Abstract This chapter analyses the ways in which members of the roman elite used festivals and public celebrations as a form of advertising their social and political standing. Analysing senatorial involvement in imperial festivals like adventus and anniversaries and in the celebration of appointments to public office, it considers how public celebrations advertised individual political achievement and participation in the city’s ruling class. The statue monuments that immortalized these feats were also used as tools for expressing personal identity and social distinction. Finally, the chapter analyses the performance of private celebrations in the public sphere, such as baptism and especially the role of funerals and funerary monuments in the commemoration of aristocratic dominance in the city-space.