Description
Book SynopsisAltera Roma explores the confrontation of two cultures, European and Amerindian, and two empires, Spanish and Aztec. In an age of exploration and conquest, Spanish soldiers, missionaries, and merchants brought an array of cultural preconceptions. Their encounter with Aztec civilization coincided with Europe's rediscovery of classical antiquity, and Tenochtitlan came to be regarded a"second Rome,"or altera Roma. Iberia's past as the Roman province of Hispania served to both guide and critique the Spanish overseas mission. The dialogue that emerged between the Old World and the New World shaped a dual heritage into the unique culture of Nueva Espana. In this volume, ten eminent historians and archaeologists examine the analogies between empires widely separated in time and place and consider how monumental art and architecture created"theater states,"a strategy that links ancient Rome, Hapsburg Spain, preconquest Mexico, and other imperial regimes.
Table of ContentsIntroduction by John M. D. Pohl and Claire L. Lyons
Ch. 1: Rome, Tenochtitlan, and Beyond: Comparing Empires across Space and Time by Walter Scheidel
Ch. 2: The Visualization of Imperial Dominance: Hobbes's Leviathan, the Mexica Templo Mayor, and the Materialization of Authority by Eulogio Guzmán
Ch. 3: Monuments of Empire in Roman Spain and Beyond: Augusta Emerita (Mérida), the "Spanish Rome" by Jonathan Edmonson
Ch. 4: Aztec Art in Provincial Places: Water Concerns, Monumental Sculptures, and Imperial Expansion by Emily Umberger
Ch. 5: Dramatic Performance and the Theater of the State: The Cults of the Divus Triumphator, Parthenope, and Quetzalcoatl by John M. D. Pohl
Ch. 6: Aztec and Roman Gods in Sixteenth-Century Mexico: Strategic Uses of Classical Learning in Sahagún's Historia General by Andrew Laird
Ch. 7: The Mexica Pantheon in Light of Graeco-Roman Polytheism: Uses, Abuses, and Proposals by Guilhem Olivier
Ch. 8: Toward a New World's Laocoön: Thoughts on Seeing Aztec Sculpture through Spanish Eyes by Thomas B. F. Cummins
Ch. 9: Death in the Hands of Strangers: Aztec Human Sacrifice in the Western Imagination by Cecelia F. Klein
Ch. 10: Alia Herculanea: Pre-Hispanic Sites and Antiquities in Late Bourbon New Spain by Leonardo López Lújan
