Les transferts et les remplois de l’art grec à Rome dans l’Antiquité et le cas de Lucius Mummius

Abstract

The spoils of art represented massively between the end of the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD in the public space of the Roman capital the memory of a territorial domination, associated with cultural appropri ation of the conquered territories. The aesthetic aspect was not negligible, as it drew the appropriations of Greek art in the private sphere. Some textual passages recount and criticize the handling of Greek artworks brought as part of the spoils of war by Lucius Mummius Achaicus after his destruction of Corinth in 146 BC, while underlining his uncultivated behaviour. By looking at the transformations made on other pieces of Greek art acquired by the Romans, we will try to reevaluate the criticism of the statesman in the context of Roman social practices.

Keywords

• greek art
• art booty
• reuse
• appropriation
• recontextualisation
• material modification
• semantic modifications
• rome
• roman republic.