Hass, T. A. & Raja, R. (eds.) (2021). Caesar’s Past and Posterity’s Caesar, Rome Studies 1, Turnhout.

In the new edited volume Caesar’s Past and Posterity’s Caesar, the editors Trine Arlund Hass and Rubina Raja have collected fifteen contributions that offer new insights into the legacy of Julius Caesar. The contributions cover a range of fields such as archaeology, classical studies and history. They explore Caesar’s own self-fashioning through his use of city space, rituals, wars, history, and literature, as well as tracing how he and his actions have been understood, justified, criticized, and used since he was murdered in 44 BCE – from late antique literature to nineteenth-century drama. The book is the first volume in the book series Rome Studies: Archaeology, History, and Literature.

Rome Studies – a unique interdisciplinary book series

Rome Studies was founded in 2019 by the editors of the first volume Trine Arlund Hass and Rubina Raja. Focussing exclusively on Rome and Roman culture, the series covers a chronological span of about 4000 years and a wide range of disciplines. Rome Studies allows not only for focused studies relating to aspects of Rome’s importance in the Mediterranean world and globally, but will also act as a new forum for interdisciplinary studies allowing for integrated interaction between disciplines. As such, the new series will strengthen the basic research being conducted both in Denmark and internationally.

The context of the new publication

Caesar’s Past and Posterity’s Caesar should be seen against the backdrop of two research projects. The Caesar’s Forum Project is a Danish-Italian research-based excavation project that explores the urban development in Rome over 3000 years. It is conducted with permission from the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MiBAC) in collaboration between the Danish Institute in Rome (DIR), the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre of Excellence, Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), and Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali. The project directors are Prof. Dr. Rubina Raja (UrbNet), Dr. Jan Kindberg Jacobsen (DIR) and Dott. Claudio Parisi Presicce (Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, Direzione Musei archeologici e storico-artistici) The project is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation since 2017 and Aarhus University Research Foundation since 2019.

The project Our Caesar: Danish Receptions of Gaius Julius Caesar undertaken by Trine Arlund Hass explores interpretations of Caesar in a region that was never part of the Roman Empire and where Caesar never went. In 2017, Trine Arlund Hass received HM Queen Margrethe II’s Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Danish Academy in Rome from the Carlsberg Foundation for her research on the Danish receptions of Caesar.

The collaboration between the two projects has thus far resulted in the new publication exploring the legacy of Caesar. Moving forward, the book series Rome Studies will offer an important forum within the humanities for discussions of the future excavation results from the Danish-Italian excavations of the Forum of Caesar.

Links

Caesar’s Past and Posterity’s Caesar (Brepols Publisher)

Caesar’s Forum project

Our Caesar: Danish Receptions of Gaius Julius Caesar