Civilizations Tracing

The history of ancient Rome is often narrated through emperors, military campaigns, monumental buildings, and political crises. Yet most Romans did not spend their days inside imperial palaces or marching with conquering legions. They cooked meals, repaired clothes, purchased pottery, illuminated dark rooms, exchanged messages, raised children, practiced trades, and discarded broken objects. These apparently ordinary activities rarely appear on triumphal monuments. Instead, evidence for daily life in ancient Rome survives in pottery fragments, oil lamps, cooking vessels, writing tablets, tools, shoes, jewelry, food remains, and other objects recovered during archaeological excavations. Individually, many of these discoveries may appear insignificant. A broken bowl or worn sandal cannot compete visually with the Colosseum. Archaeologically, however, such objects are invaluable. They reveal how people ate, worked, traveled, communicated, organized their ho...

A Roman coin could carry an emperor’s portrait across the Mediterranean. A military standard could identify a legion in the confusion of battle. A few letters carved into a tombstone could preserve a person’s name and the affection of a family that mourned them. Ancient Roman symbols appeared on coins, monuments, household objects, military equipment, and graves. They communicated ideas about power, victory, religion, citizenship, and personal identity. Yet their meanings were rarely fixed. An eagle on a military standard belonged to a different setting from an eagle associated with Jupiter, just as a wreath awarded for saving citizens’ lives differed from a laurel wreath associated with victory. To understand a Roman symbol, we must examine the entire object: where it was found, when it was made, what other images or words accompany it, and who may have used it. This article explores some of Rome’s most recognizable signs through surviving archaeological objects and inscriptions....