Topographies of memory

: archaic past and Augustan present in Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Abstract

This thesis studies the depiction of Roman monuments in the Early Roman History of Dionysius of Halicarnassus through a combination of archaeological research and literary criticism. The adoption of such an interdisciplinary methodology is crucial to achieve a clear understanding of Dionysius’ approach, one that avoids foisting modern standards of accuracy upon him. This is demonstrated in the first part of the thesis through a review of previous scholarly approaches to Dionysius’ text and an archaeological and literary analysis of his monument descriptions. The second part focuses on two fundamental aspects of Dionysius’ approach which distinguish him from modern archaeologists. The first one is his perception of time, which was more flexible than that of modern scholars. Dionysius’ perspective was present-oriented and he envisioned past and present as a continuum to emphasise the survival of many of Rome’s archaic monuments in his time. The second fundamental aspect is Dionysius’ systematic attempt to depict Roman monuments as Greek artefacts. This is a further expression of his ideological programme to demonstrate the Greek character of the Romans, as drawing parallels between Greek and Roman monuments allowed Dionysius to present Roman monuments as material evidence for his overall claim. The third and last part of the work reads Dionysius’ Early Roman history as a radical reaction to the Augustan rebuilding programme. While Dionysius’ antiquarian research dovetailed with common trends in Augustan culture, his exclusive focus on archaic Rome ultimately underscored the limitations of the urban restoration of Augustus. This thesis offers a groundbreaking reading of Dionysius’ approach to Roman monuments, one that sheds light on his own perspective as distinct from that of modern scholars. In particular, a contextualisation of Dionysius’ engagement with Roman monuments offer us precious insights into the reception of Roman monuments by Greek audiences in the Augustan period.

Date of Award	1 Jul 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of St Andrews
Supervisor	Nicolas Wiater (Supervisor) & Andrea L. Brock (Supervisor)