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Papers by Margaret L. Laird

Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 66 (2021), iii–vi.

Women's Lives, Women's Voices: Roman Material Culture and Female Agency in the Bay of Naples, ed. by B. Longfellow and M. Swetnam-Burland, 247–74 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2021)

Drawings of women made by amateurs – rendered as graffiti, brush and monochrome pigment (dipinti)... more Drawings of women made by amateurs – rendered as graffiti, brush and monochrome pigment (dipinti), charcoal or other marker – constitute a unique source for ancient imagery and for the mindscape of ancient people. This chapter focuses on drawings of human and divine women at Pompeii, considering their formal characteristics and the built environments in which they were rendered to understand popular notions of women held by ancient Pompeians. I suggest that non-professional artists had little desire to render females visually. Those few drawings that were made do not conform to the female image portrayed in more elite media like painting and sculpture. Although few draftspeople chose to depict women, those who did employed a variety of strategies to attract attention to their drawings.

Afterwards: Reuse and Renovation in Roman Material Culture, edited by D. Ng and M. Swetnam-Burland, 51-83 (New York and Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2018)., 2018

Between 138 and 162 CE, the vigiles (firemen) set up six imperial images on inscribed bases in th... more Between 138 and 162 CE, the vigiles (firemen) set up six imperial images on inscribed bases in the shrine at the heart of the Caserma dei Vigili (their barracks) in ancient Ostia. These bases formed a cohesive group honoring living members of the Antonine dynasty: L. Aelius Caesar, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Lucius Verus. This paper examines how the gallery’s formation reflects how the vigiles constructed and reified imperial stability through their material commissions before turning to focus on the two latest pedestals in the group, one dedicated to the then-emperor Marcus Aurelius, the other to an individual whose identity is no longer known, lost to reuse. Some scholars have suggested that these may have been repurposed altars. If this was not actually the case, I propose that the pedestals were deliberately fashioned to resemble altars to convey the active form of emperor worship practiced by the vigiles. In 195 CE, the firemen modified the gallery by reinscribing one of these bases and rededicating it to the new emperor Septimius Severus. Although this repurposing has been understood as the result of damnatio memoriae, I argue that the theme of dynastic continuity developed among the Antonine statues, the pedestal’s form, and the identity of its original honoree made it particularly suitable for reappropriation. Its deliberate reuse integrated Septimius Severus into the previous dynasty of “good” emperors and made a positive statement about the vigiles’ understanding of political change and their organizational identity vis-à-vis the Severan accession.

Ahoros: Gedenkschrift für Hugo Meyer, edited by M. Fuchs, 71-80 (Vienna: Phoibos, 2018)., 2018

Art historians long cast Roman freedmen as appropriators of elite architecture and visual culture... more Art historians long cast Roman freedmen as appropriators of elite architecture and visual culture. Although libertini are now recognized as sophisticated patrons, they still are characterized as consumers of elite forms, not generators of iconography in their own right. It is possible, however, to pinpoint instances of invention. This paper explores a unique array of iconography that was developed by Augustales in and around Asisium (modern-day Assisi) in the late first century CE to decorate their funerary stelae and express their participation in a common community within their town.

A Companion to Roman Italy, ed. by A. E. Cooley, 2016

Corinth in Context. Comparative Perspectives on Religion and Society. Ed. by S. J. Friesen, J. Walters, and D. Schowalter, 2010

The Art of Citizens, Soldiers and Freedmen in the Roman World. An Illustrated Anthology, edited by E. D’Ambra and G. P. R. Métraux, 31-43 (London: Archeopress, 2006)., 2006

This paper examines the interrelation between the physical and the social/ritual aspects of "foun... more This paper examines the interrelation between the physical and the social/ritual aspects of "foundation monuments," honorific statues and inscribed bases that celebrated capital gifts whose interest would annually benefit a town or specific civic groups. I argue that these monuments non only honored the donor but functioned as temporal and spatial markers that articulated municipal society while promoting cohesion and continuity.

Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 45 (2000), 41-84., 2000

Using archival, epigraphical and archaeological evidence, this article argues that the "Sede degl... more Using archival, epigraphical and archaeological evidence, this article argues that the "Sede degli Augustali" at Ostia (V vii, 2) did not serve as the meeting place for the town's seviri Augustales and the sculptures found within did not form a gallery of imperial portraits.

Walls and Memory. The Abbey of S. Sebastiano at Alatri (Lazio), from Late Roman Monastery to Renaissance Villa and Beyond, 2005

Books by Margaret L. Laird

This book examines ancient Roman statues and their bases, tombs, dedicatory altars, and panels co... more This book examines ancient Roman statues and their bases, tombs, dedicatory altars, and panels commemorating gifts of civic beneficence made by the Augustales, civic groups composed primarily of wealthy ex-slaves. Margaret L. Laird examines how these monuments functioned as protagonists in their built and social environments by focusing on archaeologically attested commissions made by the Augustales in Roman Italian towns. Integrating methodologies from art history, architectural history, social history, and epigraphy with archaeological and sociological theories of community, she considers how dedications and their accompanying inscriptions created webs of association and transformed places of display into sites of local history. Understanding how these objects functioned in ancient cities, the book argues, illuminates how ordinary Romans combined public lettering, honorific portraits, emperor worship, and civic philanthropy to express their communal identities.

Book Reviews by Margaret L. Laird

Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2013

Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2012.01.42, 2012

Journal of Roman Archaeology 21: 509-514, 2008

Classical Philology 99.4: 385-390, 2004

Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2003.09.26, 2003

Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 66 (2021), iii–vi.

Women's Lives, Women's Voices: Roman Material Culture and Female Agency in the Bay of Naples, ed. by B. Longfellow and M. Swetnam-Burland, 247–74 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2021)

Drawings of women made by amateurs – rendered as graffiti, brush and monochrome pigment (dipinti)... more Drawings of women made by amateurs – rendered as graffiti, brush and monochrome pigment (dipinti), charcoal or other marker – constitute a unique source for ancient imagery and for the mindscape of ancient people. This chapter focuses on drawings of human and divine women at Pompeii, considering their formal characteristics and the built environments in which they were rendered to understand popular notions of women held by ancient Pompeians. I suggest that non-professional artists had little desire to render females visually. Those few drawings that were made do not conform to the female image portrayed in more elite media like painting and sculpture. Although few draftspeople chose to depict women, those who did employed a variety of strategies to attract attention to their drawings.

Afterwards: Reuse and Renovation in Roman Material Culture, edited by D. Ng and M. Swetnam-Burland, 51-83 (New York and Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2018)., 2018

Between 138 and 162 CE, the vigiles (firemen) set up six imperial images on inscribed bases in th... more Between 138 and 162 CE, the vigiles (firemen) set up six imperial images on inscribed bases in the shrine at the heart of the Caserma dei Vigili (their barracks) in ancient Ostia. These bases formed a cohesive group honoring living members of the Antonine dynasty: L. Aelius Caesar, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Lucius Verus. This paper examines how the gallery’s formation reflects how the vigiles constructed and reified imperial stability through their material commissions before turning to focus on the two latest pedestals in the group, one dedicated to the then-emperor Marcus Aurelius, the other to an individual whose identity is no longer known, lost to reuse. Some scholars have suggested that these may have been repurposed altars. If this was not actually the case, I propose that the pedestals were deliberately fashioned to resemble altars to convey the active form of emperor worship practiced by the vigiles. In 195 CE, the firemen modified the gallery by reinscribing one of these bases and rededicating it to the new emperor Septimius Severus. Although this repurposing has been understood as the result of damnatio memoriae, I argue that the theme of dynastic continuity developed among the Antonine statues, the pedestal’s form, and the identity of its original honoree made it particularly suitable for reappropriation. Its deliberate reuse integrated Septimius Severus into the previous dynasty of “good” emperors and made a positive statement about the vigiles’ understanding of political change and their organizational identity vis-à-vis the Severan accession.

Ahoros: Gedenkschrift für Hugo Meyer, edited by M. Fuchs, 71-80 (Vienna: Phoibos, 2018)., 2018

Art historians long cast Roman freedmen as appropriators of elite architecture and visual culture... more Art historians long cast Roman freedmen as appropriators of elite architecture and visual culture. Although libertini are now recognized as sophisticated patrons, they still are characterized as consumers of elite forms, not generators of iconography in their own right. It is possible, however, to pinpoint instances of invention. This paper explores a unique array of iconography that was developed by Augustales in and around Asisium (modern-day Assisi) in the late first century CE to decorate their funerary stelae and express their participation in a common community within their town.

A Companion to Roman Italy, ed. by A. E. Cooley, 2016

Corinth in Context. Comparative Perspectives on Religion and Society. Ed. by S. J. Friesen, J. Walters, and D. Schowalter, 2010

The Art of Citizens, Soldiers and Freedmen in the Roman World. An Illustrated Anthology, edited by E. D’Ambra and G. P. R. Métraux, 31-43 (London: Archeopress, 2006)., 2006

This paper examines the interrelation between the physical and the social/ritual aspects of "foun... more This paper examines the interrelation between the physical and the social/ritual aspects of "foundation monuments," honorific statues and inscribed bases that celebrated capital gifts whose interest would annually benefit a town or specific civic groups. I argue that these monuments non only honored the donor but functioned as temporal and spatial markers that articulated municipal society while promoting cohesion and continuity.

Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 45 (2000), 41-84., 2000

Using archival, epigraphical and archaeological evidence, this article argues that the "Sede degl... more Using archival, epigraphical and archaeological evidence, this article argues that the "Sede degli Augustali" at Ostia (V vii, 2) did not serve as the meeting place for the town's seviri Augustales and the sculptures found within did not form a gallery of imperial portraits.

Walls and Memory. The Abbey of S. Sebastiano at Alatri (Lazio), from Late Roman Monastery to Renaissance Villa and Beyond, 2005

This book examines ancient Roman statues and their bases, tombs, dedicatory altars, and panels co... more This book examines ancient Roman statues and their bases, tombs, dedicatory altars, and panels commemorating gifts of civic beneficence made by the Augustales, civic groups composed primarily of wealthy ex-slaves. Margaret L. Laird examines how these monuments functioned as protagonists in their built and social environments by focusing on archaeologically attested commissions made by the Augustales in Roman Italian towns. Integrating methodologies from art history, architectural history, social history, and epigraphy with archaeological and sociological theories of community, she considers how dedications and their accompanying inscriptions created webs of association and transformed places of display into sites of local history. Understanding how these objects functioned in ancient cities, the book argues, illuminates how ordinary Romans combined public lettering, honorific portraits, emperor worship, and civic philanthropy to express their communal identities.

Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2013

Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2012.01.42, 2012

Journal of Roman Archaeology 21: 509-514, 2008

Classical Philology 99.4: 385-390, 2004

Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2003.09.26, 2003