Power into Pageantry: Spectacle Entertainments of Early Imperial Rome (review)

Reviews R. C. Beacham. Powerinto Pageantry: SpectacleEntertainments of EarlyImperialRome. NewHaven:Yale University Press, 1999. Pp. xii + 306. $40.00. This book, following Beacham's 1991 study of The Roman Theatre and Its Audience, extends the concept of performance and spectacle well outside the walls of the theater. Keeping step with recent developments in the analysis of Roman spectacle (e.g., The Art ofAncient Spectacle, ed. Bettina Bergmann and Christine Kondoleon [2000]), Beacham emphasizes that the spectacular— broadly defined to include events such as triumphal or funeral processions— was a key element in Roman daily life. Spectator and performer, audience and actor, were an integral part of the Roman social and political scene, though Beacham's emphasis is very much on the latter. "All the world's a stage" was never more apt than in ancient Rome and is echoed in Dio's assertion (put into the mouth of Maecenas as he advises the emperor Augustus): "For you will live as it were in a theater in which the spectators are the whole world" (Dio 52.34.2). After a brief introduction outiining his method—which will include use of "performance studies,"since Beacham is a professor oftheater arts—and the limitations of the ancient evidence, Beacham proceeds through five diachronically arranged chapters to cover the years between c.200 b.c. and the death ofNero in a.D. 68. The pace is rapid, the writing clear and engaging, and the content is never less than interesting. Having said that, die content is also rather unfocused and disappointing. The first chapter is comprised ofa largely synthetic review ofthe main realms ofRoman spectacle: drama,beasthunts, gladiatorial displays, chariot racing, triumphs, and funerals. While all this is recapped with admirable concision , mere is little here that has notbeen covered in detail elsewhere. Similarly, the extended accounts ofthe political careers ofPompey, Octavian, and other rulers, and the description oftheAugustan constitutional and militaryreforms read like potted histories and include much information that seems extraneous to the focus ofthe book, as suggested by its tide. Even a "spectacular" event like Pompey's triumph in 61 b.c. is described directiy from the pages ofPliny, Plutarch,Appian, and Cassius Dio with little by way ofanalysis. 465 466Comparative Drama To an uninitiate such as myself, the application of"performance studies" to this historical material seems restricted to the use of occasional theatrical metaphors to describe various facets of Roman life and politics. Thus, Roman nobles suffered from "performance anxiety" in relation to maintaining their public image; the Forum's impressive buildings were "visual aids" for various "performances" (see Cic. Cat. 3.2); the escalating extravagance ofpublic display in the second century B.c. reflected an increase in "production values"; acceptance of the Principate required a "willing suspension of disbelief" on the part ofits subjects; the Mausoleum ofAugustus was a"stage set"; and so on. Ifthis is the extent of its potential contribution, some may harbor justifiable reservations about the depth and utility ofperformance studies as a historical analytical tool. Beacham's strengths are on display when he assesses the emergent role of theatrical events as venues for the expression of public opinion in the late Republic, or when he evokes the splendor ofPompey's theater or the political meaning ofAugustus's Mausoleum, or as he considers the theatrical facets of Nero's increasingly bizarre reign. Also first-rate are his descriptions of individual events and the decipherment of the political and/or social messages encoded within them (notably the ludi saeculares in 17 b.c., pp. 1 14-19). But I often found myself asking what much of his analysis had to do with "spectacle entertainments" per se, since Beacham's presentation encompasses such matters as art and architecture and the symbolism ofvoted honors and privileges . Monuments, for instance, receive reference in passing as a "continuing spectacle" (134)—a concept that needs full elucidation rather than bald statement as an aside. Given all this, the book should perhaps have been entitled something like Theatricality and the Legitimation ofPower in the Early Roman Empire. Much ofthis ground, however, has already been covered by Paul Zanker (The Power ofImages in the Age ofAugustus, trans. Alan Shapiro [1990] ). Alternatively , Beacham could...