Dr Amelia Brown has been awarded a 2024-2028 Australian Research Council joint Discovery Project grant of $230,368 with three Australian colleagues, Prof Bronwen Neil (Macquarie), Dr Estelle Strazdins (ANU) and Dr Ryan Strickler (Newcastle).
Project Summary
Images of Power in the Roman Empire: Mass Media and the Cult of Emperors. Contemporary leaders understand the power of an image to influence public opinion, but are they following a path well-trodden by Roman emperors? This project aims to illuminate the role that mass media and images played in securing and sustaining imperial power during the Later Roman empire from the Flavians to the Theodosians (69-450 CE). The comparison of coins, statues and monuments will shed new light on the dynamic ways that popular media were used to mediate between emperors, their officials, provincial elites and the wider populace, and show how leaders used mass media in the Roman world. Social and cultural benefits include a better understanding of the ways that leaders today handle such media to influence public opinion.
Dr Brown will be researching imperial Roman and Late Antique portraits of emperors from the Flavian Dynasty in the first century into the Theodosians of the middle of the fifth century, building on previous research at Corinth and for Oxford's Last Statues of Antiquity project. Dr Brown will also be looking at how portraits and imperial cult showed continuity of mass media messaging from Greco-Roman to Christian religion for both emperors and their subjects.
Congratulations Amelia!
