From an award-winning historian of ancient Rome, a definitive history of Hadrian's Wall Stretching eighty miles from coast to coast across northern England, Hadrian's Wall is the largest Roman artifact known today. It is commonly viewed as a defiant barrier, the end of the empire, a place where civilization stopped and barbarism began. In fact, the massive structure remains shrouded in mystery. Was the wall intended to keep out the Picts, who inhabited the North? Or was it merely a symbol of Roman power and wealth? What was life like for soldiers stationed along its expanse? How was the extraordinary structure built -- with what technology, skills, and materials? In Hadrian's Wall, Adrian Goldsworthy embarks on a historical and archaeological investigation, sifting fact from legend while simultaneously situating the wall in the wider scene of Roman Britain. The result is a concise and enthralling history of a great architectural marvel of the ancient world.

Some decades before Michelangelo began work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, such masters as Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino, and Signorelli were called to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV to decorate the walls. By 1483, these painters had completed two monumental fresco cycles illustrating the lives of Moses and Christ - works of complex, and sometimes puzzling, iconography. Carol F. Lewine shows that many long-standing questions posed by these Renaissance masterpieces can be resolved by systematic investigation of their undoubted links with the Roman liturgy. Her reconstruction of the scheme by which liturgical themes of the weeks between Christmas and Ascension Thursday are mirrored in the subjects of these frescoes has revealed, unexpectedly, that within this program the primary emphasis is on the liturgy of Lent, often on the Lenten liturgy of the early church, and on such Lenten themes as baptism and penitence. The discovery that these frescoes also refer to the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews, another ancient Lenten theme, suggests that Sixtus IV created the papal chapel that bears his name in order to commemorate the return of the popes from their "Babylonian Captivity" at Avignon. This exile ended in 1377, approximately one hundred years before Sixtus began to plan the major artistic enterprise of his pontificate. Lewine's approach to the interpretation of visual images in terms of their liturgical significance is in itself important and her argument, grounded in close visual inspection of the paintings, is ingenious and provocative. Her analyses of the interactions among narrative and symbol, text and image, form and meaning, offer stimulating contributions to quattrocento studies and encourage further consideration of all the decoration of the Sistine Chapel, together, as parts of an evolving ensemble.

A complete introduction to the rich cultural legacy of Rome through the study of Roman art ... It includes a discussion of the relevance of Rome to the modern world, a short historical overview, and descriptions of forty-five works of art in the Roman collection organized in three thematic sections: Power and Authority in Roman Portraiture; Myth, Religion, and the Afterlife; and Daily Life in Ancient Rome. This resource also provides lesson plans and classroom activities."--Publisher website.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

This book offers a clearly written, informative, and fair critique of Roman Catholicism in defense of the catholic faith. Two leading evangelical thinkers in church history and philosophy summarize the major points of contention between Protestants and Catholics, honestly acknowledging real differences while conveying mutual respect and charity. The authors address key historical, theological, and philosophical issues as they consider what remains at stake five hundred years after the Reformation. They also present a hopeful way forward for future ecumenical relations, showing how Protestants and Catholics can participate in a common witness to the world.