Kathleen Lamp breathes new life into the subject of early Imperial Roman rhetoric in this sweeping account of how the rhetorical program of Augustus was disseminated, circulated, and appropriated—filling in what the author fairly describes as the disciplinary gap between the republic and the Second Sophistic. Simultaneously and throughout A City of Marble, Lamp argues convincingly for a widened understanding of what constitutes rhetorical practice in the first years of the Roman Empire. The quote “I found Rome built of brick and I leave it to you in marble,” attributed to Augustus, is an appropriate reference for Lamp’s book, which focuses largely on material and visual rhetoric of Augustus’ administration.
Lamp’s central claim is that Augustus and his administration applied traditional classical rhetoric (both Roman and Greek) to an innovative visual and material program, creating a new rhetorical Augustan culture that would persuade Rome of the new government’s legitimacy, as...
