Classical Corner: Precious Memories: Souvenirs of the Roman Empire

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Souvenirs are ubiquitous today. We collect them when we travel. We receive them as gifts when friends or family return home from their own vacations. Whether it is a magnet of the Colosseum, a figurine of the Statue of Liberty, or a keychain of the Eiffel Tower, many of us live surrounded by inexpensive, mass-produced objects that represent famous places. We tend to think of souvenirs as a modern phenomenon, born of industrialization and globalization, but they have a long pedigree stretching back to the ancient Mediterranean. Visitors to Athens could buy miniature prize amphoras as keepsakes of the Panathenaic […]

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Footnotes

1. James R. Edwards, “Archaeology Gives New Reality to Paul’s Ephesus Riot,” BAR, July/August 2016.

2. Jennifer Tobin, “The Seven World Wonders,” BAR, Winter 2023.

Endnotes

1. For more on souvenirs in the Roman world, see Maggie L. Popkin, Souvenirs and the Experience of Empire in Ancient Rome (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2022).