Ancestor masks and aristocratic power in Roman culture
By: Harriet I. Flower.
Publisher: Clarendon
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Oxford
Language: eng
Number of pages: 411
Subjects: Funeral rites and ceremonies -- Rome.; Masks -- Rome.; Nobility -- Rome.; Elite (Social sciences) -- Rome.; Power (Social sciences) -- Rome.
Description: In the first comprehensive study of Roman ancestor masks in English, Harriet Flower explains the reasons behind the use of wax masks in the commemoration of politically prominent family members by the elite society of Rome.

Flower traces the functional evolution of ancestor masks, from their first attested appearance in the third century BC to their last mention in the sixth century AD, through the examination of literary sources in both prose and verse, legal texts, epigraphy, archaeology, numismatics, and art.

It is by putting these masks, which were worn by actors at the funerals of the deceased, into their legal, social, and political context that Flower is able to elucidate their central position in the media of the time and their special meaning as symbols of power and prestige.
Notes: Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral) - University of Pennsylvania, 1993 presented under the title: Imagines Maiorum: ancestral masks as symbols of ideology and power.