At the end of the Roman Empire, wealthy landowners in Spain lavished their money on vast country residences, which are expansive and often adventurous in their architectural designs.  Dunbabin, a professor from McMaster University, will explain the art and function of these villas.

THIS IS A FREE EVENT, NO TICKETS NECESSARY

Among the most impressive of Roman monuments that can be seen today in many parts of Spain and Portugal are the great villas built in the countryside by the elite, mostly dating from the 4^th and 5^th centuries A.D.  The wealthy landowners of the late Roman Empire lavished their money on these vast country residences, which are expansive and often adventurous in their architectural designs, fountains and gardens, and splendidly decorated with mosaics, paintings, and sculptures. The mosaics especially are often very well preserved, telling us much about the lifestyles of their occupants, from their love of hunting or passion for the circus races, to their devotion to scenes from classical mythology which were considered the hallmark of educated and cultured society. All this was in spite of the economic problems, civil wars, and barbarian invasions that marked the end of the Empire.  In her lecture, “Villas in Spain and Portugal at the end of the Roman Empire,” Professor Katherine Dunbabin will guide the audience though the remains of these sumptuous estates, and discuss what they reveal about the people who built and lived in them.
 
Katherine Dunbabin is Emerita with the Department of Classics, McMaster University, and holds her degrees from Oxford University.  Her areas of specialization are Roman art and mosaics, Roman dining customs, and theater and spectacle in the Roman Empire, and she has published widely on these topics.  She served as the specialist on the Roman mosaics for the University of Michigan excavations at Carthage, and has also worked at a number of sites in Italy. 
 
The lecture will take place on Wednesday, January 30, 2013, in LG 537 at Randolph College.  It will begin at 7:30 p.m., and is free and open to the public.  Professor Dunbabin will be giving a Norton Lecture, named for Charles Eliot Norton, the founder and first President of the Archaeological Institute of America and former Professor of the History of Art at Harvard University.  The Norton Lectureship is part of the AIA’s National Lecture Program.
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