Diocletian's Victory Column: Megethos and the Rhetoric of Spectacular Disruption

This essay explores how the powerful system of cultural references in the architecture of Alexandria is disrupted by Roman visual rhetoric. Specifically, the essay closely analyzes Diocletian's Victory Column, a monument to the third-century Roman ruler who put down an Alexandrian uprising. The...

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Published in:Rhetoric Society quarterly 2014-08, Vol.44 (4), p.323-342
Main Authors: Balzotti, Jonathan Mark, Crosby, Richard Benjamin
Format: Article
Language:English
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Cultural identity
Culture
History
Memory
Persuasion
Politics
Rhetoric
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description This essay explores how the powerful system of cultural references in the architecture of Alexandria is disrupted by Roman visual rhetoric. Specifically, the essay closely analyzes Diocletian's Victory Column, a monument to the third-century Roman ruler who put down an Alexandrian uprising. The authors argue that Rome employed a visual rhetoric of spectacular disruption as a means to insert itself into the city's historical identity even after its siege created widespread disease and starvation. The essay builds on the substantial scholarship on public memory by describing a kind of rhetoric that poses a political, existential challenge to a reigning cultural identity. As rhetorical scholars continue to study public memory and the persuasive powers of designed space, the concept of megethos appears to be uniquely and increasingly relevant.
doi_str_mv 10.1080/02773945.2014.938865
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source EBSCOhost MLA International Bibliography With Full Text; Taylor & Francis; JSTOR Archival Journals and Primary Sources Collection; Humanities Index
subjects Cultural identity
Culture
History
Memory
Persuasion
Politics
Rhetoric
title Diocletian's Victory Column: Megethos and the Rhetoric of Spectacular Disruption
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