Editors’ Summary: In Funerary Spectacle: Applied Digital Humanities in the Roman Forum (California Classical Studies, 2026), Christopher J. Johanson (UCLA) combines three-dimensional reconstructions of the Roman Forum with traditional philological analysis to reconstruct the funeral of Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus (160 BCE) across its three stages: procession, eulogy, and gladiatorial games. By applying both close and distant reading methods, the study illuminates how the built environment served as a stage for aristocratic self-representation in the Middle Republican period, offering new answers to longstanding debates about the visibility and logistics of Roman public spectacle.
Editors’ Choice: Funerary Spectacle: Applied Digital Humanities in the Roman Forum
