Rom och den andres helgedom : Romerska plundringar av heliga platser

Sammanfattning: This study aims to examine how Rome understood 'the Other' in the context of Roman plundering of sacred sites. It analyses specifically the Temple of Poseidon at Isthmia, and how it was affected by the destruction of Corinth in 146 BCE, and the second Jewish temple at Jerusalem, and how the Romans went about destroying it in 70 CE. This study combines archaeological and written sources with iconography, to get as full an image as possible of Roman pillaging. For Isthmia the sources are mainly archaeological, from the excavations made by the University of Chicago. For Jerusalem the source is the ancient text Bellum Judaicum, by Flavius Josephus. The theory is that of 'the Other', as presented by Erich Gruen in his work Rethinking the other in antiquity, which is applied to the many questions in the discussion. The result of this study shows that Romans frequently sacked sacred sites of other peoples and used the artworks from them to beautify their own cities. They used the history and tradition of the Other for their own gain, to create a certain image of themselves. Further, this study finds that Rom considered itself the main power in the Mediterranean during these periods of antiquity.