ABSTRACT
If the historical relationship between architecture, space, and society remains difficult to grasp, Althusser’s theory of ‘interpellation’ offers a starting point for thinking about the way in which the built environment can shape the subject position of its users. Key political spaces like the late Republican Forum Romanum and the early imperial Forum of Augustus imbued their visitors with a clear message about their role in society, but they did so in a different way, and on the basis of a different concept of citizenship, with the Republican Forum Romanum being characterized by openness and architectural multivocality, while the Forum of Augustus was a much more closed environment, dominated by one centralized architectural message. Analysing these two examples highlights how Althusser’s theory offers a useful vocabulary for discussing the relationships between Rome’s urban landscape and Roman society.
