ABSTRACT

The idea of ancient Rome is such a pervasive element of Western cultural baggage that it is easy to use it as a background to narratives of all kinds. This is not a new concept, as Roman history has been a magnet for story tellers since ancient times. We need only think of the story of Antony and Cleopatra, re-told across time from the Greek, Plutarch, in the second century AD; to Shakespeare in sixteenthcentury London, to Cecil B. DeMille’s twentieth-century Hollywood extravaganza, to the 2011 film version starring Angelina Jolie. This entertaining and attractive ancient Rome of popular culture is seductive and exists, for the most part happily, alongside the historical version. The symbiosis of popular cultural Rome and the Rome of academic research has produced some fortunate results: the reception of Rome in modern media has become a new discipline developing its own methodologies and critical toolbox; for universities it has attracted renewed student interest; and in the heritage sector the Rome of popular culture has brought new consumers of tourist sites, including monuments such as the Coliseum, museums and archaeological sites both in Rome and elsewhere. In Italy well known sites like Pompeii and Herculaneum are suffering from the high numbers of tourists; in France (Roman Gaul) Roman heritage is also exploited, from small local museums like that at Civaux, to major monuments like the Pont du Gard; while in the UK attractions range from some of the rugged parts of Hadrian’s Wall to the reconstructed Roman villa at Fishbourne. Where children and the history of childhood stand in this mix is not always clear. However, there is certainly an interest within museums such as Bath and Corinium (Roman Cirencester) in the UK to exploit both the perceived emotive nature of children’s history (to a twenty-first-century adult audience) and to encourage the interest of children as a distinct audience through displays of ‘childhood’ alongside interactive exhibitions and activities.