To try to describe the art of a gigantic empire is as daunting a task as one could take on, given the problems that come from covering vast quantities of incommensurable monuments and objects from too many places and times and in too many formats, styles, and settings. (1) What, after all, has a delicate little silver cup from Pompeii in the early first century C.E. to do with a massive limestone sarcophagus from a fifth-century Christian tomb in Thessaloniki? How do we think about ...