IMPACT OF EMPIRE (ROMAN EMPIRE)
3
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THE REPRESENT A TION AND
PERCEPTION OF
ROMAN IMPERIAL POWER
PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD WORKSHOP
OF THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK
IMPACT OF EMPIRE
(ROMAN EMPIRE, c. 200 B.C. - A.D. 476)
NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE IN ROME,
MARCH 20 - 23, 2002
EDITED BY
LUKAS DE BLOIS
PAUL ERDKAMP
OLIVIER HEKSTER
G ERDA DE KLEIJN
S TEPHAN MOLS
I.C. GIEBEN, PUBLISHER
AMSTERDAM 2003
Paul Erdkamp, O. Hekster, G. de Kleijn, Stephan T.A.M. Mols, and Lukas de Blois - 978-90-04-40163-1
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The workshop was funded by the Netherlands Organisation of
Scientific Research (NWO), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts
and Sciences (KNAW), the Research School of Classics in The
Netherlands (OIKOS), the University ofNijmegen, and the
Netherlands Institute in Rome
No part ofthis book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by
print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written
permission from
the publisher
© 2003 by J.C. Gieben
ISBN 9050633889
Printed in The Netherlands
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CONTENTS
Preface
vii
Introduction
Vlll
List of Abbreviations
Xll
I. The Re.presentation and Perception of Roman Imperial Power:
Particular Media
1.1 Inscriptions, Monuments, Coins, Ornaments, Nicknames, and
Death-bed Scenes
G6za Alf6ldy, Die Reprasentation der kaiserlichen Macht in den
Inschriften Roms und des Imperium Romanum
3
Olivier Hekster, Coins and Messages. Audience Targeting on Coins of
Different Denominations?
20
Fernando L6pez-Sanchez, Left and Right in Roman Coins of the
fourth and fifth Centuries A.D.
36
Henner von Hesberg, Romisches Ornament als Sprache. Die sanfte
Gegenwart der Macht
48
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Christer Bruun, Roman Emperors in Popular Jargon: Searching for
Contemporary Nicknames (I)
69
Anton van Hooff, The Imperial Art of Dying
99
Rudolf Haensch, Romische Amtsinhaber als Vorbilder fur die
Bischofe des vierten Jahrhunderts
117
1.2 Imperium, Empire, and Emperor in Literary, Juridical, and
Adminjstratiye Texts
John Richardson, Imperium Romanum between Republic and Empire
137
Lukas de Blois, The Perception of Roman Imperial Authority in
Herodian's Work
148
Willem Zwalve, Valerius Patruinus' case. Contracting in the name of
the emperor
157
Concepcion Neira Faleiro, La plenitudo potestatis e la veneratio
imperatoris come principio dogmatico della politica della tarda
antichita; un esempio chiaro: la Notitia Dignitatum.
170
11 The Re.presentation and Perce.ption of Roman Imperial Power:
Rome and the Provinces
11 I. The Cjty of Rome
Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, The Streets of Rome as a Representation of
Imperial Power
189
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Gerda de Kleijn, The Emperor and Public Works in the City of Rome
207
Silvio Panciera, Umano, sovrumano 0 divino? Le divinita augustee e
I' imperatore aRoma
215
II 2. The Provinces
Paula Botteri, Ancyra, Antiochia e Apollonia. La rappresentazione
delle Res Gestae Divi Augusti
240
Angelos Chaniotis, The Perception ofImperial Power in Aphrodisias:
The Epigraphic Evidence
250
Bernard Stolte, Jurisdiction and Representation of Power,
or, the Emperor on Circuit
261
Janneke de Jong, Representation and Perception of Roman Imperial
Power in Greek Papyrus Texts from A.D. 238
269
Werner Eck, Niihe und Feme kaiserlicher Macht: das Beispiel Koln
282
Andreas Krieckhaus, Im Schatten des Kaisers: Uberlegungen zu:
L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus und seiner Beziehung
zuHadrian
302
Danielle Slootjes, Between Criticism and Praise: Provincials' Image
of the Governor in the Later Roman Empire
318
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Ill. The Representation and Perception of Roman Imperial Power:
Individual Emperors
John Rich, Augustus, War and Peace
329
Yves Perrin, Aux marches du palais: les acces au Palatium de 54 it 70
358
Eric Moormann, Some Observations on Nero and the City of Rome
376
Jon Coulston, Overcoming the Barbarian. Depictions of Rome's
Enemies in Trajanic Monumental Art
389
Anthony Birley, Hadrian's Travels
425
Caroline Vout, A Revision of Hadrian's Portraiture
442
Stephan Mols, The Cult of Roma Aetema in Hadrian's Politics
458
Karen Haegemans, Representation and Perception of Imperial Power
in AD 238. The Numismatic Evidence
466
Henk Singor, The Labarum, Shield Blazons, and Constantine's
caeleste signum
481
Index Nominum
501
List of illustrations
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PREFACE
This volume presents the proceedings of the third workshop of the
international thematic network 'Impact of Empire', which concentrates on
the history of the Roman Empire, c. 200 B.C. - A.D. 476, and, under the
chairmanship of Lukas de Blois (University of Nijmegen), brings together
ancient historians, archaeologists, classicists and specialists on Roman law
from some 28 European and North American universities. The proceedings
of the first two workshops, held at Leiden, June 28-July 1, 2000, and
Nottingham, July 4-7, 2001, have been published in this series as
Administration, Prosopography and Appointment Policies in the Roman
Empire (Gieben, Amsterdam 2001), and The Transformation of Economic
Life under the Roman Empire (Gieben, Amsterdam 2002). The third
workshop, on the representation and perception of Roman imperial power,
was held at the Netherlands Institute in Rome on March 20-23, 2002. A
series of further annual workshops has been planned.
The third workshop of the network was funded by the Netherlands
Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO), the Royal Netherlands
Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Research School of Classics in
The Netherlands (OIKOS), the University ofNijmegen, and the Netherlands
Institute in Rome.
Lukas de Blois, Gerda de Kleijn, Stephan Mols (all from the
University of Nijmegen), and Nathalie de Haan (Netherlands Institute in
Rome) acted as organisers for the workshop and wish to thank the staff of
the Netherlands Institute in Rome for their assistance. Lukas de Blois
(Nijmegen), John Rich (Nottingham), Anthony Birley (Diisseldort), Werner
Eck (Cologne), Elio Lo Cascio (Naples) and Eric Moormann (Nijmegen/
Amsterdam) acted as chairmen of the various sessions of the workshop.
Anthony Birley (Diisseldort), David Lambert (Oxford), Michael Peachin
(New York), and Antonio Polichetti (Naples/ Campobasso) kindly corrected
the English and Italian of some of the contributions in this volume.
The editors,
Nijmegen, The Netherlands, June 2003
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INTRODUCTION
By
LUKAS DE BLOIS AND OLIVIER HEKSTER
"Politics is an art of unification; from many it makes one. And
symbolic activity is perhaps our most important means of bringing
things together, both intellectually and emotionally ... The state is
invisible; it must be personified before it can be seen, symbolized
before it can be loved, imagined before it can be conceived.'"
One of the major changes from Republic to Empire was, inevitably, the
creation of the emperor and his court. It is therefore clear that when the
Impact of the Roman Empire is analysed, the impact of the emperor and
those surrounding him is a central feature. When doing so, analysis of the
representation and perception of the emperor, and indeed of the 'new'
imperial structure and ideology as a whole, become obvious topics for
attention.
Representation and perception of 'Empire' is a multifaceted area of research,
which greatly helps our understanding of Roman society. Take, for instance,
Pliny's reaction after Domitian's death, expressed in the mutilation of
imperial statues: 'It was our delight to dash those proud faces to the floor, to
smite them with the sword, and savage them with an axe, as if blood an
agony could follow from every blow'. 2 More illuminating, perhaps, is the
case of Cn. Piso. After all, the Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone patre
(SCPP), reported an important story, which must - at least in this form have been new to the biggest part of its audience, and put forward all sort of
explicit values in the telling. 3 The plebs is praised 'because it joined with
the equestrian order in demonstrating its devotion towards our Princeps'
(155-6), whilst it is hoped that: 'all who were soldiers in the service of our
M. Wa1zer, 'On the Role of Symbolism in Political Thought', Political Science Quarterly 82 (1967),
191-204, at 194.
2 Pliny, Panegyricus 52.4.
3 M. Griffin, 'The Senate's story', Journal ofRoman Studies 87 (1997), 249-263, with translation on pp
250-253. See especially W. Eck , A Caballos Rufino & F. Ferru\ndez, Das Senatus Consultum De Cn.
Pisone Patre (Munich 1996); C. Damon & S Talaics, eds., 'The Senatus Consultum De Cn. Pisone Patre.
Text, Translation, Discussion' ,American Journal ofPhilology 120.1 (1999).
I
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Princeps will continue to manifest the same loyalty and devotion to the
Imperial house, since they know that the safety of our empire depends on
the protection of that House' (160-162). This value-laden document was
deliberately disseminated:
"These decrees of the Senate, inscribed on bronze, should be set
up in whatever place seems best to Tiberius Cae(sar) Aug., and
likewise '" in the most frequented city of each province and in
the most frequented place in that city, and ". in the winter
quarters of each legion where the standards are kept" (169-173).
The image of a just and benevolent imperial family, whose welfare effects
everyone, and that of the vices of Cn. Piso, who tried to oppose them, is
spread throughout the empire. Indeed, the SCPP declared 'that the statues
and portraits of Cn. Piso Senior, wherever they may have been placed, be
removed,4 This was exactly what the people did: '[They] had, in fact,
dragged [Piso's] effigies to the Gemonian Stairs, and were engaged in
dismembering them'. 5 Imperial representation has strong political
connotations, and the reception of such representation - positive and
negative - can indicate consent or objections to whomever put forward the
imagery. 6
The importance of art for looking at representation and perception
has been self-evident since the publication of the seminal books on the
subject by Paul Zanker and Tonio Holscher. 7 Their notion of Bildprogramm
has been refined by the addition of the viewer (or better, a variety of
different viewers) in the work of Jas Elsner. 8 Visual imagery, in this
understanding, functioned like a recognisable 'language', with the purpose
of conveying a message, or, perhaps better, invoking an 'aura', which would
4 Senatus Consultum de Pisone Patre 75-76; H. Flower, 'Rethinking "DamnatioMemoriae": The case of
Cn. Calpwnius Piso Pater in AD 20', Classical AntiquiO'I7 (1998),155-187; 160. cr A. Gregory,
'Powerful images: Responses to Portraits and the Political uses of Images in Rome', Journal ofRoman
Archaeology 7 (1994), 80-99.
5 Tacitus, Annals 3.14.6.
6 cr D. Freedberg, Iconoclasts and their Motives (Maarssen 1985) and idem, The Power of Images.
Studies in the History and Theory ofResponse (Chicago-London 1989),407428. See also E. Kitzinger,
'The Cult of Images in the Age before Iconoclasm', Dumbarton Oaks Papers 8 (1954), 83-150.
7 P. lanker, Augustus und die Macht der Bilder (Munich 1987); T. Holscher, Ramische Bildsprache als
semantisches System (Heidelberg 1987).
g 1. EIsner, Art and the Roman Viewer. The Transfonnation ofArtfram the Pagan World to ChristianiO'
(Cambridge 1995).
ix
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be intelligible to the heterogeneous population that constituted the Roman
Empire. 9 Indeed, important political figures from the late Republic onwards
used buildings, sculptural images and the images on coins with such a
purpose. In doing so, they interacted with long-standing traditions, either
aligning themselves with or distinguishing themselves from traditions of
royal imagery.lO Whether this 'language' could be understood was, of
course, intrinsically dependent on the interpretation of the symbols used, 'on
the ways art is viewed and perceived in a society'. 11
But representation and perception can be looked at in much broader
terms as well. Indeed, one of the main purposes of Cliff Ando's
monumental Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire
(Berkeley - Los Angeles 2000) is to show, by an analysis of imperial
representation and public perception of that representation, how people
living within the Roman Empire had a positive 'ideological consciousness'
about 'being Roman'. Ando uses a wide variety of evidence, and
emphasises the importance of looking at representation in the widest
possible terms. But it is this width of the subject that makes it impossible for
one person to incorporate all aspects of such a complex phenomenon.
These proceedings, therefore, bring together scholars specialising in
different subjects, each approaching the problem of the impact of
representation and perception of 'Rome' and Roman imperial power on the
heterogeneous population of the Empire. In doing so, they illustrate the
different approaches, methodologies and attitudes that can (and perhaps
need to) be taken into account when analysing the representation and
perception of Roman imperial power.
Section 1 of the first part of the volume concentrates on the
representation and perception of Roman imperial power through particular
Holscher 1987, op.cit. (n. 7),74: 'Das Fonnensystem der rtimischen Kunst hatte eine spezifische
Leistung darin, daB es die AnspIiiche einer gebildeten Elite ebenso zu erfilllen vermochte wie die
Bedfufuisse der breiten Reichsbevoikenmg. Die Bildsprache konnte sowohl als Ausdruck historischen
Bildung Illld elitiiren Lebensfilhrung wie auch als allgemein verstiindliches visuelles
Kommunikationssystem dienen'. But cf E. H. Gombrich, 'The visual image: its place in communication' ,
in: Idem, The Image & the Eye. Further Studies in the Psychology ofPictorial Representation (London
1982), 137-161, for the difficulties in using imagery for IUlaffibiguous communication.
10 Cf R. Fowler & O.J. Hekster, eds., Imaginary Kings: Royal Images in the Ancient Near East. Greece
and Rome, forthcoming 2004.
11 J. EIsner,!mperialRomeandChristian Triumph (Oxford 1998), 53. Cf. F. 1. Zeitlin, 'Visions and
revisions of Homer', in S. Goldhill, ed., Being Greek under Rome. Culturol Identity. the Second Sophistic
and the Development ofEmpire (Cambridge 200 1); 195-266; 211-213.
9 Cf
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media: inscriptions, coins, monuments, ornaments, and insignia, but also
nicknames and death-bed scenes. This section contains contributions by
G6za Alfoldy (inscriptions), Olivier Hekster (coins), Fernando LopezSanchez (coins), Henner von Hesberg (ornaments), Christer Bruun (imperial
nicknames), Anton van HootT (the imperial art of dying), and Rudolf
Haensch (insignia). In the second section of part 1 of this volume John
Richardson, Lukas de Blois, Willem Zwalve and Concepcion Neira Faleiro
focus upon imperium, empire, and the emperor in literary, juridical and
administrative texts.
Part 2 of this volume pays attention to the representation and
perception of Roman imperial power in the city of Rome and the provinces.
It contains papers by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill (on the streets of Rome as a
representation of imperial power), Gerda de Kleijn (on the emperor and
public works in Rome), Silvio Panciera (on gods that were explicitly called
Augustan in inscriptions from the urbs ), Paula Botteri (on the presentation
of Augustus' deeds, his Res Gestae, in Asia Minor), Angelos Chaniotis (on
inscriptions from Aphrodisias), Bernard Stolte (the emperor on circuit in the
eastern provinces), Janneke de Jong (on papyrus texts from Roman Egypt),
Werner Eck (the presence of imperial power in Roman Cologne), Andreas
Krieckhaus (on a noble family from Spain), and Danielle Slootjes, on
provincials' images of Roman governors in the later empire.
In Part 3 of this volume several contributors otTer studies of the
representation of power by individual emperors. They concentrate on
Augustus (John Rich), other Julio-Claudian emperors (Yves Perrin), Nero
(Eric Moormann), Trajan (Jon Coulston), Hadrian (Anthony Birley,
Caroline Vout and Stephan Mols), the emperors of the tumultuous year A.D.
238 (Karen Haegemans), and Constantine the Great (Henk Sing~r).
Oxford/ Nijmegen, June 2003
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ABSA = Annual of the British School at Athens
ACO = E. Schwartz, ed., Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum (BerlinILeipzig
1922- )
AE = Annee epigraphique
ANRW = W.Haase & HTemporini, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang der
Romischen Welt (Berlin! New York 1972 - )
BGU = Aegyptische Urkunden aus den staatlichen Museen zu Berlin,
Griechische Urkunden
BMCRE = H. Mattingly & RA.G. Carson, Coins of the Roman Empire in
the British Museum
CAR = Cambridge Ancient History
CCL = Corpus christianorum series Latina (Turnhout 1953- )
ChLA = A. Bruckner & R Marichal, eds., Chartae Latinae antiquiores
(Basel 1954- )
CIL = Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
CIS = Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum
CJ = Codex Iustinianus
CTh = Codex Theodosianus
Dig. = Digesta
EDH = Epigrafische Datenbank Heidelberg
FIRA = S. Riccobono, et al., F ontes Iuris Romani Anteiustiniani (19401943)
GIP = Giomale italiano di filologia
HA = Historia Augusta
REp. = Hispania antiqua epigraphica (1954 - )
ICVR = LB. de Rossi, Inscriptiones christianae urbis Romae septimo saeculo
antiquiores (Roma 1857-1915)
IG = Inscriptiones Graecae
IGBulg = G. Mikailov, Inscriptiones Graecae in Bulgaria repertae (Sofia
1956-1987).
IGR(R) = R Cagnat, et al., Inscriptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas
pertinentes
ILLRP = Inscriptiones Latinae Liberae Rei Publicae
ILS = H Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae
Inscr. Ital. = Ut. = Inscriptiones Italiae
IOlymp = W. Dittenberger & H Purgold, Inschriften von Olympia (Berlin
1896)
Xll
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LP = L. Duchesne, ed., Le lib er pontificalis, tome premier (Paris 1955)
LTUR = E.M. Steinby et al., Lexicon topographicum urbis Romae. Vo!. I-VI
(Roma 1993-1999)
LTUR Suburbium = Lexicon topographicum urbis Romae. Suburbium. Vo!.
1- (Roma 2001- )
MAMA = Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua 1- (1928-)
O. Bod!. = Greek Ostraka in the Bodleian Library at Oxford and various
other collections
O. Leid. = R.S. Bagnall et al., Greek Ostraka. A catalogue of the Greek
Ostraka in the National Museum of Antiquities at Leiden
OGIS = W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae
P. Cair. Masp. = Catalogue general des antiquites egyptiennes du Musee du
Caire: Papyrus grecs d' epoque Byzantine I-Ill (Cairo 1911-1916)
P. Dura = C. Bradford-Welles, et al., The Excavations at Dura-Europos:
Final Report V 1, The Parchments and Papyri (1959)
P. Fay. = B.P. Grenfell, A.S. Hunt, D.G. Hogarth, Fayum Towns and their
Papyri (London 1900)
P. Flor. = Papiri greco-egizii, Papyri Fiorentini (Milan 1906-1915)
P. Freer = L.S.B. MacCoull, Greek and Coptic Papyri in the Freer Gallery of
Art (Washington D.C. 1973)
P. Fuad Univ. = D.S. Crawford, Fuad I University Papyri (Alexandria 1949)
P. Giss. = O. Eger et aI., Griechische Papyri im Museum des oberhessischen
Geschichtsvereins zu Giessen (Leipzig-Berlin 1910-1922)
P. Got. = H. Frisk, Papyrus grecs de la bibliotheque municipale de
Gothembourg (Goteborg 1929)
P. Heid. = Veroffentlichungen aus der Heidelberger Papyrussammlung
P. Oxy. = BP. Grenfell & A.S. Hunt, et al., The Oxyrhynchus Papyri
P. Ross-Georg. = Papyri russischer und georgischer Sammlungen (Tiflis
1927-1935)
P. Ry!. = c.H. Roberts & E.G. Turner, Catalogue of Greek Papyri in the
John Rylands Library (1911-1927)
PSI = Papiri Greci e Latini. Pubblicazioni della Societa Italiana per la
Ricerca dei Papiri Greci e Latini in Egitto (Florence 1912 - )
P. Tebt. = B.P. Grenfell et al., The Tebtynis Papyri
P. Yadin = N. Lewis, The Documents from the Bar-Kochba Period in the
Cave of Letters: Greek Papyri (Jerusalem 1989)
PG = Migne, Patrologia Graeca
PIR2 = E. Groag, et al., Prosopographia Imperii Romani (1933 - )
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PLRE = Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (Cambridge 1971-1992)
RAC = Rivista di archeologia cristiana
RE = Pauly-Wissowa, Realenzyklopadie der Klassischen Altertumswissenschaft
RlC = The Roman Imperial Coinage. Vols. I-X (London 1923-1994)
RPC = A. Burnett et al., Roman Provincial Coinage (London 1992- )
RS = M.H. Crawford et al., Roman Statutes (London 1996).
SB = F. Preisigke et al., Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Agypten
(Strassburg 1915- )
SChr = Sources Chretiennes
SEG = Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum
SHA = Scriptores Historiae Augustae
Sylloge = W. Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum
TAM = Tituli Asiae Minoris (Wien 1901- )
ZRG = Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fur Rechtsgeschichte (Romanistische
Abteilung)
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I
THE REPRESENTATION AND PERCEPTION
OF ROMAN IMPERIAL POWER
PARTICULAR MEDIA
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DIE REPRASENTATION DER KAISERLICHEN MACHT IN DEN
INSCHRIFTEN ROMS UND DES IMPERIUM ROMANUM
Von
GEZA ALFOLDY
Silvio Panciera
septuagenario
amico optimo et
praestantissimo
Vor kurzem schrieb Silvio Panciera: "In passato si e molto insistito,
contrapponendola alla "soggettivita" della narrazione storica, sulla presunta
"oggettivita" dell a comunicazione epigrafica. Non cosi negli ultimi anni, in
cui, se mai, si e andato sempre piu evidenziando quanta parte abbia la
volonta di autorappresentazione (soggettiva quant'altra mai) nella scelta di
realizzare un'iscrizione in un certo modo, su un certo monumento ed in un
certo luogO.,,1 Diese Art der epigraphischen Kultur Roms, die sie etwa von
der archivarischen Dokumentation von Daten in den altorientalischen
Keilschriftenkulturen oder in der kretisch-mykenischen Welt unterscheidet,
war bereits wahrend der Republik unverkennbar. Nach eher bescheidenen
Anfangen entfaltete sich aber diese epigraphische Kultur in grol3em Stil erst
seit Augustus, der die Bedeutung des Mediums "Inschrift" - oder besser
gesagt: die publizistische Wirksamkeit von Monumenten, zu denen auch eine
Inschrift gehorte - viel besser als seine Vorganger erkannte. Erst unter
Augustus - damals aber explosionsartig - begann in Rom und auch in den
Provinzen die Ausbreitung einer epigraphischen Kultur in einem noch nie
dagewesenen Umfang. Sie zielte darauf, dal3 die Wertvorstellungen und das
Selbstverstandnis der Herrschenden, aber auch der si ch daran orientierenden
breiteren Bevolkerungsmassen durch einpragsame Botschaften zum
Ausdruck gebracht und zugleich auf Dauer bewahrt wurden. 2 Im Mittelpunkt
I S. Panciera, in: G. A1fu1dy - S. Panciera (Eds.), Inschriftliche Denkmli1er als Medien der
Se1bstdarstellung in der romischen Welt (Heide1berger A1thistorische Beitrlige und Epigraphische
Studien 36), Stuttgart 200 1, 8. - Armin U. Sty10w danke ich filr bibliographische Hinweise.
2 Ober die exp1osionsartige Entwicklung der epigraphischen Ku1tur Roms unter Augustus siehe G.
A1fo1dy, Gymnasium 98, 1991,289-324 = Scienze dell' Antichita. Storia, Archeologia, Antropologia.
Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Archeologiche, Antropologiche dell'Antichita. Universita degli di
Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" 5, 1991 [1994], 573-600 (italienisch); der gleiche Beitrag in polnischer
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dieser epigraphischen Kultur stand, entsprechend dern soziopolitischen
Gefuge des Irnperiurn Rornanurn, die Verherrlichung der Kaiser rnit ihrer
Macht, die ihnen die Moglichkeit bieten so lite, ihre Tugenden zugunsten der
res publica zu entfalten und deren Schicksale durch geeignete MaI3nahrnen
zu lenken. 3
Die zentrale Bedeutung, die in der Selbstdarstellung von Herrschern
der Thernatisierung ihrer Macht zukornrnt, ist schon in den Res Gestae Divi
Augusti voll zu erkennen. 4 Mag dieses Dokurnent als ausfuhrlicher
Tatenbericht noch so einzigartig sein, fur die Botschaften, die durch
Inschriften verkiindet wurden, ist es do ch vielfach kennzeichnend. Nach der
Uberschrift handelt es sich urn die res gestae, durch die Augustus orbem
Sprache: August i inskripcije: tradycja u innowacje. Narodtiny epigrafiki imperialnej (Xenia
Posnaniensia ID), Poman 1994. Ober diese Entwicklung in Hispanien siehe F. Beltran Lloris (Ed.),
Rorna y el nacirniento de la cultura epigrafica en Occidente. Actas del Coloquio Roma y las primeras
culturas epigraficas del Occidente mediterraneo (siglos II a. E. - d. E.) (Zaragoza, 4 a 6 de noviembre
de 1992), Zaragoza 1995, darin u. a. rnit Beitragen von M. Mayer, G. AlfOldy, J. M. Abascal, A. U
Stylow u. a. FUr die Entwicklung der epigraphischen Kultur Hispaniens siehe auch G. Alfoldy, in: M.
Alrnagro-Gorbea - J. M. Alvarez Martinez et al., Hispania. Ellegado de Roma, Zaragoza 1998, 28930 I = in: dies., Hispania. El legado de Roma, Zaragoza 1999, 324-337; vg!. aul3erdem dens., in: 1.
Hernandez Guerra - 1. Sagredo San Eustaquio - J. M. a Solana Sainz (Eds.), Actas del I Congreso
Internacional de Historia Antigua "La Peninsula Iberica hace 2000 afios" Valladolid 23-25 de
Noviembre 2000, Valladolid 2001 [2002], 61-74; A. U. Stylow, in: G. Urso (Ed.), Hispania terris
omnibus felicior. Premesse ed esiti di un processo di integrazione. Atti del convegno internazionale,
Cividale del Friuli, 27-29 settembre 2001, Pisa 2002,163-181.
3 Zur Reprasentation der kaiserlichen Macht durch die epigraphischen Denkrniiler siehe etwa M.
Horster, Bauinschriften rornischer Kaiser. Untersuchungen zu Inschriftenpraxis und Bautlitigkeit in
Stlidten des westlichen Imperiurn Rornanurn in der Zeit des Prinzipats (Historia Einzelschriften 157),
Stuttgart 2001, vg!. dazu G. Alfoldy, Journal of Roman Archaeology 15, 2002, 489-498 und
Epigraphica 64, 2002, 113-145 (Bauinschriften); J. M. Hojte, Roman Imperial Statue Bases. An
Epigraphical Contribution to the Understanding of Roman Imperial Portrait Statues, unpub!'
Manuskript Aarhus 2001 (Basen von Kaiserstatuen rnit Inschriften von Augustus bis Cornrnodus). Zur
Rolle der verschiedenen Medien in der Selbstdarstellung der Herrscher siehe bes. A. AlfOldi, Die
monarchische Reprasentation im romischen Kaiserreiche, 3. Aufl. Darrnstadt 1980 (Nachdruck der
bahnbrechenden Studien des Autors aus den Jahren 1934 und 1935 aufgrund der Synoptik
verschiedener Mittel der kaiserlichen Selbstdarstellung); P. Zanker, Augustus und die Macht der
Bilder, Milnchen 1987 (Denkrniiler der Kunst); M. Alfoldi, Bild und Bildersprache der romischen
Kaiser. Beispiele und Analysen (Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt 81), Mainz am Rhein 1999
(Milnzbilder und weitere bildliche Darstellungen); vg!. noch W. Kuhoff, Felicior Augusto melior
Traiano. Aspekte der Selbstdarstellung der romischen Kaiser wiihrend der Prinzipatszeit, Frankfmt am
Main 1993 (Verwendung verschiedener Medien fUr einige Themen der Selbstdarstellung); fUr die
Kunst der Splitantike unter diesem Aspekt siehe jetzt auch E. Mayr, Rom ist dort, wo der Kaiser ist.
Untersuchungen zu den Staatsdenkrniilern des dezentralisierten Reiches von Dioc1etian bis zu
Theodosius II (Romisch-Gerrnanisches Zentralmuseurn Mainz, Monographien 53), Mainz 2002.
4 Zu den Res Gestae Divi Augusti siehe jetzt zusarnmenfassend D. Kienast, Augustus, Prinzeps und
Monarch, 3. Aufl., Darrnstadt 1999,208 ff. mit Bibliographie. Als Edition wird hier H. Volkrnann,
Res Gestae Divi Augusti. Das Monurnenturn Ancyranurn, 3. Aufl., Berlin 1969 benutzt.
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terrarum imperio populi Romani subieeit, erganzt durch seine impensae
zugunsten der Romer. Somit wird bereits am Anfang die einzigartige
Machtstellung des Augustus verherrlicht, die zugleich Roms Macht
verkorpert. Bekanntlich sagt zwar Augustus kurz vor dem Ende seines
Berichts, daB er nach AbschluB der Biirgerkriege die res publica aus seiner
potestas in diejenige von Senat und Volk iibergab und daB seine potestas, im
Gegensatz zu seiner auetoritas, mit der er alle Menschen iibertraf, nicht
groBer war als die seiner Amtskollegen. 5 Der Gesamteindruck des Lesers,
der sich nicht so sehr fur die subtilen Feinheiten konstitutioneller und
ideologischer Kategorien, sondern fur die Realitaten interessierte, diirfte
jedoch ein anderer gewesen sein. Er konnte hier lesen, daB Augustus 13
Male Konsul und 37 Male Inhaber der tribunieia potestas war (die Konsulate
des Augustus werden in den Res Gestae iibrigens insgesamt gleich 17 Male,
seine tribunizische Vollmacht funfmal erwahnt),6 daB er 21 Male als
imperator gefeiert wurde,7 daB er auch in den Jahren, in denen er nicht
Konsul war, mit konsularischem imperium handeln konnte. 8 Dazu kamen die
Hinweise auf seine vielen Siege und Triumphe, die "sein" Heer, wenn nicht
unter seiner personlichen Fiihrung, dann von seinen Legaten auf seinen
Befehl und unter seinen Auspizien erzielte;9 darauf, daB in seinen
Triumphziigen nicht weniger als neun gefangene Konige oder Kinder von
Konigen gefuhrt wurden und daB neun andere Konige oder Konigssohne
unter seinen Schutz flohen; 10 auf die manibiae, aus denen er Prachtbauten
finanzierte. 11 Selbst seine impensae und die dadurch moglich gewordenen
Leistungen stellten mit ihren Dimensionen zumindest wirtschaftliche Macht
dar. 12 Wo bei all dem die Grenze zwischen konstitutionell definierter
potestas und personlicher auetoritas verlief, diirfte den meisten Untertanen
unklar und auch kaum von Interesse gewesen sein. In ihren Augen mu13 auch
die auetoritas des pater patriae als Macht gegolten haben, der sie si ch
Res Gestae Divi Augusti 34. Zwn augusteischen Begriff der auctoritas vg!. zusanunenfassend L.
Wickert, RE XXII 2, 1954,2287-2290.
6 Gesamtzahl der Konsulate und der Ver1eihungen der tribunicia potestas: Res Gestae Divi Augusti 4.
Weitere Hinweise auf die Konsulate des Augustus: ebd. 1. 8 (bis). 15 (sexties). 16. 20 (bis). 21. 22. 34.
35; weitere Hinweise auf die tribunizische Vollmacht: ebd. 6. 10. 15 (bis).
7 Ebd. 4, vg!. auch 21.
8Ebd.8.
9 Exercitus meus: ebd. 30; der Terminus ist dem kllIZ davor erwlihnten exercitus populi Romani
vergangener Zeiten deutlich gegenilbergestellt. Vg!. auch den Terminus ciassis mea, ebd. 26. Feldzilge
iussu und auspiciis des Augustus als Oberbefehlshabers: ebd. 4. 26. 30.
10 Ebd. 4 und 32.
11 Ebd. 15 und 21.
12 Ebd. 15-23 und add. 1.
5
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unterordnen muBten, von der sie abhangig waren, von deren Trager sie
jedoch erwarteten, daB er sie beschiitzt und ihre Interessen vertritt.
Dem Leser der Res Gestae muBten aber sicher nicht nur die
erwahnten und die iibrigen Textinhalte als Indizien fur eine no ch nie
dagewesene Macht erscheinen. Die GreBe des Augustus wurde auch dadurch
unterstrichen, daB dieser Text in einer bisher ungewohnten Weise auf zwei
Erzpfeilern eingraviert war, die schon durch ihre Form und GreBe
beeindruckten. 13 Und sie standen am Eingang des Mausoleums des Kaisers, des
damals greBten, u. a. mit zahlreichen Inschriften versehenen Grabmonumentes
in Rom, 14 in umittelbarer Nahe von zwei Obelisken, die selbst als Symbole
der Herrschaft galten. AuBerdem gab es von hier einen direkten Sichtkontakt
zum solarium Augusti mit dem Montecitorio-Obelisken als Gnomon, das
nicht nur die irdische Macht (u. a. durch den Hinweis auf die Unterwerfung
Agyptens durch Augustus in der Inschrift des Obelisken), sondern auch die
kosmische GreBe des Herrschers verkiindete. 15 Es sei hier angemerkt, daB
die Ancyraner Kopie der Res Gestae an einer Seitenwand des
Augustustempels zu lesen war, der sich dort an einer beherrschenden Stelle
der Stadt erhebt; die Antiochenser Kopie wurde ebenfalls an einer
prominenten Stelle der Stadt, im Bezirk des Herrscherkultes, zur Schau
gestellt; die Kopie von Apollonia in Pisidien wurde innerhalb eines Temenos
des Kaiserkultes auf einem groBen Sockel eingemeiBelt, auf dem die Statuen
von Divus Augustus, Livia, Tiberius, Germanicus und Drusus minor
standen. 16
Die Verkniipfung von Text, auBerem Glanz der Inschrift,
Inschriftentrager, architektonischem Rahmen und Einbindung in einen
Ebd., Praef
Zu diesem Monument siehe H. von Hesberg - S. Panciera, Das Mausoleum des Augustus. Der Bau
und seine Inschriften (Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse,
Abhandlungen N. F. 108), Milnchen 1994; die Inschriften des Mausoleums auch in CIL VI 4035640410.
15 E. Buchner, Romische Mitteilungen 83, 1976, 319-365 und ebd. 87, 1980, 355-373; ders., Die
Sonnenuhr des Augustus, Mainz am Rhein 1982; ders., in: E. M. Steinby (Ed.), Lexicon
Topographicum urbis Romae Ill, Roma 1996, 35-37; Inschrift auf dem Sockel des MontecitorioObelisken: ClL VI 701-702 = ILS 91. Vg!. G. W. Bowersock, in: K. A. Raaflaub - M. Toher (Eds.),
Between Republic and Empire. Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate, Berkeley - Los
Angeles - Oxford 1990, 383-385.
16 Volkmann, a.a.O. (Anm. 4) 4 f. mit iilterer Literatur; H. Hlinlein-Schiifer, Veneratio Augusti. Eine
Studie zu den Tempeln des ersten romischen Kaisers (Archaeologica 39), Roma 1985, 185-196. 270.
289 f.; zur Ausstellung der drei Kopien der Res Gestae Divi Augusti in den genannten Stiidten siehe
jetzt P. Botteri, in diesem Band, zu Antiochia unliingst auch St. Mitchell - M. Waelkens, Pisidian
Antioch. The Site and its Monuments, London 1998, 113-173.
13
14
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breiteren raumlichen Kontext eignete sich bestens dazu, das Gefuhl
hervorzurufen, da13 hier eine noch nie dagewesene Macht verherrlicht wurde.
Diese Wirkung verstarkte sich dadurch, daB die Res Gestae zumindest in der
Provinz Galatia, anscheinend dank der Initiative des dortigen Statthalters,17
durch Kopien auch einem Publikum au13erhalb Roms und Italiens
unmittelbar bekanntgemacht wurden. Mit all dem waren die Res Gestae ein
durchaus reprasentatives Beispiel fur die Lobpreisung von Herrschern durch
Monumente mit entsprechenden Inschriften.
Ober die inhaltlichen Elemente in den sog. "Kaiserinschriften", durch
die die Vormachtstellung der Herrscher hervorgehoben wird, geniigen hier
Stichworte. Einzigartig war schon ihre Nomenklatur, beginnend mit dem
Namen des Begriinders des Prinzipats Imperator Caesar Divi filius
Augustus, einem noch nie dagewesenen Namen. 18 Wie die nicht seltene
Variante Caesar Augustus - nur ein nomen und cognomen, ohne das
praenomen, eine damals uniibliche Namenskombination - zeigt, entsprach
die Nomenklatur des Ersten Princeps in den Augen seiner Zeitgenossen auch
rein formell nicht einfach dem traditionellen System der tria nomina eines
Biirgers, sondern war etwas Au13ergewohnliches,19 wie erst recht die
spateren Kaisernamen mit den langen Ahnenreihen und den Siegerbeinamen.
Die Hinweise auf die Machtbefugnisse und Vorrechte der Kaiser in ihrer
Titulatur, u. a. mit der Nennung der imperatorischen Akklamationen, der
tribunizischen Gewalt und der Konsulate einschliel3lich der entsprechenden
Iterationsziffern, seit Lucius Septimius Severus regelma13ig auch der
prokonsularischen Vollmacht, brachten ihre Machtfulle zum Ausdruck.
Zumindest urspriinglich miissen mit diesen Rangtiteln klare Vorstellungen
iiber die kaiserliche Macht verbunden gewesen sein. So nannte sich
Augustus im kUrzlich gefundenen Edikt aus El Bierzo in Hispanien im
Gegensatz zur gangigen Praxis auch proconsul, urn zu betonen, da13 er seine
Ma13nahmen, die er damals, von Rom abwesend, fur peregrine Gemeinden in
einer seiner Provinzen traf, auf diese Amtsgewalt stiitzte?O Man konnte aber
die Rangtitel ganz weglassen oder den Kaiser nur als pater patriae riihmen,
17 W. Eck - A. Caballos - F. Fernandez, Das senatus consultum de Cn. Pisone patre (Vestigia 48),
Milnchen 1996, 285 f.
18 Grundlegend R. Syme, Historia 7, 1968, 172-188 = ders., Roman Papers I, Oxford 1979, 361- 377,
deutsch in: W. Schmitthenner, Augustus (Wege der Forschung CXXVIII), Darmstadt 1969,264-290.
19 G. Alfoldy, Gymnasium 98,1991,316 f.
20 Siehe dazu G. Alfoldy, Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 131,2000, 177-205, bes. 193 f. =
Minima Epigraphica et Papyrologica IV 2001, 6, 365-417, bes. 392-395 (revidierte Fassung in
italienischer Spmche).
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wie dies beispielsweise schon die Einwohner der Baetica bei der Stiftung
ihrer goldenen Statue auf dem Augustusforum taten;21 damit wurde ebenso
die patria potestas wie auch die einzigartige auetoritas des Princeps
angesprochen. Selbst die Nomenklatur des Monarchen konnte auf den
einzigen Namen Augustus beschrankt werden, denn seine grenzlose
Vormachtstellung war fur die Untertanen schon dadurch hinreichend
vergegenwartigt.22 Auch spatere Kaiser wurden in den Inschriften, vor allem
wenn sie in den epigraphischen Dokumenten ihrer Untertanen als deren
Wohltater verherrlicht wurden, innerhalb der zur Titulatur gefestigten
Nomenklatur des Ersten Princeps Imp. Caesar ... Augustus oder Imp. ...
Augustus oft mit einem einzigen Namen wie z. B. Traianus, Hadrianus,
Antoninus usw. genannt. Wer in einer Inschrift einer derartigen Nomenklatur
begegnete, dem war es klar, daB der so genannte Mann kein gewohnlicher
Mensch, sondern der Herr iiber alle Menschen war.
Noch deutlicher als die stereotypen Rangtitel mit Hinweis auf die
tribunizische Vollmacht o. a., deren Bedeutung spater mehr und mehr
verloren ging, diirften die Macht der Kaiser in den Augen der Untertanen
ihre zunehmend gebrauchten inoffiziellen Beinamen und, wie auch in den
Res Gestae, die konkreten Hinweise auf ihre Taten veranschaulicht haben 23
Die lange Reihe der epigraphisch bezeugten Beinamen, die seit Trajan
erkennbar zunahmen, seit den Severern eine intlationare Entwicklung
aufWiesen und somit allmahlich entwertet wurden, ist allgemein bekannt.
Besonders unterstrichen sie u. a. die Sieghaftigkeit und damit die
militarische Macht der Kaiser. Bezeichnend sind etwa die Steigerung und
21 CIL VI 31267 ef. p. 3778.4340 f. (mit weitererBibliographie) = ILS 103, siehe dazu ausfuhrlieh G.
Alfoldy, in: H.-I. Drexhage - 1. Silnskes (Hrsg.), Migratio et Commutatio. Studien zur A1ten
Geschiehte und deren Naehleben. Thomas PekAry zum 60. Geburtstag, St. Katharinen 1989,226-234 =
ders., Studi sull'epigrafia augustea e tiberiana di Roma (Vetera 8), Roma 1992, 67-75, aueh mit
Hinweisen auf weitere Inschriften des Augustus, in denen aus seiner Rangtitulatur nur die
Bezeiehnung p(ater) p(atriae) erscheint. Aueh spatere Herrseher wurden nieht selten in der gleiehen
Weise verherrlieht, unter ihnen besonders hiiufig Antoninus Pius.
22 So z. B. in der Dedikationsinsehrift fOr eine Statue des Augustus in Saguntum: CIL rr21I4, 305.
23 Zu den inofflziellen Beinamen der romisehen Kaiser siehe bes. A. AlfOldi, a.a.O. (Anm. 3) 204-213;
R. Frei-Stolba, Museum Helvetieum 26, 1969, 18-39; reiehe Materialsammlung aueh unter
Berileksiehtigung anderer Quellen bei F. Taeger, Charisma, Studien zur Gesehiehte des antiken
Herrseherkultes rr, Stuttgart 1960, 226-473. Speziell fOr das 3. Jahrhundert siehe auJ3erdem M.
Peaehin, Roman Imperial Titulature and Chronology, A. D. 235-284 (Studia Amstelodamensia ad
epigraphieam, ius antiquum et papyrologieam pertinentia XXIX), Amsterdam 1990; fiir die Spate
Kaiserzeit siehe aueh A. Chastagnol, in: A. Donati (Ed.), La terza eta dell'epigrafia. Colloquio AIEGL
- Borghesi 86 (Bologna, ottobre 1986) (Epigrafia e Antiehita 9), Faenza 1988, 12-38; Th. Grilnewald,
Constantinus Maximus Augustus. Herrseherpropaganda in der zeitgenossisehen Uberlieferung
(Historia-Einzelsehriften 64), Stuttgart 1990, u. a. mit den Listen 265-270 und 274-276.
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der Wandel der Siegerbeinamen invictus (seit Commodus und Septimius
Severus), super omnes retro principes invictus oder invictissimus (seit
Caracalla), victoriosus und victoriosissimus (seit Aurelian), victor statt
invictus (regelma/3ig seit 324, ohne da/3 der heidnisch klingende Beiname
invictus bzw. sein Superlativ damals ganz aufgegeben worden waren), bis zu
ubique vincens (zur Bezeichnung ausgerechnet des Arcadius und Honorius,
unter denen ein gro/3er Teil des Reiches verloren ging).24 Unbegrenzte Macht
suggerierte z. B. die Lobpreisung der Herrscher als restitutor orbis (seit
Severus Alexander).25 Die Hinweise auf die kriegerischen Taten der Kaiser
folgten zunachst z. T. dem Vorbild der Res Gestae, z. B. die Inschrift auf
dem wegen des britannischen Sieges errichteten Claudiusbogen in Rom, in
der ahnlich wie in den Res Gestae der Kaiser als derjenige gelobt wird, der
fremde Volker unter die Hoheit des romischen Volkes brachte und in der
ebenfalls von besiegten Konigen die Rede iSt. 26 Auch die Hinweise auf die
Finanzierung gro/3er Bauten aus den manubiae, so in der rekonstruierten
Bauinschrift des Colosseum 27 oder in der verlorenen Bauinschrift des
Trajansforums,28 folgten dem augusteischen Vorbild. Die ilberdimensionale
Macht der Herrscher wurde aber auch dann deutlich, wenn er z. B. als
Bezwinger von Raum und Natur erschien. Augustus rilhmte sich in den
Inschriften der Meilensteine an der via Augusta, die se nach ihm benannte
StraJ3e Hispaniens usque ad Oceanum, bis zum Ende der Welt, d. h. bis
Gades, ausgebaut zu haben.29 Erwahnt seien hi er auch die Inschriften von
24 Zu den Formeln super omnes retro principes invictus o. 11. siehe A. Scheithauer, Zeitschrift fUr
Papyrologie und Epigraphik 72, 1988, 155-177; zur Obemahme des Beinarnens Victor statt Invictus
durch Konstantin A. Chastagnol, Latomus 25, 1966, 537-552. Arcadius und Honorius als ubique
vincentes: CIL VIII 5341 = lLS 5907 mit add.
25 Siehe dazu G. Alfoldy, in: W. Eck (Hrsg.), Religion und Gesellschaft in der riimischen Kaiserzeit.
Kolloquium zu Ehren von Friedrich Vittinghoff, Koln - Wien 1989, 60-63 = dens., Die Krise des
Riimischen Reiches. Geschichte, Geschichtsschreibung und Geschichtsbetrachtung. Ausgewahlte
Beitrllge (Heidelberger Althistorische Beitrage und Epigraphische Studien 5), Stuttgart 1989,354-356.
26 CIL VI 40416 (920 cf. 31203 = lLS 216).
27 G. Alfoldy, Zeitschrift fUr Papyrologie und Epigraphik 109, 1995, 195-226 = in: R. Rea (Ed.), Rota
Colisei. La valle del Colosseo attraverso i secoli, Milano 2002, 14-35; ClL VI 40454; vg!. jetzt 1. H.
Feldman, Biblical Archaeology Review 27, 4,2001,20-31 und60-61; G. Alfoldy, ebd. 27,6,2001, 16 f.
28 Gellius, Noctes Atticae 13,25,1; vg!. G. Alfoldy, Zeitschrift fiir Papyrologie und Epigraphik 109,
1995,220 mit Literatur.
29 Meilensteine des Augustus an der via Augusta und diejenigen seiner ersten Nachfolger, die den
Ausbau dieser StraBe vervollstandigten, mit ahnIicher Beschriftung: CIL IT 470 I = lLS 102 und CIL II
4703 usw., siehe P. Sillieres, in: R. Etienne (Ed.), Epigraphie hispanique. Problemes de methode et
d'edition (Publications du Centre Pierre Paris 10), Paris 1984, 275 und bes. dens., Les voies de
communication de !'Hispanie meridionale (Publications du Centre Pierre Paris 20), Paris 1990,57 und
im KataIog 68-118; zum Verlauf und zum Ausbau dieser StraJ3e siehe ebd. 260-338. 580-589; vg!.
jetzt A. U. Stylow - R. Atencia Paez - 1. C. Vera, in: Akten des Kolloquiums "Siedlung und Verkehr",
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Tiberius, Claudius, Domitian und Trajan in der Donauschlucht am Eisemen
Tor an der zuerst als Holz- und Seilkonstruktion errichteten, unter Trajan in
die Felswand gehauenen Strai3e,30 die Inschrift desselben Herrschers, die die
Regulierung der Donau in der genannten Schlucht verewigt,31 oder an die
Inschrift der Trajanssaule, wonach Trajan, urn fur sein forum Platz zu
schaffen, einen Berg abtragen lief3. 32
Als Botschaften der Macht erst recht aussagekraftig sind die
Inschriften, die, schon seit den Lebzeiten des Augustus, vom Kult des numen
Augusti, der gottlichen Macht des Herrschers, zeugen. 33 Gleiches gilt fur die
Inschriften, die auf den Kaiserbasen seit dem friihen 3. Jahrhundert die
Bereitschaft der Untertanen bekunden, im Sinne der devotio ihr Leben fur
das numen des Kaisers zu opfem;34 das hat freilich, wenn auch in anderer
Weise, nach dem Text des auch epigraphisch festgehaltenen Treueeides fur
den Kaiser von den Untertanen schon Augustus abverlangt35 Die Inschrift
aus Rom, die dort an Caracallas 25. Geburtstag, anlaf31ich seiner Riickkehr
von dem siegreichen Feldzug in Britannien, von einem Verein kleiner Leute
Deo Imp(eratori) Caes(ari) M(arco) Aurel[io Divi Septimi Severi f(ilio),
O}ptimo Antonino Pio, sideribu[s in terram delapso, T}onitratori Aug(usto),
orbis terrarum [propagatori, domino} maxima mit dem Wunsch gesetzt
wurde, daB er hundert Jahre lang gliicklich regieren moge, zeigt, wie weit die
Festschrift Heinz E. Herzig, irn Druck (A U. Stylow danke herzlich ich fllr die Dberlassung des noch
ungedruckten Manuskriptes). Zur Benennung von Jnfrastrukturanlagen wie StraJ3en und Aquiidukten
nach Augustus vg!. G. Alfoldy, Gymnasium 98, 1991,301 und dens., Studi sull'epigrafia augustea e
tiberiana (Arun. 21) 63.
30 J. SaSel, Opera Selecta (Situla 30), Ljubljana 1992,259-276.
31 J. SaSeI, Journal of Roman Studies 63, 1973,80-85 = ders., Opera Selecta (Arun. 30) 298-304.
32 CIL VI 960 ef. p. 4310 f. (mit Bibliographie) = ILS 294.
33 Siehe dazu bes. D. Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West. Studies in the Ruler Cult of the
Western Provinces of the Roman Empire II 1, Leiden - New York - Kebenhavn - Koln 1991, 375422, auBerdem dens., Britannia 25, 1994, 127-141; Oberblick tiber die frilhere Literatur bei W.
Potscher, in: Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt II 16, 1, Berlin - New York 1978, 380-387.
Vg!. jetzt G. Alfoldy - J. M. Abascal, in: J. M. Abascal - G. Alfuldy (Eds.), El Areo romano de
Medinaceli (Soria, Hispania citerior) (Bibliotheca Archaeologica Hispaniea 18), Madrid 2002, 99-102.
34 Zur einschliigigen Forme! numini maiestatique eius devotissimus o. ii. siehe bes. H.-G. Gundel,
Epigraphica IS, 1953 (1955), 128-150; weitere Literatur in CIL VI p. 4320 (zu CIL VI 1057-1058)
und unter CIL VI 40621.
35 P. Hemnann, Der romische Kaisereid. Untersuchungen zu seiner Herkunft und Entwickiung
(Hyponrnernata 20), Gottingen 1968. Vg!. M. Clauss, Kaiser und Gott. Herrscherkult irn romischen
Reich, Stuttgart 2001,225-227.
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Anbetung des bereits zu Lebzeiten vergotteten Kaisers schon lange vor
Aurelian gehen konnte. 36
Zahlreiche Inschriften, die der Lobpreisung der Herrscher dienten,
illustrierten GroBe und Glanz der kaiserlichen Macht auch durch ihr auBeres
Erscheinungsbild. Oft fallt schon die GroBe der Buchstaben auf. Den
"Rekord" halt die Inschrift Agrippas, immerhin eines Kollegen des Augustus
in der Ausubung der Macht, auf dem Pantheon, mit rund 70 cm hohen
Buchstaben. Hier sei die Buchstabenhohe einiger Bauinschriften von Kaisem
und Mitgliedern des Kaiserhauses aus Rom und einigen Provinzen genannt.
Bauinschrift des von Tiberius restaurierten Castor- und Pollux-Tempels: bis
zu 53 cm; Hadriansbogen bei Scythopolis in Judaa: bis zu 41 cm;
Titusbogen: bis zu 40 cm; Augustusmonument in La Turbie: bis zu 37 cm;
Bogen von Medinaceli in Spanien: ungefahr 35 cm; Aquadukt von Segovia:
32 bis 35 cm; Inschrift des Tiberius vom forum Romanum: bis zu 34 cm;
Severusbogen in Rom: ungefahr 30 cm; Claudiusbogen ebenda: ca. bis zu 30
cm; Trajansinschrift auf der Tajo-Briicke bei A1cantani in Lusitanien: bis zu
30 cm; Inschrift vom Nerva-jorum: 28/30 cm; Siegesmonument von Actium:
28 cm; Inschrift des Augustus vomforum Romanum: bis zu 26,5 cm; MarsUltor-Tempe\: 23 cm?7 Die Buchstaben nichtkaiserlicher Inschriften waren,
bis auf ganz wenige Ausnahmen, kleiner. Zugleich kennen wir einige
Inschriften, in denen der Name eines Kaisers sozusagen nur en passant
genannt, aber mit groBeren Buchstaben als der ubrige Text geschrieben wird;
ahnlich sind in der erwahnten Inschrift Caracallas seine eigenen W orte durch
gr6Bere Buchstaben hervorgehoben. 38 Zahlreiche Inschriften der Kaiser
beeindruckten den Betrachter auch dadurch, daB sie aus vergoldeten
Bronzebuchstaben bestanden. Diese luxuri6se Technik diente vor allem der
Verherrlichung der kaiserlichen Herrschaft. Nicht zufallig breitete sich der
36 CIL VI 40638 (= 1080), siehe ausfuhrlich G. Alflildy, in: G. Bonamente - M. Mayer (Eds.),
Historiae Augustae Colloquiwn Barcinonense MCMXCill. Atti dei Convegni sulla Historia Augusta
(Historiae Augustae Nova Series IV), Bari 1996, 9-36.
37 Die angefuhrten Daten siehe bei Horster, a.a.O. (Arun. 3) IS mit Arun. 39 bzw. bei W. Eck - G.
Foerster, Journal of Roman Archaeology 12, 1999, 304; fur die stadtromischen Inschriften siehe die
Angaben in den Addenda et corrigenda zu den bereits fiilher edierten bzw. unter den neu edierten
Inschriften im Band CIL VI 8, 2; Segovia und Medinace1i: G. Alflildy, Die Bauinschriften des
Aquaduktes von Segovia und des Amphitheaters von Tarraco (Madrider Forschungen 19, Berlin New York 1997), 22. 25. 41 sowie Alfoldy - Abascal, in: J. M. Abascal - G. Alfoldy (Eds.), El Arco
romano de Medinaceli (Arun. 33) 87.
38 Siehe Arun. 36. Mit groj3eren Buchstaben wird z.B. der Name des Augustus in der Cursus honorum - Inschrift eines Senators seiner Zeit hervorgehoben: M. Buonocore, L' Abruzzo e i1 Molise
in eta romana. Tra storia ed epigrafia IT (Deputazione Abruzzese di Storia Patria, Studi e Testi 21/2),
L' Aquila 2002,886-900 mit Fig. 60.
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Gebrauch der litterae aureae, wie diese Buchstaben hieBen, seit dem Jahre
17 v. Chr. aus, als mit den ludi saeculares die neue aurea aetas eingelautet
wurde. Wie die Symbolik der aurea templa oder der aurea Roma, sollten
auch die goldenen Buchstaben den Glanz des neuen Goldenen Zeitalters und
seines allmachtigen Schopfers vergegenwartigen. 39
Freilich wurden Macht und Erhabenheit der Herrscher nicht nur
durch die GroBe oder den goldenen Glanz der Buchstaben, sondem oft auch
durch die besondere Dimension der Inschriften verkiindet. So betrug die
Lange der Inschriften des Aquaduktes von Segovia ungefahr 17 m, des Mars
Ultor-Tempels und des Castor- und Pollux-Tempels in Rom 21 bzw. 27 m.
Die Inschrift des Augustusmonuments von Actium war fast 60 m lang. Das
alles wurde weit iibertroffen durch die Podiumsinschrift des Amphitheaters
von Tarraco, die die Nomenklatur und Rangtitulatur Elagabals enthielt, mit
ihrer Lange von 147 m.40 Es ist eine Ironie der Geschichte, daB dieses groBte
epigraphische Monument der Antike zugleich eines der kurzlebigsten war:
Die im Jahre 221 angefertigte Inschrift wurde schon ein Jahr spater, nach
Elagabals Sturz, vemichtet; erhalten blieben nur die Namen der gottlichen
Vorganger des Kaisers und am SchluB der Hinweis auf die Emeuerung des
Bauwerkes.
Die meisten bisher erwahnten Beispiele machen deutlich, daB die
Inschriften ihre Botschaft erst recht deshalb verkiinden konnten, weil sie, wie
schon die Res Gestae Divi Augusti, oft zu auBergewohnlichen Monumenten
gehorten, die ebenfalls die GroBe der kaiserlichen Macht unterstrichen. Das
gilt fur die Kolossalstatuen, die in Rom als ein Privileg fur die Herrscher
galten; Beispiele sind etwa die Basen fur monumentale Statuen Trajans auf
Zu Inschriften dieser Art siehe - jeweils mit weiterer Literatur - G. Alf<ildy, Der Obelisk auf dem
Petersplatz, ein historisches Monument der Antike (Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der
Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Jahrgang 1990, Bericht 2), Heidelberg 1990, bes.
21-27; dens., Gymnasium 98, 1991,297-299; dens., Zeitschrift filr Papyrologie und Epigraphik 94,
1992,231-248; dens., ebd. 109, 1995, 195-226, bes. 205 f; dens., Bauinschriften (Anm. 37) I-51, bes.
4-8 und 26-31; dens., Biblical Archaeological Review 27,6,2001,16 f; J. M. Abascal- G. Alf<ildyR. Cebrilin, Archivo Espail.ol de Arqueologia 74, 2001,117-130; Alllildy - Abascal, in: J. M. Abascal
- G. Alf<ildy (Eds.), El Arco romano de Medinaceli (Anm. 33), bes. 80-98.
40 Segovia: G. Alf<ildy, Bauinschriften (Anm. 37) 4. Inschriften des Mars Ultor- und des Dioskurentempels: Siehe bes. dens., Studi sull'epigrafia augustea e tiberiana (Arun. 21) 17-24 bzw. 39-58 und
CIL VI 40311 bzw. 40339. Monument in Actium: W. M. Murray - Ph. M. Petsas, Octavian's
Campsite Memorial for the Actian War (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 79, 4),
Philadephia 1989, 62 ff., bes. 74. Amphitheater von Tarraco: G. Alllildy, Bauinschriften 72. Weitere
Angaben filr die Lange kaiserlicher Bauinschriften bei Horster, a.a.O. (Arun. 3) 15-17.
39
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seinemforum. 41 Auch groBe Tempel, Bogen, Siegesdenkmaler, Amphitheater,
Aquiidukte, Brticken, aber auch Grenzbauten wie z. B. die Hadriansmauer,
einzelne Festungen oder sogar WachtOrme, an denen Inschriften mit Namen
der Herrscher Roms zu lesen waren, konnten Respekt vor den Machthabem
erwecken, wie etwa die Bauinschriften der aqua C1audia an der Porta
Maggiore42 oder des Kastells Aalen am ratischen Limes. 43 Gleiches galt fur so
auBergewohnliche Inschriftentrager wie Saulen oder Obelisken. 44 Als Beispiel
sei hier der Vatikan-Obelisk genannt,45 der ursprtinglich in Alexandria stand,
wo ihn im Frtihherbst 30 v. Chr. Comelius Gallus, damals praefectus fabrum
Oktavians, mit einer lateinischen Inschrift versehen und einweihen lieB (nach
dem Tode des Augustus wurde diese Inschrift bekanntlich durch eine
Widmung an Divus Augustus und seinen Nachfolger Tiberius ersetzt). Dieses
unter Caligula nach Rom gebrachte Monument zeigt uns exemplarisch, wie
TextinhaIt, Beschriftungstechnik, Inschriftentrager und architektonischer
Kontext zusammen der Verherrlichung eines Machthabers dienen konnten. Im
kurzen Text war gleich zweimal der Name des Imperator Caesar Divifilius zu
lesen, auf dessen Befehl (iussu) das forum Iulium, ein nach ihm benannter
Reprasentationsplatz, errichtet wurde; die Inschrift bestand aus litterae aureae,
die damals, erst recht in Agypten, ein Novum darstellten; der Obelisk gait als
Symbol fur die Macht gottlicher Herrscher; wie der Montecitorio-Obelisk mit
einem Globus und Dom an der Spitze verkOndete er die Weltherrschaft und
dorfte auf demforum Iulium Alexandrias, als Vorbild fur das solarium Augusti
in Rom, der Gnomon einer riesigen Sonnenuhr gewesen sein. Wie auch sonst
oftmals, wurde die Aussagekraft der Inschrift hier durch die optische Wirkung
des Monuments erhoht. Umgekehrt war das volle Verstandnis der Botschaft
eines Bauwerkes erst dank seiner Inschrift moglich. Als der in Ovids Fasti
vom Himmel herabgestiegene Mars seinen von Augustus auf dessen forum
gebauten Tempel besichtigt, entzOcken ihn zuerst die Fassade, dann die
41 CIL VI 959 a-c cf. p. 4310. tJber monwnentale Statuen und ihre Postamente bereitet B. Ruck
(Heidelberg) eine Dissertation vor.
42 CIL VI 1256-1258 cf. p. 4365 mitBibliographie = ILS 218.
43 Siehe dazu G. Alfoldy, Fundberichte aus Baden-Wfirttemberg 14, 1989,293-338 (mit einem Beitrag
von V. Habicht-Weinges) und dens., in: P. Barcelo - V. Rosenberger (Hrsg.), Hwnanitas - Beitrage
zur antiken Kulturgeschichte. Festschrift fllr Gunther Gottlieb zwn 65. Geburtstag (Schriften der
Philosophischen Fakultiiten der Universitat Augsburg 65), Milnchen 2001, 27-44. Zu ahnlichen
Inschriften aus Limeskastellen vg!. M. Reuter, Saalburg Jahrbuch 48, 1995,26-51.
44 Siiulen: Vg!. etwa die Inschriften der columna Traiani (siehe oben, Anm. 32) und der Siiule des
Antoninus PillS (CIL VI 1004 cf. p. 4315 mit Bibliographie). Obelisken in Rom: Siehe C. D'Onofrio,
Gli obelischi di Roma, 2. ed., Roma 1967; vg!. J.-C. Grenier, in: E. M. Steinby (Ed.), Lexicon
Topographicwn urbis Romae rn, Roma 1996,355-359.
45 G. Alfoldy, Der Obelisk auf dem Petersplatz (Anm. 39) mit weiterer Literatur.
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Innenausstattung des Bauwerkes. Dann kommt er aus dem Tempel heraus und
liest die Inschrift; als er dort den Namen des Bauherrn, Augustus, sieht,
kommt ihm der Tempel noch grofier vor.46
Die Res Gestae, die Obelisken mit ihrem Umfeld und selbst die
Inschrift des Mars Ultor-Tempels im Kontext des forum Augustum
exemplifizieren auch die Bedeutung des breiteren architektonischen und
topographischen Rahmens, in dem eine sog. "Kaiserinschrift" ihre oft
einzigartige Wirkung entfalten konnte. Hierfur gibt es viele weitere
Beispiele. In Tarraco standen die mit Widmungsinschriften versehenen
Herrscherstatuen innerhalb des monumentalen Bezirkes fur den
Provinziallandtag der Hispania citerior auf der obersten Terrasse der Stadt,
vor dem Augusttistempel; sie beherrschten die Stadt zusammen mit diesem
Tempe1. 47 Das Augustusmonument von La Turbie war in seiner imposanten
Lage schon aus weiter Entfernung sichtbar. 48 Der Aquadukt in Segovia, der
m. E. eine Inschrift Trajans trug, fuhrte vor Augen, wie die kaiserliche
Macht Raum und Natur iiberwinden konnte. 49
Genannt sei hier auch die bekannte Inschrift des Pontius Pilatus aus
Caesarea in Israel, die uns den Schliissel fur das Verstandnis der Herrschersymbolik im Hafen der genannten Stadt bietet. 50 Ich hoffe gezeigt zu haben,
daB die Pilatus-Inschrift die Bauinschrift eines Leuchtturmes im Hafen
Caesareas war, der an der Spitze der Nordmole stand und nach Tiberius als
Tiberieum benannt wurde, entsprechend dem grofien Leuchtturm an der
Spitze der Siidmole mit dem Namen Druseum, benannt nach Drusus, dem
Bruder des Tiberius. 51 Die Symbolik kann erst im breiteren Kontext
begriffen werden. Wie wir von Flavius Iosephus wissen, standen vor beiden
Ovidius, Fasti 5,567 f. Zu der - wiederhergestellten - Inschrift siehe die Angaben oben in Anrn. 40.
Siehe hierzu G. AlfOldy, jeweils mit Hinweis auf weitere Literatur zur Topographie, in: 1. Roda
(Ed.), Tarraco, puerta de Roma. Exposicion organizada por la Fundacion "La Caixa", Tarragona, 13 de
septiembre de 2001 - 6 de enero de 2002, Barcelona 2001,30; dens., in: L. Hernandez Guerra - L.
Sagredo San Eustaquio - 1. M. a Solana Sainz (Eds.), Actas del I Congreso Internacional de Historia
Antigua "La Peninsula lberica hace 2000 anos" (Anrn. 2) 71; vg!. dens., in: G. Brands et al. (Eds.),
Rom und die Provinzen. Gedenkschrift fur Hanns Gabelrnann (Beihefte der Bonner Jahrbilcher 53),
Mainz 2001,146 (
48 Zu diesem Monument siehe N. Larnboglia, Le Trophee d'Auguste a La Turbie, 3. ed., Bordighera
1965; J. Forrnige, Le trophee des AJpes (La Turbie) (Gallia Suppl. 2), Paris 1966; zur Inschrift vg!.
SaSeI, Opera Selecta (Anrn. 30) 288-297.
49 Alfoldy, Bauinschriften (Anrn. 37) I-51; siehe auch dens., Zeitschrift filr Papyrologie und
Epigraphik 94,1992,231-248.
50 G. Alfoldy, Scripta Classica Israelica 18, 1999, 85-108 und ebd. 21, 2002, 133-148.
51 Druseum: Iosephus, Bellum Iudaicum 1,412 und Antiquitates 15,336.
46
47
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Molensspitzen jeweils drei auf Saulen gestellte Statuen,52 die wohl Augustus
und Livia einmal zusammen mit Tiberius, das and ere Mal zusammen mit
Drusus darstellten. Der Hafen hieB portus Augusti; die Stadt wurde nach
Augustus Caesarea benannt; ihr prachtigstes Bauwerk, auf einer Erhohung
iiber dem Hafen, war das Augusteum, das die Seefahrer nach Iosephus
bereits aus der Feme sehen konnten. Die Botschaft der Gesamtanlage
einschlieBlich der Pilatus-Inschrift ist unmiBverstandlich. Wie die nach
Tiberius und Drusus benannten Tiirme den Eingang in den Augustushafen
der Casarenstadt mit dem Tempel des Augustus schiitzen, so wachen
Tiberius und Drusus - der eine zu Pilatus' Zeiten als Herrscher, der andere
aus dem Jenseits - iiber das Erbe des Augustus. Tagsiiber wurde diese
Assoziation durch den Anblick des Tiberieum und des Druseum mit den
ihnen vorgelagerten Kaiserstatuen, aber auch mit Hafen, Stadt und Tempel
des Augustus dahinter vermittelt. Bei Nacht konnte man das Licht der nach
Tiberius und Drusus benannten Leuchttiirme als ein Symbol fur das
kosmische Licht empfinden, das diese beiden leuchtenden Steme des
Herrscherhauses ausstrahlten: Sie, nach der consolatio Liviae die concordia
sidera,53 waren die Abbilder der wie sie auch nach dem Tod des jiingeren
Bruders unzertrennbaren Briider Castor und Pollux, deren Stembilder den
Seefahrem in der Nacht den Weg wiesen.
Ein eindrucksvolles Beispiel fur die Herrschaftssymbolik ist auch der
Bogen von Medinaceli 150 km nordostlich von Madrid, iiber dem Tal, in
dem die StraBe Augusta Emerita - Caesaraugusta fuhrte. 54 Der Bogen, Tor
einer romischen Stadt vielleicht mit dem Namen Ocilis, ist aus der Feme
sichtbar; durch seine drei Durchgange offnet sich ein Blick auf die endlos
wirkende Hochebene Kastiliens. Die aus litterae aureae komponierte
Inschrift, deren Wiederherstellung nach einer genauen Aufnahme ihrer
Verdiibelungsspuren vor kurzem gelungen sein diirfte, verherrlichte auf der
Stadtseite das numen Augustum, die gottliche Macht der Herrscher Roms,
auf der Talseite das numen des regierenden Kaisers. Die Macht der Kaiser
iiber die Oikumene hatte kaum klarer zum Ausdruck gebracht werden
konnen als durch dieses Zusammenspiel von Text, goldenen Buchstaben,
Monument und Landschaft.
52 Iosephus, Bellum Iudaicum 1,413; zu den Fundamenten fUr diese Statuen siehe auch dens.,
Antiquitates 15,338.
53 Consolatio ad Liviam (Epicedion Drusi) 283.
54 J. M. Abascal- G. AlfOldy (Eds.), El Arco romano de Medinaceli (Amn. 33).
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Verstarkt wurde die Aussagekraft der "Kaiserinschriften" auch durch
ihre groBe Zahl. Nach der Zusammenstellung der einschlagigen Denkmaler
durch J. M. lWjte kennen wir aus dem Zeitraum von Augustus bis
Commodus mehr als 2200 beschriftete Basen von Statuen der Augusti. 55
Zusammen mit den spateren Kaiserbasen und den Postamenten fur Statuen
der Augustae und Caesares kamen wir auf etwa 5000 Stiicke. Wenn jeder
allgemein anerkannte Kaiser in jeder Stadt eine Statue mit Inschrift bekam,
waren das viele Zehntausende von Widmungen. Vielerorts gab es freilich
mehr als nur eine Statue fur einen Kaiser, so allein in Athen Hunderte von
Hadriansstatuen. 56 Die stereotypen Inschriften der Meilensteine wiederholten
die Nomenklatur und Titulatur der Kaiser, wenn auch nicht unbedingt Meile
fur Meile, so doch sehr haufig, beispielsweise in Hispanien entlang der via
Augusta von ihrem Beginn in den Pyrenaen bis zu ihrem Endpunkt in
Gades. 57 Von herausragenden Inschriften, die der Verherrlichung des
Kaisershauses dienten, gab es auch Kopien an anderen Orten - nicht nur von
den Res Gestae, sondern z. B. auch vom Ehrenschild des Augustus 58 Dazu
kamen die Abschriften offizielIer Dokumente wie der Senatsbeschliisse zu
Ehren des verstorbenen Germanicus, die in alIen Kolonien und wohl auch in
all en Municipien publik gemacht wurden,59 oder das Senatus consultum de
Pisone patre, mehr eine Laudatio auf das Herrscherhaus als ein
Gerichtsurteil, das in alIen Stadten der Baetica angeschlagen war.60
en.
55 Siehe oben Anm. 3. lur groBen lahl der Kaiserstatuen, die auf entsprechend beschrifteten
Postamenten standen, vg!. auch Th. Pekary, Das romische Kaiserbildnis in Staat, Kult und
Gesellschaft, dargestellt anhand der Schriftquellen (Das romische Herrscherbild Ill), Berlin 1985, bes.
4-12.22-28.42-65.
56 Vg\. Pekary, a.a.O. (Anm. 55) 7. 27. 35.44 usw.
57 lu den Meilensteinen an dem in der Hispania citerior befmdlichen Abschnitt dieser StraBe siehe die
Materiaisammlung bei F. Paili Aguilera, La Via Augusta en Catalufta, Bellaterra 1985 sowie J. Lostal
Pros, Los miliarios de la provincia Tarraconense (conventos Tarraconense, Cesaraugustano, Cluniense
y Cartaginense), Zaragoza 1992. Meilensteine der via Augusta in der Baetica: Siehe Sillieres, Les
voies de communication de I'Hispanie meridionale (Ann. 29) 68-118 Nr. 1-61.
58 Vg\. G. Alfoldy, Gymnasium 98, 1991, 308 mit Anm. 49; dazu jetzt auch CIL VI 40365 (dort auch
Naheres zu anderen Kopien) und 40366, ausfllhrlich dazu Panciera, in: H. von Hesberg - S. Panciera,
Das Mausoleum des Augustus (Anm. 14) 1\3-118 Nr. 9 und 171 f. Nr. LIY. Siehe noch Kienast,
Augustus (Anm. 4) 96, u. a. mit Hinweis auf eine Kopie auch in Ostia.
59 CIL VI 911 = 31199 mit weiterer Literatur; zu den Kopien siehe AE 1949, 215 = 1952, 164 (Tabula
Hebana) und AE 1984, 508 = CILA rr 927 (Tabula Siarensis), dazu ausfilhrlich A. Sanchez-Ostiz
Gutierrez, Tabula Siarensis. Edicion, traduccion y comentario (Coleccion Mundo Antiguo, N. S. 4),
Pamplona 1999; vg\. noch bes. J. Gonzalez - J. Arce (Eds.), Estudios sobre la Tabula Siarensis,
Madrid 1988.
60 CIL rr2/5, 900; siehe ausfuhrlich Eck - Cabailos - Femandez, Das senatus consultum de Cn. Pisone
patre (Anm. 17), zur Publikation der Kopien in der Baetica: 279-287, ebenso A. Cabailos - W EckF. Fernandez, El senadoconsulto de Gneo Pison padre, Sevilla 1996, zur Publikation der Kopien in der
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Man kann hinzufugen: Ruhm und Macht der Kaiser Roms wurden
hin und wieder sogar auBerhalb des Reiches durch Inschriften verkiindet.
Erinnert sei hier an die Siegesinschrift im Felsen von TrenCin in der
Slowakei, in Laugaricio im Quadenland, 120 km nordlich von der
Donaugrenze, mit der Widmung Victoriae A ugustoru (m). dediziert im
Winter 179/180 von einer Legionsabteilung, die vor dem fur das nachste
Friihjahr geplanten Feldzug gegen die Germanen dort iiberwintert hat 61 Bei
solchen Dokumenten, so z. B. auch bei den im Kaukasus gesetzten
Inschriften mit der Nennung der Kaiser Domitian, Mark Aurel oder
Commodus,62 konnte man sich fragen, wer diese Texte iiberhaupt lesen
konnte. Das triffi aber z. B. auch fur den von Cornelius Gallus unmittelbar
nach der Eroberung Agyptens in Alexandria dedizierten Obelisken mit seiner
lateinischen Inschrift zu, zumal Gallus sein eigenes Siegesdenkmal in Philae
einige lahre spater gleichzeitig in lateinischer, griechischer und agyptischer
Sprache beschriften lieB, damit den Text dort jedermann verstehen konnte. 63
Die Frage nach der Rezeption der Inschriften stellt sich freilich, angesichts
des weit verbreiteten Analphabetismus, fur das ganze Imperium. 64 Was die
Reichsbevolkerung betriffi, konnen wir wohl davon ausgehen, daB viele
Menschen, die die lateinischen - oder im Osten die griechischen - Texte nicht
lesen konnten, zumindest die wichtigsten Begriffe wie die iiberaus haufig
vorkommende, auch durch die Miinzen bekannt gewordene Nomenklatur bzw.
Titulatur Imp. Caesar Augustus (oder Autokrator Kaisar Sebastos) dennoch
Baetica: 133-141; zu den Kopien in der Baetica siehe auch A. U. Stylow - S. Corso Perez, Chiron 29,
1999, 23-28.
61 Siehe CIL III 13439 = J. Ce§ka - R. Ho§ek, lnscriptiones Pannoniae superioris in Slovacia
Transdanubiana asservatae (Opera Universitatis Purknynianae Brunensis, Facultas Philosophica 125),
Bmo 1967, Nr. 2; grundlegend dazu H.-G. Pflaum, Les carrieres procuratoriennes equestres sous le
Haut-Empire romain I, Paris 1960,476-494 Nr. 181 his, bes. 493.
62 AE 1951,263; AE 1910, 161 = ILS 9117; CIL III 6052 = ILS 394; zu der an erster Stelle genannten
lnschrift siehe bes. B. lsaac, The Limits of Empire. The Roman Army in the East, 2. ed., Oxford 1992,
44 f. und F. Bertrandy - B. R6rny, in: Y. Le Bohec - C. Wolff (Eds.), Les legions de Rome sous le
Haut-Empire. Actes du Congres de Lyon (17-19 septembre 1998), Lyon 2000, 255; zu den beiden
anderen lnschriften E. L. Wheeler, ebd. 300.
63 CIL III 14147,5 = IGRR I!II 1293 = OGIS IT 654 = ILS 8995 = E. Bemand, Les inscriptions
grecques et latines de Philae IT. Haut et Bas Empire, Paris 1969, Nr. 128; vg!. Alfuldy, Der Obelisk auf
dem Petersplatz (Amn. 39) 96-100.
64 Zu der - in der Forschung umstrittenen - Dimension der Leseflihigkeit bzw. des Analphabetismus in
der romischen Welt siehe bes. W. V. Harris, Ancient Literacy, Cambridge, Mass. - London 1989, bes.
175-322; zur Problematik des Zusanunenhanges zwischen der Verbreitung der epigraphischen
Denkmiiler und der Schriftlichkeit ebd. 265-273. 287 f.
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erkennen konnten. 65 AuBerdem konnte man die Kaisemamen in einigen Teilen
des Reiches auch in der eigenen Sprache und Schrift einzelner Bevalkerungsgruppen, beispielsweise punisch oder in Hieroglyphenschrift, wiedergeben. 66
Der Gebrauch des Lateins fur die Inschriften in soeben unterworfenen oder
voriibergehend besetzten Gebieten erklart sich dagegen wohl eher dadurch,
daB so die Macht Roms ztir Schau gestellt werden sollte: Der 10kaIen
Bevalkerung muB zumindest soviel bekannt gewesen sein, daB die ihnen
unverstandlichen Schiftzeichen von der Prasenz der Ramer und somit von der
Macht Roms und seines Kaisers zeugen. 67
Ein Kaiser wurde jedenfaUs durch unvergleichlich mehr Inschriften
geriihmt als selbst ein hochangesehener Senator oder Ritter. Dazu kommt
freilich noch zusatzlich, daB die Herrscher auch in vielen Inschriften der
Untertanen als diejenigen verherrlicht wurden, denen diese ihren sozialen
Aufstieg einschlieBlich Amter und Privilegien zu verdanken hatten. 68
Zugleich nutzten die Herrscher dieses Medium fur ihre eigenen Ziele in einer
vie1fach exklusiven Weise. Das zeigt sich nicht nur durch den InhaIt, die
GraBe, die Pracht oder die Plazierung ihrer epigraphischen Monumente,
auch nicht nur durch ihre groBe Anzahl. In Rom gab es seit Augustus bis auf
fur einige Nutzbauten keine Bauinschrift mehr, die and ere Bauherren als die
Mitglieder des Kaiserhauses verherrlicht hatten 69 Seit der mittIeren
65 Zu der Moglichkeit, daB ganz einfache epigraphische Iexte oder stereotype WendWlgen selbst von
Analphabeten erkannt Wld identiflziert werden konnten, vg!. W. V. Harris, Zeitschrift fOr Papyrologie
Wld Epigraphik 52, 1983, 107-111. Dber eine "alphabetisation pauvre, largement rt!pandue" der
Rezipienten von Inschriften siehe M. Corbier, in: L'Urbs. Espace urbaine et histoire (r' siecIe ay. J.-c.
- me siecIe ap. J.-C.). Actes du coIIoque international organise par le Centre National de la Recherche
Cientiflque et I'Ecole Franyaise de Rome (Rome, 8-12 mai 1985), Paris - Roma 1987, 59 f
66 Zu BiIdern romischer Kaiser nach iigyptischer AuffassWlg - zu denen oft einschliigige Iexte in
iigyptischer Sprache Wld Schrift gehorten - siehe M. AlfOldi, a.a.O. (Anm. 3) 166-170 mit weiterer
Literatur. Bilingue Inschriften zu Ehren des Augustus in lateinischer Wld punischer Schrift in Lepcis
Magna: !RI 321-323.
67 Es sei gestattet, auf eine modeme Analogie hinzuweisen. Die - nicht selten aus vergoldeten
Bronzebuchstaben bestehenden - Inschriften, die nach 1945 auf den sowjetischen Sieges- Wld
Gedenkmonumenten der osteuropiiischen Under mit zyriIIischen Buchstaben in russischer Sprache
angebracht wurden, konnten zwar dort die meisten Menschen nicht lesen; ein BIick auf diese
Monumente genOgte jedoch, urn sich die HerrschafisvorsteIIWlg zu vergegenwiirtigen, die diese
Denkmiiler Wld spezieII auch ihre Beschriftung verkiindeten.
68 Siehe beispielsweise die zahlreichen Inschriften, in denen Offiziere und Soldaten des romischen
Heeres die Kaiser als ihre personIichen Wohltater riihmen; dazu G. Alfoldy, in: A. Chaniotis - P.
Ducrey (Eds.), Army and Power in the Ancient World (Heidelberger Althistorische Beitriige Wld
Epigraphische Studien 37), Stuttgart 2002, 123-150.
69 W. Eck, in: F. MilIar - E. Segal, Caesar Augustus. Seven Aspects, Oxford 1984,129-167, bes. 137142 = ders., Ira epigrafrn, prosopografla e archeologia. Scritti scelti, rielaborati ed aggiomati (Vetera
10), Roma 1996, 27 I -298, bes. 276-278.
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Regierungszeit des Augustus bekam dort auf den offentlichen Platzen und in
den offentlichen Bauten niemand mehr eine Ehrenstatue und somit auch
keine Ehreninschrift au13er den Vertrauten und Freunden der Herrscher, die
die Errichtung derartiger Monumente fur ihre fuhrenden Anhanger - oft erst
nach deren Tode - erlaubten. 70 Auch gab es nach Augustus keinen Meilenstein mehr, der eine andere Person als den Kaiser als Bauherrn einer via
publica verewigt hatte?! Die Liste der kaiserlichen Vorrechte in der Nutzung
des Mediums "Inschrift" lie13e sich fortsetzen.
Alles in allem eigneten si ch die inschriftlichen Monumente der
romischen Welt bestens dazu, die Macht der Herrscher zu vergegenwartigen.
Die Kaiser nutzten fur die Festigung ihrer Herrschaft nicht nur die Macht der
Bilder, sondem, in engster Verbindung damit, auch die Macht der Worte, die
nicht nur gesprochen, sondem in bleibender Form festgehalten wurden, urn
ebenso wie die Bilder fur die Ewigkeit Geltung zu haben. Somit iibten die
inschriftlichen Monumente, die zur Verherrlichung der Kaiser und ihrer
Herrschaft eingesetzt waren, ebenso wie die gesamte epigraphische Kultur
der Romer, die ihre Wertvorstellungen und Verhaltensnormen fur kiinftige
Generationen dokumentierte, eine wahrhaftig nicht zu unterschatzende
systemstabilisierende Funktion aus. Man konnte sagen: Wie etwa heute der
Proze13 der Vereinigung Europas zu einem nicht unbedeutenden Teil ein
Werk der Medien ist, die diesen Proze13 Tag fur Tag weiter verfolgen und
seine Bedeutung in die Kopfe und Herzen der Menschen einhammern, so
festigten sich, mutatis mutandis, auch die kaiserliche Macht in Rom und
damit das Imperium Romanum dank dem Einflu13 der Medien der damaligen
Zeit. Der epigraphischen Kultur Roms fiel dabei eine ahnlich entscheidende
RoUe zu wie den Monumenten, zu denen die Inschriften gehorten.
Heidelberg, Dezember 2002
70 G. Alllildy, in: G. Alllildy - S. Panciera (Eds.), Inschriftliche Denkmaler als Medien der
Se1bstdarstelhmg (Amn. I) 11-46.
71 G. Alfoldy, Gymnasiwn 98,1991,300 f.
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COINS AND MESSAGES:
AUDIENCE TARGETING ON COINS OF DIFFERENT
DENOMINATIONS?"
By
OLIVIER HEKSTER
Some Romans were aware of the images and legends on their coins.
Passages from various literary texts make this clear. The examples are well
known. The Gospel of Matthew, for instance, tells us how:
"They brought him a denarius, and he said to them, 'whose portrait
is this? and whose inscription?' and they said to him: 'Caesar's'.
Then he said to them, 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's'." I
Sceptics could still argue that this passage actually shows a lack of
awareness of images on coins from the part of the public, as the emperor's
portrait and inscription needed pointing out. Arrian, however, in a famous
passage, goes further and explicitly connects value judgements on individual
emperors with their particular coins. He takes it entirely for granted that
people were aware of which emperor was depicted on which coin:
"The stamps with which a man comes imprinted on his
disposition [are] like the stamps we look for on coins too: if we
find them we accept their value, if we don't, we chuck them out.
'Whose stamp does this serterce bear? Trajan's? Take it. Nero's?
Chuck it out, it will not pass, it is rotten. '" (Arrian, Discourses of
Epictetus 4.5.15-17)
Even if people did not 'chuck out' the coins of 'evil emperors' (and they
probably did not), the emphasis on awareness of the individuals depicted on
coins is striking. It seems to imply more than mere economic awareness of the
• This paper has been greatly improved by the critical comments of Chris Howgego and Cathy King,
who kindly read an earlier draft. They saved me from many mistakes, but should not be held
responsible for any remaining blunders, nor for the opinions that are ventilated. My gratitude, also, to
the participants of the workshop, especially Werner Eck and Richard Talbert. But most thanks should
go to Thijs Goverde, who pointed out to me the possible relevance of 'brands' and 'marketing' as a
modern parallel for my ideas on the Roman world.
1 Matthew 22.21; Cr. Mark 12.17, Luke 20.24.
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value of coins from the part of the authors? People saw the images on coins and
reacted to them in a variety of ways. Hence, for instance, Hadrian's putting
down of the Bar Kokhba revolt (AD 132-5), was followed by a rabbinical
prohibition for Jews to use coins of that emperor. His coins - though
economically of course still valid modes of payment - had become tainted. 3
Coins were an important medium in the Roman world. Were they
consciously employed to reach specific audiences? This question is, of
course, a central one to our understanding of Roman 'ideology' and its
dissemination. Unsurprisingly, many scholars have already grappled with it,
and it is thus with some trepidation that I would like to suggest a way in
which the question could be answered. 4 That is, one might want to look
whether there was a diversification of messages between coins of different
denominations. If so, one could argue that there was awareness amongst
those who designed coins that different denominations could target different
groups of audiences. In a way, this addresses an important problem
formulated by A.H.M. Jones. Almost 50 years ago, he heavily criticized the
notion of coins as 'propaganda', and noted: 'It would be a matter of some
interest if numismatists could try to determine, on internal evidence, within
the general probabilities of the situation, at what classes the propaganda on
the coins was directed'. 5 If different denominations sent out different
messages to different audiences, Jones' challenge may have been met.
2 Cf. Arrian, Discourses of Epictetus 3.3.3; Artemidorus, Oneirocritica 4.31; Dio Cassius 78.16.5;
CTh 9.22, and Statius, Silvae 4.9.22 on a gift, which was only worth plus minus asse Gaiano - though
this may refer to Claudius' invalidation of Gaius' coins: Dio Cassius 60.22.3; AA Barrett, 'The
Invalidation of Currency in the Roman Empire: The Claudian Demonetization ofCaJigula's Aes', in:
G. Paul & M. Ierardi, eds., Roman Coins and Public Life under the Empire. E. Togo Salmon Papers II
(Ann Arbor 1999), 83-93. Perhaps also of relevance is the importance of destroying hated
predecessors' coinage: Dio Cassius, 60.22.3; 78.12.6. Cf. Dio Cassius 64.6; G.A. Crurnp, 'Coinage
and imperial thought', in: J.W.Eadie & J. Ober, eds., The Craft of the Ancient Historian. Essays in
Honour of Chester C. Starr (Lanham 1985),425-441; 430-431.
3 Similarly, the fact that the rebels issued their own coinage, with clear symbolic messages, shows how
value-laden coinage can be. Coinage was used as a medium to broadcast the rebels' unity against the
messages that Roman coins put forward; 1. Mildenberg, The Coinage of the Bar Kokhba War
(Frankfurt am Main 1984). Cf. W. Eck, 'The Bar Kokhba revolt: the Roman point of view', Journal of
Roman Studies 89 (1999), 76-89.
4 I would like to make clear from the start that this article deals solely with imperial coinage. I am
quite aware that Roman provincial coinage followed and entirely different model. For analysing
central ideology, one must, however look to imperial coinage.
S AH.M. Jones, 'Numismatics and History', in: R.AG. Carson & C.H.V. Sutherland, eds.,
Numismatics and History. Essays in Roman Coinage Presented to Harold Mattingly (London 1956),
13-33; 15.
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Many have, as said, discussed these matters, and significant
contributions by, amongst others, Barbara Levick, Michael Crawford,
Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Cathy King, Peter Lummel and Carlos Norefia
have paved the way6 An important recent article by Andrew Meadows and
Jonathan Williams has put forward the notion of 'monumentality' to
understand coin types of the late Republic. They argue that 'propaganda' is
not quite the right term, since the coins did not try to persuade but to remind
people of certain aspects or events. Meadows and Williams may very well be
right, but they never deny some sort of 'communication of a message'. This
article aims to look at whether such messages (whether they are called
'propaganda' or not) may have been consciously directed at specific
audiences. J Also still important to the present paper are Sutherland's
influential Coinage in Roman Imperial Policy and his later The Emperor and
the Coinage, which still dominate debates 8 Sutherland - arguing strongly
against Jones' minimalist views on the purpose of coinage - showed after
extensive analysis of a wide range of coins that the contents of coins, in the
long range, remained more or less the same, independent of the value of the
coins in question.
But recently, in an interesting article, William Metcalf has tried to
show differentiation of messages in coins of different denominations. Using
the figure of Liberalitas as an example, he argues that she was depicted
differently on different types of coins. Precious metal coins, in his analysis,
depicted Liberalitas as a personification, whereas aes coins show a
Liberalitas scene. He concluded from this that:
B. Levick, 'Propaganda and the Imperial Coinage', Antichthon 16 (1982), 104-116; M. Crawford,
'Roman Imperial Coin Types and the Formation of Public Opinion', in: C. N. Brooke, et al., eds.,
Studies in Numismatic Method Presented to Philip Grierson (Cambridge 1983), 47-64; A. WallaceHadrill, 'Image and Authority in the Coinage of Augustus', Journal of Roman Studies 67 (1986), 6687; C. Howgego, Ancient history from coins (London 1995); C. King, 'Roman Portraiture: Images of
Power', in: PaullIerardi 1999, op. cit. (n. 2), 123-136; P. Lummel, 'Zielgruppen' romischer
Staatskunst. Die Miinzen der Kaiser Augustus his Trajan und die trajanischen Staatsrelieft (M(inchen
1991); C.F.Noreiia, 'The Communication of the Emperor's Virtues', Journal of Roman Studies 91
(200 I), 146-168. For a good overview of the discussion: 8. Levick, 'Messages on the Roman Coinage:
Types and Inscriptions', in: Paul!Ierardi 1999, op. cit. (n. 2),41-60.
J A. Meadows & J. Williams, 'Moneta and the Monuments: Coinage and Politics in RepUblican
Rome', Journal of Roman Studies 91 (2001),27-49. One needs to remember that the situation in the
Empire was noticeably different from the late Republic, with one man in power rather than several
families fighting for prestige.
8 C. H. V. Sutherland, Coinage in Roman Imperial Policy (London 1951); idem, The Emperor and the
Coinage. Julio-Claudian Studies (London 1976).
6
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"The precious-metal coins, with their limited but longer
circulation ... were confined ... to circulation among the higher
classes of ancient society, and memorialized the emperor's
liberalitas itself. The aes coinage, with its primarily Italian and
indeed urban circulation, largely among the lower classes, could
quite properly focus on the event that led to the circulation of the
money in the first place.,,9
Metcalf s differentiation in types of audiences is an important one, and, I
believe, essentially right. lo This is not to say that the lower strata of society
would never see precious-metal coins, or that every individual in the Roman
Empire would fit into only one 'target group'. Yet, though the boundaries
between different audiences must have been somewhat blurred, it seems
probable that one could at least distinguish between primary and secondary
types of audience. Metcalfs argument, however, fails to take into account a
crucial point. Centrally issued precious-metal coins in the early empire were
much smaller than bronzes, quadrantes aside, and the difference in size may
well have been the important factor in deciding for a personification or a
more space-taking scene. Audience targeting will have been, at best, a lesser
consideration.
In fact, it appears that any search for overarching differences between
coins of different denominations throughout the entire Principate, is doomed to
fail. Legend types like ANNONA or CERES, which one would expect to be more
relevant for people in need of food, appear almost exclusively in lower
denomination on coinage from the reigns of Claudius, Nero, Galba, Vitellius,
Domitian and Nerva, but they are prominently displayed on all types of coins
(including aurei) in the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, Trajan and Hadrian." Even
W.E. Metcalf, 'Whose Liberalitas? Propaganda and audience in the early Roman Empire', Rivista
italiana di numismatica e scienze ajjini 95 (1993), 337-346. Cf. Norefta 2001, op.cit (n. 6), 160-164 on
the quantitative representation of liberalitas on imperial denarii. Noreil.a's article is an important step
in the use of a quantitative approach in the study of iconography and representation, but as it focuses
solely on denarii, it is unfortunately of little use for the present contribution.
10 Cf. the four different target groups described by Lmnme1 1991, op. cit. (n. 6), 8: senate; armies;
plebs urbana; provinces.
II Claudius: dupondii: RIC 12, 127 no. 94; 129 no. 110. Nero: sestertii: RIC 12, 159 nos. 98-99, 161
nos. 137-142,173 no. 372, 174 no. 389-393, 177 nos. 430-431,180 nos. 493-497, 183 nos. 566-573.
But cf. aurei: RIC 12, 151 no. 23, 152 nos. 29 and 35. Galba: asses: RIC 12,246 nos. 291-292,248
nos. 324-326,251 nos. 420-421. Vitellius: sestertii: RIC 12,275 nos. 131-132 and 144-145,276 no.
155,277 no. 166. Vespasian: aurei: BMCRE 2, 48 no. 274t, 51 nos. 290-297, 52 nos. 298-300,93 no.
445t, 97 no. 465; denarii: nos. 52 no. 301, 92 no. 422, 93 no. 45~;
sestertii: BMCRE 2, 166 no.
9
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the congzanum, recIpients of which were strictly limited to the plebs
jrumentaria, was celebrated on high-value coins in the reigns of Trajan,
Antoninus Pius and Septimius Severus, though Nero, Titus and Nerva used the
legend only on sestertii.12 Such lack of consistent differentiation of messages on
coins of different values over an extended period of time need not, however,
imply absolute absence of audience targeting within individual reigns.
Jones formulated his criticism of the term 'propaganda' largely as a negative
reaction to the use of modern preconceptions in analysing the Roman world.
It is, thus, highly unlikely that he would be convinced by a response that uses
modern parallels as a framework. Still, it is such a framework that I will put
forward as a possible way ahead. It follows from the notions that are
concerned with the marketing of so-called 'brands': e.g. Coca Cola, Levi's,
Virgin, or - with more classical connotations - Mars and Nike. Those
brands, after all, try to do what emperors, in their way, were equally aiming
for: to create a good name for themselves, for now and posterity, in an
empire where most of the inhabitants would never physically see their ruler.
Some citations from modern 'rulers' may exemplify the point. Richard
Branson, founder of Virgin, has stated how one should 'build brands not
around products but around reputation', 13 whilst Phil Knights, CEO ofNike,
pointed out in 1992 that he finally understood 'that the most important thing
we do is market the product'.14 Hector Liang, former chairman of United
Biscuits, put it rather more bluntly: 'Machines wear out. People die. But
715§, 172 nos. 730-731. Titus: aurei: BMCRE 2, 224 no. 6, 54-55 nos. 316-323; denarii: BMCRE 2,
225 no. 7; sesterlii: 224 nos. 152-155,294 no. 307*. Domitian: sesterlii: BMCRE 2,365 nos. 304-305,
368 nos. 323-324,380 no. 371; dupondii: 360 no. 286*, 373 no. 347, 379 no. 368~,
382 no. 381*, 389
no. 41O~;
asses: 391 no. 415; quadrantes: BMCRE 2, 379 no. 370,410 nos. 492-493. Nerva: sesterlii:
BMCRE 3, 14 no. 85t, 17 no. 96t, 19 no.101. Trajan: aurei: BMCRE 3, 57 no. 174,96 no. 468;
denarii: BMCRE 3, 56 nos. 169-172; sesterlii: 165-166, nos. 781-784, 183 no. 869,203 no. 959t, 207
nos. 972-973; dupondii: BMCRE 3, 187 nos. 885-886, 194 no .. 918, 197 no. 927,202 no. 959*,211
no. 996. Hadrian: denarii: BMCRE 3,288-289 nos. 379 -390, 300 nos. 488-489; sesterlii: 479 nos.
1574-1582; dupondii: 437 no. 1334a, 439 nos. 1346-1347.
12 Nero: RIC 12, 159 nos. 100-102,161-162 nos. 151-162, 177 nos. 434-435,175 no. 394, 180 nos.
504-506,183 no. 576. Titus: BMCRE 2, 139 no. 629, and 263. Nerva: BMCRE 3, 14 no. 87, 17 no.
97. Trajan: sesterlii: BMCRE 3, 147 no. 712, 161-162 nos. 768-770. Trajan: aureus: G. Spino1a, Il
'congiarium'in eta imperiale. Aspetti iconogrofici e topografici (Roma 1990), tav. XII, fig. 38.8.
Antoninus Pins: denarii: BMCRE 4,150 no. 1004; sesterlii: 361 no. 2108, 362 no. 2111. Septimius
Severus: aureus: Spinola, op. cit., tav. XIII figs. 55-56.
13 N. Klein, No Logo (London 2000), 24.
14 Harvard Business Review (July 1992), 92; Klein 2000, op. cit. (n. 13), 22.
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what lives on are the brands' 15 Like Roman emperors, brands manage to
survive because of what relevant people think of them. Canon camera
commercials of the early 1990s sum it up: 'Image is everything'16 Whilst
artefacts are being produced at an undefined level - be they imperial
portraits, or jeans - 'Headquarters ... is free to focus on the real business at
hand - creating a corporate [or imperial] mythology powerful enough to
infuse meaning into these raw objects just by signing its name'.17 Such a
'mythology', through advertisements that contain 'preferred meanings', ends
up representing reality, rather than just reflecting it. 18
These advertisements are not consistent over long periods - they
change with the changes in dominant consumer groups. When in the 1990's
the number of teenagers with large spending power started to increase, brand
names tried to become 'cool'; with new messages in new media such as
MTV, whilst retaining some of their old advertisements in more conservative
media so as not alienate current consumers19 Britain's 'New Labour' does
very much the same, and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi has obviously realised
how important it is to occupy all forms of broadcasting, to reach all possible
audiences, with different messages, whether they want them or not. Also, at
a more academic level, one can still see how 'audience targeting' should
always be analysed in very specific contexts. For reasons not entirely clear to
me, but most probably connected to creating a specific image (and boosting
sales figures), Antony Barrett's excellent biography of Agrippina was
published, in the same year (1996), under different titles in the UK and US.
In Britain, the book is called Agrippina, Sister of Caligula, Wife of Claudius,
Mother of Nero. In the States, the same work was issued as Agrippina: Sex,
Power and Politics in the Early Roman Empire.
What follows from this, and what might make it relevant as a model for an
analysis of Roman imperial coinage, is that one should be aware of particular
messages that a broadcaster would want to convey to particular groups at
specific moments. When circumstances change, advertisers start to target
different groups in different ways. Would Roman emperors not try to do the
Irish Times (27-2'98); Klein 2000, op. cit. (n. 13), 196.
Klein 2000, op. cit. (n. 13), 197.
17 Klein 2000, op. cit. (n. 13),21
18 N. Abercrombie & B. Longhurst, Audiences. A Sociological Theory of Performance and
Imagination (London 1998), 11 and 14.
19 Klein 2000, op. cit. (n. 13), 118-21.
IS
16
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same? Rather than looking at overall patterns, therefore, it may be much
more worth while to look at a more closely defined period, in a shorter time
span, to see whether at least there denominations did matter.
The Civil War of AD 68-69, a period of great turmoil, forms an
interesting test case. It is in such moments of transition that messages
become more forceful. As Wallace-Hadrill phrased it: 'liveliness on coins
reflects political instability'. 20 Similarly, I would argue, moments in which
one needs specific layers of society as power bases are going to be the
moments in which targeting those layers is of prime importance. Galba's
coins seem to illustrate the point. His gold and silver types refer explicitly to
the importance of his provincial support - CONCORDIA PROVINCIARUM
figured along GALLIA HISPANIA, HISPANIA, and SALUS GENERIS HUMANI. 21
The latter seems to have been a specifically anti-Neronian statement in the
Western provinces, which had already been used by Vindex. 22 Coins oflower
denomination on the other hand, aimed at the urban plebs of Rome,
displayed more urban themes. 23 Again, this is not to say that none of the
urban plebs would ever see coins of higher denomination, or that none of the
soldiers would use smaller change. But one can assume a difference of
primary audience - and the different types of legends on the different types
of coins mirror that.
Otho did not even bother to strike bronze coinage. Partly, this must
have been because the flood of small change produced by Nero and Galba
was enough for economic needs. 24 But it coincides markedly with an
emperor who tried to indulge the praetorians, and simultaneously win over
the senate by following a strict constitutionalist line - as is showed, for
20 Wallace-Hadrill 1986, op. cit. (n. 6),70.
21 RIC 12,222. CONCORDIA PROVINCIARUM: aurei: RIC 1\ 237 no. 104,238 nos. 117-120; denarii:
RIC 12,234 nos. 35 and 49,235 no. 54,238 nos. 105-108, 125-126,241 no. 149,241-242 nos. 180183. GALLIA H!SPANIA: denarii: RIC 12,233 nos. 15-18,238 no. 109,241 no. 154. HISPANIA: aurei:
RIC 12,242 no. 192,243 no. 225; denarii: RIC 12,240 no. 146,232 nos. 1-3,233 nos. 19-21,234 no.
50,237 no. 86,240 no. 144,241 no. 155,242 nos. 190-191 and 193. SALUS GENERIS HUMAN!: aurei:
RIC 12,240 no. 146,242 nos. 206,208 and 212-213, 243 no. 231; denarii: RIC 12,237 nos. 96-97,
241 nos. 171-172,242 nos. 205,207,209-211 and 214,243 no. 232. Cr. GALLIA: denarii: RIC 12,236
no. 85, and TRES GALLIAE: denan'i: RIC 12, 237 nos. 89-92.
22 C.M. Kraay, 'The coinage of Vindex and Galba, AD 68, and the continuity of the Augustan
Principate', Numismatic Chronicle 6th series 9 (1949), 129-149; 137-138; Suetonius, Galba 9.2;
Tacitus, Histories 1.30. Cr. also ILS 3827, an altar dedicted to Salus Generis Humani that was found
near Le Puy and may date from the same years.
23 Supra n. 10 for CERES and ANNONA. Also: SECURITAS P. ROMANI SC (asses: RIC 12,255 nos. 491495) and VICTORIA IMPERI ROMANI (sestertii: RIC 12,255 no. 490).
24 RIC 12,258.
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instance by Tacitus, Histories, 1.77. Otho, it appears, limited his primary
messages to those who mattered most to him in the nearest future 25 Vitellius,
on the other hand, issued all denominations, and the differences in legends
are noticeable. Gold and silver coins read, among others, CONCORDIA
P(OPULr) R(OMANr), CONCORDIA PRAETORIANORUM, PONT(IFEX) MAxIM(us)
and XV VIR(r) SACR(rS) FAC(IUNDIS). All of these legends are absent from
the bronzes, which instead mentioned themes such as ANNONA AUGUST!,
CERES AUGUST!, PAX AUGUSTI and ROMA RENASCENS. Furthermore, the
legends on the low-value coins in Rome were much more diversified than
those in Spain and Gaul. Was Vitellius perhaps trying to reach especially the
Roman p/ebs?26 In any case, the different legends broadcast, quite clearly,
different messages for different audiences.
Finally, in the same year, Vespasian is depicted on a rare type with a
radiate crown - as a victorious general. The surviving coins are an aureus
and a denarius, now in Paris and London. 27 The denarius explicitly relates
Vespasian's radiate image to the EXERCITUS MOESIC(US), whereas the Paris
aureus has as reverse legend VICT(ORIA) AUG(uST!). The importance for
Vespasian of the Moesian legions is clear. 28 It is possible that these two
samples survive from locally issued donatives 29 But in this context it is
worth stressing the difference between the portrait of the radiated general
that seems relevant to the troops, and the veristic old man, who would be so
noticeable in later (non-military) portraiture.
While there was a war waging, it seems that specific support groups received
different messages. Are similar patterns also discernable for other periods in
which struggles for power took place without a war going on? The reign of
the emperor Claudius forms an interesting test case. Claudius was not an
emperor who is known for his strong power base, whether he was found
cowering behind curtains or not. Indeed, the precious metal coinage from the
c.L. Murison, Galba, Otho and Vitellius: Careers and Controversies (Hildesheim 1993); E. Keitel,
'Plutarch's Tragedy Tyrants: Galba and Otho', in: R. Brock & AJ. Woodman, eds., Papers of the
Leeds International Latin Seminar 8, Roman Comedy, Augustan Poetry, Historiography (Leeds 1995),
275-288. Cf. Tacitus, Annals 1.78 on Otho's undecided behaviour (ipse in suspenso tenuit) towards the
name on Nero, popular among the people of Rome and the lower ranks of soldiers.
26 See infra, appendices 1 and 2.
27 BMCRE 2, Ixviii and fig. 19.13; H. Mattingly, British Museum Quarterly 12 (1937/8), 5 fig. 6.12;
M. Bergmann, Die Strahlen der Herrscher. Theomorphes Herrscherbild und politische Symbolik im
Hellenismus und in der romischen Kaiserzeit (Mainz 1998), Taf. 43, 7-8.
28 E.g. Tacitus, Annals 2.85; B. Levick, Vespasian (London - New York 1999), 59-60.
29 Bergmann, 1998, op. cit. (n. 27),235.
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first years of his reign clearly shows which group had got him to power:
PRAETOR(IANUS) RECEPT(US), showing the emperor on the left, being
greeted by a member of the praetorians. 30 The image seemingly conveys the
message that the emperor only rules through the actions of the praetorians. A
similar message follows from aurei and denarii mentioning IMP(ERATOR)
RECEPT(US), and showing the castra praetoria with its goddess. 31
It is clear, and long recognised, that these legends aimed to show
Claudius' gratitude to the praetorians, who helped him come to power 32 Yet,
it is noticeable that references to the praetorians are wholly absent from
coins of lesser value. On these coins, rather, ANNONA and CERES were
emphasised - perhaps not coincidental considering the harbour at Ostia that
Claudius constructed from 42 to 46 AD 33 The praetorians were celebrated on
gold and silver coins that may well have formed the 'prime medium of
military pay'. 34 On these coins, the absence of popular plebeian messages is
noticeable. From 46 AD onwards, the PRAETOR(IANUS) RECEPT(US) legend
disappears altogether, whereas two new types suddenly appear on high-value
coins. One reads DE BRITANN(IS), whereas the other has as legend
S(ENATUS) P(OPULUS)Q(UE) R(OMANUS) P(ATER) P(ATRlAE) OB C(IVES)
S(ERVATOS). After 47/8, there are no longer references to the praetorians at
all on Claudius' coinage, whereas the two more recent coin types continue.
The legends and iconography on semis, sestertii and dupondii, on the other
hand, did not change at all in these years.
Had Claudius, perhaps, become less dependent on the praetorians?
He had brought some projects that were aimed at the populace at large to a
successful end, and had survived senatorial uprisings. Perhaps he no longer
30 RIe 12, 122 nos. 11-12 and 23-24, 123 no. 29. er. M. von Kaenel, Munzprtigung und Munzbildnis
des Claudius (Berlin 1986).
)1 RIe 12 , 122 nos. 19,20 and 25-26, 123 nos. 36-37; A. Alfdldi, Die monarchische Reprtisentation im
romischen Kaiserreiche (1980\ 215; Lwnme11991, op. cit. (n. 6), 58-59.
32 Th. Wiedemann, The Julio-Claudian Emperors. AD 14-70 (Bristol 1989), 44-45; B. Levick,
Claudius (London 1990), 39; Lwnme11991, op. cit. (n. 6), 58-59.
33 er. supra n. 10. On the harbour, and its celebration in coinage, see Levick 1990, op. cit. (n. 32), 110,
219 notes 17-18 with references; M. R-Alfdldi, 'Die Bildersprache der riimischen Kaiser',
Numismatica e antichita classiche 30 (200 I), 209-227; 222-223.
J4 RIe 12, 222; M. Hassall, 'The army', CAlf 112 (2000), 320-343; 330. er. B. Campbell, The
Emperor and the Roman Anny (Oxford 1984), 167; Von Kaenel 1986, op. cit. (n. 30),259-261.
Soldiers did, however, also use bronzes, which have been found in large numbers at excavations of
military camps. It is simply not known how Roman soldiers were paid, but with a legionary centurion
being paid around 13,500 sestertii under Augustus, and 108,000 sestertii under Maximinus Thrax
(MA Speide1, 'Roman Army Pay Scales', Journal o/Roman Studies 82 [I 992], 87-106; 102, 106), it
seems clear that at least silver coinage must have been regularly used.
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felt he needed the praetorians as much as he had previously done. Whatever
the reason - there seems to have been a change in the message on the coins
of higher denomination, whereas the less valuable coins sent out a
continuous, though separated, message.
Similarly, the context of Nero's reign, and the development in that
emperor's representation over the years may explain some changes in coins
of different denominations. Thus, the beginning of his reign saw, among
other things, a temporary arrival of the legend EX S(ENATUS) C(ONSULTO)
on the gold and silver coinage. Is this the senate celebrating amongst
themselves about their regained influence, or a message from the princeps to
the upper levels of society that he, more than his predecessors, would take
the senate seriously? We cannot tell. But the legend is limited to coins of
high denomination, and disappeared from aurei and denarii in AD 64 never to reappear. 35 In the same year, the building of the Domus Aurea
started, and the Colossus was planned. 36 Also, of course, Seneca lost his
power. A year later, he was forced to commit suicide. 37 It seems clear that
AD 64/5 marks a break in Neronian self-presentation: a break away from
appeasing the senators, and towards pleasing the 'people'. 38
It is, in this light, worth noting that some typical 'popular' buildings,
such as the harbour at Ostia and the Macellum were only depicted on lowvalue coins. 39
More examples of coins of different values consistently broadcasting
different messages within individual reigns are of course needed. Ideally,
one would like a structural analysis of the different legends and figures on
different denominations in individual reigns - with attention to dates and the
political-historical context in which coins were issued. That, of course, far
exceeds the scope this article - if it is manageable at all. But it seems clear
that looking at possible 'audience-targeting' with the needs and possibilities
M. Griffin, Nero. The End of a Dynasty (London 1984), 122.
er. Griffin 1984, op. cit. (n.35), 121-122. See now on the Domus Aurea the articles by E.M.
Moonnann and Y. Perrin in this volume.
37 M. Griffin, Seneca. A Philosopher in Politics (Oxford 1976),367-368.
38 er. N. Hannestad, 'Nero and the potentialities of the emperor', in: N.Boncasa & G.Rizza, eds.,
Ritratto ujJiciale e ritratto privato. Atti del II Conferenza Intemazionale sui ritrotto Romano (Rome
1988), 325-329; J. Elsner & J. Master, eds., Reflections of Nero. Culture, History & Representation
(London 1994).
39 The harbour at Ostia: sestertii: rue 12, 162 nos. 178-183, 181 nos. 513-514; Macellum: sestertii:
rue 12, 162-163 nos. 184-189; dupondii: 159 nos. 109-111, 175 nos. 399-402.
35
36
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of the individual emperor in mind makes sense. Thus, rather than
emphasising how, under Titus, CERES and ANNONA were displayed on aurei,
and that therefore there is no consistent differentiation in messages on coins
of higher or lower value, one could stress that the Flavians had another,
perhaps more important, symbol to emphasise to the Roman plebs: the
Colosseum. Just to note, all representations of the Colosseum on imperial
coinage are on low value coins.40
The awareness of 'audience targeting' through coins may even have been
more sophisticated. Perhaps the possibility of using ambiguous abbreviations
was employed as well. Some Romans were aware of such ambiguity,
occasionally even intended:
"Tullius Tiro, Cicero's freedman, wrote at great length in one of
his letters, substantially as follows: 'When Pompey was
preparing to consecrate the temple of Victory, the steps of which
formed his theatre, and to inscribe upon it his names and
honours, the question arose whether consul tertium should be
written, or tertio. Pompey took great pains to refer this question
to the most learned men of Rome, and when there was difference
of opinion ... Pompey asked Cicero .. to decide upon what
seemed to him the most correct form". Then Cicero was reluctant
to pass judgement upon learned men, lest he might seem to have
censured the men themselves in criticising their opinion. "He
accordingly advised Pompey to write neither tertium or tertio,
but to inscribe the four letters only, so that the meaning was
shown without writing the whole word, but yet the doubt as to
the form of the word was concealed'. ,,41
BMCRE 2,170 nos. 445-446,262, nos. 190-191; Lummel 1991, op. cit. (n. 6), 76, 93 and 177 n.
575; H. Kiithmann et.al., eds., Bauten Roms aufMunzen und Medaillen (MWlich 1973), 52ff.; M.R.
AlfOldi 2001, op. cit. (n. 33),221; Lunune11991, op. cit. (n. 6), 24, 27 and 93. Limitations of size (cr
supra. note 9, Metcalf) need not have been the reason for this, since detailed depictions of - for
example - Trajan's column feature also on the (smaller) coins of high denominations.
41 Aulus GeUius, Attic Nights 10.1.7: Tiro Tullius. Ciceronis libertus. in epistula quadam enarratius
scripsi! ad hunc ferme modum: "Cum Pompeius" inquit "aedem Victoriae dedicaturus foret. cuius
gradus vicem theatri essent. nomenque eius et honores inscriberentur. quaeri coeptum est. utrum
consul tertio inscribendum esset an tertium. Earn rem Pompeius exquisitissime rettulit ad doctissimos
civitatis. cumque dissentiretur ... rogavit ... Ciceronem Pompeius. ut. quod ei rectius videretur. scribi
iuberet". Turn Ciceronem iudicare de viris doctis veritum esse, ne. quorum opinionem inprobasset.
ipsos videretur inprobasse. "Persuasit igitur Pompeio. ut neque tertium neque tertio scriberetur. sed
40
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Were abbreviations also used purposefully in designing coin-legends? This
may well be the case. An example is formed by some coins of the usurper
Carausius (AD 286_93)42 On his silver coinage, the exergue marks RSR and
I.N.P.C.D.A have long been puzzling, but, in a recent article, Guy de la
Bedoyere has put forward an interesting theory.43 He notes how another coin
type of Carausius reads EXPECTATE VENI and relates this to Virgil, Aeneid,
2.283, where, too, a long awaited one was to arrive. 44 With that in mind, it
becomes noticeable how the two exergue marks stunningly follow Virgil's
Eclogues 4.6-7: redeunt Saturnia regna. lam nova progenies caelo demittitur
alto. Virgil's passage also connects well with Carausius' emphasis on Rome
reborn; a concept that was emphasised through legends that celebrated
Carausius as the RENOVAT(OR) ROMAN(ORUM).45 If this argument is right,
only those with a very high degree of literacy could have understood the
point. It is, thus, hardly surprising that these complicated legends only
appeared on coins of higher denomination. Carausius aimed his message
solely 'at least to those who mattered' .46
Perhaps an earlier example of conscious use of ambiguous
abbreviation can already be found in the reign of Commodus. In AD 190 or
191, whilst the emperor Commodus was busily reinventing his selfrepresentation by invoking the Hercules Commodianus, and becoming the
Hercules Romanus, a rare aureus was issued 47 The iconography on the reverse
was the same as the one of a new coin-type that was issued in sesterces,
dupondii, and asses. It showed Hercules, naked to the waist, sacrificing over a
lighted altar, holding cornocupiae, whilst his club, lion skin, and quiver were
resting against a tree. But whereas the legends of all the issues of smaller
denominations mention HERcULI COMMODIANO, the aureus reads HERC COM.
The difference in size between the aureus and the asses is, in this case, not
ad secundum usque t fierent iitterae, ut verbo non perscripto res quidem demonstraretur, sed dictio
tamen ambigua verbi iateret". TIris passage was kindly brought to my attention by Cliff Ando.
42 On Carausius: P.1. Casey, Carausius and Allectus. The British Usurpers (London 1994).
43 BM 1900-11-5-10, RIC 5.2, 510, nos. 554-558; G. de la Bedoyere, 'Carausius and the marks RSR
and L N. P. C. D. A', Numismatic Chronicle 158 (1998), 79-88.
44 De la Bedoyere 1998, op. cit. (n. 43), 82.
4S RIC 5.2, 571.
46 De la Bedoyere 1998, op. cit. (n. 43), 88.
47 RIC 3, no. 221 (= BMCRE 4, no. 300). On Commodus' self-representation, and the role of Hercules
in it, see: 0.1. Hekster, Commodus. An Emperor at the Crossroads (Amsterdam 2002), 87-162 (87-111
for coinage); idem, 'Commodus-Hercules: the people's princeps', Scripta Ciassica Israelica 20
(2001),51-83.
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very great, so lack of space on the gold coin need not have been the reason for
the abbreviation. 48 Is this, perhaps, an occasion of 'audience-control'? Rather
than unequivocally imposing the Hercules Commodianus on those who would
come to see the gold coin, a more ambiguous abbreviation was used. 49 For the
legend COM might bring to mind the word comes as well as (and in fact
perhaps even better than) Commodianus, as one can see in inscriptions 50 It is,
thus, possible that the most outrageous claims of Commodus' self-presentation
were initially introduced on low-value coins, whilst those who saw the aurei
(including, in all likelihood, the senatorial elite), were given the possibility to
see these claims in a more conventional light. Having Hercules as comes was,
after all, perfectly traditional.
There seems, then, to have been some sophistication in the use of
abbreviations and legends on coinage, along with an apparent awareness of
audiences of particular media in the Roman Empire 51 At least in some cases
may thus be shown, in answer to lones, 'at what classes the propaganda on the
coins was directed'.52 Some more caveats are still necessary - some
differences may depend on different mints, and new money would only form a
fraction of the types in circulation. 53 More problematic is the near-absence of
48 Size aureus: RIC 3, no. 221 (= BMCRE 4, no. 300) 20mm.; 7.30g. cr as: RIC 3, no. 591 (=
BMCRE 4, no. 677): 25mm.; 8.70g.
49 If so, it was a temporary measure at most, as later, in AD 191-192, cities, legions, and even the
senate itself was renamed Commodianus, leaving very little space for subtleties. But that need not
mean there was never any subtlety in the first place; Hekster 2002, op. cit. (n. 47), 78 (with references)
and 105r cr also CONCOR(DIA) COMMODI(ANA) (BMCRE 4, NOS. 668, 675*) the Flamen
Comm(odianus) (CIL 6.1577); the ordo decurionum commodianor(um) (CIL 14.2449 = ILS 400,
addressed to Commodus as Invictus Romanus Hercules), and the FELlC(ITAS) COM(MODIANA)
(BMCRE 4, p. 746). cr EDH no. HD000480 (= AE 1982.958).
50 COM for comes or comites: EDH nos. HD030150, HD022151, HD008808, HD005966, HD023629,
HD018443. COMM for Commodus or Commodianus: EDH nos. HD208836, HD032451. But cr
HD023999, HD013918 for COM abbreviating Commodus.
51 C. Ando, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire (2000), argues in a similar
vein when discussing Vitellius' use of V. AUG. on his coins. Vitellius' message 'at once acknowledged
and legitimated the transfer of charismatic power from Augustus and his family to the office that he had
created. In this process the use of Augustus as a title, and the ambiguity inherent in Latin abbreviations
can only have smoothed the way' (p. 294, with n. 73). cr 1. Gage, 'Un theme de I'art imperial Romain.
La Victoire d' Auguste',Melanges de I' Ecole Franl;aise de Rome, Antiquite, 49 (1932), 61-92.
52 cr supra n. 5.
53 C. Howgego, 'The supply and use of money in the Roman world', Journal of Roman Studies 82
(1992), 1-31; 12-16; R Duncan-Jones, Money and Government in the Roman Empire (Cambridge 1994),
172-179. Still, if there is one thing that the introduction of the Euro made clear, it is that people scrutinise
new coins much more than old ones. On the different mints, see now: R Wolters, 'Die Organisation der
Miinzpriigung in julisch-claudischen Zeit', Numismatische Zeitschrijil 0617 (1999),75-90.
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geographical audience targeting. The mint of Lugdunum, for instance, must
have supplied coins to the northwestern part of the Empire, but its coin-types
regularly follow the Roman mint, depicting monuments that would have
appealed to the inhabitants of the city of Rome, but far less so to people in the
provinces 54 The apparent absence of one obvious form of audience targeting
does not, however, invalidate the concept as such. There also remains the
problem of who decided on coin-types. 55 But by-passing that question, and
placing a 'black-box' in the centre from which the coins emanated, it is
noticeable that coins were not devoid of ideological messages, and that those
messages make more sense when one defines the context in which, and the
audience for which, they seem to have been intended.
Two final examples, one modem, one ancient, may show how important it can
be to keep one's audience in mind, since not doing so might have unexpected
consequences. Ernst Gombrich recounted the first one: 'Some years ago there
was a story in the papers to the effect that riots had broken out in an
underdeveloped country because of rumours that human flesh was being sold
in a store. The rumour was being traced to food cans with a grinning boy on
the label ... As a rule the picture of fruit, vegetable or meat on a food
container does indicate its contents; if we do not draw the conclusion that the
same applies to a picture of a human being on the container, it is because we
rule out the possibility from the start'.56 This audience did not rule out that
possibility. The message went wrong. Somewhat, though not entirely,
comparable, was the reaction of the people of the Roman Empire to
Elagabalus' attempts to propagate his stone of Emesa on coins. It was not
deemed a proper image for coin-types. Audiences reacted badly. Rather than
trying to placate a specific group with a message that would appeal, the image
was put forward without realising (or perhaps considering) what the reactions
of different audiences would be. Elegabalus' coins did not convince the
audience he was dependent on. Other emperors did a better job.
Oxford, September 2002
54
Unless, of course, the coins were meant to emphasise the greatness of Rome.
55
cr. Wallace-HadrillI986, op. cit. (n. 6), 68, with n.6 for references; Levick 1999, op. cit. (n. 6), 58.
56 E.H. Gombrich, 'The Visual Image. Its Place in Communication', The Image and the Eye. Further
Studies ill the Psychology ofPictorial Representation (London 1982), 137-162; 143.
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APPENDIX 1: REVERSE LEGENDS OF VITELLIUS ON COINS OF
DIFFERENT DENOMINAnONS IN THE PROVINCES 57
Exclusively on high denominations
CONCORDIA PRAETORIANORUM (D: no. 19)
SENATP Q ROMANUS
(Au: no. 32)
I 0 MAx CAPITOLINUS
(D: nos. 31, 56)
VESTA PR QUIRITUM
(Au: no. 58; D nos. 33, 59-60, 65)
L VITELLI III Cos CENSOR
(Au: no. 7)
LIBERI(S) IMP GERMANIC I
(Au: no. 8; D: no. 57)
SECURITAS IMP GERM
(Au: nos. 11-2)
VICTORIA IMP GERMAN(ICI)
(Au: nos. 15-6)
Exclusively on low denominations
ROMA RENASCENS
(no. 45)
CONSENSUsHISPANIARUM
(no. 41)
Both on high and low denominations
VICTORIA AUGUSTI
(Au: nos. 13-4,34-5,38,61; D: nos. 36-37, 62-3;
as: no. 46)
(Au: no. 9; D: no. 10; as: nos. 43-4)
LIBERTAS RESTITUA
(Au: nos. 4-5, 22, 26, 50, 64; D: nos. 6, 20-1, 23-5,
CONSENSusEXERCITUUM
49,51; as: no. 40)
FIDES EXERCITUM
(Au: no. 52; D: nos. 27-30,47,53-5; as: no. 42)
(Au: nos. 1-3, 16; D: no. 18; as: no. 39)
CLEMENTIA IMP GERMAN(ICI)
57
All references to RIC
e, 268-71
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APPENDIX 2: REVERSE LEGENDS OF VITELLIUS ON COINS OF
DIFFERENT DENOMINAnONS IN ROME 58
Exclusively on high denominations
FIDES EXERCITUM (D: no. 67)
LIBERI IMP GERMANIC I
(Au:nos. 78, 104;D: nos. 79,105)
no. 80;
D: nos. 69,81)
LIBERTAS RESTITUA (Au:
Exclusively on low denominations 59
ROMA (Dp: no. l30)
SECURITAS P ROMANI (as: no. 175)
PAX GER ROM (sest: nos. 119-21)
LIBERTAS AUGUSTI (Dp / as: no. 128)
MARs VICTOR
(sest: nos. 115-6, 136-7, 156, 167-8)
(Au: nos. 74, 92; D: nos. 68, 75, 93)
L VITELLI CENSOR II (sest: nos. 114, l34)
L VITELLI III Cos CENSOR
L VITELLI CENSOR III (sest: no. l35)
(Au: nos. 76, 94, 96, 98; D: nos. 77,95, 10 MAx CAPITO (as: no. 127)
VESTA (Dp/ as: no. 154)
97,99)
XWIR SACR FAC
HONOS ET VIRTUS (sest: no. 113)
(Au: nos. 85, 87, 108; D: nos. 70-1,86, CONCORDIA AUG(USTI)
88, 109)
(sest: no. l33; Dp: no. 126; Dp/ as: nos.
PONT MAxIM (Au: no. 106; D: no. 107) 161-2, 170; as: no. 171)
IUPPITER VICTOR
CONCORDIA P R
PAX AUGUSTI
(Au: nos. 72, 89; D: nos. 66, 73, 90;
ARQ: no. 91)
(sest: nos. 117-8, 138-41, 157; Dp: nos.
146-8; Dp/ as: nos. 149, 164; as: no. 172)
AEQUITAS AUGUSTI (as: nos. 125, 160)
ANNONAAUG
(sest: nos. 131, 155, 166; Dp/ as: no. 144)
no. 132; as: no. 145)
PROVIDENT (as: nos. 129, 150, 173-4)
CERES AUG (sest:
Both on high and low denominations
(Au: no. Ill; D: no. 112; ARQ: no. 84; sest: nos. 124, 142-3;
as: nos. 151-2,156, 176)
SPQR OB CS
(Au: nos. 82; D: nos. 70, 83; sest: 122, 159)
VICTORIA AUG(USTI)
58
59
All references to RIC 12,271-7
All legends followed by SC.
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LEFT AND RIGHT IN ROMAN COINS OF
THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES AD.
By
FERNANDO LOPEZ SANCHEZ
Why Left and Right?1
The great weakness of the Roman political system was always the lack of
any constitutional mechanism to regulate the transfer of power2 Because of
this, any regime with ambitions to endure had to base its claims on its
efficiency and pragmatism. This is why action alone was not enough; the art
of persuasion was at least as important.
In Roman iconography, left and right are not positions left to chance.
If the Latin mind conceived of movement as being from left to right, then it
is only logical to extrapolate that this will be mirrored in the plastic arts. It
clearly occurs in writing, but also in icon-based narration. A right-facing
position on Roman coins signifies initiative and constancy in the
achievement of an objective, while a left-facing one denotes a pause, either
temporary or permanent, in such an undertaking. This simple dichotomy
tends to obviate full-frontal positions, the static nature of which makes them
not suited to the language of narration. 3
The patterns that govern the duality of right/initiative and
left/resolution are mainly of a military nature. The bellum/pax division so
beloved by modern-day scholars is not supported by the more Roman domi/
militiae 4 Because of this, the dialectic between both concepts is one of
continuity and not one of opposition, and the majority of monetary
iconography is based on this fundamental premise.
1 Translation
from Spanish by Mark Temple, Editor ELT Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.
1.A.S.Evans, 'Byzantine Kingship: the claim of dynastic right', The Ancient World 18, 1-2 (1988),
53: "If we compare the mini-dynasties of Imperial Rome with the royal families of medieval Europe
such as the Capets and the Angevins, it must strike us that Rome had cxtraordinarly bad luck ... that
was a product of Rome's unstable society ... At any rate, the would-be dynasties failed".
3 L. Kurhe, Coins. Bodies. Games and Gold: The Politics of Meaning in Archaic Greece (Princeton
1999),23: "Because coinage is a polyvalent symbol within a complex symbolic system, the struggle I
endeavour to reconstruct is a struggle fought over and in representation".
4 G. Woolf, G, 'Roman peace' , in 1. Rich & G. Shipley, eds., War and society in the Roman world.
(Londres-NewYork 1993), 173: "Central to understanding imperial uses of the notion of peace is
these turned not so much on an opposition between pax and bellum as on an opposition between two
moral and religious spheres, domi and militae ... ". 1. Riipke, Domi militae. Die religiOse Konstruktion
des Krieges in Rom, Stuttgart 1990.
2
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The Soldatenkaisertum in the fourth century
The period beginning with the crisis of the third century, when the emperor
was obliged by external military pressures to pay more attention to army
matters, is vital to understand the left-right dichotomy. However, it is very
hard to place all the complex and numerous series of the third century in
clear chronological order.
In the fourth century, on the other hand, it is possible for us to be
more exact. The iconographic sequences are more structured and we can
establish a general behavioural model. Owing to the short duration of the
episode and the clarity of its coin series, the ideal starting point for such a
reconstruction is the "usurpation" ofVetranio in 350.
After Magnentius took power in Gaul on the 18th of January 350,5 a
certain Vetranio stirred up a revolt in Sirmium-Mursa on the first of March
of that same year6 The most orthodox, though not the only, viewpoint on
this 7 was that Vetranio wanted to save Illyricum on behalf of Constantius II,
as "an invasion by Magnentius from Italy into Illyricum became a real
danger to Constantius". 8
Vetranio did not, however, keep the Illyrian army ready for the
triumphant arrival of the legitimate emperor Constantius
but stirred up a
revolt in the face of the very real possibility of an invasion of the Balkans
from the west. It was not because of any divided loyalties between Magnentius
and Constantius IT, but in order to show the region's independence from
foreign powers that the Illyrian army rose up under Vetranio, Magister
Peditum of Pannonia. For ten months Vetranio had a large number of coins
minted in his name, showing himseld as an autonomous emperor with the
intention of remaining in power for a long time. 10
le
O. Seeck, Regesten der Kaiser und Papste (Stuttgart 1919), 197.
Seeck 1919, op. cit(n. 5), 196.
7 B. B1eckmann, 'Constantina, Vetranio und Gallus Caesar', Ch iron
24 (1994), 44, 54, gave a
radically different interpretation of Vetranio's revolt, considering him not as a puppet but as a fullyfledged emperor. See also J. F. Drinkwater, 'The revolt and ethnic origin of the usuzper Magnentius
(350-353) and the rebellion of Vetranio (350)', Chiron (2000), 131 ff.
8 SaSel, 1., 'The Struggle between Magnentius and Constantius II for Italy and IlIyricum',
Ziva
Antika 21 (1971), 207; O. Seeck, Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt IV (Sttutgart 1922), 92
ff; A. Demandt, Die Sptitantike, Romische Geschichte von Diocletian bis Justinian, 284-565 n. Chr.
(Munich 1989),83.
9 Drinkwater 2000, op. cit. (n. 21), 149: "The proclamation of Vetranio is therefore significant because it
must reflect the depth of feeling in the Ba1kans ... , and so suggests the implausibility of any early
involvement by Constantina: Vetranio and his senior advisers will have acted by and for themselves".
10 Vot.lVlMult.lX on the reverse, RIC 8, Sis. 261-R4.
5
6
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The depiction of Vetranio on his coins show his features in
accordance with the standard tetrarchic model: 11 a large head, strong jawline,
well-shaped beard, short hair, a thick-set neck, an air of responsibility and a
smile ofjacilitas (plates I, fig. 1-3). All this denotes an official who may be
uncultured but who is accessible to his subordinates, the image of a man who
has risen through the ranks. All this is a great contrast to the Apollinian
portraits of the Constantinians.
Vetranio is shown being crowned by Victoria on the reverses of his
most representative solidi (PI. I, fig. 1), with the whole scene facing left.
Most of these series were minted in Siscia or Sirmium, or sometimes in
Thessalonica, with Magnentius' invasion looming.
The Salvator Rei Publicae inscription on Vetranio's solidi expresses
the worries of the IIIyrian army in a moment of crisis. It is not a question of
Vertranio's usurping power, but simply of the highest powers being
conferred on a general by his army in a time of political instability.
The left-facing posture signifies the plenitude and ratification of his
power. While Vetranio's solidi are revealing, the same is true of his
centenionales. The Concordia Militum series where Vetranio holds two
labara (PI. I, fig. 2) denotes the concord between the two opposing armies,
the Gallic and the Danubian, and points out to us the man chosen by
providence to forge this agreement. Vetranio is in a frontal position, midway
between the two standards and facing left; according to a strict
iconographical code, he is represented as the one destined to solve the
military crisis (see the star on his head).
Nevertheless, the most common type of centenionales follows the
militaristic model of Salvator Rei Publicae. The Hoc Signo Victor Eris coin
series spread the image of Vetranio as a fully-fledged commander (PI. I, fig.
3). It is all but certain that the event evoked here is the battle of Milvian
Bridge on the 28th of October 312, and that the echo of this key
Constantinian victory reached Naissus, the birthplace of Constantinism in the
Danubian region, and so reminded the governing prince of the need to have
the IIlyrian army on his side. 12 The Sirmian military did not want a Gallic
army in the Balkans and rejected the foreigner Magnentius.
11 Drinkwater 2000, op. cit (n. 7), 137: "[ would indeed suggest that hopes ofreviving and exploiting
tetrarchic principles were central to the thinking of those involved in what may be termed the
'Magnentian experiment' ", and on p. 138: "there may even have been some idea of projecting him as
the new Diocletian".
12 A. Baldini, 'Claudio Gotico e Constantine in Aurelio Vittore ed Epitome de Caesaribus', in G.
Bonamente & F. Fuseo, eds., Costantino il Grande: Dall'Antiehita all'Umanesimo. Colloquio sui
Cristanesimo nel mondo antieo, Maeerata 18-20 Dieembre 1990 (Macerata 1991),73 ff.
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The Hoc Signo Victor Eris centenionales, with their thoroughly
military character, were minted in large quantities in Siscia and in Sirmium
between March 350 and March 351, and constitute a resistance to Western
meddling in the Balkans, and an appeal to the values of Naissus, the
regionalist values of self-defence.
Constantius 11 did not exercise full control over Illyricum until 350,
and even then he did not hurry to occupy a region that had never fully bowed
to his commands. This explains why he was so slow to go to meet Vetranio,
ten full months after the insurrection, and in turn why the meeting between
the two in Serdica,13 Illyricum's gateway to the East, was more like a
customs operation than a friendly reception.
It was only after Constantius had gone to the effort of haranguing the
soldiers in Naissus, treating them as commilitones (fellow soldiers)14 and not
as a Porphyrogenitus emperor, that the army rallied to his call and Vetranio
abdicated as a gesture of approval. The soldiers of another commander
scrutinised Constantius carefully, rather than blindly following him.
To reach the consensus that made the abdication ofVetranio possible,
Constantius had to make concessions to the Danubian military high
command, and he did this by the immediate nomination as governor (15th of
March 351), in the military capital Sirmium rather than in Siscia, of a
Caesar, Constantius Gallus. It was only after this that Constantius 11 and
Constantius Gallus could mint coins in the Balkans as military commanders
at a critical historical moment (PI. I, fig. 4, 5, 6).
A military cursus honorum
Were Vetranio's approach to coins unique, we would have no more than the
story of a military coup in the year 350. But, in the Balkans, both
Constantius Gallus and Constantius 11 chose exactly the same iconography as
Vetranio. Were they too subscribing to a tradition of subordination to the
power of the army?
The established and much-loved assumption of traditional
historiographers is that, with Constantine's progressive taking of power
between 312 and 324, a new world view was bom. After the crises of the
13Zonaras 13.7.
14 Proximity to the army in Arnrnianus Marcellinus 14.10.13: " ... commilitones mei jidissimi, accipite
aequis auribus quae succintius explicabo." Constantius II commimicated far more with his army than
has been supposed, RC. Blockley, 'Constantius II and his generals', Latomus 168 (1980), 467 fT.
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third century, Constantine had managed to heal the wounds,15 and the
violent, pagan, militaristic ethos of before was replaced by urbanity,
Christianity, and bureaucracy. However, coin series keep showing us, to the
point of tedium, that most of the worries of the empire were centred on the
military situation. The emperors of the third century had all come to power
through regionalism and militarism, 16 and this tendency did not only remain
the same in the fourth century, but even appears to have increased. The
example of Constantius' rise to become emperor of the entire Roman world
is proof of this,17 coming about as it did through pure chance, and in
particular the existence ofMagnentius' military threat in the Balkans.
Throughout the fourth century the de facto division between East and
West which we saw in the third century with Postumus and Gallienus
remained strong. No emperor was able to maintain long-term control over
both the Gauls and IIIyricum, the two most important regions of the empire
in military terms. As this situation was the result of mistrust between the two
regions, the leader endorsed by the army was the one who provided the
strongest guarantees for the continuing autonomy of the region; the army
was not at odds with civil society, but was indeed the only body in that
society capable of acting in a coordinated manner. All the emperors of the
fourth century without exception owed their power to the patronage of one or
. I armies.
. 18
more reglOna
When Vetranio is sworn in as supreme commander, and therefore as
emperor, he chooses the highest of all iconographies, as if it were a military
decoration (PI. I, fig. 1). The inscription selected is that of Salvator Rei
Publicae, because he is the spokesman of an army which sees itself as
mediator and decisive player in the crisis brought on by the unstable Gauls.
Constantius and Constans, on the other hand, prefer the inscription Hoc Signo
Victor Eris (PI. I, fig. 4, 6), because, thanks to their ties with Constantine, they
can present themselves as the champions of the IIIyrian army.
When Constans, the young son of Constantine, was promoted to the
purple of military command in the year 337, a similar image of confirmation
151. Harries, 'Towards a new Constantine', AncientSociety. ResourcesforTeachers IS (1985), 71 ff.;
1. Gaudemet, 'Constantin, restaurateur de l'ordre', in Studi in onore di S. Solazzi (Naples 1948),652 ff.
16 C. E. Sickle, 'Particularism in the Roman Empire during the Military Anarchy', Ancient Journal of
Philology 51 (1930),343 fT.
17 F. Lapez Sanchez, 'La tutelle de l'armee illyrienne sur la dynastie constantinienne', Cahiers
Numismatiques 151 (2002),39 ff.
18 F. Heim, 'Vox exercitus, vox Dei. La designation de l'empereur charismatique au IVe siecle' Revue
des Etudes Lah'nes 68 (1990).160 fT.
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in power appears in his first Siscian solidi,19 the advance party of westwardheading Sirmium 20 (Pi. I, fig. 7). Max. Avg. makes it clear that, despite his
youth, Constans enjoys a status higher than any of his brothers; being in
charge of the fundamental Balkan region was enough for his army to accord
him that position. Constantius 11 is also shown in Siscia in an honourable
left-facing position (Pi. I, fig. 8), unlike Constantine 11, the Western emperor.
The image of the emperor as military commander is facing left (PI I,
fig. 7, 8), and this is due to the fact that the capability of both is recognised
by the Illyrian army.21 The image is as emphatic as in 350-1, because the
army has accepted them as worthy to lead.
In the year 340 we have a second confirmation of Constans' power.
As Magnentius was to do ten years later, Constantine 11 invaded Italy, with
the intention of coming to the rescue of the weakened Constantius 11 with
troops prepared for the imminent Persian campaign. 22 The idea of his
crossing the Balkans on foot was greeted with extreme hostility by the
Illyrian military high command, who decided to block Constantine's passage
on the border of their territory, at Aquileia, where, in 340, the Gallic army
was defeated and Constantine 11 killed. 23 In this battle Constans won not
only the whole of the West, but also the full respect of his own army.
Before the decisive combat with Constantine 11, Constans gave
donativa among his men. Few of these coins have been found, but one
double solidus clearly from this period shows the emperor facing left,
crowned by Victoria, with the inscription Gaudium Populi Romani (PI I, fig.
9). This is the typical image of the army grouped around its commander,
and, more than that, the image of an army which recognises him as in full
possession of power (this is 340, and not 337), which explains the crowning
by Victoria. This image corresponds to a moment just before the battle of
Aquileia, and not just after, nor at any other time between 337 and 340. As in
all codified language, it expresses more an attitude of mind - here the Illyrian
19 P. Bruun, 'Constans Maximus Augustus', in H. Huvelin, M. Christol & S. Gautier, eds, Melanges
de numismatique ofJerts iz Pierre Bastien iz I 'occasion de son 75e anniversaire (Wetteren 1987), 195:
"Without any doubt Siscia was Constans' chief mint, and particularly in the years 337-340".
20 The Sinnian military high command, created by the emperor Philip the Arabian (244-249),
functioned as one of the most powerful of all military institutions. From its creation, a small number of
high-ranking officials made or destroyed emperors, often against their own will (as in the case of
Traianus Decius, Zosimus 1.21.2-3; Jordanes Getica 16.90) with the aim of resolving crises. See G.
Brizzi, 'Soldatenkaiser, lllyricani ed altri problemi', Rivistn Storica dell'Antichitiz 8 (1978), 94,97.
21 Lapez Sanchez 2002, op.cit (n. 17),43.
22 ltinerarium Alexandri 1.4.
23 December of 340; Hieronymus, Chronica 235'; Chronica minora 1.236; Epitome 41.21; Socrates,
Historia Ecclesiastica 2.5; Zonaras 13.5.6.
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army's view of Constans - than the specific reality of military victory. This is
an important distinction, as in this case the left-facing orientation symbolises
not a victory already achieved, but a desire to achieve that victory.
Constantine's subordination to the army
After the battle of Milvian Bridge in 312, it was the conquest of the Balkans,
which made Constantine the most powerful man in the empire.
His campaigns against Licinius between 316 and 324 convinced the
Illyrian military high command of his prowess as commander-in-chief. 24
Licinius was in fact the spokesman of the Illyrian army, as Vetranio was in
350,25 and they shared the same tetrarchic traits and the same subordination
to military power. Constantine too did not stray from this tetrarchic
tradition. 26 His genius, though, was to present himself with the salvational
character of a Claudius 11 or an Aurelian,27 and not with the air of a
Diocletian. While the language was different, their objectives were the same,
and both men always tried to appear the representatives, and not the
governors, of their army.
Constantine's two wars against Licinius, divided by the truce of 317,
led to the use of an iconographic language more aggressive than that used
previously in Trier. Going back to the third century tradition and leaving the
tetrarchic collective one, he revived the militaristic meaning of the colour
purple. In 321 28 he was depicted with globe and a spear at the ready on his
left, crowned by Sol and with the inscription Invicto Soli Comiti, claiming
his rightful place in the Balkans (PI. I, fig. 10). In 323,29 when Constantine
was Senior Augustus, the image of the emperor crowned again by Sol is
shown in Sirmium in a left-facing position (PI. I, fig. 11).
In 317 Licinius brought out a large series in bronze to commemorate the
pact with Constantine. 30 This series shows heavy-set features and large heads,
24 Between 316 and 323 Constantine lived predominantly in Sirmium and Serdica, Seeck 1919, op. cit
(n. 5), 165-172, describing Serdica at this time as "my Rome". See F. Millar, The emperor in the
Roman World (31 BC-AD 337) (Oxford 1977), 12 fT.
25 P. Bruun, 'The Negotiations of the Conference of Camuntum', Numismatica e Antichita Classiche
8 (1979), 255 ff.; R. Andreotti, 'L'imperatore Licinio nella tradizione storiografica latina', in
Hammages a 1. Herrmann, Collection Latomus 44 (Bruxelles 1960), 105 fT.
26 R.R.R. Smith, 'The public image of Licinius I: Portrait and imperial ideology in the early fourth
century', Journal a/Roman Studies (1997), 170 fT.
27 T. Preger, 'Konstantinos Helios', Hermes 36 (1901), 457 fT.
28 Same position in Sirmium in 316, before the truce with Licinius.
29 Same position in Sirmium in 317, after the truce with Licinius.
30 H. Mattingly, 'Jovius and Herculius', Harvard Theology Review 45 (1952), 131 fT.
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short hair and a serious demeanour (PI. I, fig. 12). The orientation is invariably
to the left, owing to the decisive character of the new mutual agreement.
The pact of 317, in which Licinius II, the son of Licinius, and
Constantine 11 and Crispus, sons of Constantine, were appointed Caesars,
appears to have been imposed on Licinius by Constantine. 31 Heredity
certainly did not seem to be typical of the concerns of a tetrarchic
commander. Constantine did, however, submit to the collective principle so
vital to the Roman military mentality. In 324, after removing both Liciniuses
from the scene, he minted numerous series in the same mode as Licinius in
317, albeit with the introduction of certain important differences.
The castra series which Constantine minted in bronze between 324
and 330 were in honour of Constantine 11, Constantius 11 (PI. I, fig. 14) and
Crispus, as well as of himself (PI. I, fig. 13). The features of all of these on
the obverses are nevertheless Apollinian and not herculean or tetrarchic,32
and there is a star crowning the gate of the castrum in all of these series,
something not found in Licinius' 317 coins (PI. I, fig. 12) (same charismatic
star with Vetranio in 350, see PI. I, fig. 13). While these series were coined
in various mints, Aries was the most important 33
With this coinage, Constantine wanted, after his victory in 324, to
combine the concepts of collectiveness and dynasty, and this is why he
brought out significant series in bronze exalting his family and Aries (PI. I,
fig. 14), his symbolic capital in the West. 34 At the same time he shows, in
this and in other pictures (Gloria Exercitus, PI. I, fig. 15), the greatest respect
for the army, to which he presents his full lineage.
Out of all those honoured by the military-dynastic coinings, Crispus is
the one with the highest percentage of left-facing positions. This preference is
common in his coin series and differs from those of his brothers. The choice of
a naked torso and a Macedonian shield assimilates him into the Macedonian
royal family (PI. I, fig. 16), to which Constantine had wanted to become
A. Chastagnol, 'Les quinquennalia des trois Cesars (Crispus, Licinius II, Constantin II) en 321', in 1.
Straub, Romanitas-Christianitas. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Literatur der r6mischen
Kaiserzeit (Berlin-New York 1982), 367 fT.; A. Chastagnol, 'Les decennalia de Licinius', Recueil
d'hommages a Henri Stem (Paris 1983),97 fT.
32 S. E. Knudsen, The portraits oJ Constantine the Great:Ttypes and Chronology, AD 306-337,
(Ph.D Santa Bamara 1988, An Arbor University Microfilms International 1991).
33 T. Bayet, 'L'iconologie des enceintes et des portes de camp sur les monnaies du Bas-Empire
romain' , Revue Beige de Numismatique 150 ( 1994), 5 fT.
34 S. T. Loseby, 'Aries in Antiquity', in C. Neil & S.T. Loseby, Towns in Transition: Urban Evolution
in Late Aantiquity and theEarly Middle Ages (Aldershot 1996), 50; P. A. Fevrier, 'Aries au lVe et Ve
siec1es. ViDe imperiale et capitale regionale', in XXV Corso di Cultura sull 'Arte Ravennate e
Bizantina (Ravenna 1978), 127 fT.
31
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connected ever since the foundation of Constantinople as the new Troy. This
typology is never adopted by either Constantius or Constantine 11 and
highlights Crispus as the heir to the throne?5
Dynasty and military advancement.
Military promotion is the highest form of palace accolade. In contrast to
what is normally thought, there is a variety of evidence to suggest that
Constantius 11, for example, did consider Gallus and Julian as fit to wear the
purple,36 and that is why he decided to promote his Caesars through the
ranks of the military.37
Julian was only appointed Caesar in Milan after intensive military
training in Gaul (AD. 354). Constantius 11 himself appears in 355 (mint of
ArIes) on the same type ofmiliarensis, with standards ready for action (PI. I,
fig. 17), as Julian does (PI. I, fig. 18); this is a gesture of solidarity with his
nephew, promoted to the forefront of the army of the Gauls. As miliarenses
were coins imbued with the iconography of founding and new beginnings,
their minting by Constantius in 355 can only be understood in relation to the
presentation of Caesar Julian before the army.
The majority of the miliarenses follow a very clear left-right orientation.
Constantius Gallus, for one, had been depicted facing left on the reverses since
the year 351 (PI. I, fig. 19). He had always taken up a strong position of his own,
and it was precisely this independence from Constantius that irritated the palace.
He was promptly relieved of his command and executed.
Julian's career follows all the normal parameters of insertion into the
imperial military structure. On the death of Constantius 11 and given the lack
of any suitable rivals, Sirmium and Antiochia (PI. I, fig. 20) decided to
recognise his full sovereignty with a left-facing position (nine years later
than Gallus!). His likeness also becomes more solidly-built and tetrarchic.
Julian's career was that of a man in a continuous state of selfjustification. The army of the Gauls chose him as an Augustus so that he might
F. L6pez Sanchez, 'Procope et le bouc1ier macedonien (365-366 apres l-C.), Cahiers Numismatique
156 (2003) 66if; HA Pohlsander, 'Crispus: Brilliant Career and Tragic End', Historia 33, I (1984),
79 if.; P. Guthrie, 'The execution of Crispus', Phoenix 20 (1966), 235 IT. ; D. Woods, 'On the Death
of the Empress Fausta', Greece & Rome 45 (1998), 70 IT.
36 N. Henck, 'From Macellum to Milan: The Movements of Julian the Apostate from A.D. 348 to
355', Kodai 10 (1999/2000), 111 if.; Idem, Images of Constantius II: 'ho philantropos basileus' and
imperial propaganda in the midfourth century A.D. (Oxford 1998), unpublished dissertation, under
the direction of l F. Drinkwater. Henck rightly points out the problems of the reign of Constantius Il.
37 l Beranger, 'Julian I'Apostat et l'heredite du pouvoir imperial', in Banner Historia Augusta
Colloquium 1970 (Bonn 1972),75 if.
35
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provide an effective defence for the region/ 8 and it is at this time (360, mint of
Aries) that we see the appearance of the marching emperor, with a trophy over
his shoulder and dragging a barbarian by his hair (PI. I, fig. 21). Reusing an
inscription commonly used by Constantine and Constans - Virtus Exerc(itum)
Gall(orum) - Julian shows himself to be a dynamic emperor. In Sirmium
(361), after the discharge of most of the Gallic troops,39 the inscription
becomes more general (Virtus Exercitus Romanorum), but the position is the
same (PI. I, fig. 22). In order to become fully accepted by a still distrustful
Illyrian army, Julian then decided to attack on the Persian front 40
The Persian campaign did not, however, ever meet the approval of
the Illyrian military high command, worried about the removal of the
garrison from the Balkans. Whether Julian was assassinated or not is of
secondary importance, however, compared to the obvious hostility of the
Palatine Guard, which was almost entirely composed of Illyrians. It was of
course Procopius, the least Illyrian of the candidates, who was rejected
unconditionally as Julian's successor, which in turn led to the short but very
intense civil war described by Ammianus. 41
Despite the fact that the Illyrian army was not in favour of it, the
Persian campaign was seen as a victory once brought to a successful
conclusion; both the invasion and the withdrawal were living proof of the
power of Rome 42 On minting coins, Jovian paid due credit to both the region
for which he fought - the East - and to the power behind the campaign Illyricum 43 In Sirmium, however, and not Antioch, a captive is shown
humiliated by the emperor, who looks leftwards towards him (PI. I, fig. 23)44
38 According to Ammianus' version, Julian did not want his troops in Paris to revolt (20.4. 11), and the
revolt was a spontaneous event (20.4.14) that ended when Caesar assentire coactus est (20.4.17);
there is a similar vision of the events in Libanius Oratio 18. 96-99. Theophanes recalls how Julian,
buoyed by his successes against the Barbarians, seized power and crowned himself with a diadem,
Chronica 71 b-c.
391. Szidat, 'Zur Ankunft Julians in Sirmium 361 n. Chr auf seinem Zug gegen Constantius Jr,
Historia 24 (1975),375 ff.
40 M. Gawlikowski, 'L'empereur Julien sur les bords de l'Euphrate', Des Sumeriens aux Romains
d 'Orient. La perception geographique du monde, Antiquites Semitiques IT (Paris 1997), 154: "Le
terrain de confrontation entre Rome et la Perse etait desorrnais dans le nord, du cote de Nisibe. En
choisissant la route de I'Euphrate, Julien s'est de nouveau montre un homme du passe".
41 L6pez SancMz, op.cit. (n.35), 57ff; J.F. Matthews, The Roman empire of Ammianus (London
1989), 192; B. Bousquet, 'Le raz de maree du 21 juillet 365: du cataclysme local a la catastrophe
cosmique' ,Melanges de l'Ecole Franraise de Rome, Antiquites, 96 (1984),423 ff.
42 Ammianus Marcellinus 25.7.5; Themistius 5.66; Festus, Breviarium 29.
43 G. Wirth, 'Jovian. Kaiser und Karikatur', lahrbuch fiir Antike und Christentum 11 (1984), 353 IT
rehabilitates the political value of Jovian as the successor and the continuation of Julian's policies.
44 K. Ehling, 'Des Ausgang des Persefeldzuges in der Miinzpropaganda des Jovian', Klio 78 (1996), 186.
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This position is fundamentally the same as that of Constantius in 337 (PI. I,
fig. 8), but with greater emphasis on the crushing nature of the victory.
The fact that the fourth century must be seen as a continuation of the
tradition of "Soldatenkaisertum" is clear from some of the most
representative series of the period. 45 The famous and extremely common
bronze series of 348 minted by Constans and Constantius contain a dialogue
between obverse and reverse, representing on one side the tasks already
completed and on the other those yet to be done by the emperor. 46
The barbarian is energetically vanquished in the "fallen horseman"
type, and on the obverse the emperor naturally faces right (PI. I, fig. 24).
Rome is conquering its greatest enemy, the Sassanid Persians, and once they
are defeated and in chains - in another series of 348 - the obverse is facing
left with globe in hand, with the reverse also to the left (PI. I, fig. 25).
During the diarchy of the joint government of Valentinian and Valens,
for example, the bust of Valentinian in full armour, is complemented on the
obverse with an image of the transfer of power to Gratian by the Senior
Augustus47 in Trier in 367 (PI. I, fig. 26). It is clear why there are no similar
solidi relating to Valens. A fully-armed, left-facing bust therefore denotes a
hereditary promotion through the military ranks (see also PI. I, fig .. 14, 16).
In order to rein in over-powerful generals, Pulcheria began to develop
the model of the fifth century "par excellence" in 421.48 With the
background of the Persian war and the desire for influence over the West,
Constantinople became the guiding light of the Roman world. Wanting to
reaffirm the power of the threatened Theodosian dynasty, PuIcheria closed
the door on any attempts to gain power on the part of the military.49 He
imposed semi-monastic mores in Constantinople and extolled the cult of
45 F. Altheim, Die soldatenkaiser (Frankfurt am Main 1938); E. Frezouls, 'L'accession au pouvoir des
empereurs illyriens', in E. Frezouls & H. JoufTroy, eds., Les empereus illyriens, Actes du colloque de
Strasbourg, 11-13 octobre 1990 (Strasbourg 1998),5 fT.; R. Syrne, 'Danubian and Balkan emperors'
Historia 22 (1973) = Roman Papers III (1984), 892 = 310: "The great military emperors who came out
of lllyricurn are often termed 'Illyrian'; and some may even be assigned 'Illyrian blood'. The term is
vicious and misleading. It is also too vague and too narrow".
46 W. Portrnann., 'Die politische Krise zwischen den Kaisern Constantius II und Constans', Historia
48,3 (1999), 301 fT.; J-P. Callu, 'La dyarchide constantinide (340-350): les signes d'evolution', in
Institutions, Societe et Vie politique dans I 'empire romain au Ive siecie ap. J-C-, Collection de I 'Ecole
Franyaise de Rome 159 (1992), 40 fT.
47 M. Fortina, L 'imperatore Graziano (Iorino 1953).
48 K.G. Holurn, 'Pulcheria's Crusade A.D. 421-22 and the Ideology of Imperial Victory', Greek,
Roman and Byzantine Studies 18 (1977),155.
49 K.G. Holum, 'Family life in the Theodosian House', Kleronomia 6 (1976), 280 fT.
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virginity. 50 The image of Victoria holding up a large cross expresses these
totalitarian ideas, which are reinforced by the decisive right-facing
orientation (PI. I, fig. 27).
Every Western emperor affirmed his affiliation to East or West
through the model chosen for the reverses of his coins. Although it is not so
clear an expression as the image of Victoria, the emperor crushing underfoot
the human-headed serpent was the Constantinopolitan model in its Ravenna
version. In contrast to the aggressive, self-justifying posture of John, Avitus
(PI. I, fig. 28) or Glycerius, always facing right in the style of the
Theodosians,51 Valentinian III (PI. I, fig. 29), Leo and Libius Severus adopt
the decisive model of the East, satisfied with its achievements. The Western
supporters of the Anicii saw their aspirations to a militarised basileia
frustrated, 52 and with their defeat the Western emperors lost their very
"raison d'etre". With them disappeared the notion of true, working
Romanitas, the idea that a ruler was only a ruler in so far as he was able to
resolve problems.
The left-right dialectic, as we have seen, was therefore the instrument
most favoured by the authorities in the iconography of coins, a rich source of
information on the narration of legitimacy in the Roman empire.
Zaragoza, September 2002.
50 K.G. Holum, Theodosian empresses. Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity, (BerkeleyLos Angeles-London 1982), 227: "by showing reverence here to the Theotokos, they secures the
~wer
of their basileia".
I F. Lopez Sanchez, 'Innovation et prestige dans le monnayage d'Avitus', Cahiers Numismatiques
149 (Paris 2001),23 fT
F. Lopez Sanchez, 'Le monnayage d'Olybrius ou I'affirmation de I'occident face a
I'orient' , Cahiers Numismatique 153 (2002) 31ff.
52
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ROMISCHES ORNAMENT ALS SPRACHE.
DIE SANFTE GEGENW ART DER MACHT
Von
HENNER VON HESBERG
Mit der Okkupation der westlichen Territorien des Mittelmeerraumes und
der angrenzenden Regionen durch die Romer kam eine Fiille neuartiger
Objekte in diese Uinder, die mit grundlegend veranderten Lebensformen
verbunden waren. Die eine Gruppe von Objekten, vor allem Geschirr und
Gerat, hing mit andersartigen Formen der Zubereitung und des Genusses von
Nahrung zusammen, eine andere, Kleidung, Schmuck und Bewaffnung,
eroffneten neue Moglichkeiten der Prasentation der eigenen Person, wahrend
schliel3lich die Bauten als dritte Gruppe offentlichen und privaten Raum
vollig neu definierten. 1
Im Gefalle der einzelnen Regionen oder auch im Verhaltnis der
zentralen Stadte zum umliegenden Land lasst sich die Dynamik der
Vorgange an Hand der materiellen Zeugnisse meist vergleichsweise gut
erfassen. Es brauchte seine Zeit, bis sich die Praktiken der neuen Kultur
wirklich durchsetzten. Tacitus (Agricola 21) eriautert die Vorgange am
Wirken des Iulius Agricola in Britannien, und der Text bietet wie kein
anderer die Moglichkeit, si ch die verschiedenen Faktoren vor Augen zu
fuhren, wenn gewiss auch vieles vereinfacht und aus romischer Sicht
beschonigt ist. Schon im zweiten Jahr seiner Tatigkeit als Statthalter gelang
es durch personliche Gesprache und Unterstiitzung aus offentlichen Mitteln,
dass die Einwohner des Landes Tempel, offentliche Platze und Hauser in den
Stadten bauten. Die Sohne der Fiirsten lieJ3 er in den freien Kiinsten
ausbilden, wodurch sich Formen romischer Beredsamkeit durchsetzten. So
verstand man die romische Art (habitus) als Ehre und die Toga wurde
haufiger getragen. Saulenhallen, Bader und aufwendige Gelage (conviviorum
elegantiam) kamen bald hinzu, die man als Lebenskunst (humanitas)
verstehen konnte.
I Fiir das Anfertigen der Vorlagen fiir die Abbildungen danke ich A. Paetz gen. Schieck und A. Smadi.
Vergleiche z.B.: Th. Blagg & M. Millet! (Hrgb.), The Early Roman Empire in the West (Oxford 1990);
U. Heimberg, 'Was bedeutet Romanisierung?', Antike Welt 1998, 19 If. G. Woolf, Becoming Roman The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul (Cambridge 1998), 7 If. (mit weiteren
bibliographischen Hinweisen). St. Altekamp & A. Schafer, in The impact ofRome on Settlement in the
Northwestern and Danube Povinces, Kolloquium Berlin 1998199 (Oxford 2001 = BAR, International
Series 921 ).
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Keine der Aktionen erfolgte gewaltsam und niemand wurde
offensichtlich gezwungen. Agricola lobte nur die Eifrigen (prompti) und
tadelte die Langsamen (segnes). Man kann sich gut vorstellen, dass
zusatzlich ethnische Differenzen ausgespielt wurden, wenn es weiter heiBt,
dass der romische Statthalter der Intelligenz (ingenia) der Britannier dem
Lemeifer (studia) der Gallier den Vorzug gab. Der Anspom, die fremde
Kultur zu iibemehmen, lag nun in Ehrung (honor) und konkurrierendem
Wetteifer (aemulatio), nicht im Zwang (necessitas), woran sich die
Hoffnung kniipfen mochte, seine gesellschaftliche Stellung zu verbessern.
Solche Vorgange muss es in den Provinzen millionenfach gegeben haben,
vielleicht nicht immer gleich gliicklich durchgefuhrt, aber am Ende mit
einem ahnlichen Ergebnis.
Innerhalb dieser Vorgange mochte ich - beschrankt auf die
Nordwestprovinzen und bezogen auf die Fragestellung des Kolloquiums einen Bestandteil betrachten, der selten in diesem Zusammenhang
gewOrdigt, m.E. aber zentrale Bedeutung fur den Vorgang der Akkulturation
besaB. Denn alle die genannten Objekte, Architektur, Gerate und
BekleidungsstUcke zeichnete ein omamentaler Schmuck von einer
spezifischen Besonderheit aus, die dem Eingeweihten im Einklang mit den
anderen Qualitaten, d.h. der Grundform und der handwerklichen Ausfuhrung
- sofort verdeutlichte, zu welcher Kultur es zu rechnen war. Der Erwerb und
die Verwendung eines solchen Objektes bedeuteten folglich einen Kontakt
mit der fremden Kultur, der zunachst ganz unverbindlich und ohne das Ziel
einer kulturellen Angleichung erfolgen konnte. Die Formen bildeten aber mit
dem iibemommenen Objekt eine Einheit und definierten in vieler Hinsicht
erst dessen Wert, so dass gerade der omamentale und zusatzlich der
figurliche Schmuck einen Zusatz bildete, der von ihren neuen Benutzem in
der Provinz erwiinscht und erstrebt war.
Im Unterschied zu sprachlichen AuBerungen, mit deren Hilfe eine
Verstandigung iiber Inhalte erstrebt wird, dienten die Objekte anderen
Zielen. Nutzte man sie, erwies man sich der fremden Kultur kundig, ohne sie
eigens lemen zu miissen. Vielmehr konnte man sie einfach iibernehmen und
sie ohne Miihe in die eigene Umgebung einfugen. Nur vor dem Hintergrund
der Bedeutung dieser Objekte in ihrer ursprunglichen Kultur lieB sich ihre
Verwendung im neuen Umfeld beurteilen. Die Bevolkerung in den
romischen Provinzen bewies folglich durch die Ubernahme und den
Gebrauch eine bestimmte Romanitas. Im Zusammenhang des Kolloquiums
ware nun zu fragen, ob in der Annahme oder Ablehnung romischen Dekors
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bestimmte Regeln erkennbar sind, und ob damber hinaus durch die Kaiser
und seine Umgebung die Verbreitung bestimmter Formen von Dekor,
sowohl von seinem Inhalt her, wie auch von seinen Formen, direkt oder auch
indirekt gefordert wurde.
In der Architektur und dem Dekor von Objekten aus Stein, auf die ich
mich hier konzentriere, verleiht das Ornament dem neuen Material eine
unverwechselbare Qualitat. Die Bauten stellen unmittelbar Trager eines
kulturellen Wertesystems dar und sind nicht einfach nur der Ort, an dem
bestimmte Dinge stattfinden. Eine derartige Einschatzung mag befremdlich
erscheinen, wenn man an die Art der handwerklichen Ausfuhrung in den
Regionen der Nordwestprovinzen denkt. Oft handeIt es sich urn grobe, nach
unserem Verstandnis wenig attraktive Arbeiten. Immer weisen sie zum
Zentrum, d.h. Rom oder Italien, deutliche Verbindungen auf, und markieren
gegenuber der einheimischen Tradition vor Ort eine groBe Distanz.
Drei Fallbeispiele mogen andeuten, was fur Faktoren den Umgang,
das Verstandnis und damit auch die Ubernahme der Formen in die Provinzen
bestimmten. Der Wert der Zeichen gestaltet si ch in einem kommunikativen
Zusammenhang je nach Umfeld neu, in Rom anders als in den Provinzen,
unter Zivilisten anders als unter Militars, wobei eine schier unendliche Zahl
an Konstellationen denkbar ist. Der Wert der Zeichen bemisst sich darin aus
ihrer Deutlichkeit im Sinne von Lesbarkeit, als Trager eines Inhalts und ihrer
asthetischen Qualitat. Als erstes Beispiel mogen Gestaltungsweisen dienen,
die im Zuge der kaiserlichen Bautatigkeit gefordert wurden, wie Z.B. die
korinthische Ordnung. Zu fragen ware, warum si ch daneben nicht auch
andere Formen durchsetzen konnten. Als zweites Beispiel soli mit der
Doppel-S-Sima eine Form betrachtet werden, die im kaiserlichen Ambiente,
z.B. auf dem Palatin in Rom, vorkommt, von der aber auch behauptet wurde,
sie entsprache in besonderer Weise lokalen Sehgewohnheiten vor Ort. Als
drittes Beispiel sei das Nativitatszeichen des Augustus, der Capricorn,
betrachtet, das auch in den Provinzen haufiger begegnet.
Grundsatzlich gilt es bei alien folgenden Uberlegungen zu bedenken,
dass vor Ort nichts an Architektur vorhanden war, das auch nur entfernt den
Vergleich mit romischen Bauten aus Stein hatte aufnehmen konnen. Steinerne
Bauten waren in Gallien sparlich und fehlten in Germanien vollig. Hierin
scheinen Tacitus (Germania 16,2: materia ad omnia utuntur et cUra speciem
aut delectationem) und die anderen Schriftsteller nach Ausweis der
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archaologischen Quellen nicht zu iibertreiben. 2 Sogar Tacitus fallt es schwer,
daraus eine positive Qualitat von indigener Kultur abzuleiten, z.B. Einfachheit
oder Schlichtheit, denn der Kontrast zu den romischen Lebensgepflogenheiten
war einfach zu gro13. Steineme Bauten in einer Umgebung, die sie bisher nicht
kannte, veranderten die Welt, verschoben die Dimensionen von Zeit und
Raum und demonstrierten wie vielleicht kein anderes Mittel oder and ere Form
der Kommunikation im alltaglichen Erleben die Oberlegenheit der fremden
Kultur, ohne dass diese Oberlegenheit dabei aggressiv ausgespielt wurde.
Gewiss waren fur die Erringung und Erhaltung der Macht Militar und
Administration von entscheidender Bedeutung. Der Luxus von Kleidung und
Gastmahlem gipfelten unmittelbar im Genuss. Aber die Architektur schuf den
bleibenden Rahmen. Sie trugen dazu bei, die neuen Regeln fur das
Zusammenleben festzulegen. Tacitus verwies scharfsichtig auf Saulenhallen
und Platze, die zusammen mit den Tempeln den spezifischen, der romischen
Kultur eigenen offentlichen Raum schufen, der sich von dem privaten Raum
der Hauser klar abhob.
In unserem Zusammenhang waren die Vorgange auf verschiedenen
Ebenen zu priifen. Dass nach Moglichkeit Marmor oder entsprechende
Materialien bevorzugt verwandt wurden, ist offensichtlich. Dabei handelte es
sich urn eine Frage des Prestiges der Stadte, kaum urn eine Forderung von
Seiten der Zentrale. 3 Dies wird allein an sehr widerspruchlichen
Entwicklungen deutlich, denn in den gro13en Stiidten, vor allem den
Kapitalen der Provinzen, werden Bauten aus wei13en Steinen errichtet, in den
kleineren Stadten hingegen nicht durchgehend und dort behalt man eher falls schon ausgebildet und iibemommen - traditionelle Formen aus der Zeit
der spaten Republik und der friihaugusteischen Zeit no ch weit bis in das 1.
Ih. n.Chr. bej4 In den Nordwestprovinzen lie13 sich diesen Erwartungen nur
unter gro13en Einschrankungen Rechnung tragen, einfach weil das passende
Material fehlte. Zum neuen Material sollten die neuen Formen passen und
dabei sah es schon anders aus. 5 Ob die Vorgange in irgendeiner Weise von
2 Strabon, Geographica 4.4.3. Vg!. die Sammlung einschHigiger Nachweise in der Ausgabe von
Tacitus, Germania durch G. Perl, Griechische und lateinische Quellen zur Friihgeschichte
Mitteleuropas II (Berlin 1990), 178 f.
3 P. Zanker,'Einleitung', in P. Zanlcer & W. Trillmich (Hrgb.), Stadtbild und Ideologie. Kolloquium
Madrid 1987, (MUnchen 1990 = Abhandlungen der bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften 103),21 f.
4 lB. Ward-Perkins, 'From Republic to Empire: Reflections on the Early Provincial Architecture of
the Roman West', Journal of Roman Studies 60 (1970), I ff.; H. von Hesberg, 'Bauomarnentik aIs
kulturelle Leitform', in Zanker & Trillmich 1990, op.cit. (Anm.3), 341 ff.
5 H. Kiihler, Die romischen Kapitelle des Rheingebietes (Berlin 1939), 4 ff. M. Trunk, 'Die
Bauomamentik des romischen Theaters von Seg6briga', Madrider Mitteilungen 39 (1998), 151 ff.; H.
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Mitgliedern der kaiserlichen Familie gefordert wurden, etwa durch
entsprechende Architekten oder Bauhiitten, ist umstritten, aber eher fraglich.
ledenfalls gibt es keinerlei Hinweise darauf. 6 Hier geht es mir nur darum,
den Grad der Bewusstheit zu umschreiben, mit dem die Beteiligten mit dem
Formenrepertoire umgingen. Versuchte das Kaiserhaus eine bestimmte
Formensprache umzusetzen und verstanden die Auftraggeber in den
Provinzen diesen Stil als imperial?
Die beschriebene QualiUit der Bauten unterstrich deren standardisiert
wirkendes Ornament. Auf diese Weise verschrankten si ch Sehgewohnheiten
in Rom und Italien. Die Art der Formgebung wirkte regional en Sonderformen entgegen. Vor allem verbreitete sich rasch die korinthische Ordnung
mit der charakteristischen Saule und dazu passendem Gebalk. Die
verbindliche Kraft, die in diesem Prozess deutlich wird - so meine These -,
ware nicht moglich gewesen, ohne das dauernde Vorbild der kaiserlichen
Aktivitaten. Obwohl es sich urn einen Dekor mit vergleichsweise
komplizierten Details handelt, haben die Auftraggeber in den Provinzen
nicht auf einfachere Muster wie die dorische 7 oder die ionische Ordnung
zuriickgegriffen,8 oder den erstrebten Dekor reduziert. Der Dekor sollte
vielmehr gangigem Standard entsprechen, auch wenn sich in der Qualitat der
Ausfuhrung bisweilen Probleme ergaben.
Dieser Wunsch nach einer moglichst aktuellen Formgebung ist
verschiedenen Erscheinungen ablesbar. In den Grenzprovinzen des
Nordwestens z.B. lasst sich an keinem Monumenttypus mehr die
Verwendung dorischer Friese nachweisen. Dies ist umso merkwtirdiger, weil
in den zentralen Westprovinzen bis in die augusteische Zeit hinein gro13e
von Hesberg" 'Bauteile der frtlhen Kaiserzeit in Koln - Das Oppidum Ubiorum zur Zeit des
Augustus', in FestschriJt G. Precht = Xantener Berichte (2002), 13fT.
6 H. Hllnlein-Schafer, Veneratio Augusti - Eine Studie zu den Tempeln der ersten romischen Kaiser
(Rom 1985), 95 IT. Sehr allgemein appelliert Vitruv, De architectura I prae/ario, an derartige
Erwartungen. Vg!. zu den Werkstatten: H. Heinrich, Subtilitas Novarum ScalpturarumUntersuchungen zur Omamentik marmorner Bauglieder der spaten Republik und /rohen Kaiserzeit in
Campanien (Milnchen 2002), 45 fT.
7 P. Broise, 'Elements d'un ordre toscan provincial en Haute-Savoie', Gal/ia 27 (1969), 15 fT.; A. Paul,
'Toskanische Kapitelle aUs Trier und Umgebung', Trierer ZeitschriJt 57 (1994), 147 fT.; A. Schafer,
'Die tuskanischen Kapitelle des romischen Koln', KolnerJahrbuch 32 (1999), 689 fT.; Th.F.C. Biagg,
Roman Architectural Ornament in Britain (Oxford 2002 = BAR, British Series 329), 126 IT.
8 Ionische Kapitelle fehlen in nachaugusteischer Zeit auch in Oberitalien, G. Cavalieri Manasse, La
decorazione architettonica romana di Aquileia. Trieste. Pola (Aquileia 1978), 44 fT., und vollig im
Bestand der nordlichen Grenzprovinzen. Blagg 2002, op.cit. (Anm.7), 18 fT.
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offentliche Bauten, z.B. Tempel oder vielleicht auch Hallen in Saintes,9
Nimes,!O Malain (Burgund)1l oder auch in Evora (Portugal)12 mit
Triglyphenfriesen geschmuckt wurden. Sie waren zwischen 40 und 60 cm
hoch und alternierend mit Bukranien und Pateren gefullt. Darin entsprachen
sie Mustern aus Mittel- oder Oberitalien, Z.B. den Tempeln von Aquino,13 von
Minturnae l4 - allerdings mit anderen Motiven als Metopenschmuck - oder
dem Dioskurentempel von Este. 15 Der sog. Arc du Rhone oder die Friese der
Theater von Arles l6 oder Barcelonal7 belegen, dass sogar verschiedene
Varianten der dorischen Friese ubernommen wurden, denn die Gestaltungsweise knupft dort an Formen an, wie sie in Etrurien in spathellenistischer Zeit
ausgepragt wurden und sich dort bis in die fruhe Kaiserzeit hielten. 18 Das
Siegesdenkmal von "La Turbie" mit Waffendarstellungen l9 belegt hingegen
eine dritte, strenge Gestaltungsweise der Ordnung, die an stadtromische
Vorbilder anknupft (Taf. 11, Abb. 1 a). Die dorischen Friese an Grabbauten in
Narbonne (Taf. 11, Abb. 1 b),20 Lyon 21 oder anderen Stadten22 in den
E. Esperandieu, Recueil general des bas-reliefs de la Gaule Romaine 2 (Paris 1908), 282 Nr. 1364.
J.C!. Joulia, Lesfrises doriques de Narbonne (Brilssel 1988 = Collection Latomus 202),224.
\0 E. Esperandieu, Recueil general des bas-reliefs de la Gaule Romaine 1 (Paris 1907), 319 Nr. 480.
Joulia 1988, op.cit. (Arun. 9),223 (mit weiteren Beispielen).
11 E. Esperandieu, Recueil general des bas-reliefs de la Gaule Romaine 4 (Paris 1911), 426 Nr. 3566.
12 V. De Souza, Portugal, Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani (Coimbra 1990), 33 Nr. 75. Vg!. dazu Th.
Hauschild,"Evora, Vorbericht uber die Ausgrabungen am romischen Temper, Madrider Mitteilungen
35 (1994), 314 fT. derselbe, 'EI templo romano de Evora', Cuadernos de Arquitectura Romana I
(1992), 107 fT.
13 M. Cagiano de Azevedo, Aquinum (Rom 1949),39 f., Taf. 3.
14 J. Johnson, Excavations at Minturnae I. Monuments of the Republican Forum (philadelphia 1935),
64 Abb. 32.
15 M.J. Strazzula, Le terracotte architettoniche della Venetia Romana (Rom 1987),357 fT. Nr. 429 fT.,
Taf. 85 f. Der Fries ist dort ca. 45 cm hoch. E. Baggio Bemardoni, in G. Tosi (Hrgb.), Este Antica
(Este/Padua 1992), 326 fT., Abb. 240. Vg!. auch zahlreiche weitere Beispiele aus Oberitalien: Cavalieri
Manasse 1978, op.cit. (Arun.8), 94 fT., 150 fT, Nr. 59 fT., 120 fT., Taf. 27 fT., 57 f.
16 A. von Gladiss, 'Der Arc du Rhone' von ArIes', Romische Mitteilungen 79 (1972),36 fT., 49 fT.,
Taf. 28 fT.
17 J. Puig i Cadafalch, L 'arquitectura Romana a Catalunya (Barcelona 1934),200,295 fT., Abb. 258,
358. Die Triglyphen dort folgen mit ihren Tropfenleisten unten und oben Vorbildern im etruskischen
Raum, z.B. dem Tempel in Fiesole, A. De Agostino, Fiesole (Rom 1949), 10 fT., 53 Nr. 2546, Abb. 47.
18 H. von Hesberg, 'Die Aufnalune der dorischen Ordnung in Etrurien', in Die Aufnahme fremder
Kultureinfliisse in Etrurien und das Problem des Retardierens in der etruskischen Kunst. Kolloquium
Mannheim 1980 (Mannheim 1981), 189 fT.
19 J. Formige, Le trophee des Alpes (La Turbie) (Paris 1949 = Supplement 2 a Gallia), 66 fT., Abb. 7,
46, 60. E. Polito, Fulgentibus Armis - introduzione allo studio dei fregi d'armi antichi (Rom 1998),
132 fT., Abb. 66.
20 Joulia 1988, op.cit. (Arun.9), 16 fT.
21 E. Esperandieu, Recueil general des bas-reliefs de la Gaule Romaine 3 (Paris 1910), 40 Nr.1799. A.
von Gladiss 1972, op.cit. (Arun.16), 36 fT.
9
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gallischen Provinzen scheinen hingegen starker Mustern verpflichtet zu sein,
wie sie aus Oberitalien bekannt sind. 23 Damit zeichnet sich die fur das 1. Jh.
v.Chr. charakteristische Buntheit in der Ubernahme von Motiven ab, die erst
im Laufe der augusteischen Zeit in den Jahrzehnten urn die Zeitenwende
durch einheitlichere Muster abgelbst werden. In den germanischen Grenzprovinzen und Britannien24 lasst sich daher die dorische Ordnung nicht
nachweisen. Ein Fries aus Xanten ist nachantik und die Erganzung des sog.
Drususmonuments in Mainz bleibt in diesem Detail hypothetisch 25
Lediglich das Fragment eines Frieses aus Augst fallt aus der Reihe. Es
kbnnte nach der Gestaltung der Triglyphen und des Metopenschmucks zu
einem augusteischem Grabbau gehbrt haben 26
Die Verbreitung dorischer Schmuckformen wird gerne Militars oder
Veteranen zugeschrieben. 27 Schon H. Gabelmann wies aber darauf hin, dass
der Gebrauch der Ordnung generell in der augusteischen Zeit aus der Mode
kam, also mit einem umfassenden Geschmackswandel zusammenhangen
muss 28 und nicht lediglich eine Erscheinung ist, die si ch an ihrer Bindung an
eine bestimmte Gruppe erklaren lieJ3e. Vor allem erklart die These nicht,
warum es vorher zu jener heterogenen Verwendung der Schmuckformen kam,
in der sich keinerlei eindeutige Verteilung und Zuordnung abzeichnet. Die
Verwendung an bffentlichen Bauten erscheint zudem rein fakultativ zu sein
22 Die ZugehOrigkeit eines Fragments in Metz bleibt freilieh hypothetiseh. R. Billoret, 'Cireonseription
de Lorraine', Gallia 24 (1966), 291, Abb. 27.
23 G. Mansuelli, 'Monuments de la valJee du P6 ',Monuments Piot 53 (1963), 90 ff., Abb. 44,47,51
ff. H. Gabelmann, 'Der Sarkophag der Pedueaea Hilara in Modena', Marburger WinekelmannProgramm (1966), 37 ff.; J. Ortalli, 'Un nuovo monumento funerario romano di Imola', Rivista di
Areheologia 2 (1978), 55 ff. A. Romualdi, 'Monterenzio', Notizie degli Seavi di Antiehitil 35 (1981),
30 ff, Abb. 11 ff. Joulia 1988, op.eit. (Anm. 9). Vg!. aueh M. Torelli, 'Monumenti funerari romani con
fregio dorieo', Dialoghi di Archeologia 2 (1968), 32 ff., Abb. B; M. Buonocore, 'monumenti funerari
Romani con decorazione ad Alba Fucens', Melanges de I'Eeole Fram;:aise de Rome 94, 2 (1982), 715
ff.; M. Rizzello, Monumentifunerari Romani eonfregi doriei della media valle del Uri (Sora 1979).
Vg!. auch Polito 1998, op.cit. (Anm.19), 30 ff.
24 Blagg 2002, op.cit. (Anm.7), 16 ff.
25 Joulia 1988, op.cit. (Anm.9), 219 (Xanten). H.G. Frenz, 'Drusus maior und sein Monument zu
Mainz', Jahrbueh des Romiseh-Germanisehen Zentralmuseums Mainz 32 (1985), 413, Abb. 18.
26 C. Bossert-Radtke, ,Die figiirlichen Reliefs und Rundskulpturen aus Augst und Kaiseraugst',
Forschungen in Augst 16 (Augst 1992) 107 Nr. 75 Taf 59. Die engsten Parallel en finden sich in
Aquileja: G. Cavalieri Manasse 1978, op.cit. (Anm. 8) 151ff. Nr. 122.124.125 Taf 57f
27 1. Curtius, Ikonographische Beitrilge zum Portrilt der rOrnischen Republik, Romische Mitteilungen
48 (1933), 198. Torelli 1968, op.cit. (Anm.23), 47 f; A. Roth Conges, in J.C!. Bessac u.a. (Hrgb.),
Ugemum - Beaucaire et le beaucairois a l'epoque romaine 2 (Caveirac 1987), 93 Anm. 67 (mit
weiteren Belegen). Joulia 1988, op.cit. (Anm.9), 208.
28 H. Gabelmann, Rezension zu D. Boschung, Antike Grobaltare, in Banner Jahrbucher 189 ( 1989), 622.
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und ist in keinem Fall aus der Einflussnahme von Militars erklarbar. Ahnlich
verhalt es sich bei den Grabbauten, man denke nur an die der Senatoren?9
Dieser Geschmackswandel vollzog sich allem Anschein nach in Rom,
denn dort fallt es schwer, Bauten mit dorischem Schmuck aus den Jahrzehnten
der Zeitwende oder dem 1. Jh. n.Chr. namhaft zu machen. Ob der Wandel
dabei durch die Mitglieder des Herrscherhauses aktiv propagiert wurde, lasst
sich nicht sagen. Immerhin gibt es aus dieser Zeit kein Monument dieser Art,
welches sich entsprechend zuweisen lieJ3e?O Die Impulse gingen also von
Rom aus, vor allem gepragt durch die Pracht in der offentlichen Architektur
und iibertragen auf Grabmonumente. Die Ablehnung des Dekors hatte ihren
Grund wohl in dessen vergleichsweise plumper Form mit machtigen
Triglyphen, die zu den Formen, wie sie beispielhaft im sog. Dritten Stil der
Wandmalerei die Gestaltung bestimmten, nicht passten. 31 Das macht eine der
seltenen Ausnahmen aus dem 1. Jh. n. Chr. deutlich. In dem Chironbild der
sog. Basilika von Herculaneum ist zwar ein dorischer Fries wiedergegeben,32
aber die Triglyphen sind zu kleinen Pilastem umgeformt und nur noch an den
Guttae unter ihnen als Teile einer dorischen Ordnung kenntlich.
Einmal iibemommen konnte sich die Form in Oberitalien und den
zentralen Westprovinzen allerdings einige Zeit behaupten, wie u.a Altare in
R. Fellmann, Das Grab des Munatius Plancus bei Gaeta (Base1 1957),32 fT., 58 fT., Taf. 7.
Neben anderen Bauten wiiren das Mausoleum (H. von Hesberg & S. Panciera, Das Mausoleum des
Augustus (Milnchen 1994 = Abhandlungen der Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften Milnchen
29
30
108), 24fT, Abb. 46, Taf. 9 fT.), das Haus des Augustus (P. Pensabene, E1ementi architettonici dal1a
Casa di Augusto sui Palatino, Romische Mitteilungen 104 (1997), 149 fT., Abb. 16 fT., 26 fT. (mit
verfehlter Rekonstruktion», die Basilica Aemilia und der Partherbogen zu nennen CF. Toebe1mann,
Romische Gebalke (Heide1berg 1923), 13 fT.; H. Bauer, Basilica Aemilia, und E. Nedergaard, Zur
Prob1ematik der Augustusoogen auf dem Forum Romanum, in Kaiser Augustus und die Verlorene
Republik, Austellung Berlin 1988 (Berlin 1988),202 fT., 225 ff, Abb. 91 fT., 127 fT.; Th. Mattern,
Gesims und Ornament (MOnster 2001),18 f.). Die Bedeutung des Motivs zeigt sich aber auch indirekt in
der Wiedergabe z.B. auf der Portlandvase, E. Simon, Die Portlandvase (Mainz 1957), 6,9, Abb. 1, Taf 1
f, wahrend sie spater z.B. nur verfremdet in der Wandmalerei zu fmden ist (Anm. 32). Auf dem Relief
mit der Wiedergabe des Pal1adionraubes hat die dorische Ordnung die Konnotation der historischen
Architektur, st. Lehmann, Mythologische Prachtrelieft (Bamberg 1996), 61, 66 f, Taf 20, 31.
31 F.L. Bastet & M. de Vos, Proposta per una classijicazione del terzo stile pompeiano ( 'sGravenhage 1979), 121 fT.; W. Ehrhardt, Stilgeschichtliche Untersuchungen an romischen
Wandmalereien von der sptiten Republik bis zur Zeit Neros (Mainz 1987),85 fT., Taf 63, 105 fT.; P.
Zanker, Augustus und die Macht der Bilder (Milnchen 1987), 279 fT.
32 P. Herrmann (Hrgb.), Denkmaler der Malerei des Altertums (Milnchen 1904-1931), Taf 82; Joulia
1988, op.cit. (Anm.9), 242. Vgl. auch ein Campanarelief in Paris, H. von Rohden & H. Winnefe1d, Die
antiken Terrakotten 4.1. Architektonische Romische Tonrelieft der Kaiserzeit (Berlin -Stuttgart 1911),
297, Taf 119 (Auch dort sind die TrigJyphen zu Pilastern mit Kapitellen umstilisiert).
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Brescia, Oderzo und Modena aus claudischer Zeie 3 und Friese in Ni'mes und
Malain 34 wohl aus der ersten Halfte des l.Jhs. n.Chr. belegen. Die einzelnen
Motive der Triglyphenfriese wirken an dies en spaten Beispielen zwar stark
verfremdet und zu graphischen Zeichen reduziert, aber der Zusammenhang
mit der lokalen Tradition bleibt unverkennbar. In denjenigen Regionen, in
denen si ch der dorische Dekor in spatrepublikanischer oder augusteischer
Zeit etabliert hatte, konnte er fur eine gewisse Zeit weiterhin benutzt werden,
in den neu hinzugewonnen Provinzen kam er aber gar nicht erst auf Dieses
Ergebnis ist deshalb ein wenig iiberraschend, weil man in der Regel eine
wellenformige Verbreitung erwartet, in der die Formen von Rom oder Italien
ausgehend am Ende die Grenzen des Reiches erreichen. Hier aber werden sie
sozusagen von den modernen Formen auf ihrem Weg iiberholt. So ktmnte
man umgekehrt ein Argument fur die Annahme gewinnen, die Etablierung
neuer Formen bediente sich jeweils der im Zentrum des Reiches aktuellen
Formensprache, zumindest in einer Art Riickversicherung der Formenwahl.
Damit kommen erneut die Bauten des Augustus, der Angehbrigen
seiner Familie und seiner Umgebung ins Spiel. Dadurch, dass sie spatestens
seit den Jahrzehnten urn die Zeitenwende immer wieder die korinthische
Form in reiner Auspragung wahlten, diirften sie schon fur Rom und
Mittelitalien eine verbindliche Wirkung erzielt haben, die in dieser
einheitlichen Verwendung nach au/3en wirkte. Bauten, die in den Provinzen
von Mitgliedern aus dem Umkreis des Kaiserhauses gestiftet wurden,
mussten eine zusatzlich die Normen bestimmende Kraft gewinnen. Augustus
selbst war in den Provinzen prasent,35 ebenso Agrippa, der z.B. in St.Remy
und Ni'mes Tempel errichten lie/3 ,36 und weitere Mitglieder des Kaiserhauses
bewohnten als Feldherrn entsprechend ausgestattete Residenzen in den
H. Gabelmann, Oberitalische Rundalttire, Romische Mitteilungen 75 (1968), 102, Taf. 24; E.
Biaggio, M. de Mill, F. Ghedini, D. Papafava, M. Rigoni & G.Rosada, Sculture e mosaici Romani del
Museo Civico di Oderzo (Treviso 1976),69 fT., Nr. 20. Modena dalle Origini all'anno mille - Studi di
Archeologia e Storia, Ausstellung in der Galleria Civica di Modena 1989 (Modena 1989), 451 fT. Nr.
344, Abb. 504 f. Auf dem Grabaltar des Centurionen P. Clodius erscheint der dorische Fries nur auf
der Riickseite. Joulia 1988, op.cit. (Anm.9), 238 f., 248, 251.
34 Vg!. oben Anm. 10 und I!.
35 S. Panzram, Stadtbild und Elite: Tarraco. Corduba und Augusta Emerita zwischen Republik und
Sptitantike (Stuttgart 2002),33 fT.
36 Glanum, Valetudotempel: H. Rolland, Fouilles de Glanum 1947-56 (Paris 1958 = 11. Supplement a
Gallia) 98 fT. Nimes, Maison Carree: R. Amy & P. Gros, La Maison Carree de Nfmes (Paris 1979 =
38. Supplement a Gallia), 177 fT.; l-M. Roddaz, Marcus Agrippa (Paris 1984), 394 fT. Vg!. auch A
Cooley, 'A new date for Agrippa's theatre at Ostia', Papers of the Bn·tish School at Rome 67 (1999),
173 fT.
33
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Lagern. 37 Die korinthische Ordnung hat dabei mit ihrem vegetabilen
Schmuck den neuen Erwartungen auf eine Aurea Aetas mehr entsprochen
und ausschliel3lich Anwendung gefunden.38 Daraus lasst sich m.E. schlie/3en,
dass jeweils die in den Zentren der Macht bevorzugte Form bewusst
angewandt und iibertragen wurde. Eigenstandige Entwicklungen in den
Provinzen gab es nur, wenn die Grundformen schon in vor- oder friihaugusteischer Zeit etabliert worden waren 39 Jenseits aller Vergroberungen
der Formen im Einzelnen bildeten die aus dem kaiserlichen Umfeld
gestifteten Bauten so etwas wie einen Ma/3stab fur die Aktualitat und
Stimmigkeit eines Ornaments 40 Im Bereich der ornamentalen Formgebung
liegen seit augusteischer Zeit die Moglichkeiten zu Variationen innerhalb
solcher Grenzen. Allerdings zeichnen sich daran ankniipfend eine Fiille von
lokalen Entwicklungen ab, die mit deutlichen Verschiebungen im Grundbestand der Formen fuhrten. Offenbar setzten sich jeweils regionale
Erscheinungen durch, die gewiss auch mit der Etablierung von
ortsgebundenen Werkstatten zusammenhingen. 41
Unter der Fiille von einschlagigen Einzelmotiven sei an dieser Stelle
nur eines gepriift, das auf der einen Seite bei kaiserlichen Bauvorhaben in
Rom vorkommt, andererseits als eine Form angesehen wurde, die in
besonderer Weise der mentalen Disposition oder den Sehgewohnheiten einer
provinzialen Bevolkerung mit keltischem Substrat entsprach. Ein friihes
Beispiel fur Simen mit dem Schmuck eines Doppel-S-Motivs bietet die Casa
dei Grifi auf dem Palatin in Rom (Taf. 11, Abb. 2 a).42 Unter den Campanareliefs kommt das Motiv in der Folgezeit haufiger vor (Taf. 11, Abb. 3)43 und
37 R. Fortsch, 'Villa und Praetorium. Zur Luxusarchitektur in friihkaiserzeitlichen Legionslagern',
Kolnerlahrbuch 28 (1995), 617 IT.
38 Gerne wird darin ein Ausdruck des Aurea Aetas-Gedanken gesehen, aber es veIiindert sich
insgesamt die Ordnung, nicht nur der Friesdekor. Zu den Ranken: H.P. L'Orange, 'Ara Pacis
Augustae. La zona floreaie, Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia 1 (1962), 7 IT. P.
Gros, Aurea Templa. Recherches sur l'architecture religieuse de Rome a l'epoque d'Auguste (Paris
1976), 197 IT.; G. Sauron, Quis Deum? L 'expression plastique des ideologies politiques et religieuses
a Rome (Paris 1994),515 IT.; G. Schorner, Romische Rankenfriese (Mainz 1995), 105 IT.; M. MatheaFortsch, Romische Rankenpfeiler und -pilaster (Mainz 1999), 97 IT. Zu den Girlanden: A. Rumpf,
Rezension zu Th. Kraus, Die Ranken der Ara Pacis, in Trierer Zeitschrift 24 - 26 (1956-58),267
39 Ward-PerkinsI970, op.cit. (Anm.4).
40 Besonders deutlich in Spanien.
41 Kiihler 1939 op.cit. (Anm.5), 22 IT.
42 G.E. Rizzo, Le pitture della .. Casa dei Grifi" (Rom 1936 = Monumenti della pittura antica scoperti
in ltalia 3. La pittura ellenistico-romana 3.\),13, Abb. 12.
43 Rohden & Winnefeld 1911, op.cit. (Anm. 32),226 IT., Abb. 22,459 IT., Taf. 42.
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wird auch in der Casa di Augusto verwendet. 44 In Oberitalien begegnet die
Form in verschiedener Form wieder, ohne dass alle Beispiele aufgezahlt seien.
Die augusteisch datierte Grabaedikula der Volumnier in Padua (Taf. 11, Abb. 2
b) mag die Eigenarten der Verwendung in der Region verdeutlichen. 45 Denn
im Gegensatz zur Gestaltung des Motivs in Rom und Mittelitalien fehlen die
Palmetten als Aufsatze der Stengel zwischen den Voluten. Diese Unterschiede
finden ihre Parallelen in Bronzeverkleidungen, die fur beide Regionen in
Fragmenten erhalten sind. An einem Fragment in Parma fehlen sie ebenfalls,46
an einem Fragment aus Pompeji sind sie vorhanden. 47
Der Weg von Oberitalien bis an den Rhein lasst sich hlckenlos an
Hand zahlreicher Beispiele aufzeigen, etwa in Gallien in Arles,48 Glanum,49
Vienne,50 Alesia (Taf. 11, Abb. 4),51 Entrains und Alise-Sainte-Reine,52
Autun 53 oder Trier, in Germanien vor allem an Grabsteinen von Angehorigen
des Militars in Mainz (Taf. 11, Abb. 5),54 an einzelnen Reliefs und Giebeln in
44 G. Carettoni, 'Terracotte Campane dallo scavo del tempio di Apollo Palatino', Rendiconti della
Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia 44 (1971-72), 132 f, Abb. 6; Pensabene 1997, op.cit.
(Anrn.30), 162, Taf 28.1.
45 F. Drexel, 'Ein Architektwmotiv', Germania 9 (1925), 35 fT. hatte schon die Belege urnfassend
zusarnrnengestellt lUld auf die Herkunft aus OberitaJien lUld die Datienmg in die [riihe Kaiserzeit
hingewiesen. F. Ghedini, Sculture greche e romane del Museo Civico di Padova (Rom 1980), 104 fT.,
Nr. 42.
46 M.P. Rossignani, 'La decorazione architettonica in bronzo nel mondo Romano', Contributi dell'
lstituto di Archeologia, Universitil Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Milano 2 (1969), 61 f. Nr. 2 g, Taf. 26,
2. Vg!. aus Avenches einen bronzenen Akroter: M. Bossert, Die figarlichen Relieft von Avenches
(Lausanne 1998 = Aventicurn VII, Corpus Signorurn hnperii Romani, Schweiz), 50, Abb. 12.
OfTenbar handelt es sich bei dem hier betrachteten Motiv urn eine auf Norditalien lUld die
Nordprovinzen beschrllilkte Form, zu der es sehr wohl auch anderswo gnmdlegende Varianten gab.
47 E. Pernice, Geftij3e und Gerate aus Bronze (Berlin & Leipzig 1925 = F. Winter & E. Pernice
[Hrgb.J, Die hellenistische Kunst in Pompeji 4),18 -19, Abb. 28.
48 W. Altrnann, Die Grabaltare der romischen Kaiserzeit (Berlin 1905),208, Abb. 166. Esperandieu 1,
1907, op.cit. (Anrn.1 0), 154 f Nr. 196 (Auf der AbbildlUlg ist das Motiv nur schwer zu erkennen).
49 H. Rolland 1958, op.cit. (Anrn. 36), 26, Taf 6, I.
50 E. Will, La sculpture romaine au Musee Lapidaire de Vienne (Vienne 1952), 59 Nr. 117, Taf 8,2. Das
Reliefbi1d des Tempels belegt, dass das Schmuckmotiv auch die Horizontalsirna schmiicken konnte.
51 P. Varene, 'Petit edifice d' Alesia a decor en spirales', Gallia 22 (1964), 63 fT.; A. Olivier,
'Corniches et couronnements gallo-romaines a AIesia (Alise Sainte Reine, Cote-d'Or), Gallia 46
(1989), 59 ff., Abb, 17 ff. ( mit einer Fiille von Beispie1en aus Gal1ien).
52 Esperandieu 3, 1910, op.cit. (Anrn.21), 273, 306 Nr. 2310,2379.
53 Terrakottaaedikula: Autun, Augustodunum, Capitales des Eduens, Ausstellung Autun 1987,278 Nr. 565.
54 W. Boppert, Milittirische Grabdenkmtiler aus Mainz und Umgebung, (Mainz 1992 = Corpus
Signorurn hnperii Romani, Deutschland IT 5), 90 fT" 118 ff., 156 fT" Nr, 1,27,59,114, 115,,128, Taf
1, 25, 55, 83 f., 91. HG. Frenz, Bauplastik und Portrtits aus Mainz und Umgebung (Mainz 1992 =
Corpus Signorurn hnperii Romani, Deutschland II 7), 118 - 121, Nr. 169 - 176, Taf 81 - 83.
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Bonn55 oder Koln. Aus Koln ware der bekannte, vielleicht dem 2. lh. n.Chr.
entstammende Giebel, zu nennen. Er bezog sich offensichtlich auf einen
Tempel des Hermes, der moglicherweise wegen des architektonischen Dekors
ein friiheres Gebaude aus der Mitte des 1. lhs. wiedergab. 56
In anderer Weise belegen die verbindliche Kraft eines
vorherrschenden Ornaments einige ausgesprochen einfache Monumente der
fiiihen Kaiserzeit in Trier.57 Dort wird dasselbe Ornament als Schmuck von
Sockeln und Altaren eingefuhrt. Aufschlussreich sind dabei Neugestaltung
und Kombination der Motive. Denn die klappsymmetrische Anordnung der
S-formigen Einzelglieder auf ein Lanzettblatt hin ist zugunsten einer
schlichten Reihung aufgegeben, wobei jeweils an einer Ecke die "richtige"
Version vorkommt und erst danach in den einfachen Rapport iibergeht.
Zudem treten in anderen Feldern no ch Ranken oder Figuren hinzu, die
ebenfalls nicht - wie sonst iiblich - symmetrisch von der Mitte ausgehen,
sondern ebenfalls von einer Ecke. In einem Fall sind sie noch durch eine
menschliche Figur bereichert, die ahnlich wie die Tiere zu den Ranken
gehort und von ihnen eine Frucht in einen Korb zu pfliicken scheint. An
einen Winzer zu denken, besteht keine Not, vielmehr weisen die anderen
Ranken ebenfalls auf Bilder gliicklicher Natur hin, wie sie in Italien in der
fiiihen Kaiserzeit, aber auch spater, weit verbreitet sind. SchlieJ3Jich wird ein
Streifen mit einem auffallenden Ornament aus kubischen Figuren gefullt, die
in einer Art Kerbstil angelegt sind. Das Motiv mit den Doppel-S-Voluten
kommt spater in Britannien vor, allerdings selten. 58
55 F. Koepp, Germania Romana III (Bamberg 1926), 54, Taf 44, 3. G. BauchenB, Zivile
Grabdenkmtiler, Bonn und Umgebung (Bonn 1979 = Corpus Signorurn Imperii Romani, Deutschland
ill 2), 27 - 28 Nr. 21 Taf. 12 ( mit weiteren Literaturhinweisen). Vg!. K. Woelcke, 'Eine romische
Giebelverzierung aus Heddernheim', Germania 9 (1925), 33 fT. Abb. LW. Meier-Arendt, Romische
Steindenkmtiler aus Franlifurt a,M. (Frankfurt 1983 = Archfiologische Reihe 1),33 Nr. 7. Vg!. auch
das Mithrasbild aus Dieburg, in G. Ristow, in O. Doppelfeld (Hrgb.), Romer am Rhein, Ausstellung
Romisch-Germanisches-Museum Koln (Koln 1967), 169 f. Nr. A 123, Taf 44.
56 P. Hommel, Studien zu den romischen Figurengiebeln der Kaiserzeit (Berlin 1954), 57 fT., Abb. 14;
P. Noelke, 'Araet aedicula', BonnerJahrbiicher 190 (1990), lOO fT., 118 f, Abb. 15. Von Hesberg
2002, op.cit. (Arun.5), 29 f
57 W. Binsfeld, K. Goethert-Polaschek & L. Schwinden, Gotter- und Weihedenkmtiler, Katalog der
romischen Steindenkmtiler des Rheinischen Landesmuseums Trier (Mainz 1988 = Corpus Signorurn
Imperii Romani, Deutschland XII 1),223 f, Nr. 459 f, Taf. 110. Vg!. aus spiiterer Zeit ein Beispiel
aus Arlon: L. Lefebvre, Le Musee Luxembourgeois Arlon (Brussel 1990), 64 f Nr. 40.
58 Der Giebel eines Grabsteins in Chester: J.M.C. Toynbee, Art in Roman Britain (London 1962), 158
f, Nr. 84, Taf 91, bleibt allerdings eine Ausnalune: M. Mattern, 'Die reliefverzierten romischen
Grabstelen der Provinz Britannia', Kolner Jahrbuch 22 (1989), 728 fT., 747 fT., Abb. 9 fT. Villa bei
Chedworth: G. de la Bedoyere, Roman Villas and the Countryside (London 1993),81, Abb. 67. Biagg
2002, op.cit. (Arun. 7),75 f, Abb. 15.
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Bleibt die Frage zu klaren, warum si ch dieses Schmuckdetail in
einigen Teilen Oberitaliens und der Nordwestprovinzen solcher Beliebtheit
erfreute. Es fand zwar Eingang in die Ausstattung des Augustushauses auf
dem Palatin, we it ere Hinweise auf eine Verwendung an Bauten des Kaiserhauses aber fehlen. Andererseits vermag eine Interpretation als Schmuckform, die besonders einem keltisch gepragtem Verstandnis entsprache, nicht
recht zu befriedigen, denn passende Parallelen liegen fruher, bleiben ganz
isoliert und belegen eigentlich nur, dass das Dekormotiv mit Doppel-SVoluten eine untergeordnete Bedeutung im Repertoire keltischer Formen
einnahm.59 Auch die Arten der Vereinfachung etwa an den erwahnten
Blocken aus Trier sprechen dagegen, da in diesen Fallen die S-Form seriell
gereiht, aber nicht in "keltischer" Manier antithetisch angeordnet wird.
Lediglich die Reduktion des Motivs urn die Palmetten konnte man anfuhren,
die im schon "keltisch" gepragten Oberitalien erfolgte, aber es konnte sich
ebenso gut urn eine Vereinfachung handeln.
Wahrend das Motiv sonst in Pannonien nicht begegnet, nehmen im
fii.ihen 2. Jh. n.Chr. in Aquincum Kaufleute aus Koln an ihren
Grabmonumenten es wieder auf. Fur die Gruppe der Kolner Handler
handelte es sich folglich urn mehr als einen beliebigen Schmuck, und sie
verb and en mit ihm daruber hinaus eine Erinnerung an die Heimat 60
Innerhalb des Umgangs mit der Form werden zwei Verfahrensweisen
deutlich. Die Ubernahme und Verbreitung vom Zentrum in den Norden
Italiens, uber Gallien an den Rhein und von dort nach Britannien, und die
punktuelle Obernahme von Koln an die Donau. Das eine Mal fand das Motiv
breite Akzeptanz, und dann wurde es auch an Bauten eingefugt. Die Frage
musste sich deshalb darauf konzentrieren, warum es an den groBen Bauten
angewandt wurde. 61 Eine Antwort ist bei unserem jetzigen Kenntnisstand
59 F. Schwappach, 'Friihkeltisches Ornament zwischen Marne, Rhein und Moldau', Bonner
Jahrbiicher 173 (1973), 80 f Arun. 42, Abb. 26 fT. Der Stand der Kontroverse wird bei Boppert 1992,
op.cit. (Arun. 53), 588, referiert. Keltisches Substrat wurde ja vielfach vennutet, z.B. bei der
Verwendung von Masken; siehe H. Mobius, Interpretatio Celtica. Ober Masken an
provinzialromischen Grabmiilern', BonnerJahrbiicher 161 (1961), 141 fT., Taf 27 fT., oder Kopfen in
Oberitalien: Gabelmann 1968, op.cit. (Arun.33), 103 fT., wobei sich die Verbindungen zu keltischen
Wurze1n ebenfalls aIs vollig ungewiss herausstellen.
60 L. Nagy, 'Ein neues DenkmaI der Agrippinenses TransaIpini aus Aquincum', Germania 16 (1932),
288 fT. Vg!. jetzt zusammenfassend: P. Zsidi, 'Ein in Aquincum neugefundenes Grabmal', in: Akten
des 4. 1ntemationaIen KolIoquiums iiber Probleme des provinzialromischen KunstschafTens, Hrgb. B.
Djuric und 1. Lazar (1997) 247-255 Taf 72-74.
61 P. Gros, 'Les temples gemines de Glanum', Revue Archeologique de Narbonnaise 14 (1981), 136
fT., Abb. 27, 29. Die Tempel belegen, dass in einer Stadt zur gleichen Zeit unter verschiedenen
Mustern gewiihlt werden konnte. Die Tempel in Glanum (Arun.49), Vienne (Arun.SO), Alesia
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aber nicht moglich, denn weder lassen si ch deren Auftraggeber bestimmen
noch fehlt fur eine derartige Verwendung in Italien das Vorbild. Zur
Ubertragung des Motivs von den kleineren Anlagen auf die groBen Bauten
kam es ausschlieBlich in GalIien und in den Rheinprovinzen. Als zweiter
Typ des Umgangs ist eine punktuelIe Ubertragung erkennbar, in der
Ornament nicht einen beliebigen, auswechselbaren Schmuck bedeutet,
sondern Teil von Selbstverstandnis und Identitat ausmacht.
SchlieBlich konnen Schmuckmotive inhaltliche Dimensionen mit sich
fuhren. Ein beliebtes Motiv im Schmuck von kleineren Bauten der
Nordwestprovinzen bildete der Capricorn, d.h. das entsprechende
Monatszeichen, das aus einer Ziegenprotome mit einem Fischschwanz
bestand. In der Forschung besteht kein Zweifel, dass das Zeichen mit
Augustus zu verbinden ist und auf diesen Kaiser verwies. Offenbar hatte der
Herrscher es selbst als sein Glilckszeichen verstanden (Sueton, Divus
Augustus 94.12). Eine groBe FillIe von stadtromischen Monumenten belegt
eindeutig eine derartige Verbindung, alIen voran die Gemma Augustea in
Wien (Taf 11, Abb. 6a), auf der das Zeichen an prominenter Stelle ilber dem
Princeps in Kombination mit einem Stern wiedergegeben ist. In der
Milnzpragung seit 28 v.Chr. und auf Gemmen wird es ebenfalIs vielfaltig
wiederholt - bisweilen bereichert mit anderen Symbolen. 62 In der Folge
erscheinen neben dem Filllhorn und Stern auf Milnzen, die seit 20 v.Chr. im
Westen des Reiches gepragt wurden, als weitere Attribute Globus und
Steuerruder. T. Holscher bezog sie aufFortuna Reddux 63 In der Folge kam es
zu symmetrischen Verdopplungen des Motivs urn einen Globus im Zentrum.
Dabei handelte es sich urn eine Bildfassung, die offenbar spezielI auf den
Seesieg von Actium bezogen werden konnte, z.B. auf einem Kameo wohl
spataugusteischer Zeit in Wien. Auf der Vorderseite tragen Tritone den
Globus mit den Capricornen, auf der Rilckseite ist das Sternzeichen von einem
Eichenkranz umrahmt (Taf IT, Abb. 6 b und C).64 Ein Kapitell in Pozzuoli aus
der frilhen Kaiserzeit65 oder Stirnziegel in der Architektur (Taf 11, Abb. 7 a
(Arun.SI), Autun (Arun.S3), Koln (Arun.S6) oder Dieburg (Arun.SS) geben aber keine eindeutiges
Bild, aus dem sich ein Argument ableiten lielle, warum diese Form filr sie gewiihlt wurde.
62 T. Holscher, 'Ein romischer Stirnziegel mit Victoria und Capricorni', Jahrbuch des Romischgermanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz 12 (1965), 68 fT.; Von Gladiss 1972, op.cit. (Arun.16), 80.
63 Ho1scher 1965, op.cit. (Arun.62), 66. Vg!. auch A. A1f<i1di, Die zwei Lorbeerbaume des Augustus
(Bonn 1973),36 fT., Taf. 4 fT.
64 E. Simon, Die Portlandvase (Mainz 1957), 27 fT.; W.-R. Megow, Antike Miinzen und geschnittene
Steine XI. Kameen von Augustus bis Alexander Severus (Berlin 1987), 164 Nr. A 11, Taf. 7, 19.
65 E. von Mercklin, Antike Figuralkapitelle (Berlin 1962), 255 Nr. 616, Abb. 1181. Ob hingegen in
den Ziegenkopfen der Fiillhorner auf einem Altar in Bologna sogleich der Capricorn erkannt wurde,
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und b) iibernahmen die Gestaltungsweise, wobei die Kombination von zwei
Capricornen und Globus dort zusatzlich urn einen Eichenkranz bzw. eine
Victoria erweitert wurde. 66
Schon die erwahnten Stirnziegel fanden sich neben Rom und
Mittelitalien in Stadten Oberitaliens, z.B. in Luni, Rimini und in Sammlungen
des Veneto.
Die Verbreitung des Motivs bezeugen in Oberitalien natiirlich auch
Gemmen und Miinzen. 67 Zusatzlich wird die Beliebtheit durch die Wiedergabe im Giebelbereich von Grabstelen bestatigt, die in der zweiten Halfte
des 1. Jhs. entstanden sein diirften. Die Capricorne erscheinen dabei in
symmetrischer Anordnung, aber fur sich isoliert im Aufbau der Grabbauten
und Stelen, in den Beispie1en von Parma und Torre Uzzone schmiicken sie
das Giebelfeld und rahmen darin den auf eine Basis gestellten Globus (Taf
11, Abb.9 a)68
In dieser Zuordnung wird das Motiv in den Provinzen iibernommen.
Fiir Cimiez bei Nizza in der Narbonensis lie13e sich der Grabstein des miles
Epicadus Velox aus der Ligurischen Cohorte anfuhren,69 in dessen Giebel das
Grundmotiv mit Capricornen und Globus wiederkehrt, fur ArIes ein isolierter
Block mit einem einzelnen Capricorn und Lorbeerbaum, die man sich freilich
auch symmetrisch gespiegelt vorstellen konnte,70 und fur Narbonne ein
isolierter Block wohl von einem Grabdenkmal, auf dessen Front si ch die
Inschrift befindet, mit derselben Darstellung auf der Soffitte, bei dem hinter
erscheint mir nicht sicher. Siehe K. Lehmann-Hartleben, 'Ein Altar in Bologna', Romische
Mitteilungen 42 (1927), 166 If.
66 F. Eichler & E. Kris, Die Kameen im Kunsthistorischen Museum Wien (Wien 1927), 52 If. Nr. 7
Taf 4; EJ. Dwyer, 'Augustus and the Capricorn', Romische Mitteilungen 80 (1973), 59 If.; Holscher
1965 op.cit. (Arun.61), 59 If. L. Anselmino,Antefisse - Terracotte architettoniche (Roma 1977),73 f,
Taf 2,5; 112 If., Taf 12,53; P. Pensabene & M.R. Sanzi Di Mino, Museo Nazionale Romano III I. Le
terrecotte (Roma 1983), 288 If., Nr. 889 If., Taf 135. F. Gwy, s.v. 'Zodiacus', in Lexicon
[conographicum Mythologiae Classicae VllI (ZUrich - Dilsse1dorf 1997), 495.
67 VgJ. Anselmino 1977, op.cit. (Arun.66); G. Sena Chiesa, Gemme del Museo Nazionale di Aquileia
(Padua 1966), 376 If., Nr. 1230 - 1244, Taf 62 f; G. Sena Chiesa, Gemme di Luni (Rom 1978), 123
If., Nr. 157 -161, Taf 22 f
68 Parma: M. Corradi-Cervi, 'Parrna - rinvenimenti romani', Notizie degli Scavi di Antichita (1949),
17, Abb. 9. F. Sacchi, 'L'immagine di Scilla nei monumenti funarari antichi', Quademi del Centro
Studi Lunensi, 7, 2001, 60 Abb. 23 (mit der Deutung auf Skylla). L. Mercando & G. Paci, Stele
Romane in Piemonte (Rom 1998 = Monumenti Antichi, Seria Micellanea 5), 59 f Nr. 4, Taf 38; 181
f Nr. 107, Taf 96 (Capricorne mit Globen zwischen den Pfoten); 204 f Nr. 131, Taf 104. Im
ostlichen Oberitalien liisst sich das Motiv unter den Steindenkmiilern bisher nicht nachweisen.
69 G. Laguerre, 'L' occupation rnilitaire de Cemellum'. Revue Archeologique de Narbonnaise 2 (1969),
168 f, Abb. 2.
70 Esperandieu I, 1907, op.cit. (Arun.l0), 159, Nr. 209.
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dem rechten Tier gerade noch der Rest der Ahre eines Fullhorns zu erkennen
ist. 71 Beide Bilder entstanden wohl am Anfang des 1. Jhs. n.Chr.
Weitere Belege finden sich erst wieder in den Grenzstadten der
Rheinprovinzen. Dabei ist vielfach darauf verwiesen worden, dass die 22.
Legion den Capricorn als Feldzeichen fuhrte. 72 HG. Frenz betonte allerdings
zu Recht, dass einer ganzen Reihe von Legionen dieses Zeichen eigen war,
der Bezug also keineswegs eindeutig iSt. 73 Fur Mainz konnte er analog zum
Fahnenheiligtum von Carnuntum (Taf 11, Abb. 8 a) einen Giebel mit den
Figuren von zwei Capricornen, Schild und barbarischem Gefangenem
rekonstruieren (Taf 11, Abb. 8 b), den er uberzeugend in flavische Zeit
datiert?4 Dabei weist der Giebel von Carnuntum durch die Angabe XIV
tatsachlich auf diese Legion. Fragmente der Bogenarkade aus Mainz, in
dessen Zwickeln einzelne Capricorne und Fullhorner wiedergegeben sind
(Taf 11, Abb. 8 c), lassen hingegen die Verbindung offen.75
Das and ere bekannte Beispiel ist der Giebel von der Luxemburger
StraJ3e in Koln, der die beiden Capricorne zu Seiten eines Globus im
Zentrum wiedergibt (Taf 11, Abb. 9)?6 Nach dem Fundort und der Art der
Auffindung der B1ocke, die in der Antike wieder verwendet wurden,
schmuckte das Bauteil die Front eines Grabes. Ob es sich dabei wirklich um
die Front eines tempelartigen Grabmals handelte, scheint mir fraglich zu
sein. Vielmehr kame nach der Art der Gesimse und der Ausarbeitung der
Ruckseite eine isoliert stehende Fassade in Frage, wie sie aus vielen
Nekropolen des romischen Reiches bekannt sind 77 Dahinter hatte ein offener
Bezirk gelegen. Eine Datierung hangt von verschiedenen Faktoren ab, der
Zugehorigkeit des Kapitells, der Interpretation des Giebelschmucks als
Esperandieu I, 1907, op.cit. (Arun.IO), 445 C, Nr. 740.
So verbindet Kiihler 1939, op.cit. (Arun. 5),28, 30 den Grabtempel mit der Legio XXII Primigenia,
und kommt auf ein Datum entweder nach 40 n.Chr. und vor 92 n.Chr.
73 Frenz 1992, op.cit. (Arun.54), 22, Arun. 146.
74 Frenz 1992, op.cit. (Arun.54), 22 fT., 68 fT., Abb. 17 (, Taf. 20.
75 Frenz 1992, op.cit. (Arun.54) 24 f., 121 fT., Abb. 20, Taf. 84 f.
76 Hommel 1954, op.cit. (Arun.56), 60 fT. Abb. 15; bessere Abbildung bei H. Borger, Das RomischGermanische Museum Koln (MUnchen 1977),62.
77 H. von Hesberg, Romische Grabbauten (Darmstadt 1992), 57 fT. Aus Oberitalien wilre z.B. Bezirk F
aus der Nekropole von Ventimiglia zu nennen: siehe P. Barocelli, 'Albintimilium', Monumenti Antichi
(1923),53 f; F. Pallares, 'I monumenti sepolcrali della Liguria occidentale', in M. Mirabella Roberti,
Monumenti sepolcrali romani in Aquileia e nella Cisalpina. Atti defla XXVI Settimana di
studi aquileiesi, 24-28 aprile 1995 (Trieste 1997),425 f., Abb. 6.
71
72
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Verweis auf eine Legion, aber die Ornamente vor allem der Akrotere legen
einen Ansatz urn die Mitte des 1. Jhs. n.Chr. nahe. 78
Dass das Zeichen konkret auf eine Legion verwies, belegen fur die
14. Legion der Giebelschmuck im Fahnenheiligtum von Carnuntum (Taf. 11,
Abb. 8 a) und deren Ziegelstempel, auf denen zusatzlich ein Adler wiedergegeben iSt. 79 Ferner ist der Bezug zur 2. Legion auf Inschriften gesichert,
die deren Arbeiten am Antoninswall in England verewigten. Dort erschien
unter dem Capricorn ein Pegasos. 80 Als Zeichen der Legion kommt der
Capricorn meist nur einzeln vor, sehr wo hi in Kombination mit anderen
Zeichen, aber lediglich in Mainz in symmetrischer Verdoppelung. 81
An den Denkmalern, deren Inschriften eine Verbindung des
Weihenden oder Verstorbenen zu einem Truppenteil belegen, ist deshalb ein
Bezug des Capricorn auf das Zeichen der Legion zweifelhaft. Denn deren
Bildzeichen sind isoliert und machen deutlich, dass der Bezug auf die Legion
durch die Inschrift erkennbar wurde. Nur im Umfeld der Legion war ein in
seiner Bedeutung offenes Zeichen in seine m Bezug auf das Emblem der
Legion assoziierbar, am Antoninswall in Schottland zum Beispiel der Eber mit
der 20. Legion. Die hiiufige Verwendung dieses Tiers als Bildzeichen auf
verschiedenen Monumenten hing mit der Stationierung dieser Legion vor Ort
zusammen. 82 In anderen Konstellationen waren die Beziige weit weniger
eindeutig, Z.B. an einem Brunnenstein, den Mitglieder einer 26. Kohorte im 2.
Jh. n. Chr. stifteten, und der si ch heute im Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe
befindet 83 Sein Giebelfeld schmiickt wieder das Motiv der symmetrisch dem
78 Vg!. Bauten aus Glanum: H. Rolland 1958, op.cit. (Anm.36), 89 fT., Taf. 32, 36. ln Koln waren
Grabsteine des 1. Jhs. n.Chr. zu nennen. Siehe F. Fremersdorf, Urkunden zur Kolner Stadtgeschichte
aus romischer Zeit (Koln 1963),43, Taf. 29, 35.
79 M. Junkelmann, Reiter wie Statuen aus En (Mainz 1996) 7 Abb. 10
80 A. von Domaszewski, Die Fahnen des romischen Heeres (Wien 1885 = Abhandlungen des
Archaologisch-Epigraphischen Seminars der Universitat Wien 5), wiederabgedruckt in Aujsiitze zur
romischen Heeresgeschichte (Dannstadt 1972), 76, Abb. 94. L.J. F. Keppie & 8.1. Arnold, Scotland
(Oxford 1984 = Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, Great Britain 1,4),49 fT., Nr. 135,152, 154, Taf.
34,37,38.
81 Von Domaszewski 1885, op.cit. (Anm.80), 54 fT., Abb. 55. Daher ware auch die Rekonstruktion des
Giebels in Camuntum zu prufen. Auf der linken fehlenden Hiilfte lieJ3e sich z.B. auch ein Adler
rekonstruieren.
82 Keppie & Arnold 1984, op.cit. (Anm.80), 45 fT., Nr. 123, 148, 149, 156, 157, Taf. 32, 36, 37, 38.
Stirnziegei: J.MC. Toynbee, An in Britain under the Romans (Oxford 1964), 428, Taf. 98. Das
Zeichen kommt im Umfeld der Legion auch vermehrt in isolierter Verwendung vor, diirfte aber in
dieser Konstellation tatsachlich auf die Legion verweisen. Siehe Keppie & Arnold 1984, op.cit.
(Anm.80), 18 f., Nr. 49-51, Taf. 16 f.
83 F. Koepp, Germania Romana IV (Bamberg 1924), 62, Taf. 42, 2. B. Ciirnmerer, Badisches
Landesmuseum - Bildkatalog (Karlsruhe 1968) 34 Taf. D 78.
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Globus zugeordneten Capricorne. Wenn es wirldich Ober die Kohorte auf eine
Legion verwiesen hatte, dann mOsste man in Analogie zu Carnuntum oder zur
Situation in Schottland entweder einen inschriftlichen Hinweis erwarten,
wobei eine Zahlenangabe ausgereicht hatte, oder im Umfeld eine haufige
Verwendung des Zeichens, welche die Etablierung des Bezugs sicherte.
Geht man von diesen Gepflogenheiten aus und berucksichtigt, dass
auf den Grabsteinen in den Bildern niemals ein militarischer Aspekt
thematisiert wird, dOrfte das Zeichen der Capricorne in sepulkralem
Zusammenhang kaum direkt auf die militarische Einheit weisen. Vielmehr
wird das Motiv analog zu anderen zu lesen sein wie z.B. den Delphinen, die
haufiger in gleicher Position zu finden sind. Mehrfach wird dabei das
Tierkreiszeichen auch zu einem Meerwesen uminterpretiert 84 Die Lupa
Romana begegnet ebenfalls emblemhaft eingefugt mehrfach auf Grabdenkmalern, allerdings selten in den Nordwestprovinzen. 85
Denn ganz wie in Italien bleibt der Capricorn auch in den Provinzen
ein GIOckszeichen, das emblematisch verwandt werden kann. Am besten
belegen diese Tatsache die Gemmen, z.B. in Xanten, wo zum einen das Bild
mit anderen Elementen wie FOllhorn oder Steuerruder kombiniert wird und
damit auf Fortuna oder Abundantia verweist, zum anderen die Belege bis in
das 2. Jh. n.Chr. reichen. Der Bezug auf das Sternzeichen wird hingegen
bildlich nicht mehr - etwa durch den Zusatz eines Sternes - thematisiert 86
Im Gegensatz zu den Gemmen f<illt allerdings im Schmuck der
Grabanlagen auf, dass die weiteren GIOckszeichen wie FOllhorn, Steuerruder
oder Delphine dort seltener begegnen, die Konstellation der Zeichen also im
Wesentlichen auf die Formel beschrankt bleibt, die in der augusteischen Zeit
in der Folge wohl von Actium gefunden und seit dieser Zeit u.a. Ober
geschnittene Steine, Munzen und Stirnziegel verbreitet wurde. Zu klaren
ware, warum es auf den Grabanlagen vergleichsweise an Beliebtheit
gewann. Es erinnerte schwerlich direkt an den ersten Princeps und dessen
militarische Erfolge, auch kaum an eine Truppe, sondern die spezifische
Megow 1987, op.cit. (Amn. 64), 172 tT., Nr. A 33, Taf 7,20.
K. Schauenburg, 'Die Lupa Rornana als sepu1krales Motiv', Jahrbuch des Deutschen
Archaologischen Instituts 81 (1966), 266 f Amn. 20. C. Duliere, Lupa Romana - Recherches
d'iconographie et essai d'interpretation (1979); P. Aichholzer, Darstellung romischer Sagen (1983),
89 tT. M. Kernpchen, Mythologische Themen in der Grabskulptur - Germania Inferior, Superior,
Gallia Belgica und Raetia (MUnster 1995), 101 tT. Vg!. aber z.B. die Verwendung in der Patera eines
dorischen Frieses in Saintes, Esperandieu 2,1908 op.cit. (Amn.9), 282.
86 G. Platz-Horster, Die antiken Gemmen aus Xanten (Bonn 1987), 44 tT., Nr. 81 (Seepferd und
Capricorn); 135 a, \36, 144 (Altar, Adler, Delphine und Capricorne) Taf 15,28,30. G. Platz-Horster,
Dieantiken Gemmen ausXanten II(Bonn 1994), 126tT.,Nr. 146 f, 242, 311, Taf. 27, 45,61.
84
85
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Auspragung der Doppelung hatte wohl auch kompositorische Griinde. Denn
die symmetrisch angeordneten Capricorne begegnet ja vor all em in Giebel,
keinmal einzeln wie bei den Emblemen der Legionen. SchlieBlich wird das
Grundmotiv in der Verwendung auf einer Soffitte urn die FiillhOrner zu
seinen Seiten bereichert.
Die Verwendung des Stiers am Theater von Aries, den A. von Gladiss
als Tierkreiszeichen verstand und auf Caesar bzw. die Verbindung zur Venus
zuriickfiihrte, belegt ebenfalls einen allgemeinen und nicht unmittelbar auf die
Person des Princeps bezogenen Sinngehalt 87 Das Zeitalter stand unter einem
gliicklichen Stern und war damit gliicksbringend, so konnte der antike
Betrachter den Bildzusammenhand an den Grabmonumenten wohllesen.
Figiirlicher oder ornamentaler Schmuck an den Bauten war alles
andere als gedankenlos verwendeter Dekor. Vielmehr hatte si ch ein
spezifischer Modus der Anwendung etabliert, den die genannten
Erscheinungen beispielhaft belegen sollten. Weder handelte es si ch urn eine
gezielt verbreitete Propaganda, no ch urn Motive, mit den in irgendeiner
Weise das Kaiserhaus oder ein einzelner Kaiser speziell zu verbinden waren.
In allen Fallen hatten sich vielmehr die Formen gelost und als eigenstandige,
frei verfiigbare Motive etabliert. Das Kaiserhaus stellte mit seinen
Aktivitaten hingegen eine Art stabilisierenden Faktor dar und gab sehr
allgemein die Richtung vor. Die Gestaltung des Schmucks konnte dann
durch vielerlei Umstande bedingt variiert werden. Der Wunsch nach
Monumentalitat bleibt aber bei all en Varianten das zentrale Anliegen.
Entstehen soUte ein bleibendes Monument in Stein, dessen Dauer und
Wirkung von der Prasenz des Ornaments betont wurde. Auf Ornament hat
man nicht verzichtet, selbst wenn die geeigneten Handwerker gerade nicht
greifbar waren. 88 Der Reichtum an Varianten und das Bemiihen urn Form
erweist aber auch die Bedeutung dieses Schmucks. Eigenart der Muster und
Qualitat der Ausfiihrung hingen in seinen Details von sehr unterschiedlichen
Interessen und Moglichkeiten ab.
Die Impulse gingen dabei wohl in gleicher Weise von den Militars
wie der zivilen Bevolkerung aus. In den Lagern werden Steinbauten erst ab
dem dritten Viertel des 1. Jhs. n. Chr. errichtet, wofiir Vetera bei Xanten,
Von Gladiss 1972, op.cit. (Anm.16), 79 ff. Vgl. die Verkleidung eines Katapultes der 4. Legion von
Cremona mit Stier- und Bockskopf: F. Koepp, Gennania Romana V (Bamberg 1930), 24, Taf 38. A.
Sartori, Tesori della Postumia, Ausstellung Cremona 1998 (Mailand 1998),277, Nr. II 28.
88 Ausnahmen wie der urtilmliche Bau auf dem Donon d'Alsace bestiitigen diese These, denn in mm
wurde wohl bewusst erne andere Formgebung intendiert. Siehe B. Schnitzler (Hrgb.), Cinq siecies de
civilisation romoine en Alsace (Strassburg 1986), 81 ff.
87
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Neuss oder auch die Alteburg bei Koln Beispiele abgeben, die insgesamt
eine solche Veranderung bestatigen. Die Architektur der Lager entsprach
offensichtlich in ihrem Schmuck den Bauten in den Stadten, allerdings fallt
auf, dass die Ornamente einfacher bleiben. Vom Anspruch her stand die
Architektur der Lager der in den Stadten nicht nach. Die Wohnhauser der
Offiziere ahnelten im Grundriss den luxuriosen Stadtpalasten in den Stadten
Italiens,89 aber auch in den Nekropolen versuchte man, solchen stadtischen
Vorbildern nahe zu kommen. In Trier, Augst, Mainz oder Koln entdeckt man
zur gleichen Zeit eine erstaunlich groJ3e Anzahl von Hinweisen auf
beachtenswerte Steinbauten, die durch weitere Monumente wie Grabbekronungen, Altare oder Basen erganzt werden. Ferner deuten die
Monumente an, dass sich neue lokale Normen etablierten.
In Mainz belegt die in neronischer Zeit errichtete Juppitersaule zum
einen, dass innovative Schiibe entscheidend von der Zivilbevolkerung
getragen wurden 90 Denn das Werk, das als Inkunabel eines neuen
qualitatvollen Stils angesehen werden kann, wurde von den canabarii, den
Bewohnern der canabae in Auftrag gegeben. Dass auf Seiten des Militars
eher noch der traditionelle Stil aus welchen Grunden auch immer bevorzugt
wurde, belegt der Skulpturenschmuck des sog. Lagertores in Mainz. 91 Zum
zweiten zeigt die Saule eindrucklich, wie schnell Handwerker einheimischer
Herkunft in der Lage waren, diesen neuen Stil auch umzusetzen oder sogar
zu pragen,92 denn die Bildhauer Samus und Severus werden wegen ihres
Patronyms Vernicarus als Abkommen eines Galliers gesehen. Ohne die
Inschrift hatte man mit dem Schmuck der Saule gewiss nicht einheimische
Bildhauer verbunden.
Die drei isolierten Durchgange sollten vor allem zeigen, dass die
Bauten der romischen Architektur eine grundsatzlich andere Welt schufen 93
Die in Stein ausgefuhrten Anlagen standen fur Dauerhaftigkeit, ihr Dekor fur
Gliederung und neue Ordnung. Die Umsetzung dieser Eigenschaften wurde
erst erforderlich, aber auch erst moglich in dem Klima politischer Stabilitat
der Kaiserzeit, ohne dass es auf diesem Feld konzentrierte Aktionen von
Fortsch 1979, op.cit. (Arun.37).
G. Bauchenss, Die grosse Juppitersau/e aus Mainz (Mainz 1984 = Corpus Signorum Imperii
Romani, Deutsch1and 112), 25 ff.
91 H. Busing Romische Militararchitektur in Mainz (Mainz 1982), 54 ff.; Frenz 1992, op.cit.
(Arun.53).
92 M. Trunk, 'Ringbossen. Zur Herstellungstechnik korinthischer Kapitelle in Ga1lien', Boreas 15
(1992), 137 ff.
93 Zanker 1990, op.cit. (Arun.3), 9 ff.
89
90
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Seiten des Kaiserhauses erforderte. Damit schuf Architektur einen auBeren
Rahmen, forderte den Einigungsprozess in der heterogenen Bevolkerung aus
Romern und Provinzialen und ermoglichte ihr eine neue, lokalbezogene
Identitat. Die Art der Gestaltung schlug aber die einheimische Bevolkerung
auch in ihren Bann, so schnell, dass schon in der zweiten oder dritten
Generation nach der Eroberung geeignete Handwerker aus ihr rekrutiert
werden konnten, die zu den Spitzenkrafien vor Ort zahlten und ihre romischen
Meister iibertrafen. Samus und Severus illustrieren somit von einer anderen
Seite die von Tacitus beschriebenen Vorgange der Akkulturation.
Koln, Dezember 2002
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ROMAN EMPERORS IN POPULAR JARGON: SEARCHING FOR
CONTEMPORARY NICKNAMES (1)1
By
CHRISTER BRUUN
Popular culture and opposite views of the emperor
How was the reigning Emperor regarded by his subjects, above all by the
common people? As is well known, genuine popular sentiments and feelings
in antiquity are not easy to uncover. This is why I shall start with a quote from
a recent work by Tessa Watt on English 16th-century 'popular culture':
"There are undoubtedly certain sources which can bring us closer
to ordinary people as cultural 'creators' rather than as creative
'consumers'. Historians are paying increasing attention to records
of slanderous rhymes, skimmingtons and other ritualized protests
of festivities which show people using established symbols in a
resourceful way.,,2
The ancient historian cannot use the same kind of sources, for instance large
numbers of cheap prints, as the early modern historian can. 3 But we should try
to identify related forms of 'popular culture'.
The question of the Roman Emperor's popularity might appear to be a
moot one in some people's view. Someone could argue that in a highly
1 TIlls study contains a reworking of only part of my presentation at the workshop in Rome. For reasons of
space, only Part (I) of the material can be presented and discussed here, while Part (IT) (' Imperial
Nicknames in the Histaria Augusta') and Part (III) (,Late-antique Imperial Nicknames') will be published
separately. These two chapters contain issues different from those discussed here, which makes it feasible
to create the di vision. The nicknames in the Histaria Augusta are largely literary inventions (but that work
does contain fragments from Marius Maximus' imperial biographies, see now AR. Birley, 'Marius
Maximus: the Consular Biographer', ANRW IT 34.3 (1997), 2678-2757, esp. 2689 f and 2736 for epithets
and appellatives after Commodus' death). For Late Antiquity, the conflict between traditionalists and
Christians constitutes a new element (not surprisingly, many sources concern Julian the Apostate). An
earlier paper on Imperial Nicknames was presented in June 1997 at the Universities of Munster, Gottingen,
and FU Berlin. Two recent works by Eleanor Dickey, 'KUPlE, OEGTTOTa, damine. Greek Politeness in the
Roman Empire',Joumal a/Hellenic Studies 121 (2001) 1-11, and Latin Forms a/Address/ram Plautus to
Apuleius (Oxford 2002), are of interest for my undertaking, but they are not directly relevant to the
question of nicknames and epithets. I wish to thank the participants at all these events for helpful
comments and am particularly indebted to Anthony Birley, Bruno Bleckmann, Franyois Chausson, C.J.
ClasseD, Jonathan Edmondson, Johannes Hahn, and Olivier Hekster. Last but not least, sincere thanks are
due to Lukas de Biois, Gerda de Kleijn and the other organizers of the Rome workshop.
2 T. Watts, Cheap Print and Popular Piety 1550-1640 (Cambridge 1991),4.
3 For an exemplary study, see R. CUs!, 'News and Politics in Early-Seventeenth Century England', Past
& Present 112 (1986), 60-90, esp. 65-69.
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stratified society such as the Roman world the common people would
automatically feel only hostility towards their oppressors. Or one might
consider the question equally uninteresting because people who regarded the
emperor as one of their gods would never think of blaming or criticizing him.
Both these views find some support in the ancient sources, a fact that shows
the question to be rather more complicated and hence worth investigating.
In the collection of writings by the stoic philosopher Epictetus we find
the following passage about the relation between the emperor and his subjects:
"In this fashion the rash are ensnared by the soldiers in Rome. A
soldier, dressed like a civilian, sits down by your side, and begins
to speak ill of Caesar, and then you too, just as though you had
received from him some guarantee of good faith in the fact that he
began the abuse, tell likewise everything you think, and the next
thing is - you are led off to prison.,,4
"Speak ill of Caesar" - here we find one contemporary view of the Emperor
illustrated 5 But it is not the only one. Aelius Aristides, another Greek writer,
writes in his famous 'Praise of Rome' in the following way about Roman
governors in the provinces:
"No one is so proud that he can fail to be moved upon hearing
even the mere mention of the Ruler's name, but, rising, he praises
and worships him and breathes two prayers in a single breath, one
to the gods on the Ruler's behalf, one for his own affairs to the
Ruler himself.,,6
This, then, is the opposite view held by the subjects (albeit we are here
dealing with upper-class subjects). They pray for the wellbeing of the
Epictetus 4.13.5. Translation by WA Oldfather (Loeb Classical Library, henceforth LCL).
This is probably the source of the claim by P. Veyne, 'The Roman Empire', in P. Veyne (ed.), A
History ofPrivate Life 1 From Pagan Rome to Byzantium (Cambridge, Mass. 1987), 5-234, esp. 97, that
Romans were wont to curse their emperor and the gods (no reference is given). Similarly also in
Ambrose, De Helia et jeiuno 12.41; see Sr. MJA Buck (corrunentary and translation), S. Ambrosii De
Helia et jeiuno (Patristic Studies 19, Washington, D.C. 1929),74 f.: "Men without a tunic, without even
funds for the following day, lounge at the doorways of taverns. They pass judgement on emperors and
officers of state; indeed they seem to themselves to reign, and to corrunand armies" (de imperaton'bus et
potestatibus iudicant, immo regnare sibi videntur et exercitibus imperare).
6 Aelius Aristides, Eis Rhomen 31-32. Trans!. by J.H. Oliver, The Ruling Power. A Study of the Roman
Empire in the Second Century after Christ through the Roman Oration ofAelius Aristides (Transactions
of the American Philosophical Society 43.4), Philadelphia 1953, 899 chapter 32.
4
5
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emperor, and they pray directly to the Emperor, who in many ways is similar
to a god even while still dwelling among his subjects on earth. But being a
god did not make the emperor immune from criticism; for this we can once
more rely on Epictetus:
"But no, you sit trembling with fear something will happen, and
lamenting, and grieving, and groaning about other things that are
happening. And then you blame the gods! Although you have
these faculties free and entirely on your own, you do not use them,
nor do you realize what gifts you have received, and from whom,
but you sit sorrowing and groaning, some of you blinded toward
the giver himself and not even acknowledging your benefactor,
and others - such is their ignoble spirit - turning aside to faultfinding and complaints against God."?
It is thus apparent that whether a Roman emperor was regarded as man or
god, he would not have been beyond criticism, and therefore investigating the
popularity of Rome's rulers is a meaningful task. Moreover, we can begin by
excluding the 'ruler cult'8 from our considerations, as we have now seen in
Epictetus that common people might curse gods as well as human beings. We
cannot a priori assume that Roman emperors would have been immune from
imprecations or profanities.
Emperors, the aristocracy, and the common people
The popular appeal of the Roman emperors is clearly a very wide topic. At
least since Fergus Millar's The Emperor in the Roman World (London 1979;
Ithaca, N. Y. 1992, 2nd ed.) there has been an awareness of the structural
importance of the emperor as an institution in the Roman world. Yet a study
of the popularity of the emperors was not part ofMillar's enterprise.
Many works discuss the relations between the rulers and their subjects
in the Roman world, but traditionally the focus has been on the often troubled
Epictetus 1.6.38,42. Translation by WA Oldfather (LCL).
Various aspects have been illuminated by S. Price, Rituals and Power. The Roman imperial cult in
Asia Minor (Cambridge 1984); D. Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West: Studies in the Ruler
Cult of the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire I-IJ (Leiden 1987-1992); U.-M. Liertz, Kult und
Kaiser. Studien zu Kaiserkult und Kaiserverehrung in den germanischen Provinzen und in Gallia
Belgica zur romischen Kaiserzeit (Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae 20, Rome 1998); M. Clauss, Kaiser
und Gatt. Herrscherkult im romischen Reich (Stuttgart 1999) See now also the contribution by Professor
Panciera in this volume, with some sceptical comments on the concept of 'ruler cult'.
7
8
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relations between the emperors and the upper c1ass. 9 It is a commonplace that
the senatorial aristocracy found it difficult to accept one-man rule; and even
the 'good' emperor Vespasian had to deal with a Stoic opposition in the
Senate. There is not much new to be found in this regard; Tacitus' view of the
Principate is well known and so is, at the other end of the spectrum, the loyal
Pliny's view of 'good emperors' such as Trajan - to mention two
representative sources.
The study of the relations between the emperors and the common
people, the anonymous masses of the empire, is a more recent phenomenon,
and it is certainly much more difficult to approach and correctly define the
feelings and opinions of the lower strata in the Roman world. Zvi Yavetz's
pioneering Plebs and princeps (Oxford 1969) has been followed by several
useful and enlightening works. 1O While the literary sources and modern
scholarship mostly focus on Rome, some scholars have studied the popular
movements elsewhere, in particular in Alexandria and Antiochia in
connection with imperial visits. 11
From Rome itself we have information, apparently in origin deriving
from non-literary sources, indicating how some of the emperors were
9 The classic work by Gasion Boissier, L 'opposition sous les Chars (Paris 1905, 5th ed.), focuses on the
opinions of the aristocracy, as does R.A Bauman, Impietas in principem (MUnchen 1974). There is
nothing relevant for my topic in C. Ando, Impen'al Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman
Empire (Berkeley 2000), chapter 5 'Roman Emperors and Public Opinion'. On the Fondation Hardt
Colloquium on 'Opposition et Resistance', see the next note.
10 See, e.g., Z. Yavetz, 'The Urban Plebs in the Days of the Flavians, Nerva and Trajan', in A
Giovannini (ed.), Opposition et resistance a ['empire romain d'Auguste a Trojan (Entretiens Fondation
Hardt 33, Vandoeuvres - Geneve 1987), 135-181; J. SUnskes Thompson, Aufstiinde und Protestaktionen
im Imperium Romanum. Die severischen Kaiser im Spannungsfeld innenpolitischer Konjlikte (Bonn
1990), 95-134; 155-166; E. Flaig, Den Kaiser herausfordem. Die Usurpation im Romlschen Reich
(Frankfurt a.M. 1992), 38-93 (with an ambitious emphasis on hisiorical methodology, but perhaps less
sensitive to traditional 'Quellenkritik'); J. SUnskes Thompson, Demonstrative Legitimittit der
Kaiserherrschaft im Epochenvergleich. Zur politischen Macht des stadtromischen Volkes (Historia
Einzelschriften 84, Stuttgart 1993). For events in AD. 20, see W. Eck, 'Plebs und Princeps nach dem
Too des Germanicus', in L Malkin - l.W. Rubinsohn, eds., Leaders and Masses in the Roman World.
Studies in Honor oflvi Yavelz (Leiden 1995), 1-10; L. de Blois, 'Volk und Soldaten bei Cassius Dio',
ANRW IT 34.3 (1997), 2650-2676, esp. 2658-2660 discusses Dio's view on the relation between people
and princeps. Regardless of her title, M. Griffin, 'Urbs Roma, plebs and Princeps', in L. Alexander
(ed.), Images of Empire (Sheffield 1991), 19-46, is, contra Yavetz, much less inclined to attribute
importance to movements by the people.
11 For Caraca1la's visit to Alexandria in AD. 215, see recently Siinskes Thompson 1990, op.cit. (n.IO),
159-163 and C. Bruun, 'Pericula Alexandrina: The Adventures of a Recently Discovered Centurion of the
legio II Parthica', Arctos 29 (1995), 9-27. On the emperor Julian and the people of Antiochia, see M.
Gleason, 'Festive Satire: Julian'sMisopogon and the New Year at Antioch', Journal of Roman Studies 76
(1986), 106-119, with the comments by H. -u. Wiemer, Libanios und Julian. Studien zum Verhtiltnis von
Rhetorik und Politik im vierten Jahrhundert n. Chr. (Vestigia 46, MUnchen 1995), 194-197; 208-210.
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regarded by the plebs: popular chants, anecdotes, graffiti - most of them
recorded by intellectuals and handed down in literary texts, of course; Mireille
Corbier paid close attention to these expressions of opinion in the Capital
some time ago. 12 As a complement to the missing original evidence from
Rome, many first-hand sources are found in Pompeii, where graffiti and
inscriptions provide a number of references to the rulers and their families;
many positive and some negative. 13
A verbal expression of opinion is mentioned in a familiar passage
from Suetonius' biography of Caesar:
"That he did not refrain from adulterous affairs in the provinces is
shown in particular by this couplet, which was also shouted by the
soldiers in his Gallic triumph: 'Men of Rome, keep close your
consorts, here's a bald adulterer. Gold in Gaul you spent in
dalliance, which you borrowed here in Rome.' 14
We seem to be dealing with just the kind of popular verse that Tessa Watts
was referring to in the introductory quote, although the verse is transmitted by
the learned Roman knight Suetonius. 15
The text is interesting in that Caesar's soldiers are clearly proud of
him and indeed they celebrate a triumph together. Yet they attribute less than
flattering epithets to him. This is in fact not very surprising, because it was
Roman custom to present derogatory ioci during a triumph, overturning the
social roles, as at the Saturnalia. 16 More important is the wording of Caesar's
12 M. Corbier, 'L'ecriture dans l'espace public romain', CUrbs. Espace urbain et histoire l. siec/e av.
J.-c. - Ill. siecle apres J.-c. (Coli. EFR 98, Rome 1987),27-60, esp. 53-57 (on Rome).
13 See, e.g., CIL IV 1074 Iudiciis Augusti Augustae feliciter ... , with the recent comment by L. Falanga,
'SuI significato difidelis in p. e su a1tre iscrizioni pompeiani', Rivista di Studi Pompeiani I (1987),209219, esp. 209 (probably Nero and Poppaea). In general on references to the rulers in Pompeian
inscriptions, see 1. Carcopino, 'Un procurateur meconnu de Neron', Bulletin de la Societe nationale des
Antiquaires de France (1960), 150-58, esp. 253-55. Carcopino's main argument is that CIL IV 8075
Cicuta ab rationibus Neronis Augusti (= AE 1962.133) is a reference to Nero's bene fitting fmancially
from poisoning his enemies. More recently, P. Cugusi, 'Spunti di polemica politica in a1cuni graffiti di
Pompei e di Terracina', Zeitschriftfur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 61 (1985) 23-29, esp. 23-27, has
argued for an anti-Augustan interpretation of elL IV 6893 = Cannina Latina epigraphica 2050.
14 Suetonius, Divus Julius 51. The Latin verse goes: Urban;' servate uxores: moechom calvom adducimus /
Aurum in Gallia effutuisti; hic sumpsisti mutuum. Translation by JC. Rolfe (LCL), slightly modified.
15 cr. that a good case for reading a direct, and insulting, reference to Domitian in the popular verse
cited by Suetonius, Domitianus 14 has been made by C. Faraone, 'A proposito di un 'olpe campana' del
Museo di Capua', Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia d'Archeologia 59 (1986-1987), 111-117.
16 On ioci militares and cantilenae during triumphs, see 1. Kernpff, 'Romanorurn sermonis castrensis
reliquiae', Jahrbucher for classische Philologie Suppl. 26 (Leipzig 1901), 342-400, esp. 357-360; H.
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epithets: moechus calvus. The adjective calvus is also used as a Roman name,
a cognomen, 17 which brings us to the topic of nicknames.
The importance of nicknames and how to identify them
The approach to 'popular culture' that I have chosen leads us to naming
practices. When people bestow names on other people, these names tend to
reflect the feelings of the giver towards that other person, and by definition
this applies most of all to nicknames. In the following I will investigate the
question of popularity by focusing on nicknames and popular epithets of the
Roman emperors. 18
There is another investigative thread in this study as well. It is
commonly thought that the cognomina used by the Roman republican
aristocracy often had their origin in nicknames given by the soldiers and the
common people. A common explanation, which most eloquently has been
argued by Andreas A1fdldi, assumes that the aristocracy accepted nicknames
given by their inferiors whether they were positive or derogatory (he believes
the latter to have been very common), perhaps as a way of courting popular
favour. 19 Since many of the traditional aristocratic cognomina originated
during a period for which contemporary sources do not exist, the theory is
difficult to prove or disprove. A second purpose of the present investigation is
to study a period of Roman history when contemporary evidence is easier to
uncover than for the republican period. (Referring back to the Roman
Republic is perhaps not besides the point in the context of a discussion about
the 'Impact of Empire'.) Besides investigating the popularity of the emperors
in the light of nicknames, I am interested in how the Roman rulers behaved in
relation to nicknames and epithets given them by the people, and whether
Versnel, Triumphus. An Inquiry into the Origin, Development and Meaning of the Roman Tn'umph (Leiden
1970), 95-96.
17 I. Kajanto, The Latin Cognomina (Helsinki 1965), 35. Of course, the cognomen Calvus is never used
by or for Caesar, which illustrates one of the points I shall be making.
18 There is a rich literature on the use of nicknames by scholars working in psychology, social
psychology and anthropology. For political nicknames see, for instance, A. Rynell, 'Some Political
Nicknames in Caricatures under George Ill', Studia Neophilologica 14 (1941142), 343-356. For an
introduction to modem research on nicknaming see 1. Morgan et aI., Nicknames. Their Origins and
Social Consequences (London - Boston 1979), and the special issue on nicknaming of the journal
Names 38 (1990), containing among others the following studies: T.1. Holland jr., 'The Many Faces of
Nicknames', 255-272; P.L. Leslie & 1.K. Skipper jr., 'Toward a Theory of Nicknames: a Case for
Socio-Onomastics', 273-282; E.D. Lawson, 'Nicknames: an Annotated Bibliography', 323-363.
19 A. Alfoldi, Early Rome and the Latins (Ann Arbor 1965), 82 f; Idem, 'Les cognomina des magistrats de
la Republique romain', Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire ofJerls a A. Piganiol IT (Paris 1%6), 709-722,
esp. 710; Idem, Rbmische Friihgeschichte. Kritik und Forschung seit 1964 (Heidelberg 1976), 108 f
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there was any interest in adopting them (while of course remembering that the
social position of the ruling elite during the Republic cannot quite be
compared with the princeps' unique position).
The title of this study contains the qualification 'contemporary', and by
this I mean' contemporary with the emperor for whom the nickname is intended'.
When investigating how a Roman emperor was regarded during his reign,
contemporary nicknames are of particular value. Nicknames coined after the
reign of an emperor strictly speaking only testify to how posterity perceived him.
The assumption that nicknames of a public figure might tell us
something about that person's public appeal is, I believe, quite
uncontroversial. What the nicknames tell us is, however, not always selfevident. Several questions need to be considered: (1) Who is using the
nickname, (2) in what context, and (3) what is the value of the nickname - is
it positive or negative, laudatory or pejorative? Before surveying the material,
we also need to agree on what constitutes a nickname.
In this paper I am adopting two very simple principles when studying
nicknames. Firstly, I am interested in names, appellatives, not in mere
epithets. The context must clearly indicate that we are dealing with a name,
which means that we are looking for phrases such as dicitur, appellatus est,
cui erat cognomentum, or Greek equivalents. For completeness, also certain
unusual cognomina that seem to have been acquired during an emperor's
reign are included, as they might have nicknames as their origin.
Secondly, simple epithets will nevertheless be included when they
appear in a context outside the literary circles of the upper classes. We are
focusing on the popular reputation of the emperors and it is reasonable to
assume that an epithet that circulated among the people might have given
origin to a nickname. A quote from a poem by the late-antique writer
Ausonius will illustrate the criteria here adopted:
Primus regalem patefecit lulius aulam
Caesar et Augusto nomen transcripsit et arcem.
privignus post hunc regnat Nero Claudius, a quo
Caesar, cognomen Caligae cui castra dederunt.
Claudius hinc potitur regno. post quem Nero saevus,
ultimus Aeneadum. post hunc tres, nec tribus annis;
Galba senex, frustra socio confisus inerti;
mollis Otho, infami per luxum degener aevo,
nec regno dignus nec morte Vitellius ut vir.
his decimus fatioque accitus Vespasianus
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et Titus imperii felix brevitate. secutus
frater, quem Calvum dixit sua Roma Neronem. 2o
Ausonius' poem illustrates how my criteria work: it presents two instances of
relevant nicknames, namely cognomen Caligae for Gaius and Calvus Nero for
Domitian. Caliga is expressly defined as a cognomen, and for both these
appellatives we find phrases that qualify them as having been in common
usage: cui castm dederunt and quem sua Roma dixit, respectively2! To return
to the earlier passage by Suetonius: there we find two significant epithets for
Caesar, moechus and calvus, both said to have been used by the soldiers.
Not considered, on the contrary, are Ausonius' epithets saevus for
Nero, senex for Galba, or mollis for Otho, since, in the absence of any further
evidence, there is nothing to indicate that they are anything more than the
products of the poet's literary creativity. Therefore most of the epithets
relating to Roman emperors found in ancient literature, and in official
correspondence directed at the emperors, are outside the scope of my
investigation 22 Negative epithets belong to the category of 'Schimpfworter',
on which there are good studies,23 while laudatory and flattering epithets
belong in the tradition of panegyric. This is, admittedly, to some extent a
mechanical way of collecting the evidence, but in the present context I have
not found a more manageable way.
Driven by the search for spontaneous (to the extent that such a
phenomenon exists) expressions of sentiment by others than the imperial elite, I
20 Ausonius, Monosticha de ordine imperatorum. The text is from the Teubner edition by S. Prete,
Decimi Magni Ausonii Burdigalensis opuscula (Leipzig 1978),202 f (= R.P.H. Green (ed.), Decimi
Magni Ausonii opera (Oxford 1999), 182: De ordine imperatorum). Translation: "Iulius Caesar was the
first to open the royal hall, and he carned over to Augustus the name and the citadel. After him ruled his
son-in-law Nero Claudius, after whom came a Caesar to whom the military camp gave the surname
Caliga (military boot). After that Claudius took over power. After him the fierce Nero, the last offspring
of the family of Aeneas. After him three rulers, in not even three years: the old Galba, in vain trusting a
passive associate; the soft Otho, ignoble on account of the lUXury in a shameful age, as was Vitellius, a
man not worthy of the reign nor dignified in death. To these, tenth in order, Vespasian was called up by
fate, and Titus, fortunate because of the brevity of his reign. His brother followed, whom Rome of his
day called the bald Nero."
21 We are only at the first stage of the investigation here; the obvious next step is to evaluate whether the
claim that the names were in popular usage is plausible.
22 Such epithets are, for instance, 'pseudo-Paean' for Gaius (Philo, Legatio ad Gaium
110: 6 1jIEUOOlY"llI!0r; naulv), portio Neronis de crudelitate for Domitian (Tertullianus, Apologeticum 5),
Subnero for Commodus (Tertullianus, De pallio 4.5), and latro Rutupinus for Magnus Maximus
(Ausonius 21.9 in Prete 1978, op. cit. (n.20) 196 = Green 1999, op. cit. (n.20) 191).
23 See 1. Opelt, Die lateinischen SchimpjWorter und verwandte sprachliche Erscheinungen (Heidelberg
1965), esp. 165-189; S. Koster, Die invektive in der griechischen und romischen Literatur (Meisenheim
am Glan 1980).
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also exclude epithets voted by the Senate, for instance Trajan's Optimul 4
which in most cases are conventional 'Siegerbeinamen' (such as
Germanicus),25 and unofficial but standardized honourary epithets given to the
Roman emperors in various public inscriptions all over the empire indulgentissimus, jortissimus, clementissmus, piissimus, and so on - even
though in some of the cases Andrea Scheithauer has collected (from Marcus
Aurelius onwards) these inscriptions were erected by local groups and
collectives (but the authors of these texts are mostly imperial administrators)26
There are many other standardized unofficial epithets (common, yet
unofficial in the sense that the emperor would not use them himself) used
frequently for emperors in the East, such as Panellenios or Olympios,27 further
divine epithets,28 and traditional Greek epithets like soter (saviour), ktistes
(founder), and evergetes (benefactor) that will likewise not be commented
upon here. 29 Other standardized epithets can be found in petitions to various
emperors 30 Finally, attempts by the emperors themselves to appropriate
names and certain cognomina of their predecessors, in particular the nomen
Antoninorum, are not discussed. 3l
Trajan was hailed as Optimus by the Senate in AD. 98 (Plinius, Panegyricus 2.7), but as shown by R.
Frei-Stolba, 'Inoffizielle Kaisertitulaturen im I. und 2. Jahrhundert n. Chr.', Museum Helveticum 26
(1969), 18-39, esp. 21 f, the epithet had been used unofficially for several previous emperors. On
Optimus as part of Trajan's official nomenclature, see recently E.!. Paunov & M.M. Roxan, 'The
Earliest Extant Diploma of Thrace, AD. 114 (= RMD 114)', Zeitschriftfur Papyrologie und Epigraphik
119 (1997), 269-279, esp. 273 f.
25 P. KneiBl, Die Siegestitulatur der romischen Kaiser. Untersuchungen zu den Siegerbeinamen des
ersten und zweiten Jahrhunderts (Gottingen 1969).
26 A Scheithauer, 'Super omnes retro principes
zur inoffiziellen Titulatur rornischer Kaiser',
Zeitschriftfur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 72 (1988), 155-177. An earlier valuable survey of unofficial
yet commonly used epithets is by Frei-Stolba 1969, op.cit. (n.24), in particular on optimus, maxim us,
sacratissimus, sanctissimus, indulgentissimus, liberalissimus.
27 On 'Olympios', see HA Musurillo, The Acts ofthe Pagan Martyrs. 'Acta Alexandrinorum '(Oxford 1954),
132 (mostly used for Hadrian); AR. Birley, Hadrian the Restless Emperor(London 2000, 2nd ed.), 220.
28 Two random examples: Nero is called 'Zeus Eleutherios' in SEG 47 (1997),473; Titus is called 'neos
ApoJlon' in SEG 23 (1967),450; cf. n. 41 below.
29 The indices of any issue of the SEG will reveal how commonly these epithets were applied to Roman
emperors. The only case included below refers to Vespasian and is told by Josephus; the situation is
unusually vivid and direct. Another literary example appears in Philo, Legatio ad Gaium 4 ('soter' and
'evergetes' for Caligula).
30 See T. Hauken, Petition and Response. An Epigraphic study of Petitions to Roman Emperors 181-249
(Bergen 1998), esp. nos. 3, 4, and 6. In these Greek documents, the emperor(s) are adressed with a
variation on 'greatest and most divine of emperors ever'. Hauken at page 155 comments
that <lA:unOta'to<; ('most happy, carefree') appears only once, in Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua X
14.
31 See, e.g., Macrinus' attempt, in a letter to the Senate, to appropriate the cognomina Severus, Pius, and
Felix (Cassius Dio 79(78).16.2). On the nomen Antoninorum, which plays such a large role in the
Historia Augusta, see W. Hartke, Romische Kinderkaiser. Eine Strukturanalyse romischen Denkens und
24
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Interpreting popular culture
Interpreting nicknames is not always straightforward. In Berlin, a few years
ago, it was pointed out to me that a nickname used for the former East
German leader Waiter Ulbricht was 'Der Spitzbart' (in English perhaps 'Old
Goatee'). In German this nickname has no particular connotations, it seems to
me, either positive or negative. But I was assured that at the time it was
throughout interpreted as pejorative.
A non-literary example of what might be called popular culture in the
Roman world illustrates the need for interpretation.
Inscribed brick from Intercisa (from Vago & Bona 1976, op. cit. (n.32), pi. 30)
Daseins (Berlin 1951, repr. Dannstadt 1972), 123-142.
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This is a drawing on a Roman brick from Intercisa in Pannonia, showing two
figures who according to the text are Roman emperors (the text mentions
three). Ramsay McMullen argued that we are dealing with caricatures, and
that the drawing in reality expresses popular discontent with the rulers 32
This is an interesting interpretation but difficult to accept. If one
considers the physical context, the surface, the available tools, and the normal
result from graffiti on bricks, then one will arrive at the opposite conclusion;
surely this crude drawing is on the contrary a sign of loyalty, an indication of
the respect that the Tetrarchs enjoyed also in a brick manufacture on the
Pannonian limes. This of course is what most scholars who have discussed the
drawing have concluded. 33
The issue of 'imperial caricatures,34 reminds one of the mention by
Fronto in one of his letters to the young future emperor Marcus, that Rome
was full of bad portraits of the imperial family.35 Again, the features of
emperors and princes were surely not distorted on purpose but due to faulty
craftsmanship, while the fact that these objects were so ubiquitous gives an
indication of the taste of the common people. A modem-day parallel is
provided by the pictures of the Saviour (with blinking eyes, in the kitchiest of
ways) and of the Pope peddled around the Vatican.
The conclusion which imposes itself is that when studying popular
culture one needs to be perceptive: what seems innocuous might be meant as
critique, and what looks offensive might be intended as a compliment.
32 R. MacMullen, Corruption and the Decline of Rome (New Haven & London 1988), 114 f. For the
original publication, see E.B. Vago & 1. Bona, Die Graberfelder von Intercisa 1. Der sptitromische
Sudostfriedhof (Budapest 1976), 185 with pI. 30; pI. XX. The original editors first suggested that the
drawing was meant to be 'spattisch'.
33 See, e.g., T. Pekirry, Das romische Kaiserbildnis in Staat. Kult und Gesellschaft dargestellt anhand
der Schriftquellen (Das romische Herrscherbild Ill. 5, Berlin 1985), 103. One may compare the drawing,
on another brick from Pannonia (Kisdorog), of a figure called ARIO (Areius?) or ARSO; again surely
not for denigrating purposes; see Instrumenta Inscripta Latina. Das romische Leben im Spiegel der
Kleininschriften (Exhibition catalogue, Pecs 1991), 178 f. Concerning visual evidence, the presence of
the emperor in a recently discovered fragmentary wallpainting from Paris, argued by H. Eristov, 'Un
temoignage de loyalisme imperial dans un decor peint?', Gallia 51 (1994),217-232, might according to
the author be evidence of'imperialloyalism'.
34 A related case is the rough graffito portrait of man with the inscription CAICAP from Terracina,
presented by H. Solin, 'Caesar und P. Clodius Pulcher in Terracina', Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und
Epigraphik43 (1981), 357-361, esp. 360 (with discussion).
35 Fronto, Ad Marcum Caesarem 4.12.4.
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Imperial nicknames, popular epithets and acquired cognomina from
Augustus to the third century36
EmQeror
Augustus J1
Tiberius
nickname etc.
Thurinus
source
Suetonius, Augustus 7.1
puer
Suetonius, Augustus 2
used by
given in childhood,
used by M.
Antonius
- (alii iactassent)
Kaipias
(Kumiuc;i 8
Cassius Dio 45.1.1
-
pater patriae
Ovidius, Fasti 2.127-28;
Suetonius, Augustus 58.1-2;
plebs and Senate
'father'
Cassius Dio 56.9.3
the equites
Apollo Tormentor
Suetonius, Augustus 70.2
the people
Augstj~
Suetonius, Augustus 7.2
the Senate,
proposed by
Munatius Plancus
'averter of evil'
( UA£l;il(ul(oC;)
'fortune's gem'
(l(ocrlloC; tUXTJ<;)
Callipedes
Philo, Legatio ad Gaium 144
-
Petrus Patricius fr. 191 40
Constantinus I
Suetonius, Tiberius 38
vulgo vocaretur
36 The following list has no precedents, as far as I know, but Kempff, op. cit. (n.16), 354-357 lists some
imperial nicknames and epithets. For the nicknames in the Historia Augusta and for later nicknames see
the Introductory note above. It would be futile to claim completeness for the list, but it ought to contain
enough material for a meaningful discussion of the topic.
37 After his testamentary adoption, Octavianus was part of the young Caesar's nomenclature, but the future
emperor never used that name as it bore witness to his origin; see D. Kienast, Augustus Prinzeps und
Monarch (Darmstadt 1999, 3rd ed.), 9. On Octavian's nomenclature during the triumviral period, see in
detail C. Rubincam, 'The Nomenclature of Julius Caesar and the Later Augustus in the Triumviral Period',
Histon'a 41 (1992), 88-103.
38 The cognomen Kamta<; is mysterious, and it appears nowhere else. The text may be corrupt, as has often
been suggested, see recently Kienast 1999, op. cit. (n.37), 9 f A possible explanation, advanced earlier,
was repeated by V. Gardthausen, Augustus und seine Zeit IT (Leipzig 1891),20: the Latin name for Thurii
was Copiae; perhaps a Greek ethnic derived from Copiae might explain the name.
39 Suetonius, Augustus 7.2., relates that the Princeps declined the cognomen Romulus. According to
Suetonius, Augustus 53.1, Augustus strongly opposed being adressed as dominus (master, lord), and when
it occlUTed, he forhade it. Cf Dickey (2001), op.cit. (n.I), 2.
40 u.P. Boissevain, C. de Boor & Th. Biittner-Wobst, eds., Exerpta historica iussu Imp. Constantini
Porphyrogeniti IV (Berlin 1906),271.
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Suetonius, Tiberius 42;
anonymus, Epitome de
Caesaribus 2.2; cf. Cassius
Dio book 58 fr. 541
Suetonius, Tiberius 43.2
Tacitus, Annales 6.5
in castris; a
iocularibus
'the Elder'
(<'> 1tPEO~U'lC;)
Philo, Legatio ad Gaium 142
-
Atreus
Cassius Dio 58.24.4
Tiberius himself
Agamemnon
Cassius Dio 59.19.2
Agrippina the
Younger
-
Biberius Caldius
Mero
Caprineus
Tiberiolus meus
Gaius
'bloodstained
mud'
. 1tTJA.OC; u'illun
1tEcj>uPIlEVOC;
Caligula
Gaius
sidus, pullus,
pupus, alumnus
Pius, Castrorum
filius, Pater
exercituum,
Optimus
maximusque
Caesar
Latiaris Iuppiter42
Cassius Dio 58 fr. 3 (see
n.41)
Seneca, De constantia
sapientis 18.4; Tacitus,
Annales 1.41; ibid. 1. 69;
Suetonius, Caligula 9.1;
Cassius Dio 57.5.6; ibid.
62(62).4.1; Athenaeus
4.148d; Eutropius 7.12.1;
other later sources
Seneca, De constantia
sapientis 18.4
Suetonius, Caligula 13
vulgo dictitabant
Cotta Messalinus
a centurion /
legiones militari
vocabulo / (the
legions),
Agrippina's wish /
castrensi ioeo / the
soldiers / Boudicca
/-/-
(cognomento C.)
Herennius Macer
Suetonius, Caligula 22.1
the people of Rome
(and along the road
from Misenum)
cognominibus
adsumptis (own
initiative),
vocabatur
Suetonius, Caligula 22.2;
Cassius Dio 59.28.5;
qUidam salutarunt /
he himself
u.P. Boissevain (ed.), Cassii Dionis Cocceiani Historiarum Romanarum quae supersunt IT (Berlin
1955),616.
42 On Jupiter (Zeus) as appellative for Gaius, see also Cassius Dio 59.28.8; 30. la.
41
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Bacchus, Evaeus,
Lycaeus 43
Ares
'young Augustus'
(VEavtmcOC;
AUyo"OO'tOC;)
Britannicus44
Nero
'big humbug'
(/1£10
nopoA:i)Pll/1O)
'matricide'
(flll'tp01('tOVOC;)
Philo, Legatio ad Gaium 96
choirs chanting
Philo, Legatio ad Gaium 97
-
Cassius Dio 59.13.6
the people in the
CIrcus
Cassius Dio 59.25.5"
-
Cassius Dio 59.26.9
a Gallic shoemaker
Suetonius, Nero 39.2;
Cassius Dio 62(61).16.2 2 ;
62(62).18.4
Suetonius, Nero 39.2
dictum or carmen
by the public
'beautiful Caesar,
Apollon, another
Pythian,45
Cassius Dio. 62(61).20.5
carmen by the
public
his soldiers
'mistress Domitia
Nero,46
Cassius Dio 62(62).6.5
Boudicca
'Pythian Victor,
Olympian Victor,
Victor of the
'Grand Slam',
Universal
Victor,47
Cassius Dio 62(63).10.1
his soldiers
Paean
I
43 cr the notice in Cassius Dio 59.26.5-6 that Gaius impersonated various gods: Jupiter, Neptune,
Herakles, Bacchus, Apollo, Juno, Diana, and Venus, which would mean that he temporarily assumed their
names too. In fact Athenaeus 4.l48d says that Gaius was called 'new Dionysos' and dressed like the god.
From the context it is clear that he continued an Hellenistic tradition; for instance Marcus Antonius had
given orders to be proclaimed as Dionysus before him (Athenaeus 4.148c).
44 The passage (JoamIeS Antiochenus fr. 82 M) claims that the epithets Gennanicus and Britannicus were
given in mockery. The former name was however part of Gaius' official nomenclature.
45 b lCaM><; Katoap, b 'A1tOAN»V, etS cix; HUfhoS.
46 " Nepov'ts " t.OI.llila.
47 nuEhOVl1CT)<;' 'OA1JIl.1tlOVllCTJ<;. xePlOOOVllCTJ<;. xaVtQVllCT]S.
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'Olympian Victor,
Pythian Victor,
Hercules, Apollo,
Only Victor of the
'Grand Slam',
Only one from the
beginning of time,
Divine Voice,48
Cassius Dio 62(63).20.5
the people of
Rome, the Senate
malus citharoedus
Ahenobarbus
Suetonius, Nero 41.1
Suetonius, Nero 41.1
Julius Vindex, rebel
Julius Vindex, rebel
Thyestes,
Oedipus,
Alcmeon, Orestes
Cupido
Cassius Dio 63(63).22.6
Julius Vindex, rebel
Suetonius, Galba 20.2
Otho's soldiers
Nero
Tacitus, Historiae 1.78;
Suetonius, Otho 7.1;
Plutarchos, Otho 3.1; cf. 3.2
'father'
Cassius Dio 63(64).14.1
populus et miles /
ab injima plebe /
the crowd in the
theatres
his soldiers
Vespasianus)U
Suetonius, Vespasianus 15
Helvidius Priscus
'saviour,
benefactor'
Josephus, Jewish War 3.459
the people of
Tarichaeae
Cybiosactes
Suetonius, Vespasianus 19.2
Domitianus
calvus Nero
dominus et deus
Ausonius, de XII Caesaribus
Cassius Dio 67(67).4.7; 13.4;
Eutropius 7.23.2
Traianus
locupletator
CIL VI 958
the people of
Alexandria
dixit sua Roma )1
D. was pleased to
be called / se
appellari iussit
cultores Larum et
Sulpicius
Galba
Otho
Vespasianus
49
= VI 40500
48 'OA1JI!'KlOVtlC1l';. 01l9lOVtlC1l';. ... , W<; et.; 'KeptOOoVtlC1l<;. et.; Cm' at&vo<;. 'tepa cjlwYi].
According to Suetonius, Vespasianus 4.3 he was commonly (vulgo) called mulio before he became
emperor, on account of his business activities. On the nickname, see now AB. Bosworth, 'Vespasian and
the slave trade', Classical Quarterly 52 (2002) 350-357.
50 Suetonius specifies that the Stoic Helvidius continued to address the Emperor privato nomine.
51 The same expression already appears as an invective in Iuvenalis 4.38, and it is of course possible that
this is what Ausonius means by sua Roma.
52 The OLD and the ThLL register only two other occurrences of the rare word locupletator as an attribute
49
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civium)2
Hadrianus
herba
Ammianus MarcelIinus
parietinalparietari - 27.3.7; anonymus, Epitome
de Caesaribus 41.13; cf.
a
Petrus Patricius fr. 191 (see
n.40)
Crinitus
Eutropius 8.2.1; loh. Lydus,
De mensibus 4.18
Graeculus
anonymus, Epitome de
Caesaribus 14.2
'painting tool'
Petrus Patricius fr. 191 (see
(EpyUl.£lOV
n.40)
~royp(lt16v
Antoninus
Pius
Cassius Dio 70(70).2.1;
Aurelius Victor 15.1;
anonymus, Epitome de
Caesaribus 15.1; Eutropius
8.8.1,3
'cumminsp litter'
Cassius Dio 70.3.3 53
Verissimus
'laughable'
( KU'tU),€t..(lo'toC;)
Commodus
55
-/-
a plerisque
Constantinus I
)
Pius
Herakles 56
the Senate / (cognomentum Pit /
postea
cognominatus /
nominatus, dictus
est)
scoffers
(01 OKWrt'tOV1:£C;)
(K1)/11 V07tP1O'IT)C;)
Marcus
imaginum domus
Augustae
- (cognominarunt)
/ Constantinus I /
Constantinus I
AE 1940, 62;54 Cassius Dio
69(69).21.2
Petrus Patricius fr. 191 (see
n.40)
Athenaeus 12.537f; Cassius
Dio 73(72).15.2, 5;
Herodianos 1.15.8
a collegium in Ostia
/ Hadrian
Constantinus I
I
I
Commodus himself
/ (Herodian: he
wants use to stop)
for an emperor, in both cases for Hadrian. TIris means that the tribute by the cultores Larum is the fIrst
known case, and moreover the other expressions are not identical. On the coin BMCI Ill, 415 no. 1193
(from A.D. 119/121, struck in Rome) Hadrian is called locupletator orbis terrarum, while the Ostian
inscription CIL XIV 2799 addresses Hadrian and Sabina as locupletatores municipii. It seems that the
Roman cultic organization was the fIrst to use an epithet which then enjoyed a brief popularity.
53 u.P. Boissevain (ed.), Cassii Dionis Cocceiani Histon'arum Romanarum quae supersunt III (Berlin
1955),244.
54 Further instances will be referred to below in n. 70.
55 Not included is Sextus for Commodus, once suggested on the basis of a passage in Galenos (14651-657
Kiihn) by A.R. Birley, 'A nickname for Commodus and the date ofFronte's death', Chiron 2 (1972), 463473, on which V. Nutton, 'Sextus or CommodusT, Chiron 3 (1973), 429-437.
56 The rare appellatives Pacator Orbis and Invictus Romanus Hercules are not registered by Kienast 1999,
op. cit. (n.37), 147-149, but they are found in two inscriptions and some papyri, see M.P. Speidel,
'Commodus the God-Emperor and the Army', Journal of Roman Studies 83 (1993), \09-114, esp. III
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Helvius
Pertinax
Amazonius,
Exsuperatorius
( 'Y1tepo1.po:x;)
'Golden one,
Herakles, god'
(6 1(p'Oou~)
'lord, the first, the
most fortunate of
all, Amazonian,57
Cassius Dio 73(72).15.4
Commodus himself
Cassius Dio 73(72).16.1
-
Cassius Dio 73(72).20.2
the senators
Scaeva
('lefthanded')
(?)58
Herodianos 1.15.8
Commodus himself
'champion of the
secutores, only
lefthanded
gladiator to
conquer twelve
times one
thousand
opponents' 59
'victor ofa
thousand
gladiators ,60
'criminal, tyrant,
gladiator,
charioteer,
lefthanded,
ruptured' 61
Pertinax
Cassius Dio 73(72).22.3
Commodus himself
Herodianos 1.15.9
Commodus himself
Cassius Dio 74(73).2.2
the people of Rome
anonymus, Epitome de
Caesaribus 18.1
- (cognomentum
sortitus est)
indefinite
n.14. They are borderline cases for our purpose, but as shown by O. Hekster, 'Commodus-Hercules: The
People's Princeps', Scripta Classica Israelica 20 (2001) 51-83, esp. 72-77, their use is a response to
Commodus' ruler propaganda. Cassius Dio 73(72).15.5 quotes a letter from Commodus containing these
titles, as already pointed out by Dessau in ILS 400 (= CIL XIV 3449).
57 KiJpto<;. npffito<;. nCtv1X.OV E'imlxeo'tu'to<;. 'A/!u~OVto<;.
58 On the possible use of this name, see the comment by c.R. Whittaker in the Loeb edition, p. \05, with
references.
59 npW'tOnaAo<; OElCO'lJ't6pOlV, QptO'tEpO<; J,love<; Vtlcf)cru<; &ooelCUlCt<; XtA'tou<;.
60 MovoJ,lUX0U<; XtA'tou<; VtJCf)cr~.
On the confusion about what Commodus wanted the inscription on the
Colossus in Rome to read, see the comment by C.R. Whittaker in the Loeb edition of Herodianos p. \07.
61 'A!..t'ti]pto<;. 'tiJpuvvo<;'J,lovoJ,luxo<;. QpJ,lU'tT)Ml'tT)<;. QptO'tEpO;.1CT\I..Trrn<;,
SHA, Commodus
18-19
describes the reaction of the Senate, based on Marius Maximus' biography; cf. Birley 1997, op. cit. (n.I),
2689 f.; 2736.
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anonymus, Epitome de
Caesaribus 18.4
Cassius Dio 74(73).121
-
'stealer of empire,
parricide' 62
Cassius Dio 74(73).13.3
the people of Rome
Pescennius
Niger
Septimius
Severus
'the new
Alexander'
Pertinax
Cassius Dio 75(74).6.2'
his soldiers
Aurelius Victor 20.10;
Eutropius 8.18.3
Imp.
Antoninus
Caracalla
himself or his
critics / se appellari
voluit
- (dictus;
cognominatus est);
Chrestologus
Didius
Julianus
Commodus
Aurelius Victor 21.1;
anonymus, Epitome de
Caesaribus 21.2; Eutropius
8.20.1
Cassius Dio 79(78).3.3;
79(78).9.3; etc.
Caracallus
(appellavere)
his soldiers
-
- (on campaign) /
some people
'comrade,
brother-in-arms'
(o'Uo'tpanc.OtEC;)
sideribus in
terram delapsus
Tonitrator
Augustus
Bassianus
Herodianos 4.7.6
Cassius Dio 79(78).93
some people
Magnus,
Alexander
Tarautas
anonymus, Epitome de
Caesaribus 21.4
Cassius Dio 79(78).9.3;
79(78).10.3; 79(78).1l.4; etc.
Cassius Dio 78(77).16.8;
78(77).23 .4
se iussit appellari
'the Ausonian
beast'
(6 AooovwC; 9J1p)
---
ClL VI 40638 (= VI 1080)":;
----
---
the Emperor
wanted his soldiers
to call him
corpus piscatorum
et urinatorum in
Rome
some people
the people of
Pergamon
----
TT\<; -re UrxT\<; iip1t<l1;. 1t<l"tp0$6voc;.
The wording is adopted from the new rendering of the inscription by G. Alilildy, 'Nox dea fit lux!
Caracallas Geburtstag', in G. Bonamente & M. Mayer, eds., Historiae Augustae Colloquium Barcinonense
1993 (Bari 1996),9-36, esp. 23-25 (with a comma between delapsus and Tonitrator). In the inscription, the
emperor is also saluted as orbis terrorum propagator and dominus maximus, but as Alfoldy, p. 25 n. 44
showed, these epithets are formulaic. The former epithet is e.g. given to Trajan in CIL VI 958 = VI 40500
mentioned above in this table.
62
63
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M.
Aurelius
Antoninus
"a temperate
man"
6 ocbcj>prov
Bassiana
Heliogabalus
Tiberinus
Tractitius
Sardanapallos
Assyrios
Pseudantoninus
Severus
Alexander
Gynnis,
'womanish man'
'Antoninus the
catamite'
( 'Av'twvei.voc;
6 KOPu4>OC;)
'the unholy little
Antoninus'
(uv6owC;
'Av'trovi.voC;
J.ltKpOC;)64
Severus
Cassius Dio 78(77).24.2
the Emperor called
himself
anonymus, Epitome de
Caesaribus 23.3
himself; se iusserat
appellari
Aurelius Victor 23.1;
anonymus, Epitome de
Caesaribus 23.1-2
Cassius Dio 80(79).1.1; 21.3;
anonymus, Epitome de
Caesaribus 23.7
anonymus, Epitome de
Caesaribus 23.7
Cassius Dio 80(79).1.1; 2.4
Cassius Dio 80(79).1.1; 11.2
Cassius Dio 80(79).1.1; 7.3;
etc.
Philostrastos, Vitae
sophistarum 625
P. Oxy vol. 46, no. 3298
- (dictus / dictus
est)
- / - (appellatus
est)
-
(appellatus est)
-
-
[Aelianus a
philosopher]
- (unknown
writer)
P. Oxy vol. 46, no. 3299
- (unknown
writer)
Aurelius Victor 24.4
milites
'little woman,
timid boy a slave
to his mother,65
Herodianos 6.9.5
the soldiers of
Maximinus
Marcellus
anonymus, Epitome de
_66
64 J. Rea in P. Oxy 46, p. 72 points out that Heliogabalus sometintes appears a 'AvrwVlVO<; IlllCpOs in
papyri, in order to distinguish hint from Caracalla. 'AvrwVlVO<; ~a<;.
I have not been able to access A.
Lukasewicz, 'Kaiser Elagabal in den Papyrusurkunden. Historiographie, Papyri und offentliche Meinung',
inStudiaG. Kolendo dicata (l995) 171-76.
65
To l'UVUlOV IlllCpOAbyOV, ).lElpalClOV &lAOV IlTltP't OoUA.eUov.
The SHA, Alexander Severns 4.6 claints that it was on oracle (a sors Praenestina) which predicted that
he would be 'Marcellus' (tu Marcelfus eris).
66
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Thrax.
C. Iulius
Maximinus
Gordianus I Africanus
Julius
Philippus
Valerianus
Probus
Caesaribus 23.4
anonym us, Epitome de
Caesaribus 25.1
-
Herodianos 7.5.8
a crowd in
Thysdrus
Arabs Traconites
Aurelius Victor 28.1
-
Colobius
anonymus, Epitome de
Equitius
Caesaribus 32.1
anonymus, Epitome de
Caesaribus 36.2
- (cognomento
Colobius)
-
-
Evaluating the evidence
The survey shows that nicknames and (alleged) popular epithets are
ubiquitous in ancient texts of an historical character. They appear with some
frequency in works of imperial biography (Suetonius, Aurelius Victor, the
anonymous Epitome de Caesaribus, etc.), as well as in Philo's account
dealing with events in the reign of Gaius, and in works of history (but the
distinction between history and biography was difficult to maintain during the
empire), in particular in Cassius Di0 67 Besides Otho's appellative 'Nero', the
surviving writings of Tacitus only mention one nickname (Ca/igula), a feature
that may be significant; the historian perhaps thought such information
unworthy of attention. Nicknames are also mentioned in, e.g., the prose
writings of Seneca, Athenaeus and Philostratos. All in all, the list above,
containing almost 130 nicknames or popular epithets from the outset of the
Principate to the mid-third century A.D., is a sign that we are dealing with a
significant phenomenon, even though sources other than literary ones
contribute very little.
Outside the world of literary texts, there are two references to M.
Antoninus (He/iogabalus), both denigrating, found in two papyri dated many
decades after the emperor's death. In inscriptions, honourary or hypochoristic
imperial epithets are found only three times, twice in Rome and once in Ostia.
The earliest case is the epithet locupletator civium given to Trajan by the
cultores Larum et imaginum domus Augustae, obviously an association
extremely close to the ruler. A more unusual inscription from Rome, in which
the corpus piscatorum et urinatorum salutes the emperor Caracalla with an
For Dio, the question of accuracy in the Byzantine excerpts and epitomes of his work is important.
According to F. Millar, A Study of Cassius Dio (Oxford 1964), 1-3, we should be able to rely on the text
as far as our objective is concerned.
67
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appellative that seems to be of their own making (sideribus in terram
delapsus Tonitrator Augustus), was recently analyzed by G6za Alfoldy, who
indeed called it "ein einzigartiges Dokument der Frommigkeit 'kleiner
Leute",68 Thirdly, an undefined professional collegium in Ostia set up a large
inscription in or shortly after A.D. 154, in which the future emperor Marcus
Aurelius (at that time officially called Aurelius Caesar Augustus) is thrice
referred to as Verissimus Caesar.69 The epithet can also be found in two
provincial coin issues, and is used in many late-antique sources,70 but for the
first time in a surviving literary text by Cassius Dio, who claims that Hadrian
used the epithet for the young Marcus. That obviously gives a date before July
138, when the young prince was still in his teens 7l By 154, when the Ostian
inscription was set up, Marcus was no longer a boy, but indeed a designated
heir to the throne. The use of the unofficial name Verissimus, which may have
originated some two decades earlier with Hadrian but never became part of
the nomenclature of Marcus as prince or as emperor, is likely as close to
spontaneous nicknaming of imperial family members one can hope to get in
public inscriptions on stone.
That inscriptions should otherwise be absent from the list of sources
(once we uphold the distinctions outlined above in section 3) is at first glance
surprising, but from Suetonius and other authors one gets the impression that
popular verses which can be expected to have contained epithets and
nicknames normally were applied in secrecy and probably appeared
overnight,72 which means that they were mostly painted or perhaps inscribed
on wood or other perishable material; both methods were quick and cheap.
This may explain why the epigraphic evidence for nicknames is so meagre. 73
68 Alfoldy 1996, op. cit. (n.63), 27. The epithet Tonitrator is, according to the Thesaurus Linguae
Latinae, once found as an epithet of Jupiter (efL III 2766a). The Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg
registers our case as the only epigraphically attested example of Tonitratar.
69 The text was published by G. Calza, 'Un documento del culto imperiale in una nuova iscrizione
ostiense', Epigraphica I (1939),28-36, with comments on the epithet Verissimus on p. 35.
70 For a collection of the sources, see PIR2 A 697.
71 For the nomenclature and dates of the emperor Marcus, see D. Kienast, Romische Kaisertabelle
(Darmstadt 1996, 2nd ed.), 139.
72 As appears from, e.g., Suetonius, Divus Iulius 80.2-3, Cassius Dio 62(61).16.2"; see in general
Corbier 1987, op. cit (n.12), 53-56.
73 One might, a priori, think that curse tablets could provide us with imperial denigrating epithets. But
the issues addressed in the preserved curse tablets are often very down-to-earth: retrieving a stolen piece
of clothing, the fortunes of a racehorse, or amorous concerns; see A. Audollent, Defixianum tabellae
(Paris 1904), esp. 431-47 for the individuals occurring in them, and, for recent discoveries, R.S.O.
Tomlin, 'The Curse tablets', in B. Cunliffe (ed.), The Temple afSulis Minerva at Bath IT. Findsfram the
Sacred Spring (Oxford 1988), 59-277 (index of names on p. 261). Certainly one would never invoke the
curse of the gods of the Underworld on another god, i.e. the emperor. (Cr. that Germanicus Caesar was
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The survey also shows that nicknames or epithets appear in connection
with almost every emperor. The exceptions are Marcus and Septimius
Severus, for whom no real nicknames relating to their reign are known, and,
above all, Claudius. With his known physical disabilities (ridiculed in the
Apocolocyntosis), one would have thought that Claudius should have been a
perfect target for biting epithets and nicknames - this is how Alfoldi
explains the many Republican aristocratic cognomina that refer to physical
traits 74 - but in fact we hear of nothing.
The next question that needs to be faced is how accurate our sources
are when claiming that a certain emperor was called by a particular nickname
or epithet. In most cases, the scarcity of information makes it difficult and
almost pointless to engage in a detailed discussion of historical accuracy
(which the space in any case would not allow; but see the concluding
chapter), and the question of authenticity has not troubled previous
scholarship much. One could argue that some of the nicknames and epithets in
our list have too much of a literary and intellectual flair for them to have been
in popular use (for instance Biberius Caldius Mero, or the mythological
nicknames given Nero), but comparative evidence, from seventeenth-century
England, supports the common use of this kind of epithets toO.75
The main task here is to analyze the meaning and establish the
emotional content of the names and epithets. A few of them, however, need
no particular discussion: some were either inherited or were officially
bestowed on a ruler, a fact which is misrepresented in the relevant sources,76
while in the case of (Maximinus) Thrax and (Philippus) Arabs we are dealing
with epithets/nicknames that seem to have been introduced by authors who
postdate the emperors by over a century, each epithet found in only one
source 77 The bulk of the material can be divided in four groupS:78 (1)
allegedly the victim of curse tablets in Syria in AD. 17; see Cassius Dio 57.18.9; Suetonius, Caligula
3.3: devotionibus. But as a Roman 'prince' Germanicus did not have divine status.)
74 Cf n. 19 above.
75 See Cust 1986, op. cit. (n.3), 66-69.
76 Pius, for the emperor Antoninus, Pertinax, for Pertinax and Septimius Severus, and Severus, for
Severus Alexander are such cases; see Kienast 1996, op. cit. (n.71), 134; 152; 156; 177. See also
Suetonius, Tiberius 17, which records suggestions by various senators that Tiberius be given the
cognomina Pannonicus, Invictus, and Pius. This happened before he was emperor, and Augustus vetoed
the proposal.
77 The references to foreign ethnicities are surely meant to be unflattering. It is noteworthy that these
single mentions have succeeded in influencing the way in which these emperors are commonly referred
to in modern times.
78 In addition, the interpretation of some nicknames and epithets is debated, and the restricted space does
not permit a full review. For Valerianus Colobius see most recently AR. Birley, 'Fiction in the Epitome?',
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laudatory nicknames, (2) names apparently neutral, (3) names contammg
relatively mild criticism of some kind, and, finally, (4) highly derogatory
nicknames.
(1) A fair number of nicknames or epithets have a flattering meaning,
and some of these have a similar origin: the wish of the emperor to be called
by particular nicknames or epithets. 79 This is told of Gaius,80 Domitian,
Commodus, and Caracalla. In addition, it seems that the positive epithets
attributed to Nero and Commodus by the senate were not sincere but due to
pressure. We have here, surely not by coincidence, a list of some of the very
worst emperors our sources know. One gets the impression that only 'bad
emperors' felt the need to influence the way their subjects addressed them,
either because only tyrants anticipated that, unless they dictated what they
should be called, pejorative nicknames would mark them, or because it was a
sign of a 'bad' ruler to limit the freedom of his subjects to choose
spontaneously whatever informal address they wanted to use 81 Several of
these appellatives claim divine or semi-divine status for the emperor, which
always was a contentious issue that the senatorial order found difficult to
stomach. 82 Viewed in this light, the series of positive allegedly self-imposed
appellatives makes one wonder whether we might not after all, at least
occasionally, be dealing with literary conventions; this question will be
discussed below.
Among the positive nicknames and epithets there are however also
several which according to the sources have an origin with the people of
Rome, the Senate, or military units. In chronological order, Augustus and
pater patriae for Octavian have been included, since he was the first emperor
G. Bonamente & M. Mayer, eds., Historiae Augustae Colloquium Barcinonense 1993 (Bari \996),67-82,
esp. 72 f with previous suggestions. For Probus Equitius see B. Bleckrnann, Die Reichskrise des Ill.
JahrllUnderts in der sptitantiken und byzantinischen Geschichtsschreibung. Untersuchungen zu den
nachdionischen Quellen der Chronik des Johannes Zonaras (MOnchen 1992),235 n. 66.
79 In the following discussions, the additional infonnation adduced is drawn from the passage that
provides the name, unless otherwise indicated.
80 The interpretation of Latiaris Juppiter has caused some debate. Some scholars think that criticism of
Gaius may have been implied, see D. Wardle, Suetonius' Vfe of Caligula. A Commentary (Coli.
Latomus 225, Bruxelles 1994),210 f.; D.W. Hurley, An Historical and Histon'ographical Commentary
on Suetonius' 'Life of C. Caligula' (Atlanta 1993), 87 f; C.J. Simpson, 'The Cult of the Emperor
Gaius', Latomus 40 (1981) 489-511, esp. 498.
81 Good emperors endured jests and criticisms, see A. Wallace-Hadrill, 'Civilis Princeps: Between
Citizen and King', Journal ofRoman Studies 72 (1982), 32-48, esp. 39 with some references; one might
add, e.g., Seneca, De constantia sapientis 19.1-2, Suetonius, Vespasianus 20, and Cassius Dio 52.31.5-8
(the Speech of Maecenas).
82 Cf however the divergent notice in Cassius Dio 78(77).5.1 that Caracalla did not want to be named after
Herakles or any other god. Jupiter Latiaris for Gaius is not necessarily a compliment; see n. 80 above.
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to be so addressed by the plebs and the Senate. Philo, who was only a visitor
in Rome, relates positive epithets for Augustus and Tiberius (without
indicating the origin). Gaius was given many pet names by the people early in
his reign; later, the choirs were chanting mythologically inspired appellatives.
The controversial Nero was praised as Paean in popular verses, and the
people of Rome and his soldiers invented a series of flattering epithets and
nicknames. There are other positive epithets bestowed by military units: Otho
was called Nero and 'father' by his troops, while Didius Julianus was called
Commodus by his army - all complimentary addresses - as was the
appellative 'the new Alexander' given to Pescennius Niger, likewise by the
soldiers.
For the great general Trajan no military nickname is recorded, while
his unofficial distinction Optimus (no real nickname) eventually became part
of his official titulature 83 The emperor Antoninus acquired the cognomen
Pius early in his reign; the procedure is unknown. Verissimus was used for
Marcus while he was emperor designate, as seen in the guild inscription
discussed above. No nickname is known for Septimius Severus, while
Caracalla was hailed as Tonitrator Augustus 'who had descended from
heaven' by a guild in Rome. The name Marcellus is said in a late source to
have been used as an appellative for Severus Alexander, which, if true, ought
to be positively interpreted. 84 Gordianus I was given the complimentary
epithet Africanus by a crowd in Thysdrus.
(2) The next group to analyze consists of seemingly neutral nicknames
and epithets. Since there can, by definition, not be any neutral nicknames the fact that a nickname or a special epithet is employed testifies to a
particular relation between the person named and the user of the name there is obviously more than one level of meaning to consider in this group.
Among nicknames neutral in appearance we find Thurinus for
Augustus 'someone who originates from Thurii' (or 'someone who has
achieved a victory at Thurii', referring to his father 8 \ and Ahenobarbus for
Nero (literally 'Bronzebeard', but it was an old cognomen in the family of his
father). Both these names were however used by political enemies as
invectives (namely by Marcus Antonius and Julius Vindex, respectively), for
they could be taken to indicate a common or non-imperial background 86
For Optimus, see above n. 24.
TItis looks like a reference to the Republican Claudii Marcelli, among whom one for instance thinks
of Claudius Marcellus 'the sword of Rome' in the Second Punic War (Plutarchos, Fabius Maximus 19).
85 Suetonius gives both explanations.
86 Suetonius, Augustus 2.3 stresses that Marcus Antonius taunted Augustus for having a Thurian origin.
83
84
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Caligu/a and Caracallal Caracallus belong in this group too, as does the
cognomen Bassianus used for Caracalla. The use of Bassianus is similar to
that of Thurinus: Cassius Dio mentions the name, which he implies was in
common use, in order to point at the non-imperial origin of Caracalla.
It is interesting to note that the names Caligula and Caracalla, together
with Heliogabalus (an invective; see below), are imperial nicknames that
became permanent. They were apparently used during the ruler's life (at least
in some contexts), they appeared in literary texts soon after, and these names
have ever since been in common use when referring to the respective
emperor. In origin, Caligu/a was certainly intended rather as a 'term of
endearment', as it originated as a nickname used by the soldiers for the son of
their commander, a practice which his ambitious mother apparently
encouraged. There seems to have been a similar situation in the creation of the
nickname Caracalla/us, as it appears among the soldiers and refers to a piece
of clothing that the emperor wore and dressed his soldiers in.87 However,
Cassius Dio also indicates that Caracallus was used outside the army, and he
mentions it in the same context as Bassianus and Tarautas (a pejorative
nickname). In any case, these two semantically neutral names, which
originally constituted a bond between the rulers and their soldiers,88 were
taken up by the later hostile (literary) tradition and were even, one could add,
singled out as especially fitting denigratory nicknames. Neither nickname had
a dignified ring to it, and in the eyes of the aristocracy it must have been
particularly damaging for an emperor's reputation that he had debased himself
in this way, courting the favour of the commoners (or the soldiers). From here
arose both the necessity and the opportunity to 'turn' the value of these
names. It is interesting that Gaius himself, according to Seneca, was sensitive
to being called Caligula to his face by a centurion once he had become
emperor (nor did he like being addressed as Gaius); surely for the same
reason he did not appreciate the hypochoristic 'young AugustuS.89 Augustus
The name Thun'nus has caused much discussion, see recently Kienast 1999, op. cit. (n.37), 9 f. with
further references. On Ahenobarbus, cf. K.R. Bradley, Suetonius' 'Life of Nero '. An Historical
Commentary (Coli. Latomus 157, Bruxelles 1978),253. Note that according to Petrus Patricius (Cassius
Dio 63.23.2 Boiss. = Excerpta Vaticana 76, p. 215 Mai = p. 197 Dind.) Julius Vindex used the name
Domitius when speaking about the emperor.
87 Cf. that in SHA, Diadumenianus 2.8 the author has Macrinus make the joke that his son Diadwnenianus
ought to be called Paenuleus or Paenularius for having given out paenulae to the soldiers.
88 In the same way as the appellative 'fellow soldier, comrade', which Caracalla according to Herodian
wanted his soldiers to use.
89 Note that according to Flavius Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae 19.33 one Pompedius (probably
Pomponius) was accused of applying opprobrious epithets to Gaius.
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reacted negatively to being called 'boy', but that epithet was indeed meant to
be denigrating.
(3) Nicknames or epithets that contain an overt but rather mild
criticism make up a third group. Three nicknames for Tiberius, Biberius
Caldius Mero, are witty and satirical - ob vinolentiam - while Callipedes is
ironical (the emperor was criticized for being slow). Caprineus is of course a
double entendre, referring both to Tiberius' dwelling on Capri and to
activities that Suetonius describes in some detail (cf. Suetonius, Tiberius 45).
Gaius is said to have been called 'big humbug' by a Gallic shoemaker he
happened to meet, while the nickname herba parietina is meant as a rebuke
for Trajan (coined several centuries later, it seems), since he allegedly
inscribed his name on the buildings erected by others. Even for the
inoffensive Antoninus Pius a nickname containing some criticism is recorded,
'Cumminsplitter', from being a stickler for detailed investigations (given by
those whose affairs were not in order, of course). Also Graeculus for
Hadrian 90 and Chrestologus (sweet-talker; smooth-tonguedl 1 for Helvius
Pertinax are nicknames intended to convey a certain amount of criticism.
(4) Lastly, we have nicknames that clearly are invectives. Augustus
was called Apollo Tormentor by the people in Rome in occasion of a food
shortage, the epithet 'bloodstained mud' is recorded for Tiberius, without
context. Nero was given the epithet 'murderer of his mother' in a popular
verse in Rome (referring to the death of Agrippina), and the rebel Julius
Vindex is said to have expanded on the theme, as well as labelling him a 'bad
musician'. The warrior queen Boudicca used a nickname for Nero implying
femininity. Not surprisingly, we hear of pejorative nicknames used by enemy
soldiers for Galba and, later, for Severus Alexander. Vespasian suffered the
insult of being called Cybiosactes by the people of Alexandria, apparently
because of his stinginess. The Alexandrians here used a pejorative nickname
which they had previously given to a shortlived but much despised king of
theirs who died in 56 B.c.92 Domitian appears as calvus Nero in Ausonius, 93
but this epithet, which is mentioned by many authors, may merely be a
On the pejorative meaning, see M. Dubuisson, 'Graecus, graeculus, graecan': l'emploi pejoratif du
nom des grecs en latin'; S. Said (ed.); EAAHNILillI. Quelques jalons pour une histoire de l'identite
grecque (Leiden 1991),315-335, esp. 322-329.
91 The nickname is also mentioned by the SHA, Pertinax 13.5, where it is explained as qui bene
loqueretur et male jaceret, it was used by cives sui ... qui nihil de eo meruerant (13.6).
92 See RE IIA.I (1921) 1246 s.v. "Seleukos no. 11" (Stiihelin); cf. Strabo 17.1.11 (17.796).
93 For the negative connotation of baldness in antiquity, see C. Deroux, 'De la caIvitie de Dornitien a la
cheveleure d'Alexandre: propositions sur JuvenaI, Sat., IV, 37-38' in J.M. Croiselle (ed.), Neronia IV.
Alejandro Magno, modelo de los emperadores romanos (Coil. Latomus 209, Bruxelles 1990),277-288.
90
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literary' Schimpfwort'.
The death of Commodus gave, according to Cassius Dio, rise to a
veritable flood of hostile epithets used by the people of Rome. Didius Julianus
was hailed by the people of the capital as a 'stealer of the empire' and a
'parricide'. For the older son of Septimius Severus, many nicknames are
mentioned. Besides Bassianus and Caracallalus discussed above, our primary
source Cassius Dio (whose text for the relevant years is preserved only in later
excerpts, but one doubts that this would have influenced the use of nicknames
in the text)94 is particularly fond of the pejorative nickname Tarautas, used by
the people of Rome, "from the nickname of a gladiator who was most
insignificant and ugly in appearance and most reckless and bloodthirsty in
spirit" (79(78).9.3).95 Although all of this part ofDio's text was written after
CaracalIa's death,96 it is probably significant that only after having recorded
the death of the emperor, does Dio introduce a series of more or less
pejorative nicknames. From book 79(78).9.3 onwards, he then alternates the
nicknames Tarautas and Caracallus in quite a systemastic way when
referring to the dead emperor. 97
In addition we encounter the pejorative nickname 'the Ausonian
beast', which according to Dio was used by the people of Pergamon. The
context is not very clear. Dio claims that CaracalIa was pleased by the
nickname, but yet he seems to have executed many people in connection with
the visits during which the nickname was given him. In any case, Dio seems
to be referring to a real historical event.
The most extensive series of vicious nicknames and commonly used
epithets relates to Varius Avitus, later M. Aurelius Antoninus, who of course
is much better known as He/iogabalus 98 In addition Cassius Dio mentions
and himself uses Sardanapallos and Assyrios (both hinting at immoral
See above n. 66.
Translation by E. Cary (LCL).
% On the time of composition of Dio's work, see Millar 1964, op. cit. (n.67), 119-122; M.G. Schmidt,
'Die zeitgeschichtlichen Bilcher im Werke des Cassius Dio - von Commodus bis Severus Alexander',
ANRWII 34.3 (1997), 2591-2649, esp. 2598-2601 and 2618-2625.
97 Tarautas 10.3; 11,4; Caracallus 12.2; 12.4; Tarautas 12.6; Caracallus 13.2; Tarautas 13.4; Caracallus
14.1; 15.1; Tarautas 15.2; Caracallus 16.2; Tarautas 17.2; 17.3 (twice), 18.3; 18.4; 18.5; 19.2;
Caracallus 19.3; Tarautas 2I.I, and so on.
98 That pejorative nickname is not found in any source before the late fourth century. In addition to the
references above there is the Historia Augusta, who calls the emperor Antoninus or Varius
Heliogabalus. It may have been a contemporary sobriquet; see G.W. Bowersock, 'Herodian and
Elagabalus', Yale Classical Studies 24 (J 975), 229-36, esp. 233: "It is not impossible, however, that
Marius Maximus [the third-century imperial biographer) ... recorded a vulgar usage and provided the
foundation for the universal appellation from the fourth century to the present".
94
95
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behaviour by the emperor), and Pseudantoninos, which labels the ruler as an
impostor and an unworthy holder of the imperial purple. 99 Dio also cites
Tiberinus, and he is echoed by the much later Epitome de Caesaribus which
adds the nickname Tractitius. Both nicknames are said to be popular mocking
sobriquets deriving from the fact that the body of the emperor was dragged
through the streets and the sewers (trahere, tractus) and thrown into the Tiber.
These two nicknames, then, were undeniably not in use during the emperor's
life. 100
The reputation of immorality that lingered over the emperor
Heliogabalus is interestingly enough confirmed by two denigrating epithets in
an Egyptian papyrus, dated half a century after the emperor's death. The same
theme is pursued also in Philostratus' Lives of the Sophists, as the philosopher
Aelian uses the nickname Gynnis ('womanish man') for the emperorlOl
Conclusions
The passage from the Lives of the Sophists presenting a pejorative nickname
for Heliogabalus brings us back to the question of contemporaneity, for
Philostratus' comment to Aelian is "1 should admire you for it [the invective
against Gynnis], if you had indicted him while he was alive". He goes on to
say that "while it takes a real man to curb a living tyrant, anyone can trample
on him when he is down.,,102
Of the literary sources presenting nicknames and epithets given by the
Senate, the people or the soldiers, practically none was composed during the
reign of the respective emperor.103 But several authors experienced the times
they later wrote about, for instance Philo, Seneca, Tacitus, and above all
Cassius Dio, who is our most prolific source and was an eyewitness to the
Dio alternates the use of Sardanapallos and Pseudantoninos, much as he did with Caraeallus and
Tarautas for Caracalla.
100 On the historical context, see G. Alfoldy, 'Zwei Schimpfnamen des Kaisers Elagabal. Tiberinus und
Tractatitius', Banner Historia-Augusta Colloquium 1972-1974 (Bonn 1976), 11-21 (= idem, Die Krise
des romisehen Reiehes. Gesehiehte, Geschichtsschreibung und Geschiehtsbetrachtung. Ausgewiihlte
Beitriige (Stuttgart 1989), 217-228). The late-antique Historia Augusta also mentions the episode and
gives the nicknames as Tiberinus and Tractatitius (Antoninus Heliogabalus 17.5). Alfoldy 1996, op. cit.
(n.63), 17 f. (223 f) believes the difference to be significant and suggests that Traetatitius was the
original nickname, which derived from the emperor's sexual habits. Considering the propensity of the
author of the Historia Augusta for fiction and puns, it seems more likely that the Historia Augustaversion is an invention.
101 I wish to thank Franyois Chausson for drawing my attention to this passage. Gynnis was an epithet of
Dionysos, see RE VII.2 (1912) 2092 s.v. Gynnis.
102 Philostratos, Vita sophistarum 625, translation W.C. Wright (LCL).
103 Pliny's Panegyricus is an exception that does not change the overall picture.
99
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reigns of Commodus, Caracalla, and Heliogabalus, although he wrote and
published his accounts of these reigns only after the death of the respective
rulers (above n. 95). The decisive question is of course whether the use of
these appellatives was contemporary with the rulers singled out in this way.
Scholars largely tend to believe this, and in general this investigation has not
found grounds for challenging the consensus. A different matter again is what
if any nicknames were used in face-to-face situations. Besides mass scenes,
which of course provided shelter for the individual participants, very few such
situations are described: we find that Gaius did not tolerate his nickname
Caligula, while the emperor Vespasian suffered with equanimity being
addressed as simply Vespasianus, without imperial titles.
Having established the unusual proliferation of nicknames and
appellatives recorded for Commodus, Caracalla, and Heliogabalus as recorded
by Dio, we ought, however, to ponder the reasons for this. Are the many
nicknames and epithets, mostly pejorative (except when self-invented by the
emperors or patently insincere), due to: 1) the fact that Cassius Dio being
personally involved in the events was aware of more nicknames than most
ancient historians normally were, or 2) to the fact that Cassius Dio was
particularly hostile to these three emperors and took special care to collect (or
invent?) pejorative epithets and nicknames, or 3) to the fact that these three
emperors were in fact more despised and hated by their subjects than other
emperors?
If we could be certain that the third and last option is the right answer
(and the same question could be posed for all the other authors who have
recorded nicknames), the importance of nicknames and popular epithets for
determining the popularity of individual Roman emperors would be of major
importance. But we cannot exclude that the first or second explanation are at
least partly relevant.
Overall, what we have found in the material presented above 'makes
sense'. When their subjects did not act under coercion, emperors were given
negative epithets by groups and individuals whom they had antagonized, not
to mention usurpers or rebels, while positive nicknames were given for good
reasons. That the popular appeal of individual rulers as it appears in the
nicknames and epithets used by the common people does not differ from the
general perceptions in modern scholarship is not surprising; after all, existing
scholarly views on the popularity of individual rulers normally include
nicknames and appellatives among the sources. But as shown by the two
inscriptions for the young Marcus and Caracalla, something of a 'loyalist
middle class' attitude occasionally comes more into focus.
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The reactions of the emperors are also of interest. It is noteworthy that
there is no impact on the nomenclature of the emperors from (nick)names
given by anyone but the Senate. This is true even of Caligula, which in origin
was an affectionate surname. No ruler ever adopted a non-flattering
nickname, as Caesar of course did not become Gaius Iulius Calvus even
though his soldiers called him so, as we saw above. There is a corollary here
that relates to the development of the aristocratic cognomina of the Roman
Republic, but that is another story. 104 Roman emperors who today are known
under a nickname or epithet that originated away from the court owe this fact
to later authors.
Toronto, January 2003.
104
cr above n. 19.
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THE IMPERIAL ART OF DYING
By
ANT ON V AN HO OFF
Becoming a Roman emperor was no fun. Statistics show that the new ruler
had a much greater chance of dying from violence than from disease or old
age. Out of 80 emperors whose death cause is more or less certain, no more
than 29 died of natural causes. Out of the other 51, 38 were murdered or
executed, seven fell on the battle field, two of them fighting foreign enemies
(Decius and Iulianus), whilst the other five were killed during a civil war.
Five emperors committed suicide. Finally one Augustus, Theodosius 11, had
a fatal accident: he fell from his horse and broke his neck.
Of course there were highs and lows, but only during the heyday of
the Empire in the second century CE, in Gibbon's words the period "during
which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous", 1
did the number of emperors who died in bed surpass those whose met a mors
immatura. This happy condition repeated itself much later, during the
twilight of the Empire in the West. The most risky period was the third
century CE when only three rulers met a natural death.
The Appendix at the end of this paper lists the ends of the Augusti
mentioning only the emperors who were more or less recognised as
legitimate rulers. The figure of 80 rulers whose cause of death is known, is
based on a recent Dutch monograph by F. Meijer that deals with the final
moments of 86 'official' emperors2 If all the pretenders and counteremperors were to be included, the picture would become even gloomier.
Recently, a young German scholar, Tobias Arand, has published his
dissertation, in which he deals with the picture, which ancient authors
present of the death of all the bad emperors. As he discusses all pretenders as
well, his number is considerably higher: 171 (would-be) rulers. 3 In many
ways, the present paper is a counterpart to his extensive study, but as saints
I Edward Gibbon, The History o/the Decline and Fall o/the Roman Empire (New York no year), 70,
chapter 3 towards the end in the complete edition published in The Modern Library.
2 Fik Meijer, Keizers sterven niet in bed. Van Caesar tot Romulus Augustulus (Amsterdam 200 I)
(Emperors do no die in bed, from Caesar to Romulus Augustulus), in which the author summarises the
lives of 86 emperors, highlighting the events surrounding the end of these Caesars.
3 Tobias Arand, Das schmtihliche Ende. Der Tod des schlechten Kaisers und seine literarische
Gestaltung in der r6mischen Historiographie (Frankfurt a.M. 2002) 57. All evil emperors are
mentioned from page 62 onwards, with the negative sources.
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are scarcer than sinners, the available material on good emperors is much
easier to process.
Apart from Arand's dissertation and Meijer's book, which just offers
summary descriptions, a serious comparative study on the death of emperors
does not exist. Imperial Exits by 'Julius Cicatrix', a pseudonym of a classical
scholar, and the cartoonist Martin Rowson, claims to be "a hilariously horrid
history lesson",4 but it is no more than a failed attempt to be funny. Of
course, the death of specific rulers is discussed in modern imperial
biographies. There are quite a few papers on the death of individual rulers,
which implicitly or explicitly make comparisons. 5 Finally, imperial exits are
sometimes discussed in studies on ancient death 6
Arand's general conclusion is as predictable as mine: a bad emperor
usually has an infamous death, whereas a ruler of good fame meets a fine
end. What, however, constitutes a good death? In this context, the question
of the veracity of a specific imperial exit is of little significance, as we will
never know "wie es eigentlich gewesen". This situation is not due to the
fragmentary state of the sources. Actually, the death of the emperors receives
considerable attention in ancient historiography. In general, more than in
modern times, the way of dying was regarded as the crown or the disgrace of
one's life. One only has to think of Solon's conversation with Croesus to be
aware of the great value the ancient world attached to a worthy exit.?
In the case of emperors, it is clear that the picture of their death was
adapted to their reputation. The demonisation of the evil emperor has its
Text on the cover; Julius Cicatrix & Martin Rowson, Imperial Exits (London 1995; New York 1996).
Johannes Straub, 'Die ultima verba des Septimus Severus', Bonner-Historia-Augusta-Colloquium 2
(1964), 171 ff.; Dominique Conduche, 'Ammianus Marcellinus und der Tod des Julian' (1965), in: R.
Klein, ed., Julian Apostata (Darmstadt 1978), 355-380; Gunther Scheda, 'Die Todesstunde Kaiser
Julians', Historia 15 (1966), 380-383; Barry Baldwin, 'Hadrian's farewell to life. Some arguments for
authenticity', Classical Quarterly 20 (1970), 372-374; Herbert Bannert, 'Der Tod des Kaisers Marcus'
in: Latinittit und alte Kirche. Festschri/t for Rudolf Hanslik zum 70. Geburtstag (Vienna & Graz
1977), 9-19; Barry Baldwin, 'Hadrian's death in the Historia Augusta', Gymnasium 90 (1983), 546;
Udo Frings, 'Neros Tod. Sueton, Nero 47-49', Anregung. Zeitschri/t fur Gymnasialptidagogik
31(1985),229-238; Geza Alfdldy, 'Herodian iiber den Tod Mark Aureis', in: G. Alfoldy, ed., Die
Krise des Romischen Reiches (Stuttgart 1989), 14-24; Anthony R. Birley, 'Hadrian's farewell to life',
Laverna 5 (1994), 176-205; Charles Leslie Murison, 'The Death of Titus: A Reconsideration', The
Ancient History Bulletin 9,3/4 (1995), 135-142.
6 WillibaId Schmidt, De ultimis morientium verbis (Marburg 1914); Peter Schunck, Romisches
Sterben. Studien zu Sterbeszenen in der kaiserzeitlichen Literatur, insbesondere bei Tacitus
(Heideiberg 1955); Werner Portmann, 'Antike: SterbenITod', in: P. Dinze1bacher, ed., Europtiische
Mentalittitsgeschichte. Hauptthemen in Einzeldarstellungen (Stuttgart 1993),231-244.
7 Herodotus 1.30; see my forthcoming article 'Ancient Euthanasia 'Good Death' and The Doctor in the
Graeco-Roman World' in Social Science and Medicine.
4
5
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counterpart in the beatification of the virtuous ruler in his final act. The
phrase 'final act' is purposely chosen to convey the notion that the life of any
prince is one continuous show. Even in the last remaining monarchies of the
modern world, one can observe that royals are permanently putting on a
performance. Since even the contemporary can never be sure 'how he or she
really is', the authenticity of the ancient reports on Roman emperors and
their death is even more unreliable.
On the other hand, there is and was a firmly established scenario for
playing the ruler. It is, therefore, highly probable that emperors, especially
those who were much concerned about their reputation, 'staged' their own
death. In this respect, many an emperor could have made Nero's last words
his own : "Qualis artifex pereo".8 Actually, already the first princeps
demonstrated that he was aware that being an emperor was one great act:
"On the last day of his life he asked every now and then whether
there was any disturbance on his account; then calling for a
mirror, he had his hair combed and his falling jaws set straight.
After that, calling in his friends and asking whether it seemed to
them that he had played the comedy of life fitly, he added the tag:
'Since well I've played my part, all clap your hands and from the
stage dismiss me with applause.",9
Augustus, who set the stage for proper imperial behaviour, was also a model
in the art of imperial dying. Up to the end, he showed his concern for the
commonwealth, by asking whether there were any troubles, and he also
cared for the well-being of his family, being worried about the health of
Drusus' daughter. Next, he cared for his personal decorum by combing his
hair and making sure that his corpse would not offer the unpleasant sight of
an open mouth. Augustus did not die in solitude. His friends were with him
and he gave up the ghost in the arms of his most trusted companion Livia.
Augustus' death was not painful, he got an exitus facilis just as he
had wished for: "For almost always on hearing that anyone had died swiftly
and painlessly, he prayed that he might have a like euthanasia, for that was
the term he was wont to use." (Suetonius, Augustus 99.2). The use of the
Greek word euthanasia for a gentle, rapid death is quite uncommon. Cicero
Suetonius, Nero 49.1.
Augustus quoted here in Greek a clause from comedy. See Suetonius, Augustus 99.1, as translated in
the Loeb edition by J.C. Rolfe (Cambridge, MA & London 1920).
8
9
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still used it in the current meaning of a noble death. In the chaotic situation
after the murder of Caesar on March 15th 44 BCE he had left Rome on the
advice of Atticus. This same close friend urged him only a few months later
to come back. Cicero was surprised about this change of mind and showed
some irritation over Atticus' arguments: "What did astonish me beyond
measure was that you should use the words: "A fine thing for you, who talk
of a noble death (euthanasia), a fine thing indeed. Go desert your country." 10
Finally, in the description of Augustus' model death, it is stressed
that he hardly lost contact with reality. The one sign of wandering before he
breathed his last breath was that he called "out in sudden terror that forty
young men were carrying him off And even this was rather a premonition
than a delusion, since it was that very number of soldiers of the praetorian
guard that carried him forth to lie in state," so Suetonius (Augustus 99.2)
plays down the weakening of Augustus' mind.
These topics recur in the descriptions of the death of respected
emperors. As the degree of self-determination is an essential element in
staging the imperial decease, we will explore the various arts of dying in a
sequence that starts with involuntary, sudden death by murder (and one
accidental end). Next, we will discuss imperial ends on the battlefield, then
natural death, and finally the cases of mors voluntaria, in which the will
promises to play a major part.
Making the best of murder
In principle, being murdered is a fate that befitted tyrants such as Caligula
and Domitian. The 'optimus princeps' even exhorted his praetorian prefect
not to hesitate if he would turn out to be an evil ruler. When handing over
the ceremonial dagger to Suburanus, Trajan said: "To you this I entrust to
my protection, if! act rightly; if not, rather against me." II
In his study on the death of evil emperors, Arand gives numerous
ghastly details of the end, which rogue rulers met. As the script of a murder
case is dictated by the enemy, the room for staging is very limited, but the
emperor of good fame can try to make the best of it.
What he cannot choose, of course, is the place. It added to
Caracalla's disrepute that he was killed when he had withdrawn to urinate,
whereas Heliogabalus was finished off at the common lavatory. Caesar, on
Cicero, Ad Atticum 16.7.3.
Aurelius Victor, Caesares 13.9: Tibi istum ad munimentum mei committo, si recte agam; sin aliter,
in me magis.
10
11
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the contrary, enjoyed a proper setting for his last moments being murdered in
the senate. He also preserved his dignity by accepting death when it was
inevitable and taking care of decorum, as Augustus did later. Caesar put the
slip of his toga over his head and covered his legs. Similar care for a decent
appearance after death is shown by Pertinax (ruled 31 December 192 - 28
March 193):
"After they had burst into the inner portion of the Palace,
however, Pertinax advanced to meet them and sought to appease
them with a long and serious speech. In spite of this, one
Tausius, a Tungrian, after haranguing the soldiers into a state of
fury and fear, hurled his spear at Pertinax' breast. And he, after a
prayer to Jupiter the Avenger, veiled his head with his toga and
was stabbed by the rest.,,12
In this case, as well as with Caesar, death came rapidly by stabbing.
Emperors of bad fame like Caligula have a slow and gruesome end. First
Cassius Chaerea gave him a swing with his sword and split his jaw.
According to some he did so intentionally to make the tyrant die a slow
death. When Caligula tried to escape he was caught by Comelius Sabinus
who made him stumble. Then the other conspirators came running on. They
stabbed like savages and did not stop when he was dead; some even attacked
him with their teeth. (Suetonius, Caius Ca/igu/a 58.3). The brutal end that
took some time befitted a brute. Pupienus and Balbinus also underwent a
slow killing.
Bodies of evil emperors were disgraced by mutilation. The corpse of
Numerianus, who was murdered, was transported for quite a time in a chariot
until the stench became intolerable. On the contrary, Caesar's body is
described as being well preserved.
Finally, a murdered Caesar can save his face by speaking some fine
last words. Pertinax may not have equalled Caesar's" Tu quoque, Brute", but
he shows proper resignation in the face of death. Herodian tells:
"So he left his room and faced the soldiers. He tried to find out
why they had made the attack and to persuade them not to be
12 SHA. Pertinax 11, as translated by David Magie, The Scriptores Historiae Augustae I (Cambridge,
MA & London 1921), 339.
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carried away by their passions. Even then he kept his moderate,
noble expression and his appearance of imperial dignity ()J{:;vrov
Kat 't6'tc i:;v oroCPPOVL Kat OC)JV(!> oxiJ)Jan Kat 'tllProv 'to
'taU f3aatA{:;rot; a~iro)J
by showing no sign that he was afraid
or flinching from the danger, or that he was begging for mercy.
'My death,' he said, 'at your hands is of no great consequence; I
am an old man and have lived a long and distinguished life.
·
,,13
Every man ' s I·£,
he must come to an end
sometIme.
So although in general murder does not constitute a fine show, a few rulers
manage to make the best of the role enforced upon them.
Not too unlucky Accident
The only case of an emperor meeting death by accident is Theodosius 11. He
died in consequence of a fall from his horse, breaking his back or neck, after
a reign of 42 years. His death is not depicted as very miserable or shameful
as he was able to appoint his successor Marcianus on his deathbed.
Falling on the good side
For the assessment of imperial death on the battlefield, it is essential whether a
ruler died fighting foreign enemies or defeated by another victorious claimant
to the throne. In the latter case, it is the death of a loser who deserves no better
than a shameful death. There are two cases of emperors who died during a
campaign against foreign enemies. No details are reported on Decius' end
during the battle with the Goths in 251. His body was never recovered.
On the other hand, the pagan saint Julian died as a hero and a
philosopher according to the sympathetic version of Ammianus Marcellinus,
Seriously wounded, he was brought to his tent, where he demonstrated the
power of his spirit by exhorting his disconsolate and sorrowful companions:
"Most opportunely, friends, has the time now come for me to leave life
(advenit. 0 socii. nunc abeundi tempus e vita inpendio tempestivum) [ ... ]."
Julian is proud to die from the blow of a sword: "I thank the eternal power that
I meet my end, not from secret plots, not from the pain of a tedious illness, nor
by the fate of a criminal, but that in the mid-career of glorious renown I have
been found worthy of so noble a departure from this world." He therefore
accepts his fate with joy ("gaudens abeo "). Wishing to distribute his goods
13
Herodianus 2.5.5-6, as translated by c.R. Whittaker (Cambridge, MA & London I 969).
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among his friends he discovers that his magister officiorum Anatolius had
been killed "and he who recently with such courage had been indifferent to his
own fate, grieved deeply over that of a friend." He comforts his weeping
friends, as another Socrates and when all are silent, he engages with the
philosophers Maximus and Priscus in an intricate discussion about the nobility
of the soul. Death came suddenly and without pain, almost like the exitus
facilis or euthanasia Augustus had not in vain longed for: "vita facilius est
absolulus".14 Julian's end demonstrates valiant and philosophical contempt of
death, shared with a company of close friends.
Natural death in equanimity
Generally, virtuous emperors die in bed at an advanced age. Antoninus Pius
was such a blessed ruler who got a mors malura. He was 70 years of age
when he quite unexpectedly died from eating too much Alpine cheese.
"On the second day, as he saw that his condition was becoming
worse, in the presence of his prefects he committed the state and
his daughter to Marcus Antoninus, and gave order that the
golden statue of Fortune, which was wont to stand in the bedchamber of the emperor, be given to him. Then he gave the
watchword to the officer of the day as "Equanimity," and so,
turning as if to sleep, gave up the ghost at Lorium. While he was
delirious with fever, he spoke of nothing save the state and
certain kings with whom he was angry. To his daughter he left
his private fortune, and in his will he remembered all his
household with suitable legacies.,,15
Once more we find the familiar topics of an emperor who dies at a respected
place - in this case the imperial villa at Lorium - who takes care of his
family and the state and who hardly is alienalae mentis. 16 The watchword
that Antoninus Pius gave characterises the state of mind with which a good
emperor meets his end: equanimity. Antoninus Pius' death was as placid as
his person was reputed to be.
Ammianus Marcellinus 25.3, as translated by John C. Rolfe (Cambridge, MA & London 1940).
SHA. Antoninus Pius 12, as translated by David Magie The Scriptores Historiae Augustae I
(Cambridge, MA & London 1921), 131.
16 aIienatus in febri nihil aliud quam de re publica et de his regibus, quibus irascebatur, loquutus est.
14
15
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In his own way, Vespasian, who also died at an advanced age (69),
remained true to himself by making jokes up to the end: "Woe's me. Methinks
I'm turning into a god."I? In addition, he had the good luck of dying at a
familiar place, his estate near Reate, where he spent the summer every year.
Although he suffered from problems with his intestines, ascribed to a "too free
use of the cold waters, he nevertheless continued to perform his duties as
emperor, even receiving embassies as he lay in bed. Taken on a sudden with
such an attack of diarrhoea that he all but swooned, he said: 'a commander
ought to die standing', and while he was struggling to get on his feet, he died
in the arms of those who tried to help him, on the ninth day before the Calends
of July, at the age of sixty-nine years, one month and seven days." 18 Even in
his last posture, Vespasian tried to preserve his dignity.
In the days of the emperor Marcus Aurelius the imperial code of
behaviour was fully developed. In his To myself he shows awareness of the
behaviour expected of a ruler and the danger that threatened his attempts to
remain true to his philosophical self. 19 He reminds himself that death is just
natural phenomenon that one has to accept "rationally and with dignity".
Personal judgement should lead to this acceptance and not to "mere
obstinacy as the Christians". The end should not be a dramatic show 20
According to the death report, Marcus stuck to his own scenario.
When he grew ill he first discussed with his son the affairs of state. "Then,
being eager to die, he refrained from eating and drinking, and so aggravated
the disease." This abstention looks like what Latin calls inedia and Greek
apokarteria, a familiar and respected way of putting an end to one's life,
especially practised by those in old age. Among them, refraining from food
is the most frequently reported method. 21 He communicates with friends his
scorn of death and has talks with his son, whom he only sends away from
17 Suetonius, Vespasianus 23.4 : ac ne in metu quidem ac periculo mortis extremo abstinuit iocis. [ .. ]
prima quoque morbi accessione: "uae," inquit, "puto deus fio."
IS Suetonius, Vespasianus 24.
19 "Take care that thou art not made into a Caesar, that thou art not dyed with this dye ("Opu 11"
(moKUtOUproen<;, 11" ~u<pTis);
for such things happen. Keep thyself then simple, good, pure, serious,
free from affectation, a friend of justice, a worshipper of the gods, kind, affectionate, strenuous in all
proper acts" (Ta eis heauton 6.30, as translated by George Long, The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
(New York 1909-1914 [first published in 1862]).
20 Ta eis heauton 11.3.
21 See my From Authanasia to Suicide. Self-Killing in Classical Antiquity (LondonlNew York 1990),
38-39 and graph on page 35.
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fear that he might catch the disease. Then "he covered his head as though he
wished to sleep and during the night he breathed his last". 22
The rare case of a third century emperor who died naturally is
Claudius Gothicus, who is hailed as an amalgam of Trajan, Antoninus Pius
and AugustuS?3 However, his death from a disease is reported with too few
details to admit any analysis: "Now when the war with the Goths was
finished, there spread a most grievous pestilence, and then Claudius himself
was stricken by the disease, and, leaving mankind, he departed to heaven, an
abode befitting his virtues. ,,24
Lack of will in mors voluntaria
In principle, a self-chosen death allows for the greatest personal input.
Generally, the ancient paradigm of suicide is marked by the stress on volition, a
notion conveyed by the most common terms mors vo/untaria and hekousios
thanatoS?5 Maybe the emperor Marcus Aurelius showed this self-determination
in his abstinence from food. His motive for doing so was what in Latin would
be called inpatientia d%ris or more generally taedium vitae 26 Ancient
motivation is dominated by pudor, as is to be expected in such a shame
society. However, the five assured cases of imperial self-killing show the
rather 'low' motive of desperata sa/us, i.e. the suicide does not see any other
escape than to put an end to his life. All five are aware that their reign and life
are over. Maximinus Daia resorted to poison when he was besieged, a means
not highly regarded. 27 Gordian the Elder "seeing there was no aid in Africa,
and being distressed with a great fear of Maximinus and by knowledge of
Punic faith, also because CapeJianus was assailing him very sharply, and
SHA, Marcus Antoninus 28.
SHA. Divus Claudius 2.3.
24 SHA. Divus Claudius 12.
22
23
25
See my 'VOhllltary death in Latin', in: A.P. Orban & M.G.M. van der Poel, eds., Ad Litteras. Latin
Studies in Honour ofJ.H. Brouwers (Nijmegen 2000), 143-161.
For ancient motivation of suicide see Van Hooff, op. cit. (n.21) and my more recent paper 'Hatten
antike Selbstmorder eine Psyche?', Psychotherapie. in Psychiatrie. Psychotherapeutische Medizin und
Klinischer Psychologie 4.4.2 (1999), 213-224.
27 According to Lactantius, De mOrlibus persecutorom 49, the notorious persecutor had a painful, long
death struggle. He ate earth and banged his head against the wall, which made his eyes jumped from
their sockets. Then fmally he saw the Light. Pagan authors are less imaginative: Aurelius Victor has
Oc; otd
him simply perish near Tarsus (Caesares 41.1). Zosimos 2.17.3 says laconically: Mu~tf.lvo,
'flc; l:cl>uc; l:rtt ,T)v Aiyu1t1:ov imtwv EArtiot"tOll ouvuyuydv !:iC; ,OV rt6A!:f.lOV OUVUf.l!:tC;
iIplCOUOUC; /;v Tupaq, '!:Al~.
26
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because in the end the struggle had wearied him in mind and soul", even
hanged himself, an unseemly method proper to slaves and wives. 28
Three emperors, Nero, Otho and Magnentius, at least used a
respected way out by using a weapon. Magnentius first killed his kin and
then threw himself on his sword (his Caesar Decentius hanged himself eight
days later). Nero showed cowardly hesitation in using the dagger against
himself 29 Only Otho is depicted as preserving his dignity to the end. The
report of his last moments is of special interest as Suetonius tells us that his
father Laetus was witness to the events. The example of a common soldier
led Otho to give up his life. This man on bringing news of the defeat of
Otho's army "was believed by no one, but was charged by the soldiers now
with falsehood and now with cowardice, and accused of running away;
whereupon he fell on his swords at the emperor's feet. My father used to say
that at this sight Otho cried out that he would no longer endanger the lives of
such brave men, who had deserved so well.,,3o
Thereupon Otho made sure that his nearest kin and friends took care of
their safety. He sent letters of consolation to his sister and to Nero's widow
Messalina, whom he had intended to marry. Then he burned all his letters, to
prevent them from bringing danger or harm to anyone at the hands of the
victor. He also distributed what money he had with him among his servants.
"When he had thus made his preparations and was now resolved upon death
(intentusque iam morti)" he learned that people who left the camp were seized
as deserters. In order to prevent any further violence he said: "Let us add this
one and more night to our life." (these were his very words), and he forbade
the offering of violence to anyone. Leaving the door of his bedroom open until
a late hour, he gave the privilege of speaking with him to all who wished to
come in. After that quenching his thirst with a draught of cold water, he caught
up two daggers, and having tried the point of both of them, put one under his
pillow. Then closing the doors, he slept very soundly. When he at last woke up
at about daylight, he stabbed himself with one single stroke under the left
SHA, Gordiani tres 16-17: Amata used the 'nodum infonnis leti'; cf Vergil Aeneis 12.603.
Arand 2002, op. cit. (n.3), 208: "Der erste Selbstmord wird von Nero berichtet. Wahrend die ersten
paganen Autoren aus schon genannten Grilnden nicht den Selbstmord als Tat kritisieren, zeigt sich filr
sie jedoch in der Ausfuhrung der Charakter des Kaisers. ZOgerIich, halbherzig, eben unromisch totet
sich der Kaiser bei Sueton in einer theatralischen Karikatur auf einen Suizid. Auch Cassius Dio betont
noch die Hilfe durch einen Freigelassenen, die den gewiihlten Tod erst eigentlich verachtenswert
macht. Der christliche Autor Eusebios aber berichtet nur noch, Nero habe sich selbst getotet. Thm ist
der SeJbstmord als soJcher unabhiingig von der Ausftlhrungsart bereits ein Negativum."
30 Suetonius, Otho 10.1, as translated by J.C. Rolfe, Suetonius II (Cambridge, MA & London 1979).
28
29
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breast; and now concealing the wound, and now showing it to those who
rushed in at his first groan, he breathed his last 3l
Apart from the emperor Marcus Aurelius who practised inedia to
hasten his death there are two cases of attempted suicide. The first is that of
Macrinus who threw himself from the wagon in which his was transported.
Very interesting is the second case of attempted suicide, that of Hadrian,
because it raises questions about the permissibility of medical assistance in
self-killing, a highly topical problem.
"But Hadrian was now seized with the utmost disgust of life
(ultimo vitae taedio) and ordered a servant to stab him with a
sword. When this was disclosed and reached the ears of
Antoninus, he came to the Emperor, and begged him to endure
with fortitude the hard necessity of illness, declaring furthermore
that he himself would be no better than a parricide, were he, an
adopted son, to permit Hadrian to be killed. The emperor then
became angry and ordered the betrayer of the secret to be put to
death. The man, however, was saved by Antoninus. Then
Hadrian immediately drew up his will, though he did not lay
aside the administration of the empire. Once more after making
his will, he attempted to kill himself, but the dagger was taken
from him. He then became more violent, and he even demanded
poison from his physician, who thereupon killed himself in order
that he might not to have administer it. ,,32
Hadrian's attempts to kill himself have all the marks of the 'restless
emperor' he was. 33 By his impetuous ways he caused much distress among
those who attended him, who also had to fear the anger of Antoninus Pius,
Hadrian's successor designate. Apparently, the medical doctor whom
Hadrian asked to help him could find no other way out of the terrible
dilemma but to kill himself. No reference is made of any moral scruples on
the part of the anonymous physician. There is no reason to assume that he
stuck to his Hippocratic oath.
31
Suetonius, Otho 11.
32
SHA, Hadrianus 24.8-12.
33
Anthony R. Birley, Hadrian. The restless emperor (London & New York 1997).
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Firstly, we do not know whether Hadrian's physician belonged to the
Hippocratic school, which after all was just one of the medical sects of
antiquity. Secondly, it is uncertain to what extent the oath was ever sworn in
that one particular school. The ancient evidence is very meagre 34 Even if the
Hippocratic oath had some meaning as a professional ethical code for the
limited group of doctors, it should not be understood as dealing with assisted
suicide, but with surreptitious murder by a doctor. 35 The context suggests this
meaning, for in the lines preceding the key phrase the new doctor promises to
refrain from 'injustice' (adikia). The Greek syntax points at this interpretation:
"Ou oroaro os
ooM <pa.~Kov
otJO£vt ah118d<; 8av.t~o:
and I will not give a drug that is deadly to anyone if asked [for
it]. ,,36
In the Greek text the 'anybody' to whom the deadly medicine is not given is
in the dative, whereas 'requested' is nominative, going with the subject, the
'I' who swears. If the person who requests and to whom the fatal drug is not
given were to be one and the same person, the ancient Greek would be
something like 'to anybody requesting', both words in the same case, i.e.
dative, especially as the words follow each other. Now the different cases,
dative and nominative, are indicative that the two words are not be to be
linked. The person who requests is not necessarily the person to whom the
poison is (not) given. The Hippocratic doctor only swears that under no
circumstance shall he lend himself to murder by poisoning on the request of
a third person since, being in close contact with a patient, he was in a
position to kill secretly.37 We should remember that the fear of being
Vivian Nutton, 'Hippocratic Morality and Modem Medicine', in: Hellmut Flashar & Jacques
Jouanna, eds., Medecine et morale dans I 'antiquitf!. Entretiens sur I'antiquite c\assique 43
(Vandoeuvres-Geneve 1996), 46: "Pious hopes from Scribonius Largus, a sentence in Gregory of
Nazianzus, Arabic reconstructions of Classical Antiquity, and the Constitutions of Melfi do not inspire
great faith in the universality of the Oath, when contrasted with the numerous occasions when one can
state that the Oath was not sworn."
35 See for this interpretation of the Oath: Thomas Riltten, 'Medizinethische Themen in den
deontologischen Schriften des Corpus Hippocraticum', in: Flashar & Jouanna 1997, op. cit. (n.34), 65120, especially at 68-98.
36 Translation by Heinrich von Staden, 'Personal and Professional Conduct in the Hippocratic Oath',
Journal ofMedecine and Allied Sciences 51 (1996),404-437 at 407.
37 Even if one would argue that the passage refers to any assistance in bringing about death requested
by the patient or a third person, the stress certainly is not on assisted suicide. The refusal to commit
adikia also points to murder, for self-killing was not regarded as a criminal act by ancient law, as was
34
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poisoned was common in antiquity. Many a sudden death that was probably
due to food poisoning was ascribed to a criminal act. However, a patient who
hired a Hippocratic physician could be sure that he did not run the risk of
being murdered by a criminal doctor. The argument that the oath formula
was understood in antiquity to mean this, is supported by the hexametric,
more elaborate version of the Oath: "Nor should somebody by presents make
me to commit a painful trespass and to administer to a man harmful drugs
that will bring about a fatal evil.,,38 There is ample proof that ancient doctors
were ready to assist in suicide, Seneca's being the most famous euthanasia
case in the primary ancient sense of the word, i.e. a noble death. It was
Statius Annaeus, who produced the hemlock, the poison hallowed by
Socrates. Statius is denoted as a trusted friend of proved medical skill. 39 So
there is little reason to suppose that Hadrian's doctor came to kill himself by
any other reason than the impossible dilemma he was confronted with, given
the anger of both the ruling emperor and the emperor designate.
The story of Hadrian's prolonged death is as ambiguous, as was his
reputation in antiquity. Anyway, he too is credited with having preserved his
mental faculties until the last moment, for
... he is said, as he lay dying, to have composed the following lines:
animula vagula blandula
hospes comesque corporis,
quae nunc abibis in loca
pallidula rigida nudula
nec ut soles dabis iocos!
Such verses as these did he compose, and not many that were
better, and also some in Greek. 40
proven by Andreas Wacke, 'Der Selbstmord im romischen Rechts tmd inder Rechtsenwickltmg',
Zeitschriji der Savigny-StiftungfUr Rechtsgeschichte 97 (1980), 26-77.
38 Greek text in I.L. Heiberg, ed., Corpus Medicorum Graecorum 1.1 (Leipzig & Berlin 1927), 5-6.
39 Tacitus, Annals 15.64: arte medicinae probatum.
40 SHA, Hadrianus 23.9:
o blithe little soul, thou, fitting away,
Guest and comrade of this my clay,
Whither now goest thou, to what place
Bare and ghastly and without grace?
Nor, as thy wont was, joke and play.
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In any case, Hadrian died a natural death. His attempts of suicide did
anything but embellish his end. The element of self-determination was only
present in the abstention of food by the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Among
the cases of suicide committed, only that of Otho constitutes a noble death.
Between perception and ritualisation
In his dissertation on the ignominious death of emperors, Tobias Arand sees
less distortion in the stories about the end of virtuous emperors than of their
evil colleagues. He discerns two other trends, less dramatisation and more
restraint. The record is not embellished by rumours about death causes or
circumstances. 41 It is credible that the stories on the death of the virtuous,
generally successful, emperors have a higher degree of veracity, as even the
history of good death is written by the victors. The authors who sealed their
fame had no reason to vilify them. Rather, one can suspect them of idealising
the emperor's finale. Their noble picture is undoubtedly due to a positive
perception.
On the other hand, one should not forget that these fortunate
emperors were familiar with the scenario of the last act that they had to play.
After all, there was a long tradition of good dying in antiquity. Moreover, the
worthy emperors of the second century could look back upon a series of
predecessors and the records of their death. A ruler such as Marcus Aurelius
was certainly aware of the paradigm, so he could perform the death rituals of
the virtuous emperor as far as it lay in his capacity to stage his finale.
41 Arand 2002, op. cit. (n.3), 229: "AbschlieBend lassen sich flir die Darstellungen der Tode guter
Herrscher drei Haupttendenzen festhalten, die geradezu die Kehrseite der Darstellungen schlechter
Tode bilden
I. Die Darstellungen sind im Kern ihrer Schilderung insgesarnt konstanter als die auf schlechte
Herrscher bezogenen Schilderungen. Es konnte so auch behauptet werden, daB die 'Spur' des
historischen Ereignisses durch die zeitliche Folge der Berichterstattung geradliniger verlauft und die
Todesdarstellungen der guten Herrscher die vergangene historische Realitat weniger 'deformieren',
dieser naherkommen.
2. Die Darstellungen sind deutlich weniger literarisch im Hinblick auf Spannungsbogen
durchdrarnatisiert. Dies bedeutet jedoch nicht, daB nicht auch der Tod des guten Herrschers detailliert
odcr in einer unterhaltsarnen Handlungsfolge berichtet werden konnte. Starb aber ein guter Herrscher
an einer Krankheit, wurde dies konstatiert, bestenfalls urn durchaus auch erfundene Details mit Bezug
zur Lebensschilderung, wie z.B. von der Historia Augusta im Falle des Antoninus Pius, erweitert.
Aber aber auch ein an sich drarnatisches Geschehen wie die Ermordung des guten Alexander Severus
wird nicht zusatzlich 'reiBerisch', sondern mit eher gebremster Spannung dargestellt.
3. Diese Zuriickhaltung der Darstellung geschieht so insgesarnt durch den Verzicht auf einige
angesprochene erzahlerische Elemente. Spekulationen ilber alternative Todesumstande, mordende
Nebenbuhler oder giftrnischende Ehefrauen, werden in der Regel vennieden."
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Anyway, a natural death such as he had, offered most room for the
imperial ars moriendi. Contrary to what we expected to find, the suicides of
emperors were not models of mors vo/untaria. These were self-killings from
despair, so the liberty to perform was limited. Only Otho demonstrated his
self-control to the end. Some imperial victims of murder, like Caesar and
Pertinax, succeeded in preserving their dignity, even in their sudden death.
With the evil emperors, on the contrary, ghastly physical details are stressed. 42
Ideally, the emperor meets his death at an advanced age. Until the last
moment, he is in control of his mind. The emperor's mors matura is gentle,
which also guarantees a well-preserved corpse. Those emperors who in the
moment of murder showed concern for their looks demonstrate the
importance of decorum.
An emperor who dies nobly faces the end with imperturbability, like
a soldier or a Stoic. With friends he discusses the irrelevance of death.
Preferably, he utters some unforgettable last words.
The exemplary death does not occur in miserable solitude. The lucky
emperor dies at a familiar place. There he is surrounded by friends and
family, for whom he shows his concern, both financially and emotionally.
He also cares for his staff and the commonwealth. This euthanasia
constitutes the imperial art of dying.
Nijmegen, October 2002
42 Arand 2002, op. cit. (n.3), 244: "Die deutliche Mehrheit der geschilderten Tode der schlechten
Kaiser sind gewalttiltige Sterbeakte: 'Mord und Hinrichtung', Se1bstmord', 'Tod im Kampf und selbst
die Tode im Bereich 'Krankheiten' sind nicht seiten von grober Grausamkeit der Schilderung."
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Appendix: Causes of death of official emperors
Nr. Name
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
l3
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
Caesar
0
Augustus
Tiberius
Caligula
Claudius
Nero
Galba
Otho
ViteIIius
Vespasianus
Titus
Domitianus
Nerva
100
Traianus
Hadrianus
Antoninus
Lucius Verus
Marcus Aurelius
Commodus
Pertinax
Didius Iulianus
200
Murder
t first century BCE: 1 violent
Natural
Natural
Murder
Murder
Suicide
Murder
Suicide
Murder
Natural
Natural
Murder
Natural
t first century CE: 5 natural 7 violent
Natural
Natural
Natural
Natural
Natural
Murder
Murder
Murder
t second century CE: 5 natural 3
violent
Natural
Murder
Murder
Murder
murder
Murder
Suicide
Fallen
murder
murder
murder
Septimius Severus
Geta
CaracaIIa
Macrinus
Heliogabalus
Alexander Severus
Gordianus I
Gordianus 11
Maximinus Thrax
Pupienus
Balbinus
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33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
Gordianus III
Philippus Arabs
Decius
Trebonianus Gallus
Aemilianus
Valerianus
Gallienus
Claudius Gothicus
Quintillus
Aurelianus
Tacitus
Florianus
Probus
Carus
Numerianus
Carinus
300
Diocletianus
Constantius I
Severus
Maximianus
Galerius
Maxentius
Maximinus Daia
Licinius
Constantinus I
Constantinus 11
Constans
Magnentius
Constantius 11
Iulianus
Iovianus
Valentinianus I
Valens
Gratianus
Maximus
Valentinianus 11
Eugenius
murder
Fallen
Fallen
murder
murder
natural
murder
natural
murder
murder
?
murder
murder
?
murder
murder
t 3d century CE: 3 natural 22 violent
natural
natural
murder
?
natural
Fallen
suicide
murder
natural
Fallen
?
suicide
natural
fallen
natural
natural
fallen
murder
murder
murder
murder
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70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
natural
8 natural 11 violent
natural
natural
accident
murder
murder
?
natural
murder
?
murder
natural
natural
natural
natural
murder
natural
t 4th century: 8 natural 6 violent
Theodosius I
400
Arcadius
Honorius
Theodosius 11
Valentinianus III
Maximus
Avitus
Marcianus
Maiorianus
Libius Severus
Anthemius
Olybrius
Leo I
Leo 11
Glycerius
Nepos
Romulus Augustulus
476
t
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ROMISCHE AMTSINHABER ALS VORBILDER FUR DIE BISCHOFE
DES 4. JAHRHUNDERTS?
Von
R. HAENSCH
Paulos von Samosata wurde im Winter 268/269 1 von einer Synode fuhrender
Bischofe der ostlichen Provinzen des romischen Reichs abgesetzt.
Wichtigster Grund waren seine Vorstellungen von der Natur Christi 2 Aber
man tadelte seine Amtsfuhrung als Bischof von Antiocheia auch in einer
Reihe anderer Punkte. So hieB es u. a.: "Auch brauchen wir nicht daruber zu
urteilen, daB er nach Hohem trachtet und aufgeblasen ist, sich weltliche
Ehren zulegt und sich lieber ducenarius nennen laBt als Bischof, stolz auf
den Marktplatzen einherschreitet, offentlich im Gehen Briefe liest und
diktiert, von zahlreichem Gefolge umgeben, das ihm teils vorangeht, teils
nachfolgt, so daB unser Glaube wegen seines Diinkels und Hochmuts scheel
angesehen und gehaBt wird; nicht iiber seine Gaukeleien auf kirchlichen
Versammlungen, die er, nach Ehren haschend und in eitlem Drange,
I Folgende Titel werden abgekilrzt zitiert:
Chadwick, Role = H. Chadwick (and his respondents), The Role of the Christian Bishop in Ancient
Society (Berkeley 1974)
Hartmann, Teilreich = U. Hartmarm, Das palmyrenische Teilreich (Stuttgart 2001)
Instinsky, Bischofsstuhl = H. U. Instinsky, Bischofsstuhl und Kaiserthron (Milnchen 1955)
Jerg, Vir = E. Jerg, Vir venerabilis. Untersuchungen zur Titulatur der Bischofe in den auperkirchlichen
Texten der Spiitantike als Beitrag zur Deutung ihrer ofJentlichen Stellung (Wien 1970)
Millar, 'Paul' = F. Millar, 'Paul of Samosata, Zenobia and Aurelian: The Church, Local Culture and
Political Allegiance in Third-Century Syria', Journal ofRoman Studies 61 (1971), 1-17
Miiller-Wiener, 'Bischofsresidenzen' = W. Miiller-Wiener, 'Bischofsresidenzen des 4.-7. Jhs. im
ostlichen Mittelmeer-Raum', in: Actes du Xle congres international d'archeologie chretienne. Lyon,
Vienne, Grenoble, Geneve et Aoste, 21-28 septembre 1986 I (Rome 1989),651-709
Pallas, 'Episkopion' = D. I. Pallas, 'Episkopion', in: K. Wessel (Hg.), Reallexikon zur byzantinischen
Kunst IT (Stuttgart 1971), 335-371
Pietri, Roma = Ch. Pietri, Roma Christiana, 2 Bande (Rome 1976)
Pietri, Entstehen = Ch. & 1. Pietri, Das Entstehen der einen Christenheit (250-430) (Freiburgl Basel!
Wien 1996)
Rist, 'Cyprian' = J. Rist, 'Cyprian von Karthago und Paul von Samosata. Oberlegungen zum
Verstiindnis des Bischofsamtes im 3. Jahrhundert', in: R. von Haehling (Hg.), Rom und das
himmlische Jerusalem (Darmstadt 2000), 257-286
Stommel, 'Bischofsstuhl' = E. Stommel, 'Bischofsstuhl und Hoher Thron', Jahrbuch far Antike und
Christentum 1 (1958), 52-78
Teitler, Notarii = H. C. Teitler, Notarii and Exceptores (Amsterdam 1985).
Zur Datierung der Synode: Millar, 'Paul' 11; priiziser als Hartmarm, Teilreich 317 f.
2 Vg!. den Beginn des bei Euseb nicht vollstandig zitierten Schreibens der Synode (Historia
Ecciesiastica 7. 30, besonders 6-7); zu den Griinden, weshalb der Kirchenhistoriker das Schreiben
nicht ganz anfiihrte: Millar, 'Paul' 10 f.
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ausklugelt und damit die Gemuter argloser Leute in Staunen setzt. So IieB er
fur sich im Gegensatze zum Junger Christi eine Tribune und einen hohen
Thron errichten. Auch hat er ein >Sekreton< wie die weItIichen Herrscher
und nennt es so"?
Diese Satze haben eine intensive Forschungskontroverse ausgelost 4
Man diskutiert inwieweit das Geschehen mit den aIIgemeinen politischen
Ereignissen im Osten des romischen Reiches in diesen Jahren zu erklaren ist.
Erortert wird, ob Paulos eine offizieIIe Funktion im Dienste der Herrn von
Palmyra, die ja in diesem Jahrzehnt auch die wichtigsten Machthaber im
Osten des romischen Reiches waren, bekleidete und ob dies sein Auftreten
erklare.
Das Geschehen wirft aber auch die grundsatzlichere Frage auf,
inwieweit sich Bischofe in einer Zeit, in der die neue Religion von Kaiser
GaIIien zumindest indirekt anerkannt worden war und rasch an Bedeutung
gewann, am Vorbild weltIicher Machthaber orientierten. Diese Frage ist vor
allem in den 50er und 60ger Jahren im AnschluB an Thesen Theodor KIausers
intensiver diskutiert worden. Paulos von Samosata war dabei insbesondere fur
Hans Ulrich Instinsky in seiner Studie "BischofsstuhI und Kaiserthron"
wichtig. Die Diskussion verstummte weitgehend,5 als deutIich wurde, wie
schwierig die Frage zu beantworten war, "wann genau und wie der Obergang
von auBerkirchlichem zu kirchlichem ZeremonieII geschehen sei". 6
Diese FragesteIIung aufzugreifen und fortzufuhren, setzt voraus zu
klaren, ob Paulos eine offizieIIe Funktion in der romischen
Reichsverwaltung innehatte oder ob er sich nur am Vorbild solcher
Amtsinhaber orientierte. DaB nur das letztere gemeint sein kann, hat
insbesondere Fergus MiIIar aufgezeigt, auch wenn immer wieder und gerade
in einer jungst erschienenen Studie von Udo Hartmann die gegenteilige
Euseb, Historia Ecclesiastica 7.30, 8-9; zitiert wird - mit leichten ModifIkationen - die Obersetzung
von H. Kraft.
4 Vgl. zuletzt z.B. L. de Blois, The Policy of the Emperor Gallienus (Leiden 1976), 184; Hartmann,
Teilreich 315fT.; Rist, Cyprian.
5 Bezeichnenderweise ist der Artikel "Hofzeremoniell" im Reallexikon far Antike und Christentum nie
in der von Th. Klauser geplanten Form (dazu Jerg, Vir 69) erschienen (s. jetzt Reallexikonfar Antike
und Christentum 16 [1994), 1-4). Die grundsiitzlichere Frage, inwieweit das Christentum von den
Strukturen des umgebenden romischen Reiches und speziell seines Rechtes gepriigt wurde, ist
allerdings weiter erortert worden, s. z. B. E. Herrmann, Ecclesia in Re Publica (Frankfurt! M., Bern,
Cirencester 1980) und jetzt z. B. A. Hoffinann, Kirchliche Strukturen und Romisches Recht bei
Cyprian van Karthago (Paderborn u.a. 20(0).
6 Jerg, Vir 69 mit Hinweis auf gleichartige Stellungsnahmen in spateren Arbeiten Klausers.
3
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Ansicht vertreten wird. 7 Selbst wenn Paulos den Titel vir ducenarius zu
Recht beanspruchen konnte, bedeutet dies nicht, daB er ein hoher romischer
Amtsinhaber war. Millar arbeitete an den einzelnen Passagen des Briefes
heraus, wie sehr das Auftreten des Paulos in dem Synodalschreiben als
Konsequenz personlicher Vorlieben des Paulos dargestellt wurde. Paulos
wollte lieber ducenarius genannt werden als Bischof (oouKllvaplo$'
lluUov ~ ElTlOKOlTO'> eEAWV KUAEloBm), Paulos habe sich ein Tribunal und
einen hohen Thronos besorgt.8 Nichts werde als Konsequenz einer
iibernommenen staatlichen Funktion dargestellt.
Dabei hatten hohe welt1iche Amter seinen Gegnern glanzende
Angriffspunkte geboten: So hatte Paulos entweder Kapitalgerichtsbarkeit
ausiiben miissen, hatte also gegen das funfte Gebot und andere Aussagen der
Bibel den Tod von Menschen anordnen miissen. Falls er aber eine Funktion
im Bereich der Finanzverwaltung ausgeiibt hatte, ware er fur den Einzug von
Abgaben verantwortlich gewesen. Mit Leichtigkeit hatte man ihm dann
Habgier unterstellen konnen. Wenn den no ch zahlreiche Forscher von einer
staatlichen Funktion des Paulos ausgehen, so weil sie wie z.B. jiingst
Hartmann der Ansicht sind: "Schliel3lich bliebe der Vorwurf, daB sich Paulus
lieber ducenarius als Bischof nennen lieB, unverstandlich, wenn nicht beiden
Titeln auch ein Posten entsprochen hatte".9 Dahinter steckt die selbst bei
Millar zu fassende Annahme, daB der Titel ducenarius "as used in Antioch,
it could in normal times only have referred to the procurator of the province
of Syria Coele"IQ Genau dies trifft aber spatestens fur die sechziger Jahre
des 3. Jh. nicht mehr zu. ll Exakt ins Jahr 267 gehort namlich das erste HansGeorg pflaum bekannte Beispiel dafur, daB ein Ritter den Titel vir
ducenarius fuhrte, obwohl er nur eine Funktion bekleidete, die in der Hohen
Kaiserzeit keinesfalls den Rang einer solchen Procuratur hatte - namlich die
des Epistrategen 12 (Nach pflaum ware es nur eine sexagenare Procurator
7 Millar, 'Paul', besonders 10 ff., bzw. Hartmann, Teilreich 315 ff. (dort Anm. 213 ein
Forschungsiiberblick).
!J.EV lCat 8p6vov U'I'TlAoV Ea.U'tiji lCa-racrlCEuacru!J.Evo<;. Millar, 'Paul' 13: "Everything that
8 ~l1!J.a
is said of the improper activities of Paul relates to the life of the Christian congregation."
9 Hartmarm, Teilreich 319 - wenn er von "beiden Titeln" spricht, dann offensichtlich deshalb, weil er
in einer petitio principis davon ausgeht, daJ3 der Titel ducenarius untrennbar mit demjenigen des
procurator verbunden war.
10 Millar, 'Paul' 12.
11 So jetzt auch Rist, 'Cyprian' 282.
12 H.-G. Pflaum, Les carrieres procuratoriennes equestres sous le haut-empire Romain II (Paris 1960),
950 f mit Berufung auf P. Oxy. XVII 2130; dazu auch J. D. Thomas, The epistrategos in Ptolemaic
and Roman Egypt. Part 2. The Roman epistrategos (Opladen 1982), 52.
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gewesen). Spatestens in den sechziger Jahren des 3. Jh. begann also der
Prozess der "devaluation" des Titels vir ducenarius. Im Jahre 317 hatte er
seinen Abschlu/3 gefunden. Aus diesem Jahr stammt ein im Codex
Theodosianus iiberliefertes Gesetz, nach dem die ducena dignitas wie andere
dignitates beispielsweise an primipilares oder Caesariani nach erfolgreichem Ende ihrer jeweiligen Tatigkeit verliehen werden konnte. 13
Paulos mu/3 also keine Stellung im Rahmen der rbmischen
Provinzialadministration bekleidet haben. Auch mit dem Vorwurf, er lege
(imoouOIlEvOS') sich KOCJIlLKa deUDllaTa zu, brauchen nur Ehrentitel wie der
des ducenarius gemeint gewesen zu sein 14 und nicht notwendigerweise
weltliche Posten.1 5 Die 'weltlichen Herrscher' (ot TOU KOCJIlOU apxoVTE<;)
waren also Vorbilder, aber Paulos gehbrte wohl nicht zu ihnen. Mit
apxoVTE<; meinten die Synodalen ganz offensichtlich generell hohe rbmische
Amtsinhaber l6 und nicht speziell den Kaiser. 17 Hatten sie sich nur auf ihn
o.a.
beziehen wollen, so hatte man dies z.B. durch den Terminus ~a(JLA.EU<;
deutlicher gemacht und gleichzeitig no ch mehr die Hybris des Paulos
herausgestellt. Ganz offensichtlich findet sich in diesem Schreiben ein
Sprachgebrauch, der bisher immer erst mit dem 4. und den folgenden
Jahrhunderten verbunden wurde. In den literarischen Quellen dieser Zeit
meint apxwv gerne Provinzstatthalter, vicarius oder praejectus praetorio. 18
In zweierlei Hinsicht orientierte sich Paulos nach Ansicht der
Bischbfe am Vorbild solcher hohen Amtsinhaber: Erstens habe er bei seinen
bffentlichen Auftritten - und zwar an solchen Platzen, die wie die dyopai.
ganz besonders im Licht der OffentIichkeit standen - durch die Grof3e seines
Gefolges und seine Geschaftigkeit - selbst im Gehen bearbeitete er noch
seine Korrespondenz - seine Bedeutung hervorheben wollen. Zweitens habe
er aus dem gleichen Grund bestimmte bauliche Einrichtungen in dem von
ihm benutzten Kirchenraum geschaffen. Wie die Machthaber der Welt habe
ein Tribunal, mit einem hohen Spovo<;, einem hohen Stuhl,
er fur ein ~i)la,
13 CTh 8.4.3; ID.7.1; ID.20.1; 12.1.5; dazu C. Lepelley, 'Du triomphe a la disparition. Le destin de
l'ordre equestre de Diocletien a Theodose', in: S. Demougin u. a., ed., L 'ordre equestre, Histoire
d'une aristocratie (lIe siec/e av. J.-c. - IIIe siec/e ap, J.-C.) (Rome 1999),629-646, hier 632.
14 S, z,B, p, Oxy. IX 1204 Z. 15 f. (299).
15 Anders Hartmann, Teilreich 318; vg!. auch a.O. 318 f.: "weltliche Aufgaben", "hohes weltliches
Amt", "mehreren Posten".
16 So auch Stommel, 'Bischofsstuhl' 54 f.
17 Wie dies z.B. Instinsky, Bischofsstuhl14 annahrn.
18 E. Hanton, 'Lexique explicatif du Recueil des inscriptions grecques chretiennes d'Asie Mineure',
Byzantion 4 (1927-1928), 53-136, hier 67 f.; R. Kotansky, 'Magic in the Court of the Governors of
Arabia', Zeitschriftfur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 88 (1991),41-60, hier 51 f.
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und fur ein 0-rlKPTlTOV, einen Raum fur Verhandlungen, die nicht offentlich
sein sollten, gesorgt.
Obwohl no ch nicht darauf hingewiesen wurde, versteht es sich
keineswegs von selbst, daB gerade diese zwei Einrichtungen, das 0-rlKPTlTOV
und der epovoS', genannt werden. Der erste sonstige Beleg fur 0-rlKPTlTOV als
Bezeichnung fur eine Raumlichkeit findet sich selbst in den Papyri, also
einer dichten und der alltaglichen Administration nahen Quellengattung, erst
im Jahr 299 (p.Oxy. IX 1204 Z. 12: ein 0-rlKPTlTOV eines rationalis). Auch
der entsprechende lateinische Terminus secretarium erscheint erst spat und
recht selten in vordiokletianischer Zeit. 19 DaB dies kein Zufall ist, zeigt sich
daran, daB in den Papyri der folgenden Jahrzehnte der Begriff dann mehrfach
bezeugt ist 20 Den zeitlich fruhesten Beleg stellt wahrscheinlich die Passio
Scillitanorum dar. Wie bei alien anderen Martyrerakten laBt sich allerdings
nicht exakt feststellen, wann dieser Bericht uber einen ChristenprozeB des
Jahres 180 in die heute vorliegende Form gegossen wurde. Die zeitlich
nachste Erwahnung eines secretarium bietet wahrscheinlich eine der beiden
Fassungen der Acta Proconsularia Cyprians 21 DaB diese Bezeichnung erst so
spat belegt ist, verwundert auch nicht allzusehr. Traditionell vollzog sich
romische Rechtsprechung in aller Offentiichkeit, also primar auf demjorum
oder - falls dies z.B. aus klimatischen Griinden nicht moglich war - in einer
basilica. 22
Geschlossene Raumlichkeiten fur die Rechtsprechung sind zwar seit
der fruhen Kaiserzeit bezeugt. Aber sie wurden zunachst allem Anschein
19 Nach O. Seeck, RE II A 2, I (1921) 979-981 s. v. secreIarium, 979 wilrde sogar Lactantius, de
morlibus persecutorom 15, 5 den ersten Beleg darstellen. Alle Belege im Codex Iustinianus gehoren
ans Ende des 4. oder Beginn des 5. Jh.
20 P.Ryl. IV 653 = ChLA IV 254 Z. 1 (praeses Aegyptiae Herculiae; 318-320); P.Theod. 13 = ChLA
XLI 1204 I Z. I (praeses Aegyptiae Herculiae; 321); ChLA XLI 1188 + SPP XX 283 = P.Harrauer 46
(praeses Thebaidis; 332); P.Oxy. LXIII 4381 = ChLA XLVII 1431 (dux Aegypti; 375); ChLA XII 522
= SB XVI 12581 Z. I (3\0 ?); die Daten nach lD. Thomas, ,P.Ryl. IV 654: the Latin Heading',
Chronique d' Egypte 73 (1998),125-143; vgl. A. Lukaszewicz, Les edifices publics dans les villes de
I 'Egypte Romaine (Warszawie 1986), 47 f Philostratos gebraucht in der Vita Apollinii 4.44.2
(anOPPT1'tov ()IKacrTT'jplOv) den Terminus crlJKPT1'tOV nicht und ist angesichts des romanhaften
Charakters der Szene auch hochstens als Hinweis auf die Verhiiltnisse zu Lebzeiten des Philostratos,
aber nicht denen des Apollonios, zu werten (anders Seeck 1921, a.a.O. [Anm.19], hier 979).
21 Acta Scillitanorom 1 bzw. Acta Cypriani 1. Im Fall der von H. Musurillo, The Acts oJ the Christian
Martyrs (Oxford 1972) gesammeltenActa martyrum fmden sich entsprechende Hinweise femer in der
Passio Montani (Nr. 15, 6. 21); Passio Crispinae (Nr. 24, 1: in secretario pro tribunali adsidente);
Passio Eupli (Nr. 25 a, I: EV ('tip) crtKpl'tapirp 7tpO ~lJA.oU;
b, 1: extra velum secretarii) und in den
Acta Phileae (Nr. 27, col. XII Z. 4: e9ucrEv EV 'tip cruvKplJ'trp) - also jeweils Akten von Miirtyrem
der diokletianischen Verfolgung.
22Vgl. Seeck 1921,a. a. O. (Anm. 19),979.
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nach als auditoria bezeichnet. So tut dies z.B. Tacitus, aber auch noch das
amtliche Protokoll einer Gerichtssitzung Caracallas im Jahr 216. 23 Der
Obergang vom Terminus auditorium zu demjenigen des secretarium spiegelt
all er Wahrscheinlichkeit nach einen ProzeJ3 des zunehmenden Ausschlusses
der Offentlichkeit bei bestimmten staatlichen Handlungen und insbesondere
Rechtsverfahren wieder. Das wird aber generell erst fur ein spatantikes
Phanomen gehalten.
Noch viel mehr gilt das fur den 9povoS' eines romischen
Amtsinhabers, zu dem Paulos anscheinend die prinzipiell schon seit der 2.
Halfte des 2. Jh. 24 bezeugte bischofliche Ka9E8pa umgestaitet hatte
(Natiirlich fassen wir das Handeln des Paulos nur in dem parteiischen Reflex
seiner Gegner. Aber wenn ihre Vorwiirfe ganz haltlos gewesen waren, hatten
sie dem Beklagten eine vieI zu groJ3e Chance gegeben, sie zu widerlegen und
damit Ietztlich das ganze Verfahren in Frage zu stellen). In Hanns
Gabelmanns Studie "Audienz - und TribunaIszenen", heiJ3t es: "Die cathedra
< ... > wird erst in der Spatantike zur Insignie von Beamten und anderen
Wiirdentragern".25 Thomas Schafer schlieJ3t sich seinem Urteil an 26 Ins 4.
oder die folgenden Jahrhunderte wurden bisher alle Darstellungen eines
solchen 9povoS' auf archaologischen Denkmalern datiert. Die meines
Wissens zeitlich fhiheste soli in die Zeit kurz nach der Mitte des 4. Jh.
Gehoren. 27 Ebenfalls dem 4. oder den folgenden Jahrhunderten wies man
bisher die inschriftlichen Epigramme zu Ehren von Statthaltern oder
hoherrangigen Tragern der Provinzialadministration zu, die gerne auch auf
den ruhmvollen Sitz, den Ut/JaUXT]S' 9WKOS", anspieien. 28 Erstmais 325 wird in
einem Papyrus von einem Statthalter gesprochen, der den Thronos der
Statthalterschaft in Alexandreia glanzvoll einnehme (6 8LaKoO'~i)GS
TOV
9povov TfjS' iJ'YE~ov(aS
TfjS' auTfjS' ' AAd;av8p(aS' )29
Tacitus, Dialogus 39; SEG 17,759; vg!. auch R. Haensch, Capita provinciarum (Mainz 1997), 145,300.
Muratorisches Fragment Z. 75 f. (H. Lietzmann, Das muratorische Fragment und die
monarchianischen Prologe zu den Evangelien [Bonn 1921] bzw. W. Schneeme1cher,
Neutestamentliche Apokryphen I [Tiibingen 1990], 27-29); vg!. Stommel, 'Bischofsstuhl' 71 f.
25 H. Gabelmann, Antike Audienz- und Tribunalszenen (Dannstadt 1984), 191.
26 Th. Schafer,Imperii insignia. Sella curulis undfasces (Mainz 1989), 195.
27 Gabelmann 1984, a. a.O. (Anm. 25),190 fT., besonders 192; Stommel, 'BischofsstuW' 63 fT.
28 L. Robert, Epigrammes du Bas-Empire. Hellenica IV (Paris 1948), 17,35 f., 41-48; etwas anders die
entsprechenden Epigramme, in denen der Amtsinhaber als auv9povot; der Dike bezeichnet wird; von
diesen gehort mindestens eins in die diokletianische Zeit (Robert, a.O. 25 f., vg!. 74 f.). S. auch den
grundsatzlichen Hinweis von Robert, a.O. 109: "Ies coupures chronologiques dans les institutions et la
civilisation sont dans la seconde partie du IIIe siecle et a la fm du VIe".
29 P. Oxy. LIV 3756 Z. 7; 3758 Z. 7 f. 124.
23
24
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Wir finden also bei Paulos von Samosata von den verschiedenen
symboltrachtigen Einrichtungen romischer Herrschaft zwei, das 0TlKPllTOV
und den 9p6vo,> , von denen zumindest der letztere allem Anschein nach erst
zu seinen Lebzeiten zu einer verbreiteten Erscheinung geworden war. Es sei
dahingestellt, ob er sie wirklich so bewuBt ubernahm, wie es ihm seine
Gegner unterstellten, und ob ihn die von diesen behaupteten personlichen
Motive - vor allem seine Hybris (utlrTlA.a <j>pOVEL Kat WEPTlPTUL) - dazu
veranlaBten. Vielleicht fuhrte nur ein und dieselbe Zeitstromung zu
weitgehend identischen Formen der Machtreprasentation im weltlichen wie
kirchlichen Bereich.
Ob das Verhalten des Paulos tatsachlich so individuell bestimmt war,
wie es ihm unterstellt wurde, kann nur am Verhalten anderer Bischofe
uberprlift werden. 30 Da wir uber die des spaten 3. Jh. fast nichts wissen,
konnen nur diejenigen des 4. und der folgenden Jahrhunderte zum Vergleich
herangezogen werden. Schritten sie auf dem von Paulos eingeschlagenen
Weg voran - bestarkt dadurch, daB sich die Rahmenbedingungen durch die
Hinwendung Konstantins und seiner Nachfolger zum Christentum
wesentlich geandert hatten? Oder blieb das Vorgehen des Paulos weitgehend
einzigartig, ist es also letztlich nur mit seiner Person zu erklaren? Dieser
Frage soli im folgenden anhand von zwei zentralen Aspekten des
paulinischen Auftretens - seines Gefolges und der von ihm benutzten
weltlichen Einrichtungen - nachgegangen werden. Entsprechend dem
zeitlichen Rahmen des Workshops werde ich mich dabei vorwiegend auf
Nachrichten aus dem 4. Jh. beschranken. Die Entwicklung hatte zwar im
Jahre 402 keineswegs einen Endpunkt erreicht. Aber bei solch einem
komplexen Thema ist es schon allein von Bedeutung, einmal festzustellen,
bis zu welchem Punkt die Entwicklung am Ende der ersten Phase des
intensiven Kontaktes zwischen weltlichen und kirchlichen Autoritaten
vorangeschritten war.
Man warf Paulos vor, er sei in der Offentlichkeit opu<J>POU~EV'
aufgetreten. Geht man von der Grundbedeutung des Wortes oopu<J>opEw aus,
Auch Rist, 'Cyprian' bewertet die Amtsfilhrungen von Cyprian und Pauios als zwei unterschiedliche
Versuche, die Stellung eines Bischofs in den irn fortgeschrittenen 3. Jh. rasch wachsenden Gemeinden
neu zu defmieren. Es sei dahingestellt, ob man tatsachiich das Scheitern von Paulos mit "Defiziten im
menschlichen Bereich" (284) erklaren sollte. Auch die ietzten Jahre Cyprians sind vom
Ketzertaufstreit gepragt und ob sein Ansehen ohne sein Martyrium so unumstritten geblieben ware, ist
keineswegs gesagt. Zur Einschatzung aus heutiger Sicht zum Beispiei Pietri, Entstehen 67: "die
gieichzeitig ein interessantes Inkuiturationsphanomen darstellen und Verhiiltnisse des vierten
Jahrhunderts vorwegnehmen"; iihnl.ich A. von Harnack, Die Mission und Ausbreitung des
Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (Leipzig 19242),668.
30
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so hiitte ihn eine bewaffnete Begleitung umgeben, deren Waffen, Lanzen,
seine Position herausstellten. Allerdings ist die entsprechende Passage nur
mit Hilfe eines Partizips formuliert. Sie macht im Gegensatz zu einem
Passus aus einer Rede des Demosthenes, auf die allem Anschein nach
angespielt wird,31 und zu einer parallelen Formulierung in Eusebs Werk
selbst,32 keine konkrete Angaben z.B. iiber die Zahl und Art der Begleiter.
Dadurch lii13t die Formulierung aber die Moglichkeit offen, die Angabe nur
im iibertragenen Sinne zu verstehen: Paulos war bei seinen offentlichen
Auftritten von einer Begleitung, die seine Bedeutung heraushob, umgeben.
Und ein solches Verstiindnis im iibertragenen Sinn diirfte der Realitiit
entsprochen haben: Es ist nicht nur schwer vorstellbar, da13 sich ein Bischof
in all er Offentlichkeit auf eine von ihm bezahlte, zudem mit
Hoheitssymbolen verse he ne, bewaffnete Begleitung sWtzte. Das hiitte nicht
nur eine eindeutige Usurpation eines Rechtes romischer Amtsinhaber
beinhaltet, sondem auch all den theologischen Stellungnahmen
widersprochen, die jede Ausiibung militiirischer Macht durch Christen und
insbesondere christliche Wiirdentriiger ablehnten. Vor allem ab er verweist
Euseb in einer anderen Passage, in der er dasselbe Partizip bei der
Charakterisierung eines romischen Procurators benutzt, explizit auf die
Soldaten, die diesen Amtsinhaber als Ehrengarde begleiten. 33
Genau an diesem Punkt verlief auch nach 312 eine wesentliche
Grenze: Noch Jahrhunderte lang verzichtete man darauf, das Vorbild der
officiates zu kopieren, die in den Staben der weltlichen Amtsinhaber
exekutive Aufgaben durchfuhrten oder fur den Personenschutz zusHindig
waren. Bischofe stiitzten sich zwar immer wieder bei einzelnen Problemen
auf Soldaten oder officiales, die ihnen weltliche Amtsinhaber zur Verfugung
gestellt hatten. 34 Man setzte auch unter Umstanden einmal Untergebene wie
die dekanoi Konstantinopels oder die parabalaneis Alexandreias, die
eigentlich andere Aufgaben hatten, zur Durchfuhrung exekutiver
Ma13nahmen ein. 35 Aber man richtete nicht nach Au13en hin erkennbar
Demosthenes, Or. 21.158 - nach dem kritischen Apparat die Voriage fur die Passage.
Vg\. am Ende des Absatzes.
33 Euseb, Historia Ecclesiastica 8.9.7: ot~
<l>tA6pOJ~o
~v,
apx~v
nva 0-0 Tl]V Tuxoucrav TIj~
31
32
KaT' 'A£~aVOpEtv
/3acrtA1f~
Oto~crEJ
tyJcEXPr~V,
o~ ~ETa
TOU a~troT
Kat
TIj~
'POJ~atCfj
n~f1,
U1tO crTpato'"~
Oopu<U~EV,
EKacrT1~
aVEKpi VE't"O i]~Epa.
34 Vg\. Z.B. Marcus Diaconus, Vita Porphyrii 27. 75. 77.
35 Vita Damelis II (§ 19; Festugiere II p. \04); zu ihnen A H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire,
284-602, II (Norman 1964), 911; unzutretTend: G. Dagron, Naissance d'une capita le (Paris 1974),
auch Augustin, Epist. 20*.8 (Divjak). Man fragt sich natiirlich, auf wen sich
491. Vg\. schlie~
Marcellus von Ancyra stutzte, wenn er Folterungen durchftlhrte oder eiserne Gefangenenkllfige
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Abteilungen mit militarischen oder exekutiven Aufgaben im bischoflichen
Gefolge ein.
Derartige Probleme entstanden nicht, wenn man andere Abteilungen
der Stabe weltlicher Amtsinhaber kopierte. Aber auch dies geschah nur in
sehr beschranktem MaJ3e. Bei der Frage, wie die Verwaltung des immer
umfangreicher werdenden kirchlichen Vermogens organisiert werden sollte,
spielte das Vorbild weltlicher Amtsinhaber und ihres Personals z.B. all em
Anschein nach keine Rolle. Entweder baute man die alte kircheninterne
Praxis aus, nach der Diakone im Gefolge ihrer Fursorge fur die Armen der
Gemeinde und das Kirchengerat auch ganz allgemein fur alle Fragen der
kirchlichen Finanzverwaltung zustandig waren - so vor allem im Westen.
Oder man orientierte sich am Vorbild der privaten Guts- und
Vermogensverwaltung und betraute einen Kleriker mit der Funktion des
OtKV~S'
(vilicuS)36 - so im Osten. Diese Praxis ging nach Ansicht des
Konzils von Chalkedon gerade von der Kirche von Antiocheia aus 37 Sie
wurde im Kanon 26 von Chalkedon fur alle Bischofskirchen (faktisch der
ostlichen Reichshalfte) bindend gemacht.
Wichtiger war das Vorbild der weltlichen Wurdentrager und speziell
des Kaisers im Falle der bischOflichen Kanzleien. Schon aus dem 4. Jh. soll
eine romische Grabinschrift stammen, die einen notarius eccl(esiae)
erwahnt. 38 Auf jeden Fall brachte im Jahr 422 ein apostolicae sedis notarius
einen Brief von Bonifatius I nach Illyricum (Bon. epist. 13, 5). Auf dem 3.
okumenischen Konzil von Ephesos (431) verlas ein notarius der romischen
Kirche - VOTclpLOe; Tile; a:yl.ae; Ka90AlKile; E:KKATpi.ae; 1ToAEwe; 'Pw~ai.v
39
einen Brief von Coelestinus. Schon im Jahr 390 hatte ein lector und
vOTclpLOe; <... > Tile; UYlwTclTTle; < ... > EKKATJoi.ae; Na(LUv(mnroAEwe; das
Testament von Gregor von Nazianz zu publizieren (wenn das Dokument
authentisch ist).40 Ein lector und notarius des Bistums Rhodos ist im Jahr
431 bezeugt41 Auch in Nordafrika sind zu Beginn des 5. Jh. mehrfach
benutzte: Socrates, Histon'a Ecclesiastica 2.42. 1. Dossey, . Judicial Violence and the Ecclesiastical
Courts in Late Antique North Africa', in: R. W. Mathisen, ed., Law. Society. and Authon'ty in Late
Antiquity (Oxford 2001), 98-114 differenziert viel zu wenig - zeitlich, zwischen Klerikern und
Monchen, zwischen Prilgeln als von der Gesellschaft anerkanntem privaten Erziehungsmittel und
staatlicher coercitio etc.
36 ACO IT 1, 359.
37 ACO IT I, 374 f.
38 AE 1935, 153 = ICVR 20447.1. Duchesne, ed., Le Liber Pontijicalis I (Paris 1955) 36, 3, 205 bleibt
wie die ganze Nachricht problematisch, s. Pietri, Roma 676 f., vg!. 607,672 ff.
39 ACO I I, 3, 54; spatere Belege fur die romische Kirche bei Teitler, Notarii 87.
40 Gregor von Nazianz, Test. 395 (PG 37).
41 ACO 11,2,10.
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kirchliche notarii belegt, wie z.B. u.a. ein notarius ecclesiae Sitifensis partis
Donati bei der Konferenz in Carthago im lahre 411.42 Am Ende des 4. lh.
war es also zumindest auch bei manchen mittelgro/3en Bistiimern iiblich
geworden, die Funktion eines speziellen Schnellschreibers nach dem Vorbild
des Kaisers und der weltlichen Amtsinhaber einzufuhren (wobei
offensichtlich haufig ein entsprechend ausgebildeter Kleriker mit dieser
Aufgabe betraut wurde).
In den Akten des Konzils von Chalkedon sind schliel3lich gar
Kleriker der Kirchen von Alexandreia43 und Konstantinopel 44 bezeugt, die
neben ihrer geistlichen Wiirde auch ganz offiziell den Titel primicerius
notariorum (TIpqUKijpLOS' TWV vOTapiwv bzw. TIPWTOS' vOTapiwv) wie in der
kaiserlichen Kanzlei fuhrten. Zumindest bei diesen wichtigsten Bischofssitzen hatte sich also auch schon eine interne Hierarchie ausgebildet 45
Allerdings gab es auch gewichtige kircheninterne Griinde, das weltliche
Vorbild zu iibernehmen. Sowohl aus der jeweiligen Predigttatigkeit wie vor
all em auch aus der umfangreichen kircheninternen und -externen
Rechtsprechung ergab sich ein Bedarf nach Protokollanten mit
46
" hen K enntmssen.
"
stenograp hISC
Aus ahnlichen Griinden hat man in einem weiteren Bereich recht
schnell das weltliche Vorbild kopiert: Nach der vita Euthymii war es ganz
wesentlich fur die christliche Erziehung des spateren Monches Euthymios,
da/3 er im lahre 379 mit seiner verwitweten Mutter zu einem Onkel ziehen
mu/3te, der als Rechtsgelehrter (scholasticus) Berater des MetropolitanBischofs von Melitene (Armenia II) war. Als Beisitzer (UWEOpoS) des
Bischofs lebte er in dessen Palast. 47 Auch Kyrillos von Skythopolis lernte
150 Jahre spater dadurch den Monch Sabas kennen, da/3 dieser den
Metropolitan-Bischof von Skythopolis (Palaestina 11) besuchte, bei dem der
Gesta IT 59 (SChr. 224). Vg!. z.B. auch Augustin, Epist. 213,2.
ACO II 1, 82. 84.
44 ACO II 1, 204.
45 Parallelen aus dem 6. Jh. fOr die romische Kirche bei Teitler, Notarii 88.
46 Bei manchen der von Teitler, Notarii 86 fT. angefllluten frtihen Beispielen bleibt es allerdings
42
43
fraglich, ob sie schon offiziell im Dienst der Kirche standen (und nicht z.B. private Bedienstete des
jeweiligen Bischofs waren): S. 89 (Anonymus 31), 91, 93 (Paulus 1),93 (Eunomius). Beide Arten von
notarii sind z.B. im Testament des Gregor von Nazianz bezeugt: PG 37, 391,393 bzw. 395.
47 f) ( ... ) tnov1loiu <iBEA.<pov EX01lO'U Aoyui)'ta-rov EUB6~lOV
!lEV lCaAoU!lEVOV, -ro BE uu-r661
bnOK01tElOV Kpa-rOUV-ru KUt -rip E1tIOK61tcp o1lvEBpEuov-ru, -rou-rOV OU!lI301lAoV KUt !lEoi'tTlv
1t0lT10U!lEV1] -rip KU-rU -rov KatpOV EKElV01l i6Uvov-r1 -riJv KU-rU MEAI-rT1vl,v CtytID-rU'tTlV £KKAT10iuv 'Orpncp ( ... ) OXOAaOnKOU Eo~i1l
(Kyrillos von Scythopolis, Vita Euthymii 3
[Schwartz p. 10; Festugiere p. 60]). Vielleicht einschlagig auch Synesios, Epist. 105 in fine (zu sicher
Chadwick, Role 6).
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Vater des Kyrillos als auvd>p<>S' wohnte. 48 Beide Beispiele erinnem an
Gregor Thaumaturgos, der zu Anfang der dreiBiger lahre des 3. lh. nach
Caesarea Palaestinae kam, weil sein Schwager, ein VO~LI(6s-,
dem damaligen
Statthalter von Syria Palaestina bei dessen Tatigkeit zur Seite stehen sollte. 49
SchlieBlich verweist es auch auf typische Praktiken romischer Amtsinhaber,
wenn nach lohannes Chrysostomos Bischof Meletios von Antiocheia in den
70er lahren des 4. Jh. ~ETa
TWV npoaEopEuOVTWV uu-r4> , also mit seinen
Beisitzem, die Baustelle des Martyrions fur den hI. Babylas besuchte, urn
si ch vom Fortgang der Bauarbeiten zu iiberzeugen. 50
Entgegen der Darstellung von Giulio Vismara oder Wolfgang
Kunkel 51 gab es also schon im 4. lh. zumindest bei den ostlichen
Metropolitansitzen fest angestellte, juristisch ausgebildete, bischofliche
consiliarii. Das sollte eigentlich auch nicht verwundem. Im Gefolge der
audientia episcopa/is wurden die Bischofe mit einer Fiille von
Rechtsstreitigkeiten konfrontiert, die angesichts ihrer Zahl und ihrer
Komplexizitat den Gedanken an professionelle Berater nahelegte. Klagen
vieler BischOfe 52 belegen, wie sehr sie von dieser Tatigkeit beansprucht
wurden, auch wenn die audientia episcopa/is anscheinend spatestens zu
Ende des 4. Jh. nur noch eine freiwillige Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit war. Da bot
es sich an, das Vorbild der weltlichen Amtsinhaber nachzuahmen. Augustin
geniigte es, wie es gerade einer der neugefundenen Briefe zeigte,53
gelegentlich bei professionellen Rechtskundigen anzufragen. Oder er zog
KUt (, E~Oc;
1tu'dIP 'to E1tl(JK01tEiov Kpu'tmv 'to'tT)VlKUihu KUt 'tiP ~T)'tpo1OAiI
(Kyrillos von Scythopolis, Vitn Sabae 75 [Schwartz p. 180; Festugiere p. 109 f] ). Vg!.
auch Zacharias, Historia Ecclesiastica 7.1 (Hamilton! Brocks 148 f).
49 crUVE1tt !3o,,911crov'tu KUt KOl VOlvr,crOV'tCY 'tmv 'tou EElVO'\)<; apxov'to<; 1tOVOlV. Lobrede 65-72.
50 Iohannes Chrysostomos, De sancto Babyla 3 (PG 50, 533).
51 W Kunkel, 'Consilium', in: Ders., Kleine Schriften (Weimar 1974), 405-440, hier 439 f; G.
Vismara, Episcopa/is audientia (Milano 1937), 116 ff. Es ist zumindest zu erwagen, ob auch die
defensores ecclesiae eine solche beratende Fllllktion wahrnahmen. In unseren Quellen erscheinen sie
freilich vor aIlem als selbstiindige Rechtsvertreter der Kirchen nach AuBen hin; vg!. Z.B. Herrmann
1980, a. a. O. (Amn. 5) 304; N. E. Lenski, 'Evidence for the Audientia episcopalis in the New Letters
of Augustine', in: R. W Mathisen, ed., Law, Society, and AuthOrity in Late Antiquity (Oxford 2001),
83-97, hier 92 f
52 Die KIagen sind bekannt: Augustin, De opere monachorum 29, 37; Augustin, Enarrationes in
Psalmos 118,24,3; ders., Epist. 213; ders., Epist. 24*, I (Divjak); Possidius, Vita Augustini 19;
Iohannes Chrysostomos, De Sacerdotio 3.14, 1-17 (SChr. 272); Theodoros von Mopsuestia, In
epistulam ad Corinthos 5,1;2 (PG 66,882). Vg!. auch Augustin ilber Ambrosius - Confessiones 6.3.3 sowie Synesios, Epist. 41 (Garzya p. 135 fI.). Dazu kommen noch verschiedene weitere Hinweise auf
die betrachtliche Arbeitslast: Vita Epiphanii 55 (PG 41, 93 B) bzw. Theodoret, Historia Re/igiosa
17.8.1.
53 Augustin, Epist. 24*, I (Divjak).
48
EV Ole; ~v
(JUVE~POl
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pauci jratres fideles honorati heran (Aug. serm. 355, 2, 3). Aber zumindest
manche der Metropolitanbischofe des Ostens hielten es fur sinnvoller, eine
feste Institution zu etablieren. Und ob dies nicht viel verbreiteter war, als es
die geringe Zahl der Hinweise vermuten laBt, bleibt so wie vieles andere bei
der audientia episcopaJis unklar. Denn dieser "crucial aspect of the presence
of the church in late Roman society remains as silent and unseen as the dark
side of the moon". 54
Im Bereich der nicht-geistlichen Aufgaben eines Bischofs und der
dazu notigen Heifer hat man also nur sehr partiell das Vorbild der weltlichen
Amtsinhaber ubernommen. Wie sah es bei den Gebauden aus, auf die si ch
die Bischofe als Wohnung und fur administrative und jurisdiktionelle
Zwecke stutzten? In vergleichbarer Weise hatten bisher neben manchen
Residenzen hochgestellter Personlichkeiten der groBen Zentren unter den
offentlichen Bauten vor allem die praetoria der romischen Amtsinhaber, also
insbesondere die der Provinzstatthalter und Procuratoren, als Wohnquartier
und Amtslokal gedient. Welche Rolle spielten solche Gebaude als Vorbild?
Bzw. besser gesagt, da die praetoria alles andere als einen standardisierten
Gebaudetyp darstellen, inwieweit finden wir bei den Episkopeia die ublichen
Bestandteile eines solchen Praetoriums wie reprasentative Empfangsraumlichkeiten, Raume fur die Rechtsprechung wie das erwahnte
secretarium oder z.B. eine private Thermenanlage? Und - vor allem inwieweit laBt sich auch bei den Episkopeia ein Bemuhen urn eine
reprasentative Architektur fassen?
Fur das 4. Jh. mussen aus zwei Griinden vor all em literarische
Quellen zugrundegelegt werden. Erstens reichen die archaologischen
Befunde, in denen man bischofliche Residenzen vermutet,55 eigentlich nur in
Nordafrika schon ins 4. Jh. zumck. 56 Zweitens sind grundsatzlich die
entsprechenden Identifikationen oft unsicher. Die Diskussion damber, was
denn fur eine bischofliche Kirche spezifisch sei, dauert immer no ch an.
54 P. Brown, Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire (Hanover, London 2002), 67 ff. Zur
episcopafis audientia vgJ. neben Vismara 1937, a. a. O. (Arun. 51) jiingst z.B. Chadwick, Role 6ff und
ofters; G. Crifo, 'A proposito di episcopalis audientia', in: M. Christol u. a., ed., Institutions, societe et
vie pofitique dans /' empire Romain au IVe siecie ap. J.-c. (Rome 1992), 397-410; 1. C. Lamoreaux,
'Episcopal Courts in Late Antiquity', Journal of Early Christian Studies 3 (1995), 143-167; Lenski
2001, a. a. O. [Arun. 51]; A. Martin, Athanase dAlexandrie et /'eglise d'Egypte au IVe siecie (328373) (Rome 1996),708 (jeweils mit weiterer Literatur); Pietri, Entstehen 784 f; 934.
55 VgJ. den Oberblick von Mil1ler-Wiener, . Bischofsresidenzen'; Pa1las, 'Episkopion'; Pietri,
Entstehen 674; s. jetzt auch 1. MatejCic, 'il palazzo vescovile di Patenzo (Istria)', in: XXe congres
international des etudes Byzantines. College de France - Sorbonne. 19-25 aout 2001. Pre-actes. III
Communications fibres (Paris 200 I), 323.
56 Im Osten anscheinend ilberhaupt nicht: Mil1ler-Wiener, 'Bischofsresidenzen' 651
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Insbesondere konnte bis heute trotz uber 1500 Inschriften, die aus dem 4. bis
6. Jh. von BaumaBnahmen an Gebauden des christlichen Kultes berichten,
noch kein Episkopeion durch eine entsprechende Inschrift explizit und
eindeutig identifiziert werden. 57
In den literarischen Quellen sind Episkopeia im 4. Jh. nicht nur fur
Alexandreia oder Konstantinopel 58 oder fur Metropolitansitze wie Melitene
(Armenia 11),59 Caesarea (Cappadocia),60 Salamisl Constantia (CypruS)6\ oder
Ephesos (Asia)62 bezeugt. Nach der Vita des Porphyrios von Gaza erbaute
Bischof Irenion von Gaza urn die Mitte des 4. Jh. ein solches, freilich sehr
kleines, Gebaude im damals noch uberwiegend und entschieden paganen
Gaza63 . Episkopeia waren also auch schon im 4. Jh. zumindest im ostlichen
Reichsteil eine verbreitete Erscheinung, die auch an kleineren Bischofssitzen
anzutreffen war. Fur kirchliche Rechtsquellen des 5. Jh. waren Episkopeia
eine Selbstverstandlichkeit. Diese wie das in einer monophysitischen
Gemeinde Syriens entstandene sogenannte testamentum Domini oder die
gallischen Statuta ecclesiae antiqui (Kanon 1114) waren nur darum bemuht,
S. auch Miiller-Wiener, 'Bischofsresidenzen' 653. Die einzige partielle Ausnahme konnten die
Inschriften des sogenannten Bads des Plakkos (SEG 7, 871 b = IGerasa 296 vg\. 297) darstellen, wenn
es sich urn das Bad einer bischOflichen Residenz handelte. Nach dem archiiologischen Befnnd - C. S.
Fisher, 'Buildings of the Christian Period', in: C. H. Kraeling, ed., Gerasa. City of the Decapolis (New
Haven 1938), 265-294, hier 265 ff. - ist dies zurnindest zu erwagen. Der einzige mir bekannt
gewordene inschriftliche Beleg fiir ein kirchliches Or,KPll'tOV (1. Eph. Il 495) flillt schon wegen des
Titels apxu:'lttOKOltO<; friihestens ins 6. Jh.
58 Historia Acephala (C.H. Turner, Ecclesiae Occidentalis Monumenta Juris Antiquissimi [Oxford
1899-1939], I 2, 4), 669; PaIladius, Historia Lausiaca 136 (Constantius Il) - dazu Martin 1996, a. a. O.
(Anm. 54), 144 - bzw. bei Anm. 74. Zur Frage eines Episkopeions in Rom: Pietri, Roma 668; vg\. auch
464 C mit der Interpretation von ICVR 970, die jedoch problematisch bleibt (vg\. demgegeniiber z.B.
K. Gross, Reallexikon fur Antike und Christentum I [1950], 614-631 s. v. Archiv, besonders 621); zu
den (wesentlich spater bezeugten) italischen domus episcoporum: B. Ward-Perkins, From Classical
Antiquity to the Middle Ages (OxfordI984), 176 ff. Libanius, Or. 19.28 liil3t es offen, wo man den
Bischof von Antiocheia iiblicherweise fand (Kat ltPOEAe6V'tE<; oil IJ>Aa/3l<XvOV EUP1l0E1 V €~EA
AoV). Zu prazis P. Brown, Macht und Rhetorik in der Sptitantike (Milnchen 1995), 137.
59 Vg\. oben bei Anm. 47.
60 Dazu unten bei Anm. 67.
61 VitaEpiphanii 34 f, 36 f, 55 f (PG41,68. 70. 72. 94).
62 Vg\. unten bei Anm. 66.
63 Gaza: Vita Porphyrii 18; Testamentum Domini: E. Rahmani, ed., Testamentum domini nostri Jesu
Christi (Mainz 1899) I 19; Statuta: C.Munier, ed., Les Statuta ecclesiae antiqua (Paris 1960),79 bzw.
ders., Concilia A/ricae a. 345 - a. 525 (Turnhout 1974), 345. Gegen Y. Duval, Chretiens d' Afn'que a
I' aube de la paix Constantinienne (Paris 2000), 304 C, 354 und 356 sehe ich weder einen Grund,
warum die 303 in Abthungi bezeugte domus episcopi (J.-1. Maier, Le dossier du donatisme. Tome I:
des origines a la mort de Constance II {303-361} [Berlin 1987], 178 f) nicht das Privathaus des
amtierenden Bischofs gewesen sein kann noch warum sie sich bei der wichtigsten (oder einzigen)
Kirche der Stadt befnnden haben soli.
57
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sieherzustellen, daB sich die Bisehofsresidenz bei der (Bischofs)Kirche
befand. Offensiehtlieh bevorzugten es manehe BisehOfe, in ihrer alten domus
oder in einem der Gemeinde vermaehten grofieren, aber von der
Bisehofskirehe entfernten, Gebaude zu residieren. Angestrebt wurde aber eine
solche Verbindung beider Gebaude, wie es sie zumindest in der ersten Halfte
des 4. Jh. in Alexandreia gab. Dort bildete die Wohnung, die Athanasios naeh
eigenen Angaben vor 339 vor allem benutzte,64 einen Teil der zu diesem
Zeitpunkt bedeutendsten Kirehe von Alexandreia, der des Theonas. Sie lag in
einem oberen Stoekwerk, wohl des vorgelagerten Saulenhofes. 65
Da/3 man sieh urn eine reprasentative Arehitektur solcher Episkopeia
bemiihte, ist zumindest bei mane hen der ostliehen Metrapolitansitze am
Ende des 4. Jh. zu fassen: Bisehof Antoninos von Ephesos benutzte fur das
Trielinium seines Bisehofspalastes Saulen, die eigentlieh fur die
Ausgestaltung einer Kirehe bestimmt waren, aber jahrelang nieht verbaut
worden waren. Die Privatthermen dieses Gebaudes stattete er mit
Marmorplatten aus, die zum Eingang eines Baptisterions gehort hatten. 66
Aueh Basilios von Caesarea erbaute im Rahmen des von ihm erriehteten
karitativen Komplexes vor den Toren Caesareas aueh eine fur den 'Leiter'
bestimmte Wohnstatte, die eines 'freien Mannes' wiirdig sei 67 Das
Triclinium im Episkopeion von Salamisl Constantia war gra/3 genug, urn den
gesamten Klerus der Bischofskirehe aufzunehmen. 68 Im Falle der
Metropolitansitze des Westens horen wir mehrfaeh von secretaria, in denen
Konzilien oder andere bisehOfliehe Versammlungen stattfanden, so 380 im
spanischen Caesaraugusta, zwischen 393 und 419 bei einer Reihe von
nordafrikanisehen Konzilien in Carthago, Hippo Regius und Mileve, Anfang
Ev6u ~aAlcr"tu
f.yro f.V "tu~
f]~epUl\;
f.KEtVUl\; qJK01lV (Athanasius,
64 f.v"tft liUn f.1CKAecrt~,
Epist. Encycl. 5. I).
65 Historia Acephala (Turner 1899-1939, a.a.O. [Anrn. 58], 12,4),669: et partes superiores domus,
ospitium episcopi quaerentes. Zu Parallelen in paganen und jiidischen Kultan1agen: U. EgelhaafGaiser, Kultraum im romischen Alltag (Stuttgart 2(00), 450, 455 f. und 472.
66 Palladius, Vita Iohannis Chrysostomi 13.163 tT. (SChr. 341).
OtKTlcrtV TI)v ~fV,
f.A.eU6eplOV f.~np1]EV"te
pU1tE{nUl\; "tou 6elou OluveV~\;
KOPUCPUtcp, "ta\; Of imof3Ef31]KUtUl\; "tOt\; 6E-
67
f.V "ta~El
(Basilios, Epist. 94). Wegen der bezeugten
personlichen Bediirftnislosigkeit des Basilios (Gregor von Nazianz, Panegyricus Basilii 56, 4; 61, 3)
bezweifelt B. Gain, L 'eglise de Cappadoce au IVe siecle d 'apres la correspondance de Basile de
Cesanie (330-379) (Roma 1985),69 Anrn. 43, vg!. 54, 57, daB mit KopU<jlalOS' der Bischof gemeint sei.
Ein derartiges Verstiindnis des Terminus ist aber auch in anderen Briefen des Basilios zu fassen (Epist.
28. 239 - vg!. Gain, a.O. 75 Anrn. 65). Basilios konnte zudem gerade nach Aufien hin im Hinblick auf
Verhandlungspartner wie Statthalter und andere Wiirdentriiger ganz anders aufgetreten sein, als dies
seine eigene private Lebensftlhrung nahelegen mochte. Zogernd allerdings auch Ph. Rousseau, Basil of
Caesarea (Berkeley, Los Angeles 1994), 142 mit Anrn. 33.
68 Vita Epiphanii 37 (PG 41, 72).
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des 5. Jh. in Tarraco und Mitte des 5. Jh. in Arles. 69 Zumindest das
seeretarium in Tarraco war nach Augustin epist. 11 *, 10 (Divjak) ein recht
groBer Raum: Dort befand sich im Jahre 420 anla13lich der Affare des
Antipriscillianisten Fronto ein Gericht aus Bischofen, der comes
Hispaniarum Asterius mit seinem militarischen Gefolge sowie Kleriker und
einfache Mitglieder der ortlichen Gemeinde. Auf einer wesentlich tieferen
Ebene strebte schlief31ich - mutatis mutandis - ein Schuler Augustins,
Antoninus
von Fussula,
ebenfalls
nach
einer
herausragenden
Bischofsresidenz. Dieses schwarze Schaf unter den Bischofen Nordafrikas
'besorgte' sich aus den Hausern des eastellum, fur das er zustandig war, alle
auch nur ein wenig qualitatsvollere Bauglieder fur sein bischofliches
aedifieium. 70
Wenn demgegenuber im Zusammenhang mit Ereignissen in einer
Kirche in Aquileia von einer angustia secretarii die Rede war,7! so war mit
seeretarium in diesem Fall anscheinend ein Raum der Kirche selbst gemeint,
also etwas, was wir heute als Sakristei bezeichnen wiirden.72 Ein so1cher
Sprachgebrauch ist auch ansonsten belegt, im Falle der hier interessierenden
Quellen aus dem 4. und 5. Jh. bei Sulpicius Severus. Nach diesem
Biographen des hI. Martin 73 hielt sich dieser immer in einem so1chen
seeretarium auf, bevor er die Messe las. Aber es gab an seiner Kirche noch
ein zweites seeretarium, in dem presbyteri sederent vel salutationibus
vaeantes, vel audiendis negotiis oeeupati.
Es kann nicht allzusehr verwundern, daB insbesondere das
Episkopeion in Konstantinopel einen reprasentativen Charakter hatte 74 Es ist
zwar nicht bekannt, ob schon das wahrscheinlich erste Episkopeion
Konstantinopels ein so1ches Gebaude war. Von ihm erfahren wir nur, daB die
MWlier 1974, a.a.O. (Anm. 63), 89, 182, 194, 199, 205, 219 f., 229; Vives u. a., Concilios
visigoticos e hispano-romanos (Barcelona & Madrid 1963), 16; Augustin, Epist. 11*, 9. 10; C.
Munier, ed., Con cilia Galliae A. 314 - A. 506 (Twnhout 1963) I p. 131 (CCL 148). Insofern bleibt es
fraglich, ob "il vaut donc mieux ne pas parler de « palais episcopal »"(1.-Ch. Picard, 'La fonction des
salles de reception dans le groupe episcopal de Geneve', Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 65 [1989],
87-104, hier 87)
70 Augustin, Epist. 20*,31; zu den juristischen Aspekten dieses Vorgehens Lenski 2001, a. a. O.
(Anm. 51),90.
71 R. Gryson, Scholies Ariennes sur le concile d' Aquilee (SChr 267) (Paris 1980),274, §§ 88-89.
1'2 Vg!. dazu Picard 1989, a. a. O. (Anm. 69),94 fT., ohne daB man wie er - vg!. aber 96 - grWldsiitzlich
davon ausgehen soUte, daB sich jedes secretarium in der Kirche selbst befand. Einschlagig z.B. auch
die Belege aus Nordafrika (Anm. 69) Wld AE 1996, 1217.
73 S.Wlten Anm. 92. Zu dern secretarium: 1. Pietri, ,Tours', in dieselbe & 1. Biarne, Province
ecc!esiastique de Tours (Lugdunensis Tertia) (Paris 1987), 19-39, besonders 29.
74 Romische episcopia sind erstmals in Liber Pontijicalis 53, 7 p. 262 belegt (vg!. Anm. 58).
69
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Arianer es im Jahre 388 aus HaB auf den damaligen Bischof Nektarios
niederbrannten. Sie meinten, sie konnten dies ungestraft tun, weil sich das
Geriicht verbreitet hatte, Theodosios sei auf seinem Feldzug gegen Maximus
besiegt und gefangen genommen worden.75 Offensichtlich betrachtete man
schon damals ein Episkopeion als Symbol einer bischOflichen Stellung.
Das in den folgenden Jahren benutzte Gebaude - die letzte Zuflucht
seines Nachfolgers Johannes Chrysostomos, in der dieser von seinen
Anhangem bewacht und beschiitzt wurde76 - hatte auch in materieller Hinsicht
einen reprasentativen Charakter. Im Jahre 403 konnten namlich im Triclinium
des Neubaus mindestens 40 Personen gleichzeitig Platz nehmen.77 Allerdings
mogen nicht nur strukturelle Griinde, sondem auch spezielle Umstande zu
einem reprasentativen Gebaude gefiihrt haben. Moglicherweise war dieses
Episkopeion mit dem sogenannten "Haus der Olympias" identisch, das diese
Enkelin eines praejectus praetorio Orientis und Witwe eines praejectus urbis
Constantinopolitanae78 der Kirche von Konstantinopel in jenen Jahren stiftete.
Die Vita der Olympias nennt im Katalog ihrer Stiftungen als erstes - 'nahe bei
der Allerheiligsten GroBen Kirche' - das 'sogenannte Haus der Olympias mit
dem tribunal und dem vollkommenen Bad (TIjv E1TLAEyOj.lEVTW
«TWV 'OAUj.l1TLUOOS'» auv TOU TpL~ouva(
Kat. TOU TEAElOU AOETpoU).79
Auffalligerweise geht die vita nur in diesem Fall auf Charakteristika
des gestifteten Gebaudes ein. Diese erhohten zudem als solche nicht
unmittelbar den Wert des Hauses (wie es beispielsweise bei kostbaren
Baumaterialien der Fall gewesen ware). Das legt nahe, daB man diese
Charakteristika nannte, weil sie eine schnelle Identifikation des gestifteten
Gebaudekomplexes erlaubten, also auch nach der Stiftung eine Rolle
spielten. Und ein tribunal erwartet man vor allem bei einem Gebaude, das
eine offentliche Funktion hatte - selbst wenn es tribunalia auch in groBeren
Privatresidenzen geben konnte. Auch soli Johannes Chrysostomos einen
wesentlichen Teil der groI3ziigigen Ausstattung seines Episkopeions
Socrates, Historia Ecciesiastica 5.13.6; Sozomenos, Historia Ecciesiastica 7.14.
Sozomenos, Historia Ecciesiastica 8.21-22.
77 Pal1adius, Vita Iohannis Chrysostomi 8.91 ff. Es scheint fraglich, ob man aus Pal1adius, a.O. 10.34
(ou't~
lCU'tEA900v) bzw. Marcus Diaconus, Vita Porphyrii 99 - aVEAe6v't~
Eie; 'to €1tlOlC01tElOVbzw. Vita Epiphanii 34 (PG 41, 68) - aVl]A80I1Ev €V 'tip €1tlOlC01tEicp - schlieJ3en sollte, daB die
entsprechenden Gebiiude zweigeschossig waren (so aber Pallas, 'Episkopion' 335, 337). Selbst wenn
man die Passagen wortlich nimmt, braucht die bischOfliche Wohnung sich nur wie in Alexandreia
(vg!. bei Anm. 65) im ersten Stock befunden zu haben.
78 Z. B. PLRE I 642 f.
79 A-M. Malingrey, ed., Jean Chrysostome. Lettres Cl Olympias. Seconde edition augment<!e de la Vie
anonyme d' Olympias (SChr. 13 bis), 5.25 ff.
75
76
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umgewidmet haben, urn davon ein Krankenhaus zu unterhalten. DaB
Johannes mit der Art und Weise unzufrieden war, in der Olympias ihr
Vermogen vergab, ist auch ansonsten bezeugt. 80 Schlie/31ich sollte man
vielleicht noch darauf hinweisen, daB es Johannes Chrysostomus u.a. zum
Vorwurf gemacht wurde, daB er sein Bad nur fur sich allein aufheizen lieB
und es auch nach Ende seines Bades von niemanden benutzt werden durfte.
Damit dieser Vorwurf nicht vollig lacherlich wirkte, sollte es sich schon urn
eine groBere Badeanlage gehandelt haben.8J
Bei dem zweiten Episkopeion von Konstantinopel konnte es si ch also
auch deshalb urn ein besonders reprasentatives Gebaude gehandelt haben,
weil es von einer finanziell sehr potenten und hochrangigen Stifterin
bereitgestellt worden war. Sicher der Fall war dies bei dem Episkopeion von
Jerusalem, das die Augusta Eudokia(-Athenais) Mitte des 5. Jh. angeblich
von den Grundmauern auf (neu?) erbaute und mit jahrlichen Einkiinften von
1000 Solidi versah. 82
Schlie/31ich ist selbst damit zu rechnen, daB schon am Ende des 4. Jh.
oder am Anfang des 5. Jh. kirchenpolitische Anspruche eines Bischofs zur
Folge hatten, daB er fur den Bau eines reprasentativen Episkopeions sorgte.
Auffalligerweise hart man namlich zu demselben Zeitpunkt - dem Jahr 449-,
zu dem der Bischof von Berytos sich von seinem Metropoliten unabhangig
zu machen suchte und einen eigenen Metropolitanbereich zu begrunden
suchte, von einem "Neuen" Episkopeion in Berytos.83
Andererseits ist aber bereits am Ende des 4. Jh. die Reaktion zu
fassen, die einer allzu ungehemmten Nachahmung weltlicher Reprasentationsarchitektur Schranken auferlegte. Palladios, der Biograph des Johannes
Chrysostomos, erorterte in Reaktion auf die VOrwUrfe gegenuber diesem
Bischof, er habe sich unsozial gegeniiber seinen Klerikern verhalten und vor
all em nicht mit ihnen gemeinsam gespeist, ausfuhrlich die Situation der
80 Sozomenos, Historia Ecclesiastica 8.9. Vgl. Dagron 1974, a. a. O. (Amn. 35), 502 f; C. Tiersch,
lohannes Chrysostomus in Konstantinopei (398-404) (Tubingen 2002), 153 f, 160 f
81 Photius, Bibliotheke 59.18a. Wir wissen nicht, wie lange dieses Episkopeion existierte und konnen
insofern nicht entscheiden, was von den spateren Nachrichten uber einen Bischofspalast in
Konstantinopel (zusannnengestellt bei Pallas, 'Episkopion' 338) sich auf dieses Gebiiude bezieht. Man
mu13 wohl davon ausgehen, daB es spatestens im Zusannnenhang mit dem Wiederaufbau der Kirche
der Heiligen Sophia durch Justinian zumindest umgestaltet wurde (Pallas, a. O. 339). Aber es konnte
schon bei dem Brand der Kirche der Hlg. Sophia bei der Vertreibung des Johannes Chrysostomos
Schaden genommen haben (a. O. 338).
82 Nicephorus Callistus, Historia Ecclesiastica 14.50 (PG 146,1240).
83 ACO IT I, 378.
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Bischofe in den groBen Stadten.&4 An solchen Orten, so rasonnierte er,
suchten alle aus den unterschiedlichsten Griinden - von der existenzielIen
Armut bis zum Bemuhen urn einen einfluBreichen Protektor - einen
moglichst intensiven Kontakt zum jeweiligen Bischof. &5 Deshalb mu13ten
solche BischOfe aufpassen, da13 ihre Bemuhungen, derartigen sozialen
Anforderungen zu genugen, sie nicht von zentraleren, durch die christliche
Lehre vorgegebenen Aufgaben - wie z.B. dem Predigen, der Fursorge fur
Witwen und Waisen, der Bekampfung von Haresien - abhielten. &6 Das gelte
insbesondere auch im Hinblick auf die Verwendung kirchlicher Mittel. Es
sei falscher Ehrgeiz (KEv080CLa), wenn man zuviel Geld fur die Mauem
'hoher' Gebaude verwende, urn von alIen als ein 'nutzliches' Mitglied der
GeselIschaft und als einer, der keine Muhen scheute, anerkannt zu werden.&7
ZweifelIos gabe es PalIe, in denen der Bau oder die Reparatur einer Kirche
sinnvoll oder notig sei. Aber man solle nicht das Geld der Armen fur
zweigeschossige Portiken,
von
Aquadukten
genahrte
dreifache
Brunnenanlagen und 'perfekt' ausgestattete Bader verwenden (d.Uu 8lU
TOUs' TU TWV lTTWXWV ELS' KpE~a(JToUs'
lTEP~6AOUS'
Kat d.EplWV
u&iTwv 8Eca~VUS'
EV TPlWp6<j>olS' Kat < •.. > AOUTpd.). ZweifelIos hatte
Palladios dabei insbesondere den prominentesten Gegner des Johannes im
Visier, Bischof Theophilos von Alexandreia. Diesem machtbewu13ten
Kirchenpolitiker warf ergS wie auch Isidor von Pelusion&9 vor, ihn triebe eine
AleO~avL
<... > <!>apaWVLOS', also eine Sucht nach Stein(bauten) wie
diejenige eines Pharao.
Damit war uber den Einzelfall hinaus eine Gegenposition formuliert,
die in unterschiedlicher Scharfe auch bei anderen monastisch gepragten
Theologen der Spatantike wie Z.B. Hieronymos oder Rabbulas von Edessa90
zu fassen ist. Wenn solche Theologen schon prachtige Kirchenbauten
84 Palladius, Vita Iohannis Chrysostomi 12 IT., besonders 13.30 IT. Dazu z.B. 1. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz,
Barbarians and Bishops (Oxford 1990), 215 f.
85 Palladius, Vita Iohannis Chrysostomi 13.30 IT.: El O£ lCat EOeOOOlCe1 Ea1J1:0V ElCOO1:0V 1:atC;
1:paltESmc;, OOcr01C; E~lJPCe1
a~lO1cr
TI)V 1:l1A1lCaUTIlV OOA1V OllC&V, ElCacr1:0'U f1 01' eUAoyiav f10Ul. lteviav, f10Ul. yacr1:pll1apyiav 1:0 cpa.yetV EmSl11:0UV1:0C;.
86
87
Ahnlich auch die Kritik von Hieronymos (In Mich. 12,9110 - eeL 76, 448).
Palladius, Vita Iohannis Chrysostomi 13.97: 'tva ElC 1:0U1:OlV 86~av1:ec;
XPlJcr1:01lCat CP1M1tOV01
cpai vecr9m, nl1lJv aV1:t a1:1I1iac; lCapltc.OcrOlV1:al.
Palladius, Vita Iohannis Chrysostomi 6.62 f.: A19ol1avia yap nc; aU1:ov cpapaoovlOC; EXtl dc;
ollCoool1lJl1a1:a, 6)V ou8a!1ffic; XPUSE1 -011 lJ elClCAl1cria.
88
Isidorus, Epist. 152 ( PG 78, 284 f.).
Hieronymus, Hom. de nativ. Domini (eeL 78, 524 f.) bzw. V. Rabb. (BKV 44 p. 194). Vg!. auch
Possidius, Vita Augustini 24, 13.
89
90
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ablehnten, waren reprasentative Episkopeia noch viel schwerer zu
rechtfertigen. Moglicherweise deshalb bezeugen zwar Hunderte von
Inschriften den Bau von Kirchen, aber bisher keine den eines Episkopeions.
Das kann kaum nur daran liegen, daB intensive archaologische
Untersuchungen spatantiker Kirchenkomplexe sich normalerweise vor all em
auf die jeweiligen Kirchen konzentrierten. Zumindest Einzelfunde
entsprechender Inschriften waren bei Surveys zu erwarten. Es sieht so aus,
als ob man eher schwieg, wenn ein Bau nicht unmittelbar den Bediirfnissen
des christlichen Kultes diente.
Von manchen Vertretern des monastischen Gedankens91 wurde auch
no ch einmal der fur die breite Mehrheit der Glaubigen und des Klerus
selbstverstandliche hohe Thronos problematisiert. Sulpicius Severus
berichtet in seinen Dialogi, der heilige Martin habe nicht einmal im
secretarium seiner Kirche auf einem thronos gesessen, sondern sich selbst
dort nur eines Schemels bedient (Im Kirchenraum habe er sowieso immer
gestanden). Das sei allerdings keineswegs fur alle Bischofe typisch: Sofort
kame ihm der Gedanke an einen bestimmten Bischof, quasi regia tribunali
celsa sede residentem. 92 Lehnten Martin und sein Biograph den hohen Stuhl
grundsatzlich ab, so war fur Basilios von Caesarea dieser nur in einem
konkreten Einzelfall bezeichnendes Charakteristikum eines seiner Ansicht
nach besonders iiberheblichen Bischofs. 93 Fiir den gleichfalls monastisch
gepriigten Gregor von Nazianz war der hohe Thran gar nur ein keineswegs
negativ gewertetes insigne eines Bischofs. 94 Diese Funktion billigte
Augustin dem Stuhl zwar auch zu, urn aber gleichzeitig zu betonen, wie
unwichtig beim Jiingsten Gericht absidae gradatae und cathedrae velatae
sein wiirden. 95
Zieht man am Ende unserer Uberlegungen Bilanz, so ist folgendes
festzustellen: Mit der seit der Mitte des 3. Jh. und dann noch einmal seit 312
rasch zunehmenden Christianisierung wuchsen den Leitern der christlichen
Vg!. auch L. Cracco Ruggini, 'Pretre et Fonctionnaire: L'essor d'un modele episcopal aux lVe-Ve
siecles', AnTard 7 (1999), 175-186, besonders 181; C. Rapp, 'The Elite Status of Bishops in Late
Antiquity', Arethusa 33 (2000), 379-399, besonders 382.
92 Dialogi 2.1; vg!. auch Augustin, Epist. 23, 3. Zumindest im Einzelfall konnte auch bei einem
weltlichen Amtsinhaber die H6he der Kathedra AnlaB zwn AnstoB geben: Libanios, Or. 56.4.
93 Basilios, Epist. 215: U'l'llNp OE ICat Il£n:ropcp, liv£1> 1t01> ICa!Hw£vcp ICat Ou}. 1:0\)1:0 a.ICOU£l v
91
1:mv Xall6e£V aU1:01:l]v a.A.l)S£lav <pSeyyollEvrov Ill] 01>vall£VCP·
94 Panegyricus Basilii 37, 1: £1tt 1:0V U'I'llAOV -rij<; £1tl<JIC01tT1<; Spovov a.vaY£1:at. Vg!. auch ders,
De vita sua 1547 f, 1877 sowie Cyprian, Epist. 55.
95 Augustin, Epist. 23, 3. Grundsatzlich zwn Bischofsstuhl: H. Leclercq, ,Chaire episcopale', in:
Dictionnaire d' archeologie chretienne et de liturgie III I (Paris 1913), 19-75, besonders 21 und 37.
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Gemeinden eine neue soziale Position und neue Aufgaben zu. Damit stellte
si ch fur diese BischOfe die Frage, inwieweit sie das Vorbild derjenigen, die
bisher eine vergleichbare Position eingenommen hatten, iibernehmen sollten,
urn den neuen Anforderungen zu geniigen. Das gait insbesondere, aber nicht
nur fur die BischOfe der gro13en Zentren der antiken Welt (Und in dieser
Hinsicht war Paulos von Samosata sicher nur einer der ersten, der mit
solchen Fragen konfrontiert wurde). Aus den unterschiedlichsten Griinden
heraus
sachliche Notwendigkeiten, von Au13en herangetragene
Erwartungen, persoolicher Ehrgeiz - iibernahm man sowohl im Bereich des
Personals, auf das si ch der Bischof stiitzte, wie auch der Episkopeia mane he
Praktiken der hohen Wiirdentrager des romischen Reiches - allerdings nur
innerhalb eines durch zentrale Gedanken der christlichen Lehre
vorgegebenen Rahmens. Es blieben Unterschiede, auf die Petronius Probus
anspielte, wenn er einem neu ernannten consularis Aemiliae et Liguriae als
Rat mit auf den Weg gab: age non ut iudex sed ut episcopus. 96 Manche tief
verankerten Grenzen hat man von Anfang an beachtet: kein spatantiker
Bischof hat es gewagt, sich offen und explizit eine Leibwache oder
Exekutionsorgane zuzulegen. Andere Grenzen mu13ten erst definiert werden.
Dabei wurden ganz unterschiedliche Positionen entwickelt. Beispielsweise
waren selbst monastisch gepragte Theologen verschiedener Ansicht daruber,
inwieweit man si ch an weltlichen Amtsinhabern orientieren sollte. Die
entschiedensten Gegner dieser Entwicklung formulierten am Ende des 4. lh.
Dieser Vorwurf traf schon allzu prachtige
den Vorwurf der ALeO~av.
Kirchenbauten. Auf urn so mehr Zustimmung konnte Kritik an Episkopeia
rechnen, die sich allzu deutlich am Vorbild der praetoria oder ahnlicher
Reprasentationsarchitektur orientierten. Bischofe des 4. und 5. lh. konnten
schon machtbewu13te Kirchenpolitiker sein. Aber sie waren noch keine
weltlichen Herrschaftstrager.
Koln, Marz 2003
96 Paulinus, Vita Ambrosii 8, 3; vg!. dazu z.B. Chadwick, Role 37; N. B. McLynn, Ambrose of Milan
(BeIkeley u. a. 1994), 43. Filr die Durchsicht einer ersten Fass1lllg mochte ich W. Eck ganz herzlich
danken. Die ersten Gedanken zu dem Aufsatz entstanden im Winter 200 I dank der Gerda Henkel
Stifttmg in der einzigartigen Atmosphare des Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. Von
meinem damaligen Gesprachspartnern mochte ich insbesondere G. RipoU 1llld P. Brown danken, mit
denen ich meine Uberleg1lllgen zum Thema erortern konnte.
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IMPERIUM ROMANUM BETWEEN REPUBLIC AND EMPIRE
By
JOHN RICHARD SON
The representation and perception of imperial power (to borrow for a
moment the title of this volume) sounds, at first hearing, like a description of
a fairly simple process, whereby one group of people, presumably the
Romans, produced by image or by word an account or picture of the empire
which was then received and interpreted by others. Such a process is indeed
one of great interest and importance for understanding of the impact of the
Roman empire on the ancient world. However, it is not the subject of this
paper, which addresses instead another, and perhaps prior set of questions:
What did the Romans think the empire was? How did they represent it to
themselves and perceive it themselves? And how did that perception affect
the nature of the empire and of the imperialism, which created it?
'Empire' is not a simple notion. Even if we confine our attentions to
the period since the end of the nineteenth century, when the idea of
imperialism first began to be discussed and explored systematically, it is
clear that the imperial structures and activities of, for instance, the British
and French empires or of the USSR and the USA show enormous differences
between them. In antiquity, what we now call the Persian and the Athenian
empires in the fifth century BC were widely disparate, not just in terms of
scale but also of concept and of the relationship ofthe rulers to the ruled. To
come closer to the subject-matter of this volume, it is clear enough that
within the history of Roman imperialism between the emergence of Rome as
a Mediterranean power in the third and second centuries BC, when imperial
activity consisted in sending armies out from the city against foreign foes in
foreign lands, and the situation of the second century AD, when the Roman
emperor ruled an extensive and varied empire, whose boundaries required
defence and whose territories were governed and administered, we are
dealing with a quite different sort of structure, both in terms of practice and
of concept. My questions amount to this: When and why and how did these
changes come about? And what effect did they have on the process which
we call Roman imperialism?
These are large questions, and demand a much larger treatment than
can be given in a brief paper. When first I began to explore this area, it
seemed to me best to look at what is perhaps the most obvious change, the
shift in the idea of imperium as 'power' to that of imperium as a piece of
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territory over which that power was exercised. One change which seemed to
coincide with this was the use of the term imperium Romanum itself. In my
opinion, this was a phrase, widely used in the imperial period, which did not
seem nearly so frequent at an earlier stage. Indeed, further investigation
revealed that it does not occur either in epigraphic or literary contexts before
its appearance in the historian Sallust, writing in the 40s BC. I However, this
straightforward observation proved less helpful for the meaning of the word
imperium than might have been hoped, since it was clear on further
investigation that in the three passages in which Sallust uses the phrase, once
in the Bellum Catilinae and twice in fragments of the Histories, the sense of
imperium is still that of 'power' of the Roman people, not their territory.2 If
there was a change in the possible range of meanings of the word, it was not
to be identified so easily as by a change from imperium populi Romani to
imperium Romanum. It became clear that the only way to proceed in such an
investigation was by systematic examination of the meanings (drawn from
context, both in terms of content and of syntax) of imperium in late
republican and Augustan writers; and alongside this, I decided to look also at
provincia, since that was a word which was intimately connected with
imperium, and which had, at least in some contexts, a territorial significance
already in the republican period. In this paper I concentrate on imperium 3
Firstly Cicero, both because he is undoubtedly a republican source
and because sufficient of his work survives to give a reasonable chance of
observing his usages over a period of years in the late republic. I began by
collecting, by use of the PHI disk, all those passages in which Cicero uses
the word imperium. These are passages, not individual uses of the word, and
some passages, of course, use the word several times. By my reckoning,
Cicero has 545 passages in which he uses the word imperium; of these, 285
of the 545 (that is 52.3%) are about the power of a magistrate or promagistrate, and this is by far the largest single meaning in his works.
Another twelve refer to the power of kings, and two others to the power of
both kings and magistrates. This result is hardly surprising, but it does
illustrate that, for Cicero at least, the predominant context in which the word
I As noted in my article 'Imperium Romanum: empire and the language of power', Journal of Roman
Studies 81 (1991), 1-9,atp.6andn.49.
2 Sallust, Bel/um Catilinae 10.1-3; Histories 2 fr. 70; Histories 3 fr. 2.
3 The results of this investigation will probably shortly emerge as a book; in this paper I give a sketch
of some preliminary fmdings, and suggest one or two even more preliminary conclusions, and for this
purpose I concentrate on imperium alone.
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is used is one in which it signifies the power of an individual, and not
'empire' in any sense at all, much less a territorial sense.
The next most common usage is of states and peoples: some eleven
passages are about foreign (that is non-Roman) states;4 but 174 passages are
about the Roman people, making this the second most common usage, after
that referring to the imperium of Roman magistrates and pro-magistrates
(31.9% of the total of 545 passages). The contexts of these occurrences
indicate that once again the meaning is of the 'power of the Roman people',
which is what Sallust meant when he used the term imperium Romanum;
though, surprisingly, of these 174 a large number (151 on my reckoning) use
imperium to refer to the Roman state itself, rather than simply its power. 5
One notable example is from Cicero's Fourth Catilinarian Oration, where
he describes the conspirators as attempting to install the Allobroges in the
ruins of the city and amongst the ashes of the imperium, showing that in this
passage at least, setting fire to Rome burns down the imperium. 6 In passages
like this, the imperium, the power of the Roman people, stands for the state
itself; and it is interesting that in several places in this list, the context is the
well-being or survival of the imperium, by which is meant not just the
external territories of the Romans but the state as a whole. 7 And also, and
Cicero, In Verrem 2, 2.14; 3.15; 4.20; 5.98; Ad Quintum Fratrem 1.2.7; Pro Flacco 64; De Republica
1.28; 1.47; 1.50; De Officiis 1.76; De Senectute 59.
5 Cicero, Pro Roscio Amerino 51; 131; In Verrem 2, 1.54; 1.82; 2.85; 4.68; 5.8; 5.51; 5.97; 5.98;
5.115; 5.150; Pro Fonteio 15; 17; 32; 35; 36; Oratio perdita 7 (Pro Comelio), fr. 27; Pro Lege
Manilia 11; 12; 14; 26; 32; 41; 48; 54; 55; 60; 64; In Catilinam 1, 12; 33; In Catilinam 2, 3; 19; In
Catilinam 3, 1; 9; 19; 20; In Catilinam 4, 4; 7; 12; 19; 21; De Lege Agraria 1.2; 1.6; 1.18; 1.19; 2.35;
2.73; 2.86; Pro Murena 6; 24; 58; 75; Pro Rabirio Perduellionis Reo 20; 33; Pro Archia 28; Pro Sulla
3; 23; 28; 32; 33; 86; Ad Atticum 1.19.7; Ad Quintum Fratrem 1.1.34; Pro Flacco 1; 60; 69; De Domo
19; 20; 129; 132; 133; 143; Post Reditum ad Quirites 9; Post Reditum ad QUirites 21; Ad Familiares
1.7.4; De Haruspicum Responsis 4; 18; 19; 29; 49; 51; De Provinciis Consulan·bus 5; 6J3; 18; 33;
Oratio. perdita 16 (De Rege Alexandrino) fr. 4; fr. 7; Pro Balbo 13; 22; 25; 31; 34; 49; 51; Pro Caelio
14; 59; Pro Sestio 1; 17; 19; 20; 50; 53; 57; 58; 66; 101; 116; 129; 139; De Oratore 1.159; 1.196;
1.20\; 2.168; In Pisonem 48; 84; Pro Plan eo 70; Pro Rabirio Postumo 6; Pro Scauro 48; De
Partitione Oratoria 105; De Republica 1.67; 2.5; 2.10; 3.24; Ad Familiares 15.1.5;. 15.4.10; 15.4.14;
Pro Ligario 7; De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 2.76; Pro Rege Deiotaro 11; De Amieitia 11; De
Divinatione 1.27; 1.92; De Officiis 2.26; 3.86; 3.87; 3.88; Philippieae 2.54; 2.92; 3.10; 3.13; 3.30;
3.37; 4.8; 4.13; 5.37; 5.39; 5.48; 7.15; 11.31; 13.14.
6 Sic nos in his hominibus qui nos, qui coniuges, qui liberos nostros trucidare vo1uerunt, qui singulas
unius cuiusque nostrum domos et hoc universum rei publicae domicilium delere conati sunt, qui id
egerunt ut gentem Allobrogum in vestigiis huius urbis atque in cinere deflagrati imperi conlocarent, si
vehementissimi fuerimus, misericordes habebimur (Cicero, In Catilinam 4,12).
7 Thus, his paralleling of himself and Marius: Fateor et addo etiam: ex eo municipio unde iterum iam
salus huic urbi imperioque missa est (Cicero, Pro Sulla 23); cf. Cicero, Pro Lege Manilia 14; 48; 64;
In Catilinam I, 12;In Catilinam 3, 20; Pro Archia 28; Pro Sulla 86; Ad Atticum 1.19.7; Post Reditum
4
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again this is not a surprise, Cicero occasionally uses imperium in the simple
sense of an order delivered by someone in higher authority. I have counted
21 such passages. 8
More importantly, however, for the purposes of this paper, I have not
discovered any passage in Cicero in which the word imperium means an
extended piece of territory, or indeed any piece of territory at all. That is not
to say, of course, that the power of the Roman people is not described as
extensive, even indeed of unlimited extension. There are a number of places
in Cicero (I have counted 21 passages) where the imperium of the Roman
people is described as being universal and as controlling the whole world
(usually in terms of the arbis terrarum).9 But this is not the same thing at all.
Nor, for that matter, does a territorial significance appear in Caesar, Sallust
or Nepos, or in any of the poets writing in this period. In the epigraphic Latin
of the time, imperium nearly always means 'power', sometimes of local
magistrates (for example in the Lex Calaniae Genetivae) or of Roman
magistrates or pro-magistrates lO or power of the Roman people in a technical
sense;!! in one inscription only (the lex Gabinia Calpurnia de insula Dela) it
has the meaning of 'orders' issued by foreign kings and other powers,!2 and
(in the same inscription at another place) the world-wide power of the
. t he same sense as In
. C'tcero. 13
R oman peop Ie, In
Thus far, the conclusion of my investigation is simple, and negative.
Imperium was not a word used in the republican period to describe a territorial
empire of the Roman people; and, I have to say, I have no evidence to suggest
there was any other. Although Cicero certainly used clusters of words to
ad Quirites 21; Pro Balbo 22; Pro Sestio 1; 50; 116; De Oratore 2.168; Pro Scauro 48; Pro Rege
Deiotaro 11.
8 Cicero, In Verrem 2, 3.73; 3.112; 3.228; 4.84; 4.111; 4.128; 5.47; Pro Rabirio Perduellionis Reo 22;
23; Post Reditum ad Quirites 13; De Domo 71; 113; Pro Rabirio Postumo 29; De Legibus 2.10; 3.6;
Tusculanae Disputationes 4.43; De Senectute 51; Timaeus 30; Ad Atticum 2.19.1; 6.1.21; Ad Quintum
Fratrem 1.1.33.
9 Cicero, Pro Roscio Amerino 131; Pro Lege Manilia 53; 64; De Lege Agraria 1.2; l. 9; 2.35; 2.45; Pro
Murena 22; 74; Pro Sulla 33; Ad Atticum 4.1.7; De Domo 24; Pro Balbo 16; Pro Sestio 67; 129; De
Oratore 1.14; 3.131; Oratio perdita 15 (De Aere Alieno Milonis) fr 10; Ad Atticum 14.5.2; De Officiis
2.27; Philippica 8.10.
10 FalerioJr. II (RS 18) 4 [86 BC); Lex Coloniae Genetivae (RS 25) CXXV, 13-17; CXXVlII, 12-13;
CXXX, 44-6; CXXXl, 5-7; XCIIII, 29-31 [43 BC); Lex de Gallia Cisalpina (RS 28) I, 50-51 [42 BC].
II Foedus Callatinum (ILLRP 516) 5-6 [71 BC)
12 Lex Gabinia Calpumia de insula Delo (RS 22) 12-14 [58 BC].
13 Lex Gabinia Calpumia de insula Delo (RS 22) 17-20.
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describe the various areas over which the Romans exercised their imperium,14
there is no single word, which encompasses the whole.
At the end of the reign of Augustus, it is clear that the change for
which we are searching had come about. In the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (=
Res Gestae) the princeps refers to the closing of the gates of the temple of
Janus, and writes that the intention of the ancestors had been to close them
"[cum p]er totum i[mperium po]puli Roma[ni terra marique es]set parta
vicl[torii]s pax". 15 Although the inscription is damaged here, it is clear that
what stood in the text was regarded as referring to a territorial empire, as is
shown by the Greek version of this clause, which reads ctPy\vEUOIlEVIle;
TIle; U1tO 'PCOj.l.o(i)oue; 1t<l0'lle; yfje; 1:E IKOt 8oMoO'lle;, 1tpO Il€V £1l0U, £~ ou iJ
1tOA.te; hnofuJ. 16 Although this is in some ways more of a paraphrase than a
translation (the phrase 'parta victoriis pax' is rendered by the one word
ElPy\vEuOIlEVIle;), it is none the less notable that for the translator 'per totum
imperium populi Romani' could be rendered by TIle; U1tO 'Pwlloioue;
1t<l0'lle; yfje; 1:E KOt 8oAaoO'lle;. This is the more significant because the words
concerned refer not to the empire in the time of Augustus, but in the period
before his birth.
Of course, this was not the only significance of imperium in the Res
Gestae. When, in a famous passage, Augustus states that' Aegyptum imperio
populi [Ro ]mani adieci' , the translator renders this as A'iYU1t1:0V 8TJIlOU
'PwllOI.WV 'y\YEIl0v\.at 1tpOoe8y\lw. 17 Here there is no suggestion that the
imperium populi Romani is a territorial entity; it is rather the power exercised
by the Roman people. Altogether in the inscription, the word imperium occurs
nine times, and, of the other seven, three refer to the power of the Roman
people; 18 three to the power of a magistrate; 19 and one to orders issued by the
14 For example: Tolle hanc spem, tolle hoc praesidiwn civibus Romanis, constitue nihil esse opis in
hac voce, 'Civis Romanus swn,' posse impune praetorem aut aliwn quempiam supplicium quod velit
in ewn constituere qui se civem Romanwn esse dicat, quod qui sit ignoret: iam omnis provincias, iam
omnia regna, iam omnis liberas civitates, iam omnem orbem terrarum, qui semper nostris hominibus
maxime patuit, civibus Romanis ista defensione praecluseris (Cicero, In Verrem 2, 5.168).
15 [Ianwn) Quirin[wn, quem cl)ausswn ess[e maiores nostri voluer)unt, I [cwn pjer totwn i[mperiwn
pojpuli Roma[ni terra marique esjset parta vicl[torii)s pax, cwn priu[s quajm nascerer a condita urbe
bis omnino c1auswn I [fjuisse prodatur m[emorijae, ter me princi[pe senatjus claudendwn esse
censui[tj (Augustus, Res Gestae 13).
16 OUAT]V 'Evuat..tov. ilv lCElCM09at O't n:U't£PES iu.twv f]geAT]OClV I Ei.PT]VO~S
into 'PWllU(1.)OU
miOT]S 'Yiis 'tE lCa't 9aMiOOT]S. n:pO!!EV £1101), El; ou f] n:OAtS elC'tio9Tj, I 'tOlt n:(lV'tt U'tWVt OtS 116vov
lCElCA.eto9ut 0110AOYE\I'tut. £n:1. oe £1101) frtEI16voS f] oUylCAT]'tOS e'Vll q,1.ou'to lCA.eto9i1Vat (Augustus,
Res Gestae \3).
17 Augustus, Res Gestae 27.
18 Res Gestae pr., 6 and 30.
19 Res Gestae 1 and 8 (twice).
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Roman people. 2o What is notable is not that Augustus used the word in the
same way as it had been used by republican writers in eight out of these nine
occurrences, but that he used it in a different way in one.
But when? If we assume, as is generally done, that the first draft of
the Res Gestae as we have it was written in about 2 B.c., it is reasonable to
assume that this passage was not written before that date. 21 Moreover, the
only date that any source provides for the third closing of the gates of Janus
is also 2 B.c., though it should be noted that the source in question is
Orosius, who uses this evidence that the whole world was at peace in his
account of the birth of Jesus, and on whom we should not perhaps therefore
place too much reliance. It is, however, not stretching the evidence too far to
suggest that the passage in the Res Gestae dates from the second half of
Augustus' reign 22 By that stage, it is to be expected that the meaning of the
word imperium will have changed, just as the entities to which it refers had
changed. In both the senses that we have been looking at, both the power of
the magistrates and the Roman people and the extended territory over which
that power was exercised, the imperium was under the control of one
individual, and that in itself was likely to give a more cohesive sense to the
significance of the word. The latter half of Augustus' reign would not be a
surprising point for the appearance of the new significance of the word that
we are looking for. But can we do better than this? Is it possible to see more
precisely what was happening, and when?
To attempt answers to those questions, we must return to the analysis
of the writers of the period, to Livy first of all. The problem here is, of
course, that there is no complete work by the historian, and that the
substantial remains that are extant were clearly written over a prolonged
period. More frustrating still for our present purposes, it is rarely possible to
date with any precision just when the surviving books were written, even
though it does appear that he wrote them in chronological order. That said,
Livy's uses of the word imperium and the significances he attaches to the
word repay investigation.
Res Gestae 30.
For a brief exposition of the argwnents on the date of the composition of the Res Gestae, see P. A.
Brunt and 1. M. Moore, eds., Res Gestae Divi Augusti: the Achievements of the Divine Augustus
(Oxford 1967), 6.
22 Orosius 6.22. R. Syme, 'Problems about Janus' in Roman Papers 3 (Oxford 1984), 1179-1197, at
1190-1192 ( = Amen'can Journal of Philology 100 [1979], 188-212, at 202-204) argues convincingly
for 7 BC.
20
21
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Llvy (occurrences as percentage of total words)
,
o.sOOO%
~
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0.5000%
I
0.4000%
+--
0.3000%
I
0.2000%
I \ f'..
1\
1\
1\
J\
J \
JJ \\
I
J
J
I'"VVSiG
I I
0,1000%,
0.0000%
,' \,
A
I \
le,
\
\
\
1t
A" '.
"""
~,.
- \
;:Ji:f?tt;/'w\':
1\ \1:
_
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
I-+- imperlum (word) % -
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provincia (word) %
I
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\ f
Livy uses imperium in 571 passages in the surviving books, and I
should say immediately that my investigation of those passages has revealed
none in which the clearly territorial sense which we have seen in that one
passage in the Res Gestae is present. What did emerge is a surprising
distribution of his use of the word at all across the surviving books. Of
course it is important to remember that Livy is describing a developing
history of Rome, and it might be expected in any case that he would use such
a word more when relating some events than others. However the
distribution appears to relate hardly at all to the nature of the historical
events he is describing. Taken decade by decade, there is a decline in the
number of passages from 224 (39.23% of the total) in the first decade to 186
(32.57%) in the third, 108 (18.91%) in the fourth and 53 (9.28%, equivalent
to 106 in a full decade) in the five books of the fifth. This shows a decline
across the surviving books, with a levelling off in the roughly similar
distribution in the fourth and fifth decades. It is hard to imagine what change
in the history of the period between the foundation of the city down to the
year 166 BC, which these books cover, could account for this shift. The
point emerges still more clearly if, instead of counting passages, we look at
the number of occurrences of the word (as opposed to the numbers of
passages), book by book, expressed as a percentage of the total number of
words in each book. We can provide a certain amount of historiographical
context by setting these figures against a similar set for the word provincia.
As will be seen from the chart, although there are considerable variations
from book to book, 23 the overall trend of uses of imperium declines across
the series, with a particular drop in the fourth and fifth decades, while that of
provincia increases. The behaviour of provincia is just what might be
expected - there were, after all, more provinciae allotted to magistrates and
pro-magistrates in the second century that in the early years of the city; but
the same consideration makes the decline in imperium seem even more odd.
All other things being equal, one might have expected that an increase in the
number of imperium-holders would have led to an increase in the use of the
word imperium.
The most obvious reason for this change, given that the historical
period about which Livy is writing does not provide an explanation, is that
Note in particular that the high percentage figure for both imperium and provincia in book 41 is due
to the low overall word-count of this book, which survives in fragmentary fOIlll. The same is true of
book 43, but the percentage figures here look less odd, because in book 4 I the surviving chapters deal
with the allocation of provinciae in each of the five years 178-174 B.c., while book 43 deals only with
those of two years (170 and 169 B.C.).
23
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what altered was the linguistic context in which he wrote, that there was
something in the language-environment which resulted in the decline in the
number of times that he used the word imperium. It would appear that for
Livy at least (and he is the one surviving prose writer of the period) the word
became gradually less part of his literary vocabulary as his work proceeded;
and indeed that there was a particular drop in his use of it once he began the
fourth decade of his history. It would be fascinating to know just when the
changes that these figures suggest took place. If, as is sometimes argued,
Livy's remark24 that Spain had finally been conquered in his own times
under the leadership and auspices of Augustus Caesar, indicates that book 28
was written after Agrippa's campaigns of 19 BC,25 and given the overall rate
at which Livy must have been writing in order to complete his immense
work, it is probable that he began the fourth decade not long after 18 BC.
But that is hypothesis built on hypothesis. What can be said is that in the
fifteen years or so after he began his work, Livy gradually used the word
imperium less. The precise reason for this (if a precise reason is conceivable
for a gradual change of this type) is perhaps not available: it may be
connected with the diminution of the use of the praenomen imperatoris on
f-,ugustan coins after 27 BC;26 or, perhaps more likely, the change in
senatorial self-representation, which followed the last triumph to be
celebrated by a non-member of the imperial house in 19 BC. 27 In either case,
what we are looking at is probably the consequence of Livy' s sensitivity to
the use of language about imperium and its holders. If that is so, the absence
from his surviving work of imperium in the sense of a territorial empire, as
opposed to the power of an individual or of the Roman people, is telling.
If this is the result of examining the only substantial survival of
Augustan prose, what of the poets? A review of Virgil, Horace, Tibullus,
Propertius and Ovid produces 102 uses of the word imperium: of these, 36
simply mean an order;28 often, of course, it means 'power' in a general or
24 Livy 28.12.12: itaque ergo prima Romanis inita provinciarum, quae quidem continentis sint,
postrema omnium nostra demum aetate ductu auspicioque Augusti Caesaris perdomita est.
25 W. Weissenborn in W. Weissenborn and H. J Muller, Titi Livi Ab Urbe Condita 1 (Berlin 1879),
10; P. G. Walsh, Livy: his histon'cal aims and methods (Cambridge 1963) 8.
26 R. Syme, 'Imperator Caesar: a study in nomenclature' in Roman Papers 1 (Oxford 1979),361-377,
at 373 (= Historia 7 (1958) 172-188, at 184)
27 W. Eck, 'Senatorial self-representation: developments in the Augustan period' in F. Millar and E.
Segal, Caesar Augustus: seven aspects (Oxford 1984), 129-167.
28Horace, Epistulae 1.5.1-8; 1.12.25-29; 1.18.41-48; Sennones 2.7.75-77; Cannina 3.4.41-48; 4.1.1-8;
Ovid, Ars Amatoria 2.271-222; Fasti 2.253-256; Metamorphoses 4.472-473; 7.371-374; 9.275-280;
Remedia Amoris 475-478; Epistulae ex Ponto 1.1.37-42; 4.13.33-38; Propertius 2.1.17-26; 4.8.81-88;
Tibullus, 1.2.5-10; 23.77-80; 2.4.51-53; Virgil, Georgica 2.367-370; Aeneis 1.227-233; 1.49-51;
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metaphorical sense;29 and, of course, it means the power of kings,30 gods,31
Roman magistrates32 and the Roman people. 33 In nine cases at least, this
power is represented as of immense or even infinite extent 34 However, it is
only in the last poems of Ovid that we find a significance, which, like that of
the instance we noted in the Res Gestae, relates clearly to a territorial
extension as such. In five passages, four from the Tristia and one from the
Epistulae ex Ponto, we find imperium paralleled with terrae,35 possessing a
corpus36 or a margo, 37 and being the object of the verb regere 38 This is, at
last, a territorial empire; and it is interesting to note that its occurrence is
roughly contemporaneous with another use of imperium, that of the power of
the emperor and of the whole domus Augusta, which appears in two passages
in the Fasti and four in the poems written in exile. 39 Of course, there may be
many reasons for this new usage: Ovid is not, and not like, his predecessors,
and he is in any case writing from a place, on the very edge, as he himself
laments, of the imperium,40 whence it might seem more obvious that
imperium has a territorial significance. His intended audience, however, is
decidedly based in Rome, and he, at least, cannot have thought that in using
imperium in this sense he was writing in a way that would have been
4.238-241; 4.279-282; 4.288-295; 4.571-577; 5.722-727; 5.746-748; 5.779-784; 6.461-464; 7.236-240;
7.483-489; 8.374-381; 9.672-676; 9.714-716; 11.234-5.
29 Ovid, Amores 1.20.21-24; Remedia Amoris 493-496; Metamorphoses 5.369-374; Fasti 2.295-298;
Horace, Carmina 3.1.5-8; 3.16.29-32; Virgil, Georgica 2.367-370; Aeneis 3.154-160; 8.505-509;
10.39-43; 11.45-48.
30 Ovid, Remedia Amoris 475-478; Metamorphoses 15.1-6; Fasti 3.343-354; 3.379-382; Virgil, Aeneis
1.49-51; 1.267-271; 7.651-654; 8.481-482; 8.505-509; 12.192-194.
31 Horace, Carmina 3.1.5-8; Virgil, Aeneis 1.49-51; 5.231-237; 6.264-267; 6.461-464; 7.236-240;
9.446-449.
32 Ovid, Epistulae ex Ponto 4.9.29-34; 4.9.59-62; 4.9.65-68; Horace, Carmina 4.14.34-40; Sermones
1.6.26-37; Virgil, Aeneis 6.819-822.
33 Ovid, Fasti 3.415-422; 5.91-96; 6.425-428; Tristia 1.5.67-70; 2.165-166; 2.215-220; Horace,
Carmina 1.2.25-28; 1.35.9-16; 3.5.1-4; 4.15.1-16; Epistulae 1.12.25-29; Propertius 1.6.31-36; 3.1.1316; Virgil, Aeneis 1.278-288; 6.777-787; 6.791-797; 6.808-812; 6.851-853.
34 Horace, Carmina 3.5.1-4; 4.15.1-16; Epistulae 1.12.25-29; Propertius 1.6.31-36; 3.1.13-16; Virgil,
Aeneis 1.278-288; 6.777-787; 6.791-797; 6.851-853.
35 Ovid, Tristia 5.2.47-52; Epistulae ex Ponto 2.2.61-70.
36 Ovid, Tristia 2.221-236.
37 Ovid, Tristia 2.199-204.
38 Ovid, Tristia 2.165-166; Epistulae ex Ponto 3.3.59-62
39 Ovid, Fasti 1.529-532; 1.611-616; Tristia 2.39-42; Epistulae ex Ponto 2.2.61-70; 2.9.33-34;
4.13.25-32. Surprisingly, imperium does not seem to be used in this sense earlier: the one possible
earlier use in this sense occurs in Virgil, Aeneis 9.449, where 'imperiumque pater Romanus habebit'
refers surely to Jupiter, whose imperium might reasonably be described as eternal (which is the point
of this passage), rather than Augustus.
40 Ovid, Tristia 2.199-204.
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difficult for his readers to understand. We may deduce that at least by the
time of these poems, that is after A.D. 8, those in the literary circles of Rome
would not have been confused by the word being used with this significance.
The upshot of this investigation is that there was indeed a new
territorial sense given to imperium in the Augustan period, and that this new
sense can first be traced in the latter half of the reign. If I were to be more
precise, which probably I should not be, I would suggest a date around 2
B.c. This is only to be expected at a time when the whole notion of
imperium was changing, not least in the de facto concentration of the power
of the Roman people into the hands of one individual, or of one individual
family. What is worth noticing, however, is the effect that this series of
changes appears to have had on the way in which the Roman writers
described the Roman empire. Before the middle of the reign of Augustus
there seems to have been no single word for 'empire' as an extended
territory belonging to Rome. After this point, there was.
That is not simply a semantic observation. What this variation in the
use oflanguage indicates is different notions of what the Roman empire was,
and therefore what the object of Roman imperialism consisted of Under the
republic, imperium means power, and in an imperial context expansion of
empire seems to mean the extension of that power across the globe, a growth
of control of foreign peoples rather than the annexation of foreign lands.
After the middle of Augustus' reign, the word can also mean the extended
territory within which that power and control is exercised, and expansion of
imperium then means the addition of territory to that territorial entity. Of
course an alteration of this type is not the result of an administrative fiat on
the part of the imperial government, any more than the decline we have
noted in Livy's use of imperium and imperator was decreed by the emperor.
That was not the way Augustus worked, and in any case, as the Livian
example shows, such changes, when they can be traced, are too gradual to be
the result of anyone's decision. The linguistic change does, none the less,
indicate a change in the way that Romans thought of imperium. The
perception has shifted, and with it the nature of Roman imperialism.
Imperium Romanum, as an area delineated on a map, is a consequence of
that shift, and an invention of the Augustan period.
Edinburgh, September 2002
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THE PERCEPTION OF ROMAN IMPERIAL AUTHORITY
IN HERODIAN'S WORK
By
LUKAS DE BLOIS
The Greek historian Herodian may have lived from about A.D. 180 until
some time after A.D. 250. 1 Geza Alfoldy convincingly argues that he was a
freedman or a freedman's son from Western Asia Minor who had entered the
emperor's service. 2 In my view Alfoldy's case has never been refuted. Like
I On Herodian's life and work see C.R. Whittaker, Herodian l. Loeb Classical Library (London!
Cambridge, MA 1969), IX-LXXXII, esp. XLID, LIT ff., and LXxn ff.; W. Widrner, Kaisertum, Rom
und Welt in Herodians Meta Markon Basileias Historia. Geist und Werk der Zeiten 16 (ZUrich
1967), esp. 65 ff.; F. Kolb, Literarische Beziehungen zwischen Cassius Dio, Herodian und der
Historia Augusta. Antiquitas 4. Reihe, Beitrage zur Historia-Augusta-Forschung 9 (Bonn 1972);
G.W. Bowersock, in P.E. Easterling, et al., eds., The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I:
Greek Literature (Cambridge 1985),710 ff.; 1.1. Torres Esbarranch, Herodiano, Historia del Imperio
Romano despues de Marco Aurelio (Madrid 1985), 8 ff.; G. Alfoldy, Die Krise des Romischen
Reiches. Geschichte, Geschichtsschreibung und Geschichtsbetrachtung. Ausgewahlte Beitrage
(Stuttgart 1989), containing among other contributions G.Alfoldy, 'Herodians Person', ibid. 240-269
(= Ancient Society 2[1971], 204-231), with Nachtrtige, ibid. 269-272 and Idem, 'Zeitgeschichte und
Krisenempfmdung bei Herodian', ibid. 273-293 (= Hennes 99 [1971],429-449), with Nachtrtige,
ibid. 293 f.; D. Roques, Herodien, Histoire des empereurs romains de Marc Aurele a Gordien III
(180-238 ap. i.-c.) (Paris 1990), 1-15; H. Sidebottom, 'Herodian's Historical Methods and
Understanding of History', in W. Haase & H. Temporini, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang der
Romischen Welt IT 34, 4 (Berlin! New York 1998),2775-2836; G. Marasco, 'Erodiano e la crisi dell'
impero', ibidem, 2837-2927; I. Opelt, 'Furcht und Schrecken bei Herodian', ibidem, 2928-2952; L.
de Blois, 'Emperor and Empire in the Works of Greek-speaking Authors of the Third Century AD.',
ibidem, 3415-3423; M. Zimmermann, 'Herodians Konstruktion der Geschichte und sein Blick auf
das stadtromische Volk', in Idem, ed., Geschichtsschreibung und politischer Wandel im 3.
Jahrhundert nach Chr. Historia Einzelschrift 127 (Stuttgart 1999), 119-143, and Th. Hidber, 'Zeit
und Erziihlperspektive in Herodians Geschichtswerk' in M.zimmermann, ed., Geschichtsschreibung
und politischer Wandel im 3. Jahrhundert nach Chr. Historia Einzelschrift 127 (Stuttgart 1999),
145-167.
2 See Alfoldy, 'Herodians Person', in Idem 1989, op.cit. (n.I), 255-269 (= Ancient Society 2 [1971],
219-233). Names of cities from western Asia Minor occur relatively frequently in Herodian's work
and he appears to be most familiar with this particular region and with the city of Rome. Knowledge
of the map of Rome may be borrowed from other writers, but the density of information about
Western Asia Minor seems to preclude such procedures. According to Kolb and Zimmermann
conclusions about Herodian's life and career are founded on literary fiction and should not be drawn
(see Kolb 1972, op.cit.(n.l], 25-34; Zimmermann, 'Konstruktion' 1999, op.cit.(n.I], 127 and 129). In
my view they are too sceptical about specific information, which Herodian explicitly or implicitly
provides.
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Cassius Dio, on whose work he is often dependent, 3 Herodian clearly felt
personally involved in Roman state affairs 4
Herodian's work is a mixture of history, enkomion, novel, and
biography. Like Plutarch in his Vitae, Herodian mentions all kinds of
trivialities, characteristic of the personalities of the emperors, whereas dates,
geographical data, and important historical facts are sometimes dealt with
only very briefly and rather inaccurately. Herodian liked to be a dramatist and
used all kinds of rhetorical devices to bring his accounts to life. He made use
of contrasting schemes and employed traditional commonplaces to interpret
historical facts and to label his personalities. 5
As opposed to some earlier interpreters, Zimmermann demonstrates
that Herodian' s work does not represent the viewpoint of the lower strata in
society 6 In my opinion Herodian's audience and his political views were not
much different from those of Cassius Dio, who wrote his work to inform
Greek-speaking members of the higher orders, wherever they lived. 7
How was the Roman empire perceived in the work of this Greek
writer? The answer to this question cannot be found in Herodian' s explicit
statements, but has to be formulated on the basis of an analysis of passing
remarks, in which the author more or less betrays how he sees the Roman
empire. Like Cassius Dio, although less explicitly, Herodian emerges from his
work as an advocate of a strong monarchical government in a fixed
hierarchical socio-political system in which various groups each have their
See G. Alfoldy, 'Cassius Dio und Herodian fiber die Anfange des Neupersischen Reiches', in Idem
1989, op.cit. (n.l), 229-235 (= Rheinisches Museum fur Philologie 114 (1971], 360-366), with
Nachtrage. 235 fT.; Alf61dy. 'Zeitgeschichte', in Idem 1989, op.cit. (n. 1), 275 f. (= Hermes 99
[1971], 431 f.). Kolb, op.cit. (n.I), tries to demonstrate that Dio's Roman History was a very
important source ofHerodian's work. His views are put into perspective by T.D. Bames, Gnomon 47
(1975), 368-373 (in a review of Kolb's book). According to Sidebottom 1998, op.cit. (n.l), 27802792, Herdodian certainly used Dio's work regularly, without using it as a Hauptquelle.
4 Herodian was also interested in the vicissitudes of noble families that had dominated the senate and
higher senatorial functions under the Antonines. According to Whittaker, Herodian's work was to
some extent a history of the fortunes of senatorial families, which had belonged to the grand set of
Antonine times. See Whittaker, op.cit. (n.I), LXXXI.
5 See Whittaker, op.cit. (n.l), LIT fT.; B.P. Reardon, Courants litteraires grecs des IIe et IIIe siecies
ap. J.-c.. (Paris 1971),216 fT.; Kolb 1972, op.cit. (n.l), 54 fT.; Sidebottom 1998, op.cit. (n.l), 28132822; Zimmermann, 'Konstruktion' 1999, op.cit. (n.l), 123 fT.; Hidber 1999, op.cit. (n.l), 166 f.
6 Zimmermann, 'Konstruktion', op.cit. (n.l), 127 f. Cf. Sidebottom 1998, op.cit. (n.l), 2823.
7 See M.-L. Freyburger-Galland, Aspects du vocabulaire politique et institutionnel de Dion Cassius
(Paris 1997), 225; cf. L. de Blois, Gnomon 73 (2001), 135 f. (review of M. Hose, Emeuerung der
Vergangenheit. Die Historiker im Imperium Romanum von Florus bis Cassius Dio [Stuttgart! Leipzig
1994]). Cf. Sidebottom 1998, op.cit. (n.l), 2822-2826; Marasco 1998, op.cit. (n.l), 2908 fT.
3
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own functions and statuses, like organs in a body.8 The constituent elements
of this polity are, besides the emperor who is the dominant part, the senate,
the soldiers, the populace of the city of Rome, Italy and the provinces, and
the cities within them. In his Maecenas speech, Cassius Dio mentions, besides
emperors and senators to whom he pays a relatively large amount of
attention, equites, centurions, caesariani, the notables in the cities, imperial
freedmen, soldiers, the populace of Rome, and the demoi of the other cities in
the empire. 9 Herodian is less explicit and specific. He does not speak about
senators as frequently as Dio does and he does not pay as much attention to
specific roles and positions of equites, decuriones, caesariani, and
centurions. In some passages and speeches, such as 1.5, 1.7,2.9-14,3.8.3 ff.
and 6.1.2 Herodian has the soldiers, the senate and the populace of Rome
appear as the units that can accept an imperial position of power. In 2.4.2
Herodian states that Pertinax met with approval throughout the empire, in all
of the provinces, client states and armies. Armies (stratopeda), plural. In
Herodian's work the armies of different frontier zones and Italy are seen as
different entities. 10
In Herodian's histories the Roman empire is seen as a conglomerate of
peoples who all lie under the dominance of Rome and the emperor. All those
peoples have specific characteristics: Egyptians are passionate (1.l7.6),
Syrians are fond of holidays, witty and erratic (2.7.9; 2.10.7), Pannonians are
tall, handsome, fierce in battle and slow-witted (2.9.11) and Greeks are
naturally inclined to quarrel with one another (3.2.8). In a speech to his
troops, which Herodian puts into the mouth of Septimius Severus to his
troops, the author indicates that the city of Rome is the very seat of the
empire (2.10.9). Its populace is the demos of the dominant city of the empire.
In a similar way Cassius Dio speaks about "the city and its entire empire". 11
See Cassius Dio F 17.10 ff.; 41.29-31; 44.2; 52.30. This may originally be a fourth century B.C.
Greek view. Analogous opinions are offered by Aristotle, Ethica Nicomachea 1130b I 0-1131 b24 and
Politica 1282bI4-1283a23. In keeping with this organic view of the state is Isocrates' opinion that
the constitution is its soul (Areopagiticus 14).
9 Cassius Dio 52.19-22, 24-26, 27, 30-32, and 37. See L. de Blois, 'The Perception of Emperor and
Empire in Cassius Dio's Roman History', Ancient Society 29 (1998-1999), 271.
10 Herodian 2.4.2; 2.7-10; 6.7-8; 8.2.1f.; 8.5.8.
11 In 2.10.7 ff. Herodian has Septimius Severus say that the provinces and the towns will accept the
emperor chosen by the army of lllyria and Pannonia and that he will be the first to march his troops
into Rome, the very seat of the empire. See M. Reinhold, From Republic to Principate. An Historical
Commentary on Cassius Dio's Roman History. Books 49-52. 36-29 B.c. (Atlanta 1988), 189 f. ad
52.19.6. Cf. Cassius Dio 38.36.2; 41.56.1; 44.2.4; 59.9.5; 74.11.3; 78.26.1. On such views of the
8
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Rome, not Italy. In Herodian's view Italy is no longer a dominating
power. Rome was the seat of the empire and the armies of Pannonia and
Illyria were now the most powerful elements in the Roman world (2.8.10;
2.9-10; cf. 6.7.3). In 2.4.6, in a passage on the land reforms planned by
Pertinax, Herodian speaks of Italy and the other provinces. 12 Cassius Dio
perceives the position of Italy within the empire in a similar way. In his view
the Roman empire was a worldwide polis, the city of Rome serving as the
astu and the rest as the chora (Dio 52.19.6). In Dio's view, Italy was not
much different from the provinces. It was the land that contained Rome (F.
1.3) and where senators had country houses. 13
In Herodian's model, the emperors are the backbone of the state and
the polity. They determine the nature of the government, the distribution of
influence and burdens among the various major groups of society, the
atmosphere in the empire, and the security of the citizens. The reigns of the
emperors determine the structure of Herodian's work and their actions
dominate the narrative. Herodian often sets speeches of emperors and
pretenders to the throne at the centre of passages of ring composition. Some
of those speeches in Herodian's work are vivid Second Sophistic meietai,
which characterise the emperors who are giving them. 14
At the beginning of his work, in book I, Herodian portrays Marcus
Aurelius as the role model for emperors. Not only did he possess all the
traditional virtues and qualities which Greek writers had ascribed to good
princes ever since the fourth century B. c., such as a good family background,
Roman empire see F. Unruh, Das Bild des Imperium Romanum im Spiegel der Literatur an der
Wende vom 2. zum 3. lahrhundert n.Chr. (Bonn 1991), 188.
12 In a short excursus in 2.11.3-5 Herodian explains that Italy did not supply many troops, because in
the imperial age it had started to concentrate more on agriculture and less on warfare. The annies of
Pannonia and Illyria were now the most powerful elements in the Roman empire (2.8.10; 2.9-10; cf.
6.7.3). By implication Herodian indicates that in his view the supplying of troops was a
quintessential basis of real power of the regions in the Roman empire.
13 See Cassius Dio F. 1.3; 52.30.1 tT. See De Blois 1998, op.cit. (n.I), 3407 f. See also 1. de Blois,
'The World a City: Cassius Dio's View of the Roman Empire', in 1. Aigner Foresti, et al., eds.,
L'Ecumenismo Politico nella Coscienza dell' Occidente. Atti del Congresso Bergamo 18-21
settembre 1995 (Rome 1998), 359-370.
14 See for example 2.8.1 tT., a speech of Pescennius Niger in which he focuses on sophistic standard
themes like rashness and hope; 2.10.1 tT., a speech of Septimius Severus to his troops, AD. 193;
3.6.1 tT., Septimius Severus against Albinus; 4.5.2 tT., an oration of Caracalla in the senate at Rome;
4.14.4 tT., a speech of Macrinus towards his troops on the eve of a battle against the Parthians, AD.
217; 7.8.4 tT., a speech of Maximinus Thrax to his troops on unwarlike senators and other opponents,
AD. 238; 8.7.4 tT., an oration of the senatorial emperor Maximus towards the soldiers at Aquileia,
AD. 238.
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an excellent education, interest in culture and philosophy, moderation, zeal,
courage, and charity, but he also excelled in military prowess, competence in
legal matters, and the selection of good assistants (1.2_3).15 His regime was
based on goodwill rather than on power, money and violence. Herodian has
the emperor say, on his deathbed: "Money is not enough to compensate for
the licence of a tyrant and a bodyguard is not sufficient protection for a ruler
unless he has the goodwill (eunoia) of his subjects as well" (1.4.4). Herodian
tells us that when the report of Marcus' death was known, the whole army
that was with him and the common people alike mourned for him, and that there
was not a single subject throughout the Roman empire that did not grieve at the
news and join together with one voice to proclaim his praise (1A.8). In this way
he suggests that goodwill was widespread indeed everywhere in the empire and
among all classes of society. In this description of Marcus as the ideal ruler,
Herodian follows a standard arrangement of a basilikos logos. The rhetorical
manual of Menand er, which may have been written between AD. 250 and 300,
gives ample information on such orations. 16
Herodian knew very well that in his own time historical reality differed
markedly from this ideal picture. The populace of Rome seldom behaved like
the majestic demos of a city that dominated the civilised world and the
emperors became increasingly dependent on the military, whom they had to
pay well in order to stay on the throne.
On a few occasions Herodian goes into detail, using very negative
commonplaces, regarding the populace of the city of Rome.17 In such
passages Herodian describes the Roman mob as a heterogeneous unreliable
15
See Whittaker, op.cit. (n.I), LXXII f; AlfOldy, 'Zeitgeschichte' 1989, in op.cit. (n.I), 279 and 287
(= Hermes 99 [1971),435 and 443); Idem, 'Herodian ilber den Tod Mark Aurels', ibid. 14-22 (=
Latomus 32 [1973), 345-353) with Nachtrage, 22-24; Roques, op.cit. (n.I), 215 f; Sidebottom 1998,
op.cit. (n.I), 2804 f; Marasco 1998, op.cit. (n.I), 2840-2843; De Blois 1998, op.cit. (n.I), 3416;
Zimmennann, 'Konstruktion' 1999, op.cit. (n.I), 123 f
16 See 1. de Blois, 'The Eis Basilea of Ps.-Aelius Aristides', Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
27 (1986), 281 f On the dating of Menander see G.A. Kennedy, The Art of Rheton'c in the Roman
World (Princeton 1972), 636 f (third century); V. Nutton, 'The Beneficial Ideology', in P.D.A.
Garnsey & C.R. Whittaker, eds., Imperialism in the Ancient World (Cambridge 1978),214 (c. AD.
270); D.A. Russell & N.G. Wilson, eds., Menander Rhetor (Oxford 1981), XL (c. AD. 300).
17 7.7.1; 7.10.5 f. See Zimmennann, 'Konstruktion' 1999, op.cit. (n.I), 133 ff.; 141. On p. 135
Zimmennann says: "Chameleongleich wechselt die plebs urbana also in der Schilderung des
Historiographen die Farbe und passt sich der Gesamtkonzeption des Geschichtswerk folgend den
jeweiligen Thronpratendenten und Kaisern an. Angesichts der expliziten Anknilpfung an einen
Topos aus der peri basileias -Literatur, nach dem sich die Untertanen der Qualitat des Herrschers
anpassen, ist dies nicht ilberraschend".
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mass without guts. In 7.7.1 he says: "Although every lower-class mob is
quick to revolt, the population of Rome, made up of a vast, heterogeneous
conglomeration of human beings, can change its allegiances frequently and
capriciously". Nonetheless, in Herodian's model, it is the sovereign people of
the dominant city, who should not be maltreated by undisciplined soldiery. In
2.4.1 Herodian has the good emperor Pertinax issue the order to the soldiers
to stop their insulting behaviour to the populace. Soldiers in Rome were
forbidden to carry axes or to strike any passer-by. 18
This brings us to Herodian's view of the military and of their role and
position in the Roman imperial state. Several times Herodian explicitly
connects soldiers with tyranny. According to him, the soldiers were a
dangerous, greedy group that was difficult to keep under control and would
rather support a tyrant who gave them everything they wanted than a good
emperor. 19 In a passage on the murder of Pertinax and the sale of the
emperorship to Didius Julianus in the praetorian camp Herodian writes:
"This was the first time that the soldiers' characters gradually
began to be corrupted. They learned to have an evil and insatiable
lust for money and to ignore any feeling of respect for their
emperors. The fact that there was nobody to take revenge on the
perpetrators of this savage murder of an emperor, and nobody to
prevent the shameful auction and sale of the empire, was a prime
cause of the development of a shameful state of indiscipline that
had permanent consequences for the future. The ever-increasing
avarice of the soldiers and their contempt for authority had
developed to the extent of murder" (2.6.14).
According to Herodian, Septirnius Severus accelerated the process of decay
(3.8.4 f.) by not only giving the soldiers a large donativum but also by
granting them hitherto unknown privileges: he increased their wages, allowed
them to wear a gold ring and to live in their own household, with a lawful
18 In passages mentioning fights between the urban populace and the soldiers of the Praetorian Guard
Herodian clearly takes sides with the urban populace, which, standing up against flagrant military
control, shows courage, even if it is defeated. Besides, in Herodian's work the urban demos usually
likes the good emperors, like Marcus Aurelius (1.4.8), Pertinax (2.4.1), the senatorial emperors of
AD. 238 (8.8.1), and out in the streets and in the amphitheatres the people express their disapproval
of tyrants like Caracalla and Maximinus (4.6.4 f.; 7.3.6).
19 See De Blois 1998, op.cit. (n.I), 3421 f. Cf. Marasco 1998, op.cit. (n.I), 2862 f. and 2878 fT.
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wife. Then came the pampering of the soldiers by Caracalla (3.15.5; 4.7.4)
and the futile attempt by Severus Alexander and Mamaea to turn the tide
(6.6.4; 6.8.4; 6.9.1 tf). Under Maximinus Thrax the Roman world was
plundered and sacrificed for the soldiers' material demands and for
Maximinus' expensive wars in Germany (7.1-3). In Herodian's work the rise
of military power and the soldiers' demands are painted in very dark colours.
In his view the soldiers should know their place and should not demand too
much money and power. They were only one part of the body politic and not
the highest one. Herodian has the good emperor Maximus (as he calls
Pupienus), one of the senatorial emperors of A.D. 238, exhort the soldiers in
Rome to respect law and order and to be loyal to the senate and the emperor,
and keep the oaths they have taken (8.7.4 ff.). In vain. Shortly afterwards the
soldiers in Rome set a child, Gordian Ill, on the throne and killed the good
senatorial emperors. Once again the military unlawfully dominated politics
and usurped a position to which they were not entitled. How could that
happen and how could the soldiery turn upside down the good state of the
emperor Marcus and take much more than their due within the organic
structure, which was the empire?
In Herodian's eyes there was a sharp contrast between Marcus
Aurelius and his successors. Some of them were military tyrants, like
Caracalla and Maximinus, others were youngsters who were dependent on
relatives and advisers, and some of them had good intentions, but lacked
Marcus Aurelius' good family background, his education, and his wide range
of skills and qualities and so were not able to impress either the higher orders
or the military or both,zo The result was instability, military misconduct,
tyranny and decay.21 In this way, Herodian is maintaining his exaggerated
estimate of the power of the emperors, only now in a negative sense. The
20 See 1.5-16 (Commodus); 2.3-4 (Pertinax); 2.7-14 and 3.7-10 (Septimius Severus and his rivals of
the years 193-197); 3.15, 4.3-4 and 4.6-9 (Caracalla); 5.1-2 (Macrinus); 5.5-7 (Elagabalus); 6.1-9
(Severus Alexander); 7.1 and 3-4 (Maximinus 1brax); 8.6-8 (the senatorial emperors of 238 and the
wrong mental attitude of the soldiery). See De Blois 1998, op.cit. (n.I), 3416-3419. Inexperienced
youngsters were Commodus, Elagabalus, Severus Alexander and Gordian Ill. See Sidebottom 1998,
op.cit. (n.I), 2803-2812; Marasco 1998, op.cit. (n.I), 2844-2857.
21 In 1.1.4 Herodians tells us: "A comparative survey of the period of about two hundred years from
Augustus (the point at which the regime became a monarchy) to the age of Marcus would reveal no
such similar succession of reigns, variety of fortunes in both civil and foreign wars, disturbances
among the provincial populations, and destruction of cities in both Roman territory and many
barbarian countries. There have never been such earthquakes and plagues, or tyrants and emperors
with such unexpected careers, which were rarely if ever recorded before". On tyranny and military
misconduct in Herodian's work see De Blois 1998, op.cit. (n.I), 3416 fT. and 3421 f.
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behaviour of the emperors and their personal qualities trigger and guide
everything, either in a good or a bad direction. However, passages from
Cassius Dio and from Herodian himself, combined with many other sources,
point to structural developments which put all emperors under a heavy strain
and gave them minimal latitude. The emperor Marcus Aurelius had scarcely
been able to find sufficient recruits to fight his wars in the Danube region.
Septimius Severus solved this problem by making military service more
attractive and raising the soldiers' pay by 50 %, from 300 to 450 denarii per
annum. 22 Since the military budget now took three quarters of the emperor's
income,23 from that moment onwards all emperors were in financial straits,
but they could not reduce the soldiers' pay without risking their throne and
their lives. In 78.36 Cassius Dio tells us that in a letter to the city-prefect of
Rome the short-lived emperor Macrinus (217-218) wrote that it was
financially impossible to give the troops their full pay in addition to the
donatives that they were receiving, yet equally impossible (for reasons
missing in a lacuna) not to give it. This letter was probably made up by
Cassius Dio, but nevertheless points to a genuine dilemma. And if large
groups of soldiers, such as armies passing through, wanted to plunder people
within the empire, what power did Roman emperors have to stop them?
Cassius Dio knew this problem very well. In his opinion the majesty and
authority of the Augustan monarchy constituted the proper counterweight to
military misconduct. 24 This form of government was based on eunoia in all
classes of society and could also satisfY the military. Likewise Herodian saw
the ideal monarchy of Marcus Aurelius as the proper counterweight to
military licence and to mischief wrought by unsuitable assistants of the
emperors. On top of all his other qualities, which brought about eunoia
among all people, this emperor was also a good war-time commander, who
was able to inspire his soldiers and to earn their respect. None of his
successors had his broad range of qualities and so they could not check
military licence and avarice, the most dangerous destabilising factor in the
Roman world.
On the military reforms of Septimius Severus see R.E. Smith, 'The Army Reforms of Septimius
Severus', Historia 21 (1972),481-500; P. Cosme, L' etat romain entre eciatement et continuite. L'
empire romain de 192 a 325 (Paris 1998),75 fT.; J.-M. Carrie & A. Rousselle, L' empire romain en
mutation. Des Severes a Constantin, 192-337 (Paris 1999),73-76.
23 See R.P. Duncan - Jones, Money and Government in the Roman Empire (Cambridge 1994), 45 fT.
24 See De Blois 1998-1999, op.cit. (n. 14),278 f.
22
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In Herodian's work a kind of double perception of the Roman
imperial system exists. Harsh reality comes to light in passages on the
fickleness of the Roman mob and in chapters on incompetent emperors,
military tyranny, and military misbehaviour, but in spite of that the influence
of the exemplum Marci and of the organic model of an imperial polity that
Herodian implicitly advocates is manifestly present. Emperors like Marcus
Aurelius could have been, in Herodian's view, a proper counterweight to
military misconduct and usurpations by bad characters at court. Herodian
may exaggerate the significance of emperorship, but he shows thst he knows
a great deal about actual power relations.
Nijmegen, August 2002
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VALERIUS PATRUINUS' CASE
CONTRACTING IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR
By
WILLEM ZW AL YE
Introduction
At some point in his early career, the praetorian prefect Valerius Patruinus l
was in charge of a vineyard as imperial procurator? He had decided to sell it
to a certain Stalticius subject to the usual condition that the sale was to be
annulled if - at an auction to be held at a later time - another buyer was
willing to pay a higher prize (in diem addictio). At the auction Stalticius
turned out to be the highest bidder and the vineyard was consequently
granted to him. The completion of this contract involved considerable
difficulties. One of the problems was that the vineyard had been leased to an
unknown farmer before it was sold to Stalticius. Roman law did not protect a
lessee (conductor) against a transferee of the lessor (/ocator), so the farmer
was now in danger of being ejected by the new owner. There was no privity
of contract between the lessee and Stalticius and consequently the latter
could eject the tenant at his discretion. However, if he did so, the lessor was
liable to the lessee, because he was unable to fulfil his contractual duties to
the tenant. In order to avoid liabilities of this kind, it was usual to stipulate in
a sale of rented land that the buyer respected the rights of the tenant, 3 but this
seems to have been omitted in this case. Patruinus did his best to minimise
the serious consequences of that mistake. His efforts on behalf of the
imperial fiscus deserve some attention, as they may serve to illustrate the
peculiar position of a procurator Caesaris, the ordinary representative of
imperial power in civil cases.
Common procurators and imperial procurators
It is trite learning that the origin of the imperial 'administrative' (or
'managerial') procuratura is to be found in the common procuratores of
Roman private law. 4 As any wealthy Roman private individual did, the
IOn Patruinus see SHA, Caracalla 4.2 and Cassius Dio 78.4. la. CfH.-G. Pflaum, Les cmrieres
procuratoriennes equestres sous le Haut-Empire romain, supplement (Paris 1982), 57, nr. 220A
(Valerius Patruinus).
2 Dig. 49.14.50: "Valerius Patruinus procurator imperatoris".
3 CJ 4.65.9 (Alexander).
4 Tb. Monunsen, Das romische Staatsrecht III.I (repr. Tiibingen 1952), 557 ff; O. Hirschfeld, Die
kaiserlichen Verwaltungsbeamte bis au! Diocletian (Berlin 1905), 411 ff; W. Eck, Die Verwaltung des
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emperor employed procurators in the management of his estates and other
patrimonial interests as a matter of course. Now, whereas there is a
substantial scholarly literature on the legal status of common Roman
procurators5 , there seems to be little or none at all on the civil status of
imperial procurators 6 It seems as if the historians of Roman law, after
having established the origins of the administrative procuratura, have lost
interest and left that subject to historians. As a consequence, historians as
well as legal historians may easily fail to notice the important difference
between the legal status of imperial procurators and their counterparts in the
private sector. Valerius Patruinus's case may serve as a good example.
Before going into that, it is worth while to make some comments on the
nature of his activities.
It is quite remarkable to find Patruinus in the business of freely disposing of imperial property: imperial estates are being let and sold at the
discretion of the procurator, without intervention of the emperor. Clearly,
imperial authority was not required to enable his procurator to dispose of
them. There is a marked contrast here with the administration of praedia
Caesaris under the stewardship of the procurator patrimonii. Ulpian
emphasises that these estates were not on the market and could only be
disposed of on an explicit iussum principis. 7 The distinction that is being
made here between imperial property that was freely transferable and other
assets belonging to the emperor that were not is, indeed, inescapable.
However, one should not be deceived by this. There is no indication of a
fundamental legal difference between the various components of the
romischen Reiches in der hohen Kaiserzeit I (Basel 1995), 130-131. I should emphasise that this paper
is only concerned with procurators serving as administrators of the imperial domain, the officials
referred to since the third century (see Dig. 19.1 Rubr. and often in the imperial rescripts reported in
the Codex Theodosianus and Codex Justinianus) as rationales. I have avoided the concepts 'fiscal' or
'financial' procurators because these adjectives too strongly suggest activities confined to the imperial
treasury department. Not all civil servants are (were) officials of the 'I(mperial) R(evenue) S(ervice)'.
5 The seminal studies are S. Schlossmann, Der Besitzerwerb durch Dritte nach romischem und gemeinem
Recht (Leipzig 1881) and Die Lehre von der Stellvertretung (Leipzig 1900/1902), and more recently A.
Claus, Gewillkiirte Stellvertretung im romischen Privatrecht (Berlin 1973). See fiuther M. Kaser, Das
romische Privatrecht I (Miinchen 1971), 265, 587; O. Behrends, 'Die Prokuratur des klassischen
romischen Zivilrechts', Zeitschrifi der Savigny Stifiung 88 (1971), 215 fT.; A. Burdese, 'Sui Procurator',
Studia et Documenta Historiae et Iuns 37 (1971), 307 fT; J. Plescia, 'The Development of Agency in
Roman Law', Labeo 30 (1984), 171 fT, and Chr. Schiifer, Spitzenmanagement in Republik und Kaiserzeit
(St. Katharinen 1998), all with extensive fiuther literature.
6 See some general observations in E. von Herzog, Geschichte und System der romischen
Staatsverfassung IT, Abt. 2, System der Verfassung der Kaiserzeit (Leipzig 1891 [repr. Aalen 1965] ),
670; Hirschfeld 1905, op.cit. (n. 4),411 and P.R.C. Weaver, Familia Caesaris (Cambridge 1972),267.
7 Dig. 30.39.10 i.f.
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imperial domain, as has been supposed by many a commentator. From the
perspective of private law, the entire imperial domain, the imperial flscus in
the broadest sense of that concept, was private property.8 Of course,
everyone knows Ulpian's famous statement that 'res flscales' are 'quasi
propriae et privatae principis,9, but some attention should be paid to the
context of that famous statement.
In the 68 th book of his commentary on the Edict, Ulpian comments on the interdictum 'Ne quid in loco publico vel itinere fiat'. TIIis was an interdictum
populare, enabling the public at large to apply for an injunction against, for example,
unauthorised building activities on public property. The interdictum did not apply to
such activities on privately owned land, nor on land belonging to the imperial fiscus:
'hoc interdictum ad ea loca, quae sunt in fisci patrimonio, non puto pertinere'. 10 As
far as Ulpian was concerned, the reason for this was simple: real estate of the
emperor was his private property. If the public made use of it, for example by way of
footpath or road, it did so at the emperor's discretion and if someone obstructed these
activities, it was the emperor, not the public, who had a cause of action against the
trespasser. Ulpian emphasises that in such a case a complaint should be filed with the
imperial procurator in charge of the land concerned.
As far as I know, Ulpian's statement contains practically the only contemporary dictum on the legal quality of imperial property. It is reinforced by
Seneca's no less well-known statement that the fiscus is part of the emperor's
private property ('<Caesar habet> fiscum ac privata sua in patrimonio
. ') 11
propno
.
As with Ulpian's statement, the context of Seneca's dictum is significant. He tries to
clarify that a thing may belong to different people in different ways at one and the
same time. He uses a lease of a house as an example. 'When I rent your house, I
acquire a title to the house concurrent with yours', he says.12 And so it is in all
instances, where an owner grants a right of enjoyment. On a different level, it is the
Mommsen 1952, op.cit. (n. 4), 11.2, 998 ff; Kaser 1971; op.cit. (n. 5), I, 305 f; II, 152. The nature of
the imperialfiscus and its relation to the imperial patrimonium and res privata have been the subject of
a prolonged scholarly dispute. I refer to the dispute between Mommsen (I.c.) and Hirschfeld 1905,
op.cit. (n. 4), I ff.; Hirschfeld , op.cit., 21 ff and O. Karlowa. Romische Rechtsgeschichte I (Leipzig
1885),505 ff; F. Millar, 'The Fiscus in the First Two Centuries', Journal o/Roman Studies 53 (1963),
29 ff., and P.A. Brunt, 'The Fiscus and its Development' , Journal o/Roman Studies 56 (1966), 75 ff.
(now in Idem, Roman Imperial Themes [Oxford 1990], 134 ff.). See also H. Nesselhauf, 'Patrimonium
und res privata des romischen Kaisers', Historia Augusta Colloquium 1963 (1964), 73 ff.
9 Dig. 43.8.2.4.
10 Dig. 43.8.2.4.
11 De Beneficiis 7.6.3.
12 De Beneficiis 7.5.2.
8
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same with a monarch: 'under a good king, all things belong to him on account of his
superior title as sovereign, but they belong to private individuals as well on account
of their ownership of it,.!3 On the same lines, it may be said of Caesar, that he owns
everything on account of his superior position in the state (,Caesar omnia habet').
However, as a citizen he merely owns what belongs to him in his private capacity,
i.e. the fiscus and his private property ('fiscum ac privata sua').
So, as far as private law was concerned, there were no significant differences
between the various components of the imperial domain. The only thing that
counted for the lawyers was the person responsible for their administration.
Hence Ulpian's reference to the imperial procurator in charge of land that
was being encumbered by trespassers and hence his reference to the
procurator patrimonii in connection with parts of the imperial domain that
were not, as a rule, for sale. He does not indicate certain specific parts of the
imperial domain, but merely refers to property under the administration of
one particular procurator, the procurator patrimonii. All it really meant is
that the procurator patrimonii had no authority to dispose of the land
assigned to his administration. Other imperial procurators, however, might
have that authority as a matter of course. It all depended on the extent of
their administratio, the powers donated to them by the emperor. I believe
that at this point an example from Roman private law is helpful.
Slaves carrying on business as grantees of a peculium were the Roman
equivalent of modern companies. 14 In granting a peculium to his slave, the
master had in fact created what amounts to a modern company with limited
liability. Though formally and technically still a part of the estate of the
master, in fact - and to a certain extent even at law - the peculium had become
a special fund separated from the rest of the estate of the master. In this way,
different peculia could be segregated from the estate of the master, all of them
in the care and under the administration of different servi peculiarii.
In as far as the liabilities incurred by the master himself were concerned, the
fragmentation of his estate into various separate funds was immaterial. They all
belonged to his estate and were liable to be sold in execution of his private debts.
De Beneficiis 7.5.1.
See my article 'Callistus's Case' in 1. de Blois and J. Rich, eds., The Transformation of Economic
Life under the Roman Empire. Procceedings of the Second Workshop of the International Network
Impact of Empire (Roman Empire, 200 B.c. - A.D. 476) (Amsterdam 2002), 116-127. On peculium
generally see A. Kirschenbaum, Sons, slaves and freedman in Roman commerce (Jerusalem 1987); L
Zeber, A Study of the peculium of a Slave in Pre-Classical and Classical Roman Law (Wroclaw 1981)
and J.J. Brinkhof, Een studie over het peculium in het klassieke Romeinse recht (Meppel 1978
[containing a resume in German 1).
13
14
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Hence there is no reference to them whenever the liquidation of the master's estate is
under discussion. So the fragmentation of an estate into various peculia was only of
importance to the persons doing business with the slave administering a part of it. As
far as the master and his personal creditors were concerned it was irrelevant. The
parallel with the imperial domain should be obvious. The fragmentation of the
imperial domain into separate funds (jiscus, patrimonium and - after Septimius
Severus - res privata) was irrelevant as far as the emperor and his successors were
concerned. It was only relevant to private individuals doing business with the
officials administering the various departments.
Many slaves, especially those to whom a libera administratio of their
peculium had been granted, were authorised to dispose of the assets
belonging to it without ratification by their master:
Ulpianus, libro septimo decimo ad edictum: si servus rnihi vel filius familias fundum
vendidit et tradidit habens liberam peculii administrationem, in rem actione uti
potero. sed et si domini voluntate domini rem tradat, idem erit dicendum:
quemadmodum cum procurator voluntate domini vendidit vel tradidit, in rem
actionem mihi praestabit. 15
In explaining these general principles, Ulpian refers to the administration by
common procurators, who were also entitled to dispose of their principal's
property, provided they were authorised to do so. It was the same with
imperial procurators: some of them, having a libera administratio, were
entitled to dispose of the property assigned to their administration and some
were not, unless they were specifically authorised to do so. Of course, this
allocation of functions did not affect the legal status of the estate of the
emperor as such, but in dealing with one of the imperial procurators, it was
important to know if he was authorised to dispose of the assets under his
control. It has been noted that the Romans themselves (and notably among
them the lawyers) were not as preoccupied with the question concerning the
relationship among the various imperial 'treasuries' as modern scholars
are. 16 The reason is that, to them, the emphasis was on the powers of the
procurator in charge, rather than on the legal quality of the assets assigned to
him. To a Roman lawyer, the question whether or not the estates under the
control of the procurator patrimonii were to be qualified as "Krongut"
(Hirschfeld), would have been quite futile. What counted to him, was that
that particular procurator did not have a libera administratio of the property
15
Dig. 6. J Al.!.
16
See, for example, R MacMullen, 'Two Notes on Imperial Properties', Athenaeum 54 (1976),24.
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assigned to him. Valerius Patruinus clearly was authorised to dispose of the
imperial estates under his control. However, his position was quite different
from that of an ordinary procurator. He was not a mere caretaker, but a
representative of the emperor, a civil servant rather than a common agent. In
fact, I believe that the fundamental changes brought about by Papinian in the
Roman law of agency were, at least partially, inspired by the peculiar
position of an imperial procurator.
Before Papinian revolutionised the Roman law of agency by making
the principal accountable as well,17 it was the procurator, rather than his
principal, who was personally liable on account of all contracts he had made
on behalf of his employer. 18 There is some evidence that, at least initially, it
was the same with imperial procurators.
In A.D. 23 the inhabitants of the province of Asia sued the imperial procurator
Lucilius Capito. True as it may be, that he was accused of gross abuse of his powers
and consequently may have faced criminal charges,19 Dio Cassius adds a general
statement on imperial procurators in his account of this incident, emphasising that 'in
those days officials administering the imperial funds ... had to stand trial in the
forum ... on an equal footing with ordinary citizens'. 20
Consequently all contracts concluded by an imperial procurator in the name of
the emperor were initially - in fact, as well as at law - contracts concluded
with a private individual, i. e. the imperial procurator. There was no right of
recourse to the emperor himself It should be emphasised that this was not
some peculiar device conceived in order to protect the emperor from
incurring personal liability on account of all contracts concluded in his name,
but a mere consequence of the fact that Roman law still lacked a fully
developed law of agency. So the issue was not whether a procurator could
bind his principal in contract (until Papinian's time he never could), but
Dig. 14.3.9 pr.
On the strength of the famous maxim "per liberam personam, quae neque iuri nostro subiecta est
neque bona fide nobis servit, obligationem nullam adquirere possumus" (Dig. 45.1.126.2 [Paulus] ).
Add Dig. 13.7.11.6 (Ulpianus): "et ideo ipsi (scl. procuratores) convenientur". Possession and
ownership, however, were acquired by the principal as a matter of right: Dig. 41.1.13 pr. (Neratius).
On this: A. Watson, 'Acquisition of Possession per extraneam personam', Tydschrift voor
Rechtsgeschiedenis 29 (1961), 22 ff., and 'Acquisition of Ownership by 'traditio' to an 'extraneus',
Studia et Documenta Historiae et furis 33 (1967), 189 ff.
19 Possibly he was charged with the crime of vis, as PA Brunt, 'Charges of Provincial
Maladministration', Histon·a 10 (1961), 189 ff, now in Brunt 1990, op.cit. (n. 8), 57 ff., suggested.
20 Cassius Dio 57.23.5 and compare this statement to Dio's account of the functions of an imperial
procurator in 53.15.3 IT. On the incident see also Tacitus, Annals 4.15.
17
18
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whether he could pass a good title to his contracting party. It was on account
of this that it was usual to stipulate that the principal would ratify the
dispositions of his agent (stipulatio rem ratam dominum habiturum)2! If the
principal did, the transferee was assured of his title. If he did not, the
transferee could sue the procurator on the strength of his guarantee. Imperial
procurators did not have to give this kind of personal guarantee. Ulpian
stresses this in a rarely commented fragment from the sixteenth book of his
commentary on the praetorian Edict:
Ulpianus, /ibro sexto decimo ad Edictum: quae acta gestaque sunt a procuratore
Caesaris, sic ab eo comprobantur, atque si a Caesare gesta sunt. 22
An imperial procurator was a representative of the imperial administration
with a carefully defined instruction, indicating the scope of his authority.23 In
entering into a contract with a procurator Asiae for the sale of some land, it
was of course well understood that - if at all - he was exclusively authorised
to dispose of imperial estates within his province and only if they were not
(as they might well be) under the direct control of the procurator patrimonii
in Rome, or one of his local representatives.
In his account of the Lucilius Capito incident Tacitus quotes Tiberius as saying
'that he had given <Capito> no other powers than over his household and his
property' (non se ius nisi in servitia et pecunias familiares dedisse [Annals 4.15] ).
Lucilius Capito was acting as manager (procurator) of the imperial private interests
in the province of Asia, which had a senatorial governor. Tacitus's remarks suggest
that the powers of a provincial procurator, such as Capito, may have been merely of
an administrative nature, not necessarily including powers of sale. In the little poem
to Silvanus by T. Pomponius Victor, an imperial procurator and governor in the
Alpes Graiae, the poet describes his office as 'to adjudicate and to look after the
interests of the emperors' (ius gubernare et rem fungi Caesarurn (lLS 3528». Victor
was a provincial governor (with the title of procurator) and therefore a judge, but
he was also the caretaker of the patrimonial interests of the emperor in the province,
i.e. he was a 'managerial' agent as well. The way in which he describes the latter
Dig. 46.8.10.
Dig. 1.19.1 pr. As the context clearly shows, the fragment does not refer to the jurisdiction
conferred on some imperial procurators, as G. Drogdi (RE Suppl. X [1965] s.v. 'procurator fisci')
implies. PA Brunt, 'Procuratorial Jurisdiction', Latomus 25 (1966), 461 fT. (now in Brunt 1990, op.cit.
[no 8], 163 fT., 177), suggests that Ulpian refers to 'executive decisions' (?) of imperial procurators. The
truth is that the text merely refers to the powers of disposition over imperial property granted to a
procurator.
23 H.-G. Pflaum, Les procureurs equestres sous le Haut-Empire romain (Paris 1950),5. Cp. Cassius
Dio 53.15.4.
21
22
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aspect of his duties also suggests limited powers with respect to the imperial
property within his province. 24
In dealing with a local procurator vicesimae hereditatium ( a mere agent of
the imperial revenue service), a sale or lease of imperial estates by that official
was clearly ultra vires. The procurator hereditatium, on the other hand, is a
good example of an important imperial procurator who must have had a libera
administratio of the property under his control. It was his task to make an
inventory of all the inheritances that were bequeathed to the emperor,25 pay
the outstanding debts of the testator,26 assign the parts that were worth keeping
to other departments of the imperial household, for example the procurator
patrimonii/ 7 and to sell the parts that were not. He must have been an important player on the Roman real estate market and Valerius Patruinus may well
have been acting in this capacity when selling a vineyard to Stalticius. It is
with activities of this kind that the special position of an imperial procurator
emerges. In disposing of parts of the estate, the procurator ran the risk of
mistakenly selling property that did not belong to the testator. He may, for
example, have believed that a piece of land belonged to the testator, whereas
in fact it had been leased to the testator 28 In ordinary sales of this kind, it was
usual that the buyer stipulated for a personal guarantee against 'eviction', that
is a judgement under which the buyer had to give up the land to the real
24 See Ulpian's opinion on a procurator selling and transferring imperial property in his own interest in
Dig. 1 19.1. l' "Si rem Caesaris procurator eius quasi rem propriam tradat. non pulo eum domirrium
transferre: tunc enim transfert, cum negotium Caesaris gerens consensu ipsius tradi!. denique si
venditionis vel donationis vel transactionis causa quid agat, nihil agit non enim aliena re ei rem
Caesaris. sed diligenter gerere commissum est" (for it is not his charge to dispose of the emperor's
property, but to administer it diligently [italics added] ).
25 If the estate of the testator was found to be insolvent, the emperor had to be consulted in person to
find out whether he still wanted to accept the inheritance. See Dig. 1.19.2 (Paulus): "heredis enim
instituti in adeundis vel repudiandis huiusmodi hereditatibus voluntas exploranda est". The implication
is that the procurator hereditatium was authorised to accept a solvent inheritance in the name of the
emperor without further consultation. It is even reported that a procurator (hereditatium) could
instruct one of the slaves employed in his department to accept an inheritance on the emperor's behalf
(Dig. 1.19.1.2 [Ulpianus] ).
26 Dig. 49.14.11 (Iavolenus).
17 There is a close relationship between the department of the procurator patrimonii and the
department of the procurator hereditatium. Originally the procurator patrimonii seems to have been
in charge of the winding up of inheritances left to the emperor. The important office (he was a
ducenarius) of procurator hereditatium only became an independent branch of the civil service after
bona caduca et vacantia were assigned to the imperialfiscus rather than the aerarium populi Romani.
See Hirschfeld 1905, op.cit. (n.4), 114 fT.
28 He may also easily have missed the fact that an estate bequeathed to the emperor had been leased by
the testator. In fact this is what I believe has happened in the case at hand.
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owner. It was usually for double the price (stipulatio duplae). Of course, one
would expect the same kind of guarantee to be given by an imperial
procurator, but it is explicitly stated that, on eviction, the fiscus would only
pay back the price to the buyer, whatever the procurator had guaranteed:
Ulpianus, libro sexto decimo ad Edictum: si <pro>curator Caesaris rem aliquam
vendiderit, quamvis duplum vel triplum pro evictione promiserit, tamen fiscus
simplum praestabit. 29
It is a well-known fact that Marcus Aurelius took special interest in sales by
his fiscal officials, notably in the position of a buyer, who was in danger of
being evicted by a potential owner 30 He also instructed his procurators on
the price-fixing of the assets they sold and urged them to act in good faith
and with due diligence. 31 All these provisions presuppose that the emperor
assumed responsibility for the engagements of his procurators acting within
the scope of their authority. It meant nothing less than that thefiscus as such
assumed liability for those acts. This affected the legal status of the imperial
procurators. They had ceased to be mere agents acting in a private capacity
and had become officials representing the emperor as head of state 32 Public
rather than private law defined their position. Some (certainly not all)
'managerial' procurators were even granted original jurisdiction within the
sphere of their competence 33 It is not improbable, even likely, that Valerius
Patruinus's case originated in a dispute between Stalticius and the farmer of
the vineyard that he himself had been called upon to decide.
The importance of the judicial functions of 'administrative' or 'managerial'
procurators may easily be overestimated. They were minor magistrates within the
Roman judiciary: they had no jurisdiction in ordinary civil cases 34 and no criminal
Dig. 49.14.5 pr. Does it follow from this that thefiscus guaranteed the retrnn of the price, even when
the procurator had excluded liability for eviction?
30 G. Klingenberg, 'Das Edicturn divi Marci de rebus alienis a fisco distractis' in Revue Internationale
des Droits de I 'Antiquite 34 (1987), 181 ff.
31 Dig. 49.14.3.5 (Callistratus). Cp. A. Birley, Marcus Aurelius (London 2000), 49.
32 H.-G. Pflaurn, 'La mise en place des procurateles financieres dans les provinces du Haut-Empire
romain' in Revue Historique de Droit Fram;ais et Etranger 46 (1968), 387: 'Cette evolution de la
titulaire correspond exactement a une mutation dans les rapports entre le souverain et ses fondes de
pouvoir. Alors qu'au debut du principat ceux-ci se consideraient eux-memes comme etant au service
du prince en tant qu'homo privatus, ils ont avec le temps qui passe de plus en plus conscience d'etre
au service de I' empereur en tant que magistrat supreme de I, Etat romain'.
33 Mommsen 1952, op.cit. (n. 4) II 2, \021 ff.; Pflaurn 1950, op.cit. (n. 23), 152 f; Brunt 1990, op.cit.
(n. 8), 163 ff
34 Dig. 49.1.23.1 (Papinianus).
29
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jurisdiction over capital offences. 35 As it seems to me, they were only authorised to
hear cases directly concerning the administration of the imperial property under
their control. Good examples are complaints against someone encumbering
imperial estates to the prejudice of the public making use ofit,36 or against someone
trespassing on imperial property rented to coloni 37 They also decided cases
concerning the rent of imperial property. In all these instances there was, indeed. an
encroachment on the original jurisdiction of the praetor (in Rome), or the praeses
provinciae. It may well be that Claudius's much discussed 38 grant of original
jurisdiction to imperial procurators was merely concerned with cases like these. 39
So, long before the imperial domain itself was at last recognised as public
property,40 the imperial officials in charge were already recognised as civil
servants acting in a public rather than a private capacity. Consequently, in the
days of Cassius Dio the individual procurator who had incurred a liability of
thefiscus had ceased to be personally accountable, as he may still have been in
the days of Tiberius. In case of a dispute an imperial procurator was not
allowed to decide in his own right, the interests of the emperor were taken out
of his hands and taken over and managed by an advocatus fisci, or a
representative of the procurator a rationibus. 41 Maybe this is the reason why,
contrary to current ideas,42 advocatifisci were usually seasoned administrators
rather than highly trained lawyers.
Valerius Patruinus's case
It is clear from all we have established, that Valerius Patruinus's efforts were
not to avoid his own personal liability, but to minimise the liability of the
imperialfiscus 43 His own responsibility was never an issue; had it been, the
imperial consilium would not have hesitated to make him personally
accountable to the tenant of the vineyard. If only because in doing so it
would have avoided considerable legal problems. The fact that it did not
even raise the issue proves even more so that Patruinus's personal liability
Dig. 1.19.3 pr. (Callistratus) and CJ 3.26.1 (Severus and Caracalla).
Dig. 43.8.2.4 (Ulpianus).
37 Dig. 1.\9.3,1 (Callistratus).
38 See, for example, Bnmt 1990, op.cit. (n. 8), 163 fT.; B. Levick, Claudius (London 2001),50 and W.
Eck, Die Verwaltung des romischen Reiches in der hohen Kaiserzeit IT (BasellBeriin 1998), 161 fT.
39 As was suggested by F. MilIar, 'Some Evidence on the Meaning of Tacitus, Annals 12.60', Historia
\3 (\964),180 fT. at 187, but see Bnmt 1990, op.cit. (n. 8), 168 fT.
40 By the emperor leno: see CJ 4.37.2 (sacratissimum aerarium).
41 M. Kaser & K. Hackl, Das romlsche Zivilprozessrecht (Miinchen 1996), 455.
42 See the rather disappointing lemma 'advocatus' in Der Neue Pauly: "Als Kenner des Rechts
fungierten ofTenbar die von Hadrian eingesetzten advocati jisci
43 Cr. Dig. 49.14.50: "nejiscus colono teneretur" (italics added).
35
36
H.
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was out of the question 44 Failing that possibility, the question was now how
to meet the legitimate interests of the farmer without embarrassing thefiscus.
Patruinus's problem was submitted to the imperial consilium, maybe
because he felt that he was personally too much involved and should leave the
decision to a superior instance. The emperor - Septimius Severus - presided.
His praefectus praetorio Aemilius Papinianus, the famous lawyer, and some
of his assistants joined him in deciding the case.
The report in the Digests45 of this session of the imperial 'privy council' contains a
rare example of the reliability of at least some of the information in the vita of
Pescennius Niger. It is reported in the third book of Paul's 'Imperial Decisions' and
it is said in that vita that Paul was a member ofPapinian's consilium 46 Most (if not
all) imperial decreta reported by Paul are from this period in his career. 47 He had
the rare privilege of an insight into the working of the administrative machinery and
was kind enough to share it with the public.
Besides Papinian and Paul, there were two more famous lawyers participating, Claudius Tryphoninus and Publius Messius Saturninus. 48 Paul
does not mention another assistant of Papinian, Domitius Ulpianus,49 but he
did not take to his colleague at all and may simply have ignored him. So it
was quite a gathering of legal expertise deciding the case. Paul, never at a
loss to express his disapproval of sloppy legal reasoning, did not like what
came out of it. 'Papinian and Messius', he writes, 'came up with something
new'. 50 It was decided to leave the tenant in possession of the vineyard for
the duration of his term and assign the rent to Stalticius. It was, indeed,
novum ius - to a Roman lawyer tantamount to bad law - but very expedient
to thefiscus.
If the land concerned had been bequeathed to the emperor by will and the lease to the farmer had
been granted by the testator beforehand, the liability would have been with the fiscus, not the
procurator, as a matter of course. The fact that this legal nicety was not even considered strongly
confirms that the liability of the fiscus was taken for granted in any case.
45 Dig. 49.14.50 (Paulus, Libro tertio Decretorum).
46 SHA, Niger 7.4. See also Alexander Severus 26.6.
47 On Paul's reports of imperial decreta see Fr. Schulz, Roman Legal Science (Oxford 1963), 154.
48 On these two lawyers see W. Kunkel, Herkun/t und soziale Stellung der romischen Juristen
(GrazlCologne 1967), 231 fT. and 229 fT.
49 On Ulpian as assistant to Papinian see SHA, Niger 7.4.
50 Dig. 49.14.50: "Papinianus et Messius novam sententiam introduxerunt".
44
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Conclusion
It has been the official doctrine of the Roman emperors for a very long time
that, as Augustus put it, they 'excelled all in dignity but possessed no more
power than those who were their colleagues in any magistracy'. 51 It has been
shown long ago that this doctrine collapses under the sheer weight of the
ubiquitous monarchical representation of imperial power in Rome and the
empire at large. Imperial representation by procurator is only one of the
aspects of the all but private character of the emperor's position. Imperial
power was very unlike the powers wielded by common magistrates, if only
because the emperor had been granted the tribunicia potestas for life. 52 It
provided personal immunity from persecution in any court, including the
civil courts 53 True it is that an ordinary consul, praetor or tribunus plebis
was also immune, but only during his term of office. After that, he could be
sued like any other private individual. 54 Only the emperor could never be
summoned in person: he was sacrosanctus.
Tacitus emphasises that Tiberius allowed civil suits to be brought
against him. 55 Of course, this does not mean that the emperor ever appeared
in court as a defendant or even a plaintiff In doing so, he would have
submitted his imperium maius and his tribunicia potestas to the lesser
powers of a praetor. Such an act of public humiliation was constitutionally
unthinkable. It would have affronted the dignitas of the emperor personally,
as well as the office of all magistrates cum imperio and tribuni plebis. Unlike
any private individual, the emperor always had to be represented by a
procurator, an attorney acting on his behalf. A correct evaluation of the
peculiar position of an imperial 'administrative' procurator has to be based on
this assessment. It set them apart from ordinary procurators. In the early days
of the principate these imperial procurators may still have been personally
liable on account of all transactions on behalf of the emperor, but this must
have ceased after the character of imperial representation by procurator was
changed for good by Domitian, Trajan and Hadrian. 56 It had ceased to be a
service rendered to the emperor in person for free and on an incidental basis
Res Gestae Divi Augusti 34.3.
Res Gestae Divi Augusti 10.1.
53 On the immunity of magistrates cum impen·o and of tribuni pleb is see Dig. 4.6.26.2, 47.1032 and
48.2.8. Cp. Mommsen 1952, op.cit. (n. 4) 1,706 and n, 297-298.
54 This seems to have been the reason why Caesar, after having been appointed propraetor in Spain,
departed for his province while still a praetor: Suetonius, Divus Iulius 18.
55 Annals 4.7: "ac si quando cum privatis disceptaret: forum et ius".
56 On the changes effected in the procuratorial administration by these emperors see H.-G. Pflaum, RE
XXIII (I), s.v. 'procurator', 1244-1245.
51
52
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and had become a salaried office. As long as they acted within the scope of
their authority, these imperial officials were personally unaccountable for
their engagements on behalf of the emperor. All civil responsibility was with
the imperial fiscus as such. It may well be that the idea of the fiscus as a
'private estate serving a public purpose' 57 originated in the understanding
that the officials acting on behalf of it were public servants rather than
private agents. Ulpian, for one, must have realised this. That is why he
defined the imperial domain as '<res> quasi propriae et privatae principis'.
As far as Valerius Patruinus is concerned, my guess is that he was a
procurator hereditatium at one time in his career before ultimately becoming
apraejectus praetorio. He was murdered in 212, as were Papinian and other
loyal servants of Severus and Geta. As a Roman, an experienced administrator and (as I like to believe) a stoic, he must have known that services
rendered are usually unforgiven.
Leiden, February 2002
57 On this definition see A. Brinz, 'Ober die rechtliche Natur des romischen Fiscus' in Sitzungsberichte
der Bayerischen Akademie 1886,471 fT.
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LA PLENITUDO POTESTATIS E LA VENERATIO IMPERATORIS
COME PRINCIPIO DOGMATICO DELLA POLITICA DELLA TARDA
ANTICHIT A. UN ESEMPIO CHIARO: LA NOTITIA DIGNIT ATUM
Di
CONCEPCION NEIRA F ALEIRO·
e
Scopo di questo articolo
dimostrare I'uso della iconografia nella Tarda
Antichita per legittimare una solida gerarchia politica, che si riflette nella
Notitia Dignitatum. Una iconografia d'aspetto politico ed allegorico che
mostra un panorama storico-sociale, base per la sistemazione, combinazione e
struttura degli elementi dell'icona. La legittimita dell'ordo dignitatum e la
potestas et ueneratio imperatoris, si uniscono giuridicamente alia Chiesa sotto
il dominium imperatoris attraverso un parallelismo dei reciproci poteri. Questo
il significato a1legorico dell'immagine al servizio del simbolismo testuale,
arte per I'arte, la iconografia fondata sui testo, la tecnica greca della
TEXV01tUiyvtuov e il suo risultato TExvonuiyvtov.
e
Introduzione
La Notitia Dignitatum omnium tam ciuilium quam militarium in partibus
Orientis et Occidentis -ND - un documento militare della Tarda Antichita IV-V sec. - che elenca meticolosamente, sotto I' aspetto civile e burocratico, la
distribuzione militare in tutto l'Impero romano, ed offre una informazione
complessiva sullo stato dell'Impero e, quindi, sulla situazione militare, che
doveva essere preoccupazione preminente nei periodi di crisi. Si tratta di un
archivio di Stato aggiornato periodicamente, una sorta di annuario
dell'Impero: ogni modifica, civile oppure militare, accaduta nell'Impero era
registrata in questo tipo di catalogo per la conoscenza dell' imperatore. Il
termine stesso di Notitia si riferisce a registri completi di cia di cui si paria, a
e
• Vorrei ringraziare il Prof. dr. Lukas de Blois per l'invito a questo Convegno
Internazionale, che mi ha perrnesso di ampliare ulteriorrnente una ricerca iniziata ad Oxford
grazie ad una borsa di studio post-dottorato di insegnamento e ricerca scientifica (EX99
50443535G) concessa dal Ministerio della Pubblica Istruzione Spagnolo nel Regno Unito
per un periodo di due anni. Le discussioni scientifiche avute con il Prof. dr. Frgus Millar con cui ho lavorato in questi due anni-, il Dr. Walter Poh! di Vienna, il Dr. Laszl6 Borhy di
Budapest e il Prof. dr. Michael D. Reeves di Cambridge 10 hanno arricchito. Vorrei anche
ringraziareil Dr. Antonio Polichetti per le correzioni fatte al mio italiano nelle bozze di
questa redazione. La pasta elettronica dell'autrice e: notitia@mexico.com.
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differenza delle liste dei concili ecumenici, dei canoni conciliari, delle lettere
dei si nodi 0 di altri documenti simili.l
Il documento si apre con un index che classifica, in maniera gerarchica,
le dignitates tam ciuilium quam militarium del periodo - uir il/ustris,
spectabilis et clarissimus -; seguono i capitoli che, attraverso una ricca e curata
iconografia sviluppano nel testo l'elemento iconografico; ogni capitolo si
chiude con la descrizione dell'officium.
La potestas imperatoris: aspetti iconografici della politica nella Tarda
Antichita
La imago imperatoris e la rappresentazione che unisce le due sezioni del
documento corrispondente alle due parti dell'Impero; nella meta precisa
della ND ci sono due imagines clipeatae 2 - Diuina Prouidentia et Diuina
Electio - sviluppate conformemente ai precetti iconografici e simbolici
bisantini: l'imperator, considerato come dominus, e al centra dell'universo,
da cui tutto e tutti discendono, e l'incaricato di un imperium infinitum stabile
e coeso, realizzato all'insegna di un ordo dignitatum costituito da se stesso3 ;
co si, l'imago clipeata, l'unica figura del documento senza testo, conferma il
ruolo politico dell'imperatore, che e sviluppato attraverso le coordinate
iconografiche delle virtu di un capo di Stato4 . Le due immagini riflettono una
ideologia politica sostenuta, l'ordo dignitatum imperii, del quale codicil/i,
epistulae et Liber Mandatorum - CTh. 6.22.5 - raccoglievano ed esponevano
I G. Panciroli, N.utraque D. cum Orientis tum Occidentis ultra Arcadii Honiriique tempora. Et in eam
G. Panciroli commentarium. Item de magistratibus municipalibus eiusdem auctoris liber (Venezia
1593), 2v s.: " .... omnia in officio faci1ius continenda, cuncta in libro descripta, habuerunt, qui prius
Breuiarium, seu ratiocinariwn imperii, mox Notitia est appellatus, in quo ciui1es magistratus, et
militares, 1egiones, auxilia, cohortes, uexi1lationes singulae cum suis symbolis, et insignibus
officiisque positae comprehendebantur... "
2 R. Winkes, Clipeata Imago (Bonn 1969). C. Nordenfalk, Der Kalender vom Jahre 354 und die
lateinische Buchmalerei des IV Jahrlzunderts (Goteborg 1936); idem, Studies in the History of book
illumination (Londra 1992); M. Schapiro, 'The Caro1ingian Copy of the Calendar of 354', Art Bulletin
22 (1940), 270-272; A.W. Byvanck, 'Antike Buchmalerei Ill. Der Ka1ender vom Jahre 354 und die
ND' ,Mnemosyne ser.3 (1940),177-198. H. Stern, Le Calendrier de 354; Etude sur son texte et sur ses
illustrations (Parigi 1953). M. Renee Salzman, On Roman Time. The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the
Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (California 1990).
3 H.P. L'Orange, Apotheosis in Ancient Portraiture (Oslo 1947), 122-124. D. Mertens, 'Bisanzio', 11
pensiero politico Medievale (Bologna 1999), 9-17.
4 J.R. Fears, Princeps a Diis Electus: The Divine Election of the emperor as a Political Concept at
Rome, Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome 26 (Rorna 1977, recensione da
P.A. Brunt, Journal of Roman Studies 69 [1979], 168-175). Cl.M.M. Bayer, "Essai sur la disposition
des inscriptions par rapport 11 I'image. Proposition d'une typologie basee sur des pieces de l'orfevrerie
rheno-mosana", Epigraphie et iconographie. Actes du Colloque tenu a Poitiers les 5-8 Octobre 1995,
Centre d 'Etudes Superieures de Civilisation Medievale, cur. R. Favreau, (Poitiers 1996), 1-25.
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le cariche e le responsabilita della dignitas, regolarizzando la presa di
possesso dell'incarico attraverso un atto pubblico presieduto dall'imperatore
- CTh. 6.22.8 -.
La rappresentazione iconografica conservata nella tradizione
manoscritta del documento e costituita dalle immagini di Diuina Prouidentia
et Diuina Electio. 5 Da un punto di vista metaforico questo frontespizio
rappresenta, da una parte, l'imperatore come la persona cui e consacrata
I' opera, dall' altra, il garante di una organizzazione gerarchica e burocratica
suggerita dalla divinita che, a sua volta, ha nominato l'imperator come
responsabile di questa struttura di governo. In questo modo, la ND fu
concepita come documento di propaganda politica per le due parti
dell'Impero, e come apologia della politica teodosiana: 6 il linguaggio
iconografico e pittorico corrisponde ad una sistemazione ideologica piu che
alla realta storica del periodo. Il libro, nel documentare il distacco "fisico"
dell'immagine dal testo, rivela in maniera esemplare il funzionamento come
comunicazione autonoma rispetto a quella scritta, come testa a sua volta. 7
Le imagines clipeatae, rappresentanti massime di una simbologia
cosmica, determinano e circoscrivono ambedue le immagini, attribuendo un
indiscutibile valore di universal ita, rispetto ai quali guardano l'immagine;
paradossalmente la risposta e data dal medesimo concetto di sottomissione
che rafforza l'istituzione; si tratta di una retorica e di una liturgia che si usa
per dimostrare, da una parte, il primato e la pluralita dell a potestas
imperatoris - Diuina Prouidentia -, dall' altra, la temporaneita e caducita
della stessa potestas -Diuina Electio _8 La Prouidentia, facolta di prevedere
5 C. Neira Faleiro, La ND: nueva edici6n critica y comentario hist6rico, Tesi di Dottorato. Pubblicazioni
della Universitil Complutense de Madrid (Madrid 2002, in stampa); idem, 'Ante una nueva edici6n
critica de la ND', Actas del 11 Congreso Hispimico de Latin Medieval 2 (1998), 697-707; idem, 'Nuove
prospettive dei Manoscritti Trentini della ND', Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche 80.1.4 (2001), 823-833;
idem, 'El Pan'sinus latinus %61 y la ND: nuevas perspectivas', Latomus (in stampa).
6 S. McConnack, 'Latin Prose Panegyrics', in TA Dorey, ed., Empire and Aftermath (Londra 1975),
143-205 = Revue des etudes augustiniennes 22 (1976), 29-77; C.E.V. Nixon, 'Constantinus Oriens
Imperator: Propaganda and Panegyric. On reading Panegyric 7(307)', Historia 42 (1993), 229-246.
7 P.G. Berger, The Insignia of the ND: A contribution to the study of Late Antique Illustrated
Manuscripts (New York 1981), 140-141 n.318; A. ScMn, 'TI silenzio del mito: osservazioni
psicoanalitiche', in M. Grazia Ciani, cur., Le regioni del silenzio: studi sui disagi della comunicazione
(Padova 1983), 15-25; F. Minissale, 'Il colore e le immagini del colore (colore e linguaggio nelle
Georgiche di Virgilio)', in La parola delle immagini e delle forme di scritturo. Modi e tecniche della
comunicazione del mondo antico, Dipartimento di Scienze dell' Antichitll. dell'Universitll. degli Studi di
Messina 1998 (Messina 1998),205-227.
8A.B. Van Houten, 'The influence of syntax on visual perception', Anthropological Linguistics 19
(1977), 355-358; M. Cagiano de Azevdo, 'Il colore nella antichitA', Aevum 28 (1954), 151-167; V.w.
Turner, The ritual process; structure and antistructure (Londra 1%9), spec. c.5; H.C. Conklin,
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il futuro, fu considerata dalla mentalita romana eftluvio divino - Plinius,
Panegyricus 10.4 - nel I secolo d.e. La prouidentia era un aspetto della
divinita dell'imperatore -CIL.6.1.2028, d; 5.1871-, fino al regno di
Constantino, diventando attributo di Dio. 9
Il clipeus, come immagine rotonda, rappresenta la totaiita cosmica
dell'infinito rispetto ai suo incessante e continuo movimento, il fondamento
centripeto che stabilisce e determina le regole nel suo aspetto terreno e divino.
Nel mondo greco, soprattutto con Platone ed Aristotele c'era il convincimento
di una profonda corrispondenza fra la disposizione del cosmo, I' organizzazione
della societa e I'organizzazione dell'individuo stesso come partecipe di quella
societa. L'obiettivo fondamentaie della politica era ottenere che I'organizzazione
della societa si adeguasse all'ordinamento cosmico e che I'individuo si
avvicinasse all'essenza di cui eimmagine e portatore nella politica.
Da questi principi, nella second a meta del IV secolo, la liturgia
cristiana concepi I'immagine di Cristo come fondamento di tutto quello che
significa e rappresenta I'essenza umana; in questa struttura tonda, \0 I'icono
arriva alia stessa maniera e con 10 stesso senso a tutti i livelli socio-culturali
dell a collettivita, senza essere capita 0 interpretata male; cosi, 10 scopo della
espressione iconica si rivela incontestabile, di facile e chiaro discernimento,
nel contesto ufficiale della medesima comunita che 10 ha concepito e
sviluppato, escludendo la possibilita di conferire concetti diversi oppure
opposti tra loro, ad una rappresentazione iconografica: "il colore e per sua
natura dotato di un potere assai ampio, che va dalla semplice sollecitazione
sensibile ... alia capacita evocativa e al simbolismo piu raffinato ... Basta
ricordare I'importante ruolo tenuto dal colore in tutte le antiche cosmogonie,
e i suoi riflessi sui costume e nella vita sociale". 11
'Colour Categorisation' American Anthropologist 75 (August 1973),931-942; M.H. Bomstein, 'The
influence of visual perception on culture', American Anthropologist 77 (1975), 774-798; B. Brent & P.
Kay, Basic Color Terms: their universality and Evolution (Berkeley 1969), 16-17: " ... three appears to
be a positive correlation between general culture complexity (and/or level of technological
development) and complexity of color vocabulary ... ". Per il significato del colore nella societi greca
vid. Plato, Meno 74-76; Aristotele, De Sensu 439a-440b; De Coloribus 791a-799b.
9 A Wallace-Hadrill, 'The Emperor and his Virtues', Historia 30 (1981),298-323.
10 H.P. L'Orange 1947, op.cit. (n.3), 124-125. E. Beurlier, Essai sur le culte rendu dux empereurs
romains (Parigi 1890); idem, Le culte impenal, son histoire et son organisation depuis Auguste
jusqu '0 Justinien (Parigi 1891); A Wierzbicka, 'The meaning of color terms: cromatology and
culture', Cognitive Linguistics l.l (1990), 99-150.
11 R. d'Avino, 'La visione del colore nella terminologia greca', Ricerche Linguistiche 4 (1958), 99134, ad 129-130 n. 130; C. Mangio, 'Cenni sulle teorie cromatiche dei greci e loro applicazione
architettonica', Studi Classici e Orientali 10 (1961), 214-223; M. Caccamo Caltabiano,
'lmmagini/parola, grammatica e sintassi di un lessico monetale', La parola delle immagini e delle
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Parallelamente all'interpretazione sacra dei clipea, questa struttura
tonda fu accettata per rappresentare I'aspetto politico del potere, come e
esposto nella ND: il busto frontale dell'imperatore con I'aureola e il modo
universale per indicare le connotazioni divine,12 la glorificazione mondana
dell a maiestas imperatoris in forma antropomorfa, la deferenza e il rispetto
alla potestas che pro cede da Dio attraverso I' imperator, secondo la
concezione ierocratica del potere; I' aureola segna la deferenza di una
persona, mentre 10 sviluppo della composizione frontale e simmetrica e la
posizione frontale dell'imperatore viene considerata come espressione di
potere e glorificazione dell a imago. La presenza dei due genii alati che
sostengono il clipeus fanno riferimento alla apoteosi divina dell'imperatore,
considerato come Dio onnipotente. 13 Ogni atteggiamento del dominus e
espresso in un modo premeditato per definire la sua posizione centrale nello
Stato, il rector totius orbis e la sua natura soprannaturale. In un'unica
struttura tonda, il clipeus, e riassunto il concetto di armonia e sintesi politica,
sviluppata nel documento come immagine, non soltanto tra i diversi livelli
sociali, ma anche sotto I' aspetto politico e religioso della societa; I' equilibrio
tra questi livelli e necessario per I'articolazione dello Stato. L'imperatore e il
punto fisso, il vero centra immobile ed infinito intorno al quale gravita ogni
cosa, progettato secondo una chiara liturgia celeste.
L'idea di Stato deve essere concepita ed associata ad un potere che si
trava piu in alto dell a volonta individuale; e un potere universalmente
riconosciuto ed accettato, esercitato secondo norme 0 regole conosciute 0
conoscibili. Il riconoscimento e \'accettazione di questo potere esercitato
secondo determinate regole implica il riconoscimento e I'accettazione
forme di serittura. Modi e teeniehe della eomunieazione del mondo antieo, Dipartimento di Scienze
dell'Antichita dell'Universita degli Studi di Messina 1998 (Messina 1998),57-74.
12 P. Skubiszewski, 'Le titre de "Roi de gloire" et les images du Christ: un concept lheologique,
i'iconographie et les inscriptions', in R. Favreau, cur., Civilisation Medievale 11. Epigraphie et
ieonographie. Aetes du eolloque tenu a Poitiers les 5-8 oetobre 1995, Centre d'Etudes Superieures de
Civilisation Medievale (Poitiers 1996),229-258; D. Scortecci, 'll medico, i'empio, i'imperalore e il
sanlo: dal ritratto nimbalo alla sacra aureola', in A. Isola, E. Menesto & A. Di Pilla, CUff., Curiositas,
Studi di Cultura Classiea e Medievale in onore di Ubaldo Pizzani (Napoli 2002), 589-608; Libellus de
eerimoniis aule imperialis, c.19, cur. Schramm, Kaiser, Konige und Ptipste 3.344: "Imperator feral
camisum, ex sublilissimo el candidissimo bisso conlexlum, cum aurea bulla, ornalum a pedibus ad
mensuram brachii in circuilU de auro frigio" (la cilazione e stata presa da A. Paravicini Bagliani, Il
eorpo del Papa [Torino 1994], 52-53).
13 L' esempio trasmesso nella ND e il piu anlico delle viltorie con 10 sguardo rivolto frontalmenle che
soslengono il busto dell'imperatore; le viltorie alate che portano la imago imperatoris appaiono
successivamente nei diltici consolari inlorno al 480. R. Grigg, 'Symph6nian Aeid6 tes Basileias: An
Image of Imperial Harmony on the Base of the Colunm of Arcadius', Art Bulletin 49 (1977),469-482.
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dell' obbligo di sotto stare alle regole stesse. Queste caratteristiche generali
fanno dello Stato un'istituzione. D'altra parte l'idea di Stato viene associata
al concetto di potere e al rispetto di norme che regolano i modelli di
comportamento per quanti si riconoscono nell'istituzione stessa, 0 comunque
di comportamenti compatibili con l'istituzione, che ne possano garantire
I' esistenza e la sopravvivenza. Questa forza normativa, ragione d' essere
dello Stato stesso, introduce necessariamente la nozione di diritto, di legge.
La concezione dello Stato in termini di diritto significa riconoscere il potere
dello Stato che si esercita in no me della legge superando la mera esistenza
fattuale del rapporto di potere/obbedienza. La concezione augustea di
compimento politico prendeva come principio l'armonia fra le diverse entita
che formavano il concetto di Stato, cioe, il Senato e il popolo, per i quali il
princeps agisce.
Alla stessa maniera, la struttura del clipeus e usata non soltanto per
sottolineare l'atteggiamento divino dell'imperatore al centro dell'icona, ma
anche per evidenziare l'atteggiamento divino dell'imperatore come organismo
per designare i suoi rappresentanti diretti mediante la sua sapienza divina,
concessa soltanto all'imperatore; cosi, si puo capire la presenza delle uirtutes
imperatoris nei clipea - piano antropomofo, Diuina Prouidentia - e la
presenza delle stagioni dell'anno - piano divino, Diuina Electio-.
Canonizzazione delle virtu di un bravo capo di Stato
Gli attributi rappresentati nei clipea della Diuina Prouidentia - uirtus, scientia
rei militaris, auctoritas,felicitas - erano virtU attribuite all'imperatore dall'eta
di Cicerone De Imperio Cnei Pompei 10. 14 La uirtus era un elemento dell a
divinita - Sallustio, Catilinariae 1.4; 20.2 -; secondo Cicerone De Legibus
2.8.19 questa uirtus indicava prerogative di temperamento militare: un bravo
militare doveva riunire in se forza, sagacia mentale e fisica, coraggio,
perseveranza - Cicerone, De Natura Deorum 2.31.79; Giovenale, Satirae
1.115 -. Nella tarda antichita la uirtus divenne un attributo umano.
La scientia rei militaris - Caesar, Bel/um Africanum 3.23, 7.57 - era
la conoscenza dell a disciplina militare, secondo il concetto di uirtus dal
punto di vista bellico; cosi, uirtus et scientia rei militaris si riferiscono agli
obblighi militari dell' imperator. L' equilibrio e la congiunzione dell' aspetto
civile e militare dello Stato si riuniscono nel massimo rappresentante del
14 Cicerone, Pro lege Manilia 28; Amrniano Marcellino, Panegirico a Giuliano 25.4.155; JA. Crook,
'Some remarks on the Augustean Constitution', Classical Review 3 (1953), 10-12; J Hellegouarch, Le
vocabulaire latin des relations et des partis politiques sous la Republique (Parigi 1963).
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popolo: due aspetti che, dal punto di vista dell a costituzione, sono
indipendenti, pero, giuridicamente, dipendono dell a persona imperatoris. 15
La felicitas si riferisce al concetto di fecondita dello Stato - PI in ius,
Historia Naturalis 7.43; Plinius Minor, Epistulae 3.19.6-.
La auctoritas era un concetto fissato con forza nella societa romana
gia nel periodo repubblicano, era l'accettazione esplicita e legale di un nuovo
rex accettato dal popolo; tale assenso era dato dai patres conscripti.
L'elezione della persona nominata si fondava sulla considerazione e
celebrita dell a medesima davanti a tutti, ottenuta grazie alle sperimentate
capacita militari, il cui risultato finale consiste nella conquista della
prospettiva civile dell '!mpero e nell' estrinsecarsi delle qual ita militari innate
- Cicerone, Pro Lege Manilia 28 -.
La felicitas e l' auctoritas corrispondono all' aspetto politico dello
Stato. La prosperita e il benessere dell'!mperium si acquistano mediante la
formulazione di decreti e leggi da parte dello stesso imperatore, leggi che si
applicano all'!mpero romano, anche nella scelta dei suoi rappresentanti
diretti per eseguire i mandata imperatoris. Il riassunto di questi fu il Liber
Mandatorum,16 che assegnava il giorno del conferimento dell'incarico ad
ogni governatore di provincia da parte dell'imperatore. Il contenuto del Liber
erano le leggi dell'Impero - senatus consulta, constitutiones imperatoris,
plebisciti - e iussa di carattere locale; a1cuni erano del periodo precedente
alia invasione romana, altri furono scritti dagli stessi amministratori 0
giuristi provinciali - CTh. 6.29.10-. 17 11 suo valore risiedeva in una raccolta
degli iussa imperatoris per le provincie e nella manifestazione della potestas
dell'imperatore sull'Impero, che trasmetteva la sua auctoritas ai suoi
rappresentanti immediati nelle provincie; il Liber Mandatorum e il simbolo
del potere imperiale in una realta legislativa romana lontana dalla cancelleria
15 Il termine costituzionalmente deve essere riferito ad un punto di vista giuridico quale decreto,
ordine, editto.
16 L'unica fonte storica che parla, iconograficamente, di un Liber Mandatorum e la ND, Not.Occ.44.
O. Karlowa, Romische Rechtsgeschichte (Leipzig 1885), 869. ef v. Marotta, Mandata Principum
(Torino 1991). Il codex portava sulla copertina frontale una legenda di riconoscimento pubblico e
saluto riportata all'ufficiale annuale della carica: FL INTALL COMORD PR (=FLOREAS (oppure
FELICITER)/ INTERlALLECTOS/COMITES/ORDINIS/PRIMI).
17 A. dell'Oro, 'Mandata' e 'litterae'. Contributo allo studio degli atti giuridici del 'princeps'
(Bologna 1960), spec. 74-76; J.-P. Coriat, 'Du pouvoir dans l'antiquite: mots et realites', in C. Nicolet,
cur., Technique legislative et systeme de gouvernement a la fin du Principat: la romanite de I 'Etat
moderne (Ginevra 1990), 121-238. G. Coppola, Cultura e potere. Il lavoro intelletuale nel mondo
romano (Milano 1994). C. Neira Faleiro, 'Documentos de Estado en el Bajo Imperio; un caso
particular: la ND', in S.Crespo Ortiz de Zirrate & A. Alonso Avila, curr., Scripta Antiqua in Honorem
A.Montenegro Duque et J.M~BIQzque
Martinez. Magistris Optimis (Valladolid 2002), 761-775.
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di Stato, definita da una centralizzazione normativa che esigeva una
specializzazione del sistema giuridico e poneva " .. .le premesse per quell a
combinazione fra burocrazia e legislazione, fra diritti dei sudditi e arbitrio
del principe (e dei suoi funzionari) che costituisce tanta parte dell 'ultima
. .Impena
. Ie... " (56 f)
stona
. -. 18
I due aspetti per applicare la potestas, antropomorfo e divino - Diuina
Prouidentia et Diuina Electio 19_ sono sviluppati rispettivamente da un punto
di vista simbolico e in maniera indipendente. La complementarieta lessicale
di entrambe le immagini senza testo si capisce dalla concezione e dallo
scopo dello stesso folium: divenuta auto noma, l'immagine assume la
funzione propria del testo, quell a di produrre un discorso, un discorso
visuale 20 Quella e la vera natura del potere politico, l' autonomia del potere
civile, la cui finalita fondamentale difendere la giustizia attraverso le leggi
concepite dalla divinita e concesse all'imperatore. Cosi, il concetto di proprieta
e associato con quello di potere 0 autorita in quanto il possesso di beni materiali
e la capacita di esercitare qualche potere sono due aspetti inseparabili di una
medesimapotestas. 21 La prima illustrazione - Diuina Prouidentia - definisce le
virtU teologali dell'imperatore, ogni attivita del govemo del sovrano Vegetius, De Rebus Bellicis, praej 5; 21.2 - ; la second a illustrazione -Diuina
Electio- e l'elezione divina dell'imperatore, il riconoscimento e
I'accoglienza dell a sua maiestas da tutti; Dio e considerato come l'unica
fonte di legittimita del potere pubblico e dell'aspetto giuridico. Egli
garantisce e salvaguarda il principio dell'origine divina del potere, per
attribuire alla ragione dell'uomo la facolta di individuare I'istituzione dell a
potestas ciuilis, che permette 10 svolgimento della convivenza. L'istituzione
e
18 F. Grelle, 'Le categorie dell'amministrazione tardoantica: ojficia, munera, honores', Societa romana
e impero tardoantico (Roma 1986),37-57, spec. 56-57; idem, 'L'organizzazione amministrativa', in
Storia di Roma: L 'eta tardoantica: crisi e trasJormazione Illl1 (Torino 1993),77-82; C. Vismara, Le
provincie dell'Impero, Ilfunzionamento dell'Impero (Roma 1989); P.S. Barnwell, Emperor, Prefects
and Kings. The Roman West 395-565 (Chapel Hill, NC 1993); A. Schiavone, 'Il mondo tardoantico',
in Storia Medievale (Roma 1999),43-64.
19 G. Downey, Themistii Orationes quae supersunt (Leipzig 1965), Oratio 15. E.S. Ramage, The
Nature and Purpose ofAugustus' Res Gestae (Stoccarda 1987), spec. 73-100.
20 E. Kitzinger, 'The Role of Miniature Painting in Mural Decoration', in K. Weitzmann, w.e. Loerke,
E. Kitzinger & H. Buchthal, curr., The Place of Book Illumination in Byzantine Art (Princeton 1975),
99-142. Not.OrJ e Not.Occ.2 prendono come base i principi di prospettiva tridimensiona1e che con
I'abbozzo dell'idea di profonditit conseguono 10 scopo della illusione spaziale. La grande misura delle
personificazioni fa pensare ai modelli originari delle pitture parietali del quarto secolo, copiati nei
codices e che hanno perduto la funzione originaria, ovvero essere guardate da un pubblico con una
chiara funzione decorativa.
21 H. Uiehken, Ordines Dignitatum. Untersuchungen zur formalen Konstituierung des sptitantiken
Filhrungsschicht (Koln 1982), spec.c.3, 848-868.
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dell' autorita deriva da Dio, poiche egli ha concesso la facolta di istituire una
forma di autorita per il bene dell a societa che I' avesse richiesta. Il potere
dell'imperatore e riconosciuto anche attraverso la rappresentazione delle
quattro stagioni: inviolabilita e perennita della potestas che simboleggia
mentre "il silenzio diviene imposizione quando uno dei due riconosce il
prestigio 0 la supremazia dell' altro; sce Ita e imposizione possono esprimere
rispettivamente affermazione e riconoscimento di una leadership... Il
silenzio sottolinea il riconoscimento di un potere con il quale non si puo
competere" (33-4 ff).22
Potestas imperatoris in absentia: riconoscimento e accoglienza pubblica
La persona incaricata di queste compilazioni, con attribuzioni amministrative
e giuridiche, era il primicerius notariorum, con il compito di compilare le
tabullae honorum che raccoglievano gli incarichi degli impiegati dell'Impero
nei codicilli; questi raggruppavano gli obblighi annuali delle Stato, compresa
la retribuzione dell a dignitas piu importante, il praefectus praetorio. La
compilazione di questi mandata era fatta nel laterculum maius,23 un codex
purpureo con nastri delle stesso colore, che rappresentava il carattere
ufficiale del documento risultato dell'unione di pergamene precedenti:
"Altre qualita che rendevano unica la porpora erano la stabilita e
l'inalterabilita... Uso rituale e cerimoniale del rosso ... funzione
apotropaica... accrescimento della forza vitale ... " (114 f.); "La
porpora segnala... l'intoccabilita, la proibizione di attendere
all'integrita fisica di quell a persona che porta questo colore. Dal
secolo IV.. la porpora s'imporra come segno distintivo ed
esclusivo della dignita imperiale, gelosamente custodita da
un'ampia legislazione suntuaria restrittiva ... ,,24
22 P. Scarpi, 'L'eloquenza del silenzio; aspetti di Wl potere senza parole', in M. Grazia Ciani, cur., Le
regioni del silenzio: studi sui disagi della comunicazione (Padua 1983), 31-41; M" Dolores Cainzos,
'Aeternitas 0 desaparicion de Roma? Dos visiones de la sociedad romana', Quaderni urbinati di
cultura classica 63.3 (1999),139-161.
23 E. Bocking, ND et administrationum omnium tam ciuilium quam militarium in partibus Orientis et
Occidentis (Bonn 1839-1853), vol.II, 407-409; G. Bonolis, I titoli di nobilta nell'Italia Bizantina
(Firenze 1905),74-75; E. Posner, Archives in the Ancient World (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1972),
207-208; Berger 1981, op.cit. (n.7), 25-37, glossario, s.u.Codicilli, 175-183; R. Grigg, 'Portraitbearing Codicils in the illustrations of the ND', Journal a/Roman Studies 69 (1979), 107-124.
24 A. Casartelli, 'La fimzione distintiva del colore nell'abbigliamento romano della prima eta
imperiale', Aevum 1.72 (1998),109-125, ad 115-116; B.M. Metzger, 'When did scribes begin to use
writing desks?', in Akten des XlInternaternationalen Byzantinisten-Kongresses (Monaco di Baviera
1960),355-362; R. Delbriick, 'Der spiitantike Kaiseromat', Die Antike 8 (1932), 7-15; 0. Treitinger,
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Le fenditure sulla copertina del codex erano per i fermagli di metallo
destinati a proteggerlo - Not. Or. 18, Not.Occ.16-. Assegnare questi
documenti il nel giorno della investitura della carica corrispondente definiva
il rapporto fra la dignitas e il carattere sacro imperatoris, anche negli atti
ufficiali fatti dai suoi delegati: il ritratto dell'imperatore sui codicilli era la
promulgazione del potere reale e simboleggiava la sua praesentia " ... misleading to speak of an administrative hierarchy. The pyramid of
emperor, praetorian prefects, vicars and provincial goverments looks very
neat as set out in the ND, but there was in reality no rigid chain of
command ... " ?5
L'officium del magister scriniorum - Not. Or. 19, Not.Occ.17- era
composto dal:
1) magister memoriae, che compilava e faceva conoscere le sentenze
dell'imperatore di carattere privato oppure di contenuto
internazionale, le adnotati ones, a guisa di glossa sui margini dei
documenti dell a amministrazione con I' accettazione autografa
dell'imperatore; le consegne dovevano essere fatte in un libellus; il
magister memoriae, quindi rappresenta il ponte fra l'imperatore e il
populus/6
2) magister epistolarum, il quale compilava le risposte consegnate
dall'imperatore alle delegazioni straniere e ai delegati di provincia, le
legationes ciuitatum,27 esaminava e controllava i consigli giudiziari,
Die ostromische Kaiser- und Reichsidee nach ihrer Gestaltung im hofischen ZeremonieII : Vom
ostromischen Staats- und Reichsgedanken (Dannstadt 1956), 9-10. P1inius Maior, Historia Naturalis
9.136; Macrobius 1.6.7.
25 A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire (Oxford 1986), 374-375. er. E. Palazzo, 'Tituli et
enluminures dans le haut Moyen age (IX-Xle siec\es): fonctions Jiturgiques et spirituelles', in R.
Favreau, cur., Epigraphie et iconographie. Actes du Colloque tenu a Poitiers Ies 5-8 Octobre 1995,
Centre d 'Etudes Superieures de Civilisation Medievale (Poitiers 1996), 167-191.
26 Bocking 1839-1853, op.cit. (n.23), vol.II, 414-416 " ... irnperatoribus in memoriarn reuocaret, sed
quod acta et decreta memoriae ac futurae obseruantiae causa asseruaret. Immo, memoria, ipsa letteras,
documenta instrumentaue, acta gestaque memoriae conseruationisue caussa reposita significat. .. genus
irnperialis scripturae, oppositum rescriptis uel epistolis, pragmaticis sanctionibus ceterisque 1egius
quas quaestor dictabat, in caussis gratiae, administrationis, politicae financiarumque quae hodie
dicirnus, sed et in caussis ad iuris dictionem spectantibus emittebatur... "; 325-327 n.4: " ... Leges
dictandae: .. .'dictare' ... non satis accuratam esse censeo: dictare in his locis est quasi schedam
conscribere, scriptionem qualemcumque primum delineare ... siue ipse quis scribat siue calarno alterum
praedicta excipere iubeat; ita dictata postquam principis manu, ubi opus erat, approbata signataque
erant, rescribebantur, in mundum redigebantur, expediebantur, ut hodie dicirnus ... "
27 Bocking 1839-1853, op.cit., (n.23) vol.U, 417-418: "Legationes exterarum gentium magister
officiorum prouincialium, ciuitatium siue corporum praefectus praetorio excipiebat, sed ubi imperialis
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le consultationes, fatte all'imperatore dagli impiegati dell a
amministrazione centrale;
3) magister libellorum, che organizzava le procedure giuridiche,
cognitiones, sorvegliate direttamente dall' imperatore senza
precedente scritto, ed esaminava le richieste, preces, fatte
all'imperatore; i documenti di questo dipartimento erano compilati in
codici di legno, per essere rivisti e corretti dal quaestor; il risultato
era un abbozzo scritto su papiro e trasmesso direttamente
all'imperatore;
4) magister episto/arum graecarum, si occupava delle lettere e dei
documenti scritti in greco, oppure traduceva in greco i documenti
scritti in latino, egli e attestato solo in Oriente. 28
La presenza dell'imperatore era necessaria per legittimare e legalizzare ogni
atto ufficiale, giuridico 0 amministrativo fatto nelle provincie dell'Impero ...per ipsum enim omnia, quae qUidem sic data sunt per Moysen, ut umbra
essent, uel figura juturorum, ut apparente ueritate, figura cessaret. Sicut
enim absente imperatore, imago eius habet auctoritatem, praesente non
habet; ita et haec ante aduentum Domini tempore suo obseruanda fuerunt,
praesente autem, carent auctoritate. Numquid aliquis uicem domini agens,
ipso praesente, dominatur? Si praejectorum uicarii, praesentibus eis priuati
sunt; quanto magis serui, praesente domino, etiam ipsi in obsequio de bent
uideri (PL XVII coll.431-432) _.29 L'imperatore, dinanzi alla impossibilita di
una presenza fisica, in questi atti si rivolgeva alla presenza iconica dell a sua
immagine: il valore di questa immagine e le conseguenze sui governo erano
scientia consulenda erat, i.e.quotiens petitiones non statim lectae pensataeque reiciendae uidebantur,
principi transrnissae ab ipso post adhibitum consistorium decidebantur; recitationes autem,
consultationes supra dictorum uirorum illustrium aliarumue dignitatum, ad quas legationes uenerant,
ac prece petitionesque legatorum tractabat scrinium epistolarum sub suo magistro: in caussis itaque
legationum hi scriniarii secundum nostrum loquendi usum principis referendarii, archiuarii atque
correspondentes erant."
28 B. Hemmerdinger, 'Les lettres latines a Constantinople jusqu'a Justinien', Byzantinischen
Forschungen I (1966), 174-178; G. Dagron, 'Aux origines de la civilisation byzantine: langue de
culture et langue d'Etat', Revue historique 241 (1969), 36-46.
29 Ambrosianus, Commentaria in Epistolam B.Pauli ad Colossenses II. ad uers. 16-17, PL, XVII.431433. H. Kruse, Studien zur ojJiziellen Geltung des Kaiserbildes im romischen Reiche (Paderborn
1934), 79-81 e 101-103. D. Mertens, 'Responsabilirn temporale della Chiesa e idea papale del
primato', in Il pensiero politico Medievale (Bologna 1999),71-83. Severiano di Gabala, De mundi
creatione Or.6.5 nel quinto secolo, scriveva che il ritratto del sovrano doveva essere collocato nei
tribunali e in ogni altro luogo ove si esercitasserero fimzioni pubbliche: sol tanto in tal modo una
sentenza emanata da un fimzionario dell'imperatore poteva aver valore; su questa prassi e i suoi
precedenti, che ritornano al secondo secolo, Apuleius, Apologia 85.
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proporzionali alla sua presenza alla corte centrale. Cosi, si capisce la
rappresentazione iconica del busto dell' imperatore fra nastri dorati sui
codicilli, simbolo dell a diuina maiestas imperatoris:
"auctoritas and maiestas, derived from the language of the
Roman state, did; it was chiefly by approaching the terms of
Roman dignity for rulers that soveregnity was claimed. Great
kings expressed their authority by claiming the title, powers and
insignia of imperium itself within their own territories. This was
intended to signify that they could act without reference to
others, whether inside or outside the realm, and often that they
had some right to rule other peoples and lands. ,,30
Questi dittici erano dati all' ordo superioris, che legittimamente aveva il
potere.
La consegna pubblica di questi documenti dell' amministrazione
centrale, concessi alle dignitates, era simbolo dell'immagine legittima dell a
summa potestas et auctoritas imperatoris che conferiva gli incarichi diretti
del potere, era il potere assoluto e autocratico ratificato dall' ordo dignitatum
e riflesso nella sua imago con una rassegna e accettazione pubblica. 31 A sua
volta l'imperatore e la rappresentazione dello Stato; egJi e considerato come
fonte necessaria di auctoritas. Intorno all'imperatore e originata un'attivita
che dipendeva dagli organismi periferici e dagli impiegati designati da lui
stesso, che spedivano regolarmente rapporti all' amministrazione centrale primicerius notariorum -. Il procedimento burocratico iniziato da
Diocleziano (295-305) e stato portato alle estreme conseguenze in un
macchinoso e strutturato dispositivo amministrativo-burocratico negJi ultimi
dieci anni del quarto secolo, quando un' organizzata ed inamovibile
gerarchia di dignitates gravitava intorno all' auctoritas imperatoris,
sostenitore di un equilibrio perfetto degli ambiti civili e militari:
"'Ordine' indica il princlplo statico, 'conformita allo scopo'
quello dinamico -un mezzo per perfezionare nel miglior modo
A. Black, Political Thought in Europe, 1250-1450 (Cambridge 1992), 113-114. Cf. W.E. Gladstone,
'The Colour-Sense', The Nineteenth Century 2 (1877), 366-388; Bayer 1996, art.cit. (n.4), 15-16.
31 Vegetius, De re militari 2.6. cr D.B. Capelle, 'Un Homiliaire de I'eveque Arien Maximin', Revue
Benedictine 34.1-4 (1922), 81-108; RRR Smith, 'Late Antique Portraits in a Public Context.
Honorific Statuary at Aphrodisias in Caria, AD 300-600', Journal of Roman Studies 89 (1999), 155189; M. Stroll, Symbols as Power: the Papacyfollowing the investiture contest (Leiden 1991).
30
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possibile l'imperfetto ordine terreno... All'immutabilita di
princlplo dell' ordine corrispondono la stabilita dell' idea
imperiale e la continuita della sua rappresentazione e dell a sua
glorificazione nel cerimoniale e negli scritti dei retori. . ...
L'imperatore creava una struttura gerarchica in cui inquadrava
tutti gli altri sovrani come fratelli, figli 0 amici, considerava i
loro doni come un riconoscimento del suo potere e i propri come
segni del loro vassallaggio, per salvaguardare I'idea
dell'universalita del proprio dominio.,,32
A sua volta, i1 carattere ufficiale del documento e realizzato attraverso
l'organizzazione gerarchica delle dignitates, che costituiscono il concetto di
Imperium come entita dello Stato. La sua ricchezza iconografica33 e la
preoccupazione per I'ornamento vanno al di la delle final ita del documento.
La Diuina Electio rappresenta e simboleggia I' aeternitas della potestas
imperatoris, I'elezione evidente, intangibile e costante dell'imperatore da parte
della divinita,34 cioe I'aspetto divino della sua dignita politica. L'immagine
delle quattro stagioni - uernus, aestas, autumnus et hiems - 10 confermano. I1
simbolismo delle quattro stagioni e il divenire annuale del calendario astrale.
L'imperatore occupa il posto del sole nella giustizia che e, a sua volta, il
simbolo del Verbo di Dio per il quale e nel quale tutto e stato creato,
illuminato e tutto e guidato. Esso simboleggia i1 posto centrale dell'ordine
cosmico. La luce con i1 suo movimento circolare e le sue variazioni d'orbita
determina non soltanto le notti e i giorni, ma anche le stagioni e i mesi, alia
stessa maniera I'imperatore fissa le fasi dell'anno liturgico. Con la sua
presenza egli determina i cic1i naturali con il valore simbolico che essi
trasmettono. Co si si sottolinea il carattere cic1ico dell'annus come pure
I'imperfezione del suo carattere; in primo luogo perche il suo movimento e
continuo e infinito, in quanto appena conc1uso ricomincia nuovamente, anche
se non arriva a romp ere il cerchio del perpetuo inizio che non ha mai un
termine e neanche un inizio: esso e segno di un'imperfezione radicale, quell a
in cui inciampano tutte le religioni cosmiche 0 naturali. In secondo luogo, il
carattere cic1ico e zoppo nel calcolo dei giorni e dei mesi. Da questo punto di
vista l' annus e non stabilis sua post uestigia currit, espressione che spiega la
Mertens 1999, op.cit. (n.3), 11-12; 14-15
A.H.M. Jones, Cities of the Eastern Roman provinces (Oxford 1937),492-493.
34 D. Mertens, 'n potere temporale e il suo diritto', in Il pensiero politico Medievale (Bologna 1999),
85-93.
32
33
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sua radicale imperfezione e la sua incapacita di concludere. L'anno, sempre in
fuga, ricorda I'etema presenza del sole divino.
I numeri 4 e 24 sono i numeri che simboleggiano i ritmi fondamentali
dei cicli naturali, le quattro stagioni e la divisione del giomo in 24 ore. Si
profila cosi l'immagine del mondo che costituisce la caratteristica comune
dell'antichita classica: la sfera dell'universo che effettua la sua rotazione
liturgica attomo al centro immobile che la muove. Le quattro stagioni sono
propriamente quelle che conferiscono all'immagine sui piano naturale il
simbolismo cosmico dell'universalita, e sui piano teologico il significato di
pienezza dell'ordine stabilito.
L'aspetto divino dell'auctoritas imperatoris e presente in entrambe le
immagini attraverso I' armarium a forma di tabernacolo, nel caso della
domus Augusti, che custodisce nei sacra scrinia la documentazione ufficiale
che rappresenta le diverse cariche, civili e militari. Cosi gli elementi
paralleli, da un punto di vista tematico, simbolico e strutturale, che fanno
parte di entrambe immagini sono I' armarium el' imago clipeata, cioe,
I'aspetto antropomorfo e divino dell'auctoritas imperatoris. L'unione di tutti
questi elementi sviluppa l'idea di equilibrio politico delle istituzioni,
evidenziata attraverso i sacra scrinia che raccolgono in maniera frontale i
codicilli messi insieme in una strutturata gerarchia lineare, parallelamente
alia gerarchia delle istituzioni nel basso Impero e l'imago imperatoris fra i
nastri d'oro. 35 Tutto l'ordine e la disposizione gerarchica nell'illustrazione e
riflesso univoco dell'ordine cosmico stabilito da Dio, il cui rappresentate
terreno e l'imperatore. Tutto gravita intorno all' imago a cui deve rendere
etemamente omaggio, gloria e lode. 11 doppio significato di tali documenti
con I'immagine dell'imperatore era politico e religioso: I'autorita indiscussa
dell'imperatore era fondata e garantita dagli atti amministrativi 0 giuridici,
fatti dai suoi delegati e legittimati dalla sua praesentia in absentia, mentre
con un simbolismo di radice greca ed una riutilizzazione cri sti ana, il
carattere sacro dell'imperatore e sottolineato dall'idea di etemo ritomo del
suo potere, concezione ideologica dell'inviolabilita e continuita della sua
auctoritas e delle virtu proprie di un bravo capo di Stato per I'integro
compito delle sue cariche. 36
35 Le icone della parte orientale del testo sono stati considerati da Wla prospettiva bifocale e nella parte
occidentale da Wla prospettiva tridimensionale, particolarita trovata nei mosaici di Ravenna, anni 421423. La collocazione lineare dei clipea rivela che la iconografia della ND dall'inizio fu fatta sui rotoli
di pergamena per essere risolta in codex.
36 A. Zimmermann, Der BegrijJ der Repraesentatio im Mittelalter. Stelvertretung Symbolik Zeichen,
Bild Miscellanea Mediaevalia 8 (Berlino-New Yorlc 1971).
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Conclusione: la Notitia Dignitatum come paradigma di convinzioni
iconografiche
La progettata distribuzione bipartita e simmetrica della ND fra precisi
principi iconografici e strutturali, deriva da aspirazioni politiche di equilibrio
dell'Impero di Teodosio, evidenziate mediante un linguaggio pittorico che
raccoglie e chiarisce un testo accanto all'immagine, concepito secondo i
principi di una precedente compilazione. Questa divisione iconografica e
testuale fu progettata, all' inizio, come principio di un ordine politico e di
accordo fra le due parti dell'Impero, come disposizioni testamentarie per un
Impero diviso per la prima volta, ma regolato da normative simili sotto
I' aspetto politico, burocratico, amministrativo e militare per futuri reggenti.
La distribuzione e iconografia sono articolati intorno a un fine preciso,
quale la consonanza politica e la necessaria reciprocita tra le due parti
dell'Impero. Le tendenze artistiche della fine del quarto e inizi del quinto
secolo furono messe al servizio di una gerarchia, il cui fine fondamentale era
I' espressione e la diffusione della politica teodosiana. Il vero fondamento sta
negli affari politici dell'unita del potere centrale,37 mantenuto da veloci ed
uniformi cambiamenti del governo militare: all'inizio, fu il risultato del
Breuiarium dell' Impero, pero poi divento, nei primi dieci anni del quinto
secolo, un manifesto propagandistico di politica militare.
D'accordo con questi principi si possono capire le ragioni e 10 scopo
della ND, la quale sarebbe un notiziario annuale dell'Impero,38 associato ad
una consuetudine burocratica consolidata e stabilita dal I secolo d.e., che
aveva costituito normative precise e procedure metodologiche di controllo ed
aggiornamento periodici, cui erano sottomessi documenti simili.
L'iconografia fu usata con uno stretto proposito politico: colori
simbolici associati ad una semplicita delle icone assicurava, in assenza di un
testo, la legittimita di un ordo dignitatum e di una potestas et ueneratio
imperatoris come custode e sostenitore di un Impero diviso, i1 quale si
legava giuridicamente al clero sotto il dominium imperatoris. L'arte come
O. Seeck, ND. Accedunt Notitia urbis Constantinopolitanae et laterculi prouinciarum (Berlino
1876, reed.Francoforte 1962); G. Clemente, La ND (Cagliari 1968); J. Gaudemet, 'Recherches sur la
legislation du Bas-Empire', in Studi in onore di Gaetano Scherillo IT (Milano 1972), 693-715; G.
Nocera, 'll Centralismo amministrativo del tardo impero', Accademia Romanistica Costantiniana, Atti
VIII Convegno Intemazionale (Perugia 1990), 599-621; P. Brennan, 'The User's Guide to the ND. The
Case of the Dux Armeniae (ND.Or.38)', Antichthon 32 (1998),34-49; A. Marrone, 'Un inedito di
M.Rostovtzeff sulle cause della caduta dell'!mpero romano', Historia 48 (1999), 254-256; M.
Kulikowski, 'The ND as a historical source', Historia 49 (2000), 358-377.
38 S. Mazzarino, Trattato di storia romana Vol. IT (Roma 1956), 446 n.l.
37
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mezzo di propaganda politica e la spina dorsale dell a ND, la manifestazione
artlstlca legata ai principi dell'ideologia dell a summa potestas
dell'imperatore.
L'espressione politica del testo abbozzato negli ordini sociali testuali
ed iconografici di fondamenti simbolici chiari e schematizzato attraverso le
due immagini senza test0 39 Il suo significato testuale e contestuale e
rappresentato attraverso l'indipendenza di tutti gli oggetti che fanno parte
della iconografia. Le misure dei componenti nell'icona sono svolte attraverso
un valore simbolico, il cui significato e equivalente e paragonabile al suo
valore allegorico; la molteplicita delle scale iconografiche spinge la
comprensione simbolica di ciascuno dei componenti fino al concepimento e
sviluppo dell'icona, considerato come struttura prestabilita ed indivisibile,
mentre le diverse strutture di ordinamento e sistemazione dello spazio nella
figura confermano il suo significato metaforico. Da questo punto di vista la
ND e concepita come documento postumo di analoghe disposizioni
dell'amministrazione che considerano i modelli della politica universale,
sorretta dalla persona imperatoris. Testo ed immagine non possono avere
rappresentazione piu efficace, sia come traduzione visuale immediata del
senso del testo in immagine, sia come percezione dell a loro equivalenza, sia
per come si connotano i concetti stessi di testo ed immagine.
Firenze, Luglio 2002
39 R. Grigg, 'Inconsistency and lassitude: the shield emblems of the ND', Journal of Roman Studies 73
(1983), 132-142; idem, 'lllustrations and Text in the lost Codex Spirensis', Latomus 46 (1987), 204210.
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11
THE REPRESENTATION AND PERCEPTION
OF ROMAN IMPERIAL POWER
ROME AND THE PROVINCES
Paul Erdkamp, O. Hekster, G. de Kleijn, Stephan T.A.M. Mols, and Lukas de Blois - 978-90-04-40163-1
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Paul Erdkamp, O. Hekster, G. de Kleijn, Stephan T.A.M. Mols, and Lukas de Blois - 978-90-04-40163-1
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THE STREETS OF ROME AS A REPRESENTATION
OF IMPERIAL POWER)
By
ANDREW W ALLACE-HADRILL
"In vain, great hearted Kublai, shall I attempt to describe Zaira,
city of high bastions. I could tell you how many steps make up
the streets rising like stairways, and the degrees of the arcades'
curves, and what kind of zinc scales cover the roofs; but I
already know this would be the same as telling you nothing."
(Italo Calvino)2
Rome was a microcosm of Roman imperial power, the showplace of
imperial might. The image of the emperor was written in his city. We all
know this. But what shall I do? Shall I enumerate for you the statistics of
Rome's magnificence, as does the elder Pliny, or as do the Regionary
Catalogues? If I did so, this would, as Italo Calvino suggests, be the same as
telling you nothing. We can follow the elder Pliny in enumerating the
statistics of Rome's magnificence, counting the regions and crossroads
shrines, the length of the walls, the length of the streets leading to the gates.
"The circuit of the walls of Rome in the censorship of the
emperors Vespasian was 170 miles, including 7 hills. It is
divided into 14 regions, and 265 shrines of the Lares. If a straight
line is drawn from the milestone standing at the head of the
Roman Forum to each of the gates, which today number 37
(provided that the Twelve Gates be counted only as one each and
the seven of the old gates that no longer exist be omitted), the
result is a total of 20 miles 765 yards in a straight line ... If you
add to all that the height of the houses, you may form a proper
I This paper was delivered in an earlier version at the conference at the Netherlands Institute at Rome,
and in a later version at Princeton University. I am grateful to participants on both occasions for
valuable comments, and especially to Ray Laurence for sharing thoughts about neighbourhoods, and to
Rosie Harman for invaluable help with the final text.
2 Halo Calvino, Le citta invisibili (la cirta e la memoria 3): 'Inutilmente, magnanime Kublai, tentero di
descrivere la cirta di Zaira dagli alti bastioni. Potrei dirti di quanti gradini sono le vie farte a scale, di
che sesto gli archi dei porticati, di quali lamine di zinco sono ricoperti i tetti; ma so che sarebbe come
non dirti nulla.' I owe the quotation to R. Laurence in P. Carl, 8. Kemp et aI., 'Were cities built as
images?', Cambridge Archaeological Journal! 0:2 (2000), 346.
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estimate, and admit that no city in all the world can be compared
in size." 3
Pliny's statistics exist not to enlarge our understanding, but as a trope of
rhetorical hyperbole, much though we welcome the statistic he adds, that
Vespasianic Rome had 265 compita (hence, we infer, vici or neighbourhoods).
The fourth-century Regionary Catalogues belong to the same tradition of
mirabilia: when they tell us not only how many temples, theatres, fora and
baths, but how many houses, insulae, horrea, bakeries, reservoirs, not to speak
of latrines and brothels, the city could boast, the intention is to stun us with
numbers. 4 Modem scholars continue to play the game, for quite different
reasons, assembling figures for the number of inhabitants, the thousands of
tonnes of wheat they consumed, the millions of litres of olive oil, the hundreds
of thousands of kilos of pork sausages. 5 The modem concern for statistics
colludes with the ancient obsession with mirabilia.
I am not seeking to belittle Rome, but to get a sharper focus on the
issue of representation of imperial power. How did Rome represent the
emperor, beyond saying he was big? What nature of power, what structure of
social and economic relationships, did it symbolically figure? Because my
interest has been for some time not so much in public monuments as the
anonymous and diverse assemblage of private building (houses, insulae,
shops, warehouses, private baths etc), my focus is on how we can read
imperial power in the back streets, not just the Colosseum. 6 In this paper, I
pass over these public monuments, on which the discussion of the question is
normally focussed.
Pliny, Naturalis Historia 3.66-7: Moenia eius collegere ambitu imperatoribus censoribusque
Vespasianis anno conditae DCCCXXVI m.p. XXX.CC, conplexa montes septem. ipsa dividitur in
regiones quattuordecim, compita Larum CCLXV. eiusdem spatium mensura currente a miliario in
capite Romani fori statuto ad singulas portas, quae sunt hodie numero XXXVII ita ut duodecim semel
numerentur praetereanturque ex veteribus VII quae esse desierunt, efficit passuum per directum
XX.M.DCCLXV ..... quod si quis altitudinem tectorum addat, dignam profecto aestimationem
concipiat, fateaturque nullius urbis magnitudinem in toto orbe potuisse ei comparari. See plates IV,
fig. I for the 14 regiones of imperial Rome (added by the editors).
4 A. Nordh, Libellus de regionibus urbis Romae (Lund 1949). For the rhetoric, see 1. Arce, 'El
inventario de Roma: Curiosum y Notitia', in W.V. Harris, ed., The Transformations of Urbs Roma in
Late Antiquity (Journal ofRoman Archaeology suppl33, 1999), 15-22.
5 For the value of such statistics to demography, see e.g. E. Lo Cascio, 'Canon frumentarius. suarius.
vinarius: stato e privati nell'approvvigionamento dell' Urbs', in Harris 1999, op.cit. (n.4), 163-182.
6 See my recent contributions, 'Case e abitanti a Roma' in E. Lo Cascio, ed., Roma Imperiale. Una
metropoli antica (Roma 2000), 173-220, and 'Emperors and houses in Rome' in S. Dixon, ed.,
Childhood. Class and Kin in the Roman World (London! New York 2001),128-143.
3
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Cities, as a recent Cambridge workshop on 'Were cities built as
images?' has emphasised, are the outcome of a tension between ideal and
praxis.? We do well to ask, as Joseph Rykwert did in his Idea of the Town
with reference to Rome,S or Paul Wheatley in his Pivot of the Four Quarters
with reference to ancient China,9 what cosmological and other ideals the
built town seeks to embody; but we must also hold on to the role of praxis,
the everyday necessities and the banalities of routine practice. Those who
work on shantytowns are more alive to the imperatives of praxis:
"Beneath the apparent chaos of the modem squatter settlement,
there is often a clear consistency of form and urban structure
which varies from place to place. Such consistencies derive at
the local level from the relationship between urban form and
social processes. Local spatial customs and unwritten social
codes determine the layout, spacing and growth of houses, and
the development of plots and settlement form."IO
Imperial Rome is indeed an ideal city, but only in part. Beyond question it
sought to project an image of imperial power, in some quite specific ways at
different periods; simultaneously it was the outcome of praxis, remorselessly
generating urban form over the centuries. Our job is not to magnify the
emperors, but to investigate the nature and limits of their power, and to read
the built environment as the outcome of an eternal struggle between the
assertion of the ideal of imperial omnipotence, and the massive limitations
imposed by the daily realities of this city of a million souls, a monster which
the empire created, and then struggled to control.
It may help to start by focusing on what imperial Rome was not. It was
not a city of parade routes and broad, straight avenues. It was a twentiethcentury dictator not a Roman emperor who drove the Via dell'Impero as a
parade route from Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum. The route of the Roman
triumph was circuitous, winding, and at many points surprisingly narrow.
Carl, Kemp et al. 2000, op.cit (n.2), 327-365.
1. Rykwert, The Idea of the Town: the Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy and the Ancient
World (Cambridge Mass. 1976).
9 P. Wheatley, Pivot of the Four Quarters: a Preliminary Enquiry into the Origins and Character of
the Ancient Chinese City (Edinburgh 1971).
10 B. Erickson & T. L1oyd-Jones, 'Experiments with settlement aggregation models', Environment and
Planning B: Planning and Design 24 (1997), 903-928, cited by Kemp in Carl, Kemp et al. 2000,
op.cit. (n.2), 342.
7
8
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Imperial Rome was not a Renaissance ideal City.11 The Renaissance ideal
required perspectival vistas with vanishing points: from Pope Julius II's via
Giulia, cutting through the medieval mess of the southern Campus Martius
towards the Vatican, to Paul III Famese's 'Tridente', to Sixtus V's long
vistas marked by obelisks. 12 Cutting new streets through the existing urban
fabric has been one of the prime ways of inscribing power upon the face of
the city. The Renaissance ideal is not universal, but specific to its own set of
historical circumstances. It involves the denial and deletion of another,
medieval image of the city, of baronial families with their strongholds, like
the Orsini in Pompey's theatre, or the Savelli in that of Marcellus. 13 The
characteristic of such a city is the to"e as heart of power of the family clan,
surrounded by a local maze of narrow streets, the contrada or patch the
family controls. Less visible now in Rome, we see it best in Genoa, where
the streets of the centre, based on the grid pattern of the Roman colony, are
still now a maze in which the cellular structure is clear. 14 The Renaissance
ideal is an attempt to wipe out this power structure, and the city plan is
legible as the palimspest of the outcome of power structures.
Imperial Rome too had its debate about ideal street plans. Consider
the discussion surrounding the Great Fire of Rome under Nero.
"The rest of the city was not, as after the Gallic fire, put up
indiscriminately and all over the place, but districts (vici) were
measured and laid out, streets were broad, heights of houses
were limited, with wide open spaces, and porticoes added to
protect the frontages ofinsulae.,,15
11 E. Kiinzl, Der romische Triumph: Siegesfeiern im antikes Rom (Munich 1988), 15, 30-44; F.
Coarelli, Il Campo Marzio dalle origini alia fine della repubblica (Rome 1997), 118-135 et passim.
12 On the military and social considerations underpinning such schemes, see Richard Ingersoll, 'Piazza
di Ponte and the Military Origins of Panopticism' in Z. <;:elik, D. Favro & R. Ingersoll, eds, Streets:
Critical Perspectives on Public Space (Berkeley 1994), 177-188 and C. Burroughs, 'Absolutism and
the Rhetoric of Topography' ibid. 189-202.
13 See R. Brentano, Rome before Avignon: a Social History of Thirteenth-century Rome (London
1991); J.-C. Mairie-Vigueur, ed., D'une ville a l'autre: structures materielles et organisation de
de Rome 122
l'espace dans les villes europeennes (XIII-XVI siecles). Collection de l' Ecole Fran~ise
(Rome 1989).
14 See L. Grossi Bianchi and E. Poleggi, Una cilia portuale del medioevo: Genova nei secoli X-XVI
(Genoa 1980); Wallace-HadriIl2001, op.cit. (n. 6), 130f.
IS Tacitus Annals 15.43: ceterum urbis quae domui supererant non, ut post Gallica incendia, nulla
distinctione nec passim erecta, sed dimensis vicorum ordinibus et 1atis viarum spatiis cohibitaque
aedificiorum altitudine ac patefactis areis additisque porticibus, quae frontem insularum protegerent.
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Tacitus' negative reference to the rebuilding of Rome after the Gallic sack
deliberately evokes the Livian commentary on that event, which laments the
missed opportunity to set out Rome as a decently ordered city, rather than a
squatter settlement. 16 It was of course a continuing paradox that Roman
colonies presented the image of the ideal city with an ordered grid pattern for
centuries, while Rome did not. 17 Why not? The real reasons are to do above
all with the topography of the landscape (the road system follows the
contours of the seven hills), and with the historic evolution of the settlement
perpetuated through individual property rights. Ironically, Livy's reference
to the neglect of property rights after the Gallic sack puts the finger on what
gave Rome its disordered appearance. It is surely that the sack did not
disrupt property rights, and Rome continued to follow its old pattern. IS Only
when the central authority of a city can arrogate to itself the power to
expropriate can broad avenues be cut through existing fabric.
Nero's fire was evidently seen by Romans, including the emperor
himself, as a renewed opportunity to impose ideal order on the apparent
chaos of praxis. It had some success; but what I want to stress are the limits
of that success. There were indeed areas, particularly the port area beneath
the Aventine, and in Trastevere, where blocks of houses were laid out in a
regular grid, though to be honest we have no knowledge that these resulted
from the Neronian regulations or replaced previously chaotic areas. But
Rome the squatter settlement continued to flourish, alongside the signs of
imperial order. It is enough to consider the area around the Porticus of Livia,
of which the fragments of the Forma Urbis happen to survive particularly
well. The Porticus itself, which supposedly replaced the over-luxurious
house of Vedius Pollio, is indeed a symbol of imperial order, just as much as
the surrounding streets are not. The interruption of old street lines by the
portico shows clearly the historical nature of the evolution: the rectangle cuts
abruptly the older, topographically contoured lines. But it also shows the
exception: Vedius' moral opprobrium, coupled with imperial inheritance,
permitted an intervention in the urban fabric that was exceptional, not
normative. 19
16 Livy 5.55: festinatio curam exemit vicos dirigendi, dum omisso sui alienique discrimine in vacuo
aedificant. ea est causa ut veteres c1oacae, primo per publicum ductae, nunc privata passim subeant
tecta, formaque urbis sit occupatae magis quam divisae similis.
17 P. Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor 1988), 18ff.
18 R.M. Ogilvie, A Commentary on Livy Books /-5 (Oxford 1965), 750f.
19 Zanker 1988, op.cit. (n.17), 137-139.
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It is instructive to compare the situation after the great fire in London
of 1666. Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke both submitted designs for a
new, modem layout for the City of London, both inspired by visions of how
an ideal city should be with its vistas and modular units. But the medieval
pattern prevailed, and has survived to the present, thanks above all to
property rights. 20 In the case of Rome too, one may think of it as an ongoing
tension between the centralised and idealising power of the state and the
individual property rights that gave historical boundaries their tenacious
survival. Call this, if you want, the limit of imperial power, and reflect that in
some ways both Renaissance popes and the modem nation state has had
greater powers of expropriation than the Caesars.
But from another perspective, the powers of the emperors (as they
occasionally proclaimed) were limitless. They could have invoked the
common welfare, salus rei publicae, to justify radical re-planning of the
entire street plan of their imperial showpiece capital. They ostentatiously did
not. We may think again of Suetonius' anecdote of Augustus narrowing the
plan of his Forum rather than expropriate neighbouring houses: true or not,
the biographer assumed that civilitas could be inscribed on the city plan. 21
That means we are not looking at the limits of imperial power, but its selfdefinition and self-representation: the quality that long ago struck me as
distinctive in imperial ideology.22 The imperial power that represents itself
as continuing, not breaking, the republican past, of championing the rights of
the Roman citizen, of upholding the rule of law and of property rights,
projects itself in the urban plan in that very juxtaposition of historical fabric
modified, not replaced, by new order.
As I argued then, rather than the traditional 'weak' reading of
civilitas as the historical compromise that Augustus makes to disguise the
transition from the Republic, we can prefer a 'strong' reading. Augustus uses
the structures of the city-state to generate his own power. The status
hierarchy of citizenship becomes a potent instrument in his hands. At another
level, the empire depends more on quasi-independent city-states for its
peaceful running than on an army of imperial administrators. 23 The idea I
would like to explore now is that the street plan of imperial Rome is the
Kemp in Carl, Kemp et al. 2000, op.cit. (n.2), 337.
Suetonius Aug. 56.2, forum angustius fecit non ausus extorquere possessoribus proximas domos. Cf.
Zanker 1988, op.cit (n.17), 155-156, rightly underlining the deliberate decision by Augustus to display
his respect for property.
22 'Civilis Princeps: Between Citizen and King', Journal of Roman Studies 72 (1982), 32-48.
23 So P. Gamsey & R. Sailer, The Roman Empire. Economy, Society and Culture (London 1987), 26ff.
20
21
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outcome of an urban order, which depends not simply on central imperial
control, but on a cellular structure that operated at local level, and on the
deliberate exploitation of that fact by the emperor. In this picture, the city
with its viei is a microcosm of the empire with its city-states.
For the overall articulation of the imperial city, the fourth-century
Regionary Catalogues remain the indispensable starting point. Their prime
use has been by those who want to extract the city's vital statistics, above all
the total population based on totals for domus and insulae. 24 For this purpose
I regard them as thoroughly unreliable, though I agree with Filippo Coarelli
that it is highly likely that they ultimately reflect the official statistics
gathered by the office of the praefeetus urbi, stationed surely in the Forum
Pacis where the Severan marble plan of Rome was found. 25 But though
individual numbers may be challenged, they surely give us an important
insight into the nature of the urban fabric. What I want to underline is what I
call the cellular structure. Divided into regiones, and subdivided into vici (by
now 320 of them, but the number is dubious), we find in each zone a
distribution (unequal, but the numbers are never trustworthy) of the same
sort of features: public buildings, temples, baths etc; vici with their
vieomagistri (by now exactly 48 per region, which if true means the
Augustan system had been changed); private housing (domus and insulae);
and all other vital civic amenities, warehouses (horrea), water distribution
(laeus), food supply (bakeries), not to speak of urinals and brothels. 26
To me, that rules out the characteristic of the post-industrial western
capitalist city, which is residential differentiation and zoning of activities. As
David Harvey has argued, the specific class relations generated by modern
capitalism underpin the differentiation of the modern city.27 One should not
expect, or look for, comparable patterns in antiquity. Modern scholars who
have sought to show that Rome was differentiated into districts of the rich
and the poor are unconsciously led by the expectations of the modern world.
Without denying some differentiation (Testaccio with its warehouses was not
like the centre with its fora, let alone the Palatine with its Palace), we are not
looking at the sort of zoning of a capitalist city. To understand better how the
24 G. Hennansen, 'The population of imperial Rome', Historia 27 (1978), 129-168; F. CoarelIi, 'La
consistenza della ciua nel periodo imperiale: pomerium, vici, insulae', in La Rome imperiale:
demographie et logistique. Actes de la table ronde (Rome, 25 mars, 1994) (Roma 1997),89-109.
2S So F. Coarelli, in Lo Cascio 2000, op.cit. (n.6), 226f.
26 On vici, A. Fraschetti , Roma e il Principe (RomaIBari 1990) 204-273 is fundamental, also Zanker
1988, op.cit. (n.l7), 129-135; the fullest detail on individual vici is now provided by the Lexicon
Topographicum Urbis Romae (LTUR) vol. V (Rome 1999), 151-201, with entries on some 116 vici.
27 D. Harvey, The Urban Experience (Oxford 1989).
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city operates at this micro-level, I want to focus on the vici. The sources tell
us the they were the key to the Augustan urban order. The question is how?
Here I have four observations to offer.
One critical issue is the extent to which the Augustan vici should be
seen as a 'top-down' imposition of an administrative system on the urban
fabric, as opposed to a 'bottom-up' manifestation oflocal solidarity. There is a
considerable literature by urban sociologists and geographers on neighbourhood associations, though this is typically focused on the twentieth century
western city, with too little consideration of pre-modern and third-world
situations. 28 Even in the modem western city, the neighbourhood is a highly
complex phenomenon: too deeply affected by planning and other restraints
to be purely 'natural' groups, and too ambivalent and fissiparous to be
satisfactorily pinned down by city authorities. 29 It is striking that even in the
squatter towns that are the informal outgrowth of some third-world cities,
like Manila, tightly organized neighbourhood groups emerge to play a
critical function in helping inhabitants orient themselves in the wider urban
environment, carefully policing intruders, and providing mutual support for
families knit together by links of patronage. 30
Whether you look at modem cities or pre-industrial ones,
neighbourhood groups represent a whole gamut of possibilities. At one
extreme there are the illegitimate groups that terrify the law-enforcement
authorities, whether the street gangs of New York, or the control of patches
by drug-pushers or prostitution-racketeers, or the more formalised control of
Palermo or Naples by competing mafia or Camorra families, whose primary
concern is to fight each other for the turf. At the other extreme are highly
respectable groupings, in particular the parish (a key to urban order in
medieval and early modem Europe), or at the most banal level schemes like
'neighbourhood watch' in the UK, organised by the police to get groups of
neighbours to defend each other against burglary, encouraged by discounts
on insurance premiums. It should not therefore be taken for granted that
neighbourhood groupings lead to urban order. Rather the issue is the
28
Thus the classic works of the 'Chicago School', e.g. R. Park, Human Communities: the City and
Human Ecologies (Glencoe, 11. 1952).
29 Particularly valuable is the emphasis of the New Urbailist school on the lived experience of streets:
J. Jacobs, Systems of Survival (New York 1992); K. Lynch, Good City Form (Cambridge, Mass.
1991). Their approach is drawn on to excellent effect by J. Hartnett, Streets, Street Architecture, and
Social Presentation in Roman Italy (University of Michigan doctoral dissertation 2003).
30 M. Hollnsteiner-Racelis, 'Becoming an urbanite: the neighbourhood as a leaming environment' in:
J. Gugler, ed., The Urbanization of the Third World (Oxford 1988),230-241.
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relationship between the authorities and the wide variety of groupings that
arise at grass-roots level.
The ancient sources on Augustus' urban refonns have proved too
successful in their tendentious representation of Augustus as reviving a deep
Roman tradition. The account in Dionysius of Halicamassus, attributing to
Servius Tullius the entire institution of vici and the celebration in them of the
campitalia, should be recognized as a characteristic Augustan 'invention of
tradition', the legitimisation of a radical refonn by its retrojection on the
mythological past. 3 ! Hence the unfruitful debate between Mommsen and
Waltzing over the degree to which already before Augustus there existed
fonnally structured neighbourhood organisations (callegia) with officials
(magistri) and festivals at crossroads (campita). The detailed discussion by
Augusto Fraschetti leaves little doubt that though crossroad shrines were
indeed a traditional focus of local loyalties, vici were not part of the fonnal
organisation of the republican city, which seems to have preserved to
Cicero's day the archaic division into mantes and pagi celebrated in the
festivals of the Septimontiurn and Paganalia. 32
Though the campitalia were part of the official calendar, vici before
Augustus seem to have been infonnal groupings. Certainly, as far as the
historical narrative of the late republic is concerned, vici emerge not as part of
a fonnal administrative system, but as a focus for the activities of radical
politicians, from Marius Gratidianus, through Catiline's henchman Lentulus,
caught by Cicero sending agents around the vici to recruit support for
revolution and incendiarism, to the role of Sex Cloelius in running the ludi
campitalicii, to Clodius and his recruitment of alleged gangs by some sort of
act of fonnal enrolment vicatim, carried out on the Aurelian tribunal in the
forum. 33 The common thread here is that the viei act as potentially subversive
fonnations which empower the plebs infima, craftsmen and artisans, including
people of servile origin, and act as a potential reservoir of alternative power
31 Dionysius Halicarnasseus 4.14.3-4. Fraschetti 1990, op.cit. (n.26), 204-210 argues that the passage
precedes the Augustan refonn, not to my mind convincingly. For similar retrojection by Dionysius of
patronage, cf. A.wallace-Hadrill, ed., Patronage in Ancient Society (London 1989), 66-68. On the
concept of invented tradition, E. Hobsbawm & T. Ranger, The Invention o/Tradition (Cambridge 1983).
32 Fraschetti 1990, op.cit. (n.26), 123-203, with full references to previous discussion.
33 On Marius Gratidianus, Cicero, De Officiis 3.80; cf Pliny, Naturalis Historia 34.27; on Catiline,
Sallust, Catilina 50; Cicero, In Catilinam 4.17; on Clodius and Sex Cloelius, Cicero, In Pisonem 8 and
23; Asconius ad loco p.7, 11.9-26 Clark; on Clodius and the Aurelian steps, Cicero, Pro Sestio 34:
servorum dilectus habebatur pro tribunali Aurelio nomine collegiorum, cum vicatim homines
conscriberentur, decuriarentur. ... See Fraschetti 1990, op.cit. (n.26), 210-250.
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into which the revolutionary can tap.34 The model, in a word, is the street gang
not the parish. The skill of Augustus lies in his appropriation of local power
networks. In representing his reform as a 'restoration of tradition', he tames a
form of power once seen as subversive, and harnesses it to the new system.
That process of harnessing is most visible in the new application of
viei to administrative purposes. The first express acknowledgement of their
administrative potential is in Caesar's dictatorship, when a census is taken
vieatim through owners of domus and insulae; and taken up by AugustuS. 35
Both Caesar and Augustus seem to have been concerned with the lists of
entitlement to grain and other benefits, which may provide the clue to Clodius'
activities too. A gradual process of acknowledgement of the potential of
neighbourhood groups underlies the reform of BC 7, the date supplied by both
Cassius Dio's narrative and the majority of dedications by vieomagistri (a
couple of exceptions seem to point to the years between 12 and 7).36
From now on each vieus has its annual college of 4 magistri and 4
ministri, and acts under authority of the magistrate attributed to the regio. In
Dio's narrative the initial context is concern for fire-control, and the firemen
for each regio are put under the local authority of the vieomagistri, though
this system is shortlived, and the definitive system is regio-based. But it
signals the perception that in the emperor's mind the vici form part of an
integrated system by which the city is run. What remains undocumented is
the connection between the praefeetus urbi and his central documentation of
the city in the Forum Pacis and the vici as a unit and mechanism for
assembling this knowledge. 37 Nevertheless, it seems to me that what the
Regionary Catalogues reflect is an articulated system of knowledge and
control in which the viei play a critical role. 38
But the emphasis on administrative convenience masks the social
processes which gave the vici their real power. Zanker has brought out how
The importance of the populares for the Augustan reform is stressed by R. Laurence, 'The Urban
Vicus: the spatial organisation of power in the Roman city', in E. Herring, R. Whitehouse & J.
Wilkins, eds, Papers of the Fourth Conference of Italian Archaeology I The Archaeology of Power,
34
Part I (London 1991), 145-152.
Suetonius Iulius 41.3: recensum populi nec more nec loco solito, sed vicatim per dominos insularum
egit atque ex viginti trecentisque milibus accipientium frumentum e publico ad centum quinquaginta
retraxit; Augustus 40.2, populi recensum vicatim egit, ac ne plebs frumentationum causa frequentius
ab negotiis avocaretur, ter in annum quatemum mensium tesseras dare destinavit; sed desideranti
consuetudinem veterem concessit rursus, ut sui cuiusque mensis acciperet.
36 Dio Cassius 55.8.6-7; Fraschetti 1990, op.cit. (n.26), 250-268 rightly underlines the innovatory
power of Augustus' apparent 'restoration of tradition'.
37 See Coarelli 2000, op.cit. (n.25).
38 See Wallace-Hadri1l2001, op.cit. (n. 6), 136-141.
35
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Augustan ideology of pietas is diffused socially, and has drawn particular
attention to the altars of the vieomagistri, and the role of cult in creating a
channel of communication between the ruler and his people. 39 Building on that
insight, we may observe that the cult goes beyond a two-way communication
between ruler and people, in having the effect of incorporating an otherwise
marginalised group (ex-slaves being marked above all by rules of exclusion)
within the system of imperial order. The essence of civilitas is a social pact of
mutual respect. What catches our attention is the inclusion of the Genius
Augusti among the Lares and the implicit veneration of the emperor
throughout the capital, ward by ward. 4o But of equal importance is the
reciprocal respect afforded to the vieomagistri themselves. Just as much as the
imperial cult afforded cities an arena for competition for local respect,41 the
new system of viei offered the city neighbourhoods, and above all the
craftsmen and artisans of low status who provided their backbone, a field of
competition within which local distinction could find expression.
The social issues at stake come out in two passages by Augustan
authors, Dionysius and Livy, who both seem to be projecting onto the
republican past the concerns of the Augustan age (but in the process have
caused much confusion and argument). Dionysius describes the eompitalia as
an institution of Servius Tullius, and appends a revealing social comment:
"And in the rituals they preserve the ancient usage of making
offerings to the heroes (i.e. Lares) through slaves, and for those
days they eliminate all signs of servitude, to the end that the
slaves, reconciled by such a grand and solemn sentiment of
humanity, should become more grateful to their patrons and better
tolerate the weight of their destiny." (Antiquitates Romanae
4.14.4)
Involvement of slaves in the ritual of the eompitalia is seen as a mechanism
of binding slaves into the social system. Livy's comment, by contrast, is
focus on the degree of social dignity permitted to the vicomagistri. The
comment is put in the mouth of a tribune of 195, L. Valerius, contrasting the
Zanker 1988, op.cit. (n.17), 129-135.
M. Beard, 1. North & S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome I: A History (Cambridge 1998), 184-186
underlines the topographical incorporation of the emperor into the fabric of the city - but not of the
vicomagistri into the fabric ofthe state.
41 S.R.F. Price, Rituals and Power. The Roman imperial cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge 1984).
39
40
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widespread use of purple as a status symbol for magistrates, priests, children,
and local magistrates to the exclusion of women from the use of purple:
"Can we allow the right, here in Rome, to men of the lowest sort,
magistri vicorum, of wearing the toga praetexta, and not only to
wear this status symbol in life but even to be cremated with it in
death, and not allow the use of purple to women?,.42
Leaving aside all the problems of when these passages were written, in both
are clear the assumptions that the men involved in the compitalia or the vici,
even the magistrates, were of the lowest status (infimo genere) and that at the
heart of the ritual was an appreciation of the respect it allowed them. The
symbolical importance of wearing the toga praetexta is similarly highlighted
by Dio (55.8.6-7), who adds that the vicomagistri were entitled to the use of
two lictors within their zone; and it is already prefigured by Cicero's sharp
criticisms of Piso for permitting Sex. Cloelius to celebrate neighbourhood
games praetextatus (In Pisonem 8 and 23).
About the fulfilment of this respect, the Augustan and post-Augustan
monuments are eloquent. 43 The scenes depicted on the altars, like that of the
Vicus Aesculetius, at once make the tribune Valerius' point: the freedmen
vicomagistri in their purple bordered togas, caught in mid ritual like the best of
Roman magistrates, glow with local pride. 44 The reciprocity of the exchange is
explicit on scenes like that of the Belvedere altar: in the act of handing his
Lares, the Lares Augusti, to the local magistrates, he gives them respect, and
demands it back from them. 45 This same reciprocity is prefigured in
Suetonius' account of the precious statues donated by Augustus to individual
vici from the New Year's day tips given to him (Augustus 57): what the
Roman people give to him, he gives to them. Or take the simple but
Livy 34.7.2-3: Purpura viri utemur, praetextatt m magistratibus, in sacerdotiis; liberi nostri
praetextis purpura togis utentur; magistratibus in coloniis municipiisque, hic Romae infimo genere,
magistris vicorum, togae praetextae habendae ius permittemus, nec ut vivi solum habeant tantum
insigne sed etiam ut cum eo crementur mortui: feminis dumtaxat purpurae usu interdicemus. On the
Augustan stamp of the entire passage, see N. Purcell, 'Livia and the womanhood of Rome',
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 32 (1986), 83f.
43 For detailed discussion, P. Zanker, 'Ober die Werkstatten augusteischer Larenaltare und damit
zusarnmenhangende Probleme der Interpretation' , Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica
Comunaledi Roma 82 (1970171),147-155.
44 Zanker 1988, op.cit. (n.l7), 133, fig.l08; O.L. Oregori & M. Mattei, eds., Supplementa Italica
Imagines. Roma (CIL. I) Musei Capitolini (Rome 1999),32-33, nr. 6.
45 Zanker 1988, op.cit. (n.17), 133, fig. I 09; Beard, North & Price 1998, op.cit. (n. 40), 187, 4.3.
42
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exquisitely elegant carving of the altar of the Vicus Statae Matris. 46 The
symbol of what made Augustus august, the oak wreath for saving the lives of
citizens (dves, we note), surrounds the names of four slaves, the ministri of
year VI. We should not too easily take for granted the capacity of Roman
visual expression not merely to mirror the Roman social hierarchy, but to push
its language to the limits, investing the slave with the dignity of the citizen in a
reference that goes to the symbolic heart ofthe Augustan principate.
A more sophisticated example is offered by the long inscription from
an anonymous vicus in Testaccio behind the Porticus Aemilia termed the
Fasti Magistrorum Vici, and included by Degrassi in his publication of the
Fasti. 47 The inscription is split between the two faces of the same stone. Each
side parades in its upper half six months of the calendar and in its lower part
one of two lists of magistrates, an arrangement that implies that the two are a
mirror image. The first is of the consuls and censors, starting from Augustus'
first consulship. The second is the fasti of the magistri of this particular
vicus, dating back to their inaugural year, 7 BC. The statement that
vicomagistri are worthy of fasti just like consuls could hardly be more
pointed. But just in case we are lulled into thinking that this inscription
served an essentially administrative function, of recording the names of
officials responsible year by year, Riipke has pointed out that the list fell far
short of efficiency.48 The magistrates of the first 9 years are listed, down to
AD 2/3. Suddenly the college of AD 14 intervenes; the list returns to 5/6,
then back to 18, then to 21. It was up to the individual colleges to cover the
costs of adding their own names to the monument, and not all were as
enthusiastic at this self-promotion as others. By no coincidence, the
magistrates of 14 and 21 were the same people, and they enthusiastically
filled up any spare gap on the stone.
Possibly something similar is at work on the greatest of all vicus
monuments, the honorific altar from the Capitoline dedicated to Hadrian in
AD 136 'by the magistri vicorum of the 14 regions of the city,.49 That is what
the inscription says, yet what we have is at best a fraction, some 66 of the over
265 yid. But for once it is not because the inscription is fragmentary. It starts,
Supplementa Italica Imagines 1999, op.cit. (n. 44), 30-31, nr.5.
A. Degrassi, Inscriptiones Italiae XIII. 1 (1947),279-290; G. Mancini, 'Fasti consolari e censorii ed
elenco di vicomagistri rinvenuti in via Marmorata', Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica
Comunale di Roma 63 (1935), 35-79, with Degrassi, ibidem, 173-178.
48 1. Riipke, 'Les archives des petits colleges. Le cas des Vicomagistri', in La Memoire perdue.
de Rome 243 (1998),27-44.
Recherches sur I 'administration romaine. Collection de I' Ecole Fran~ise
49 elL VI 975 with 31218; ILS 6073; Supplementa Italica Imagines 1999, op.cit. (n.44), 112-115, nr.
169.
46
47
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on the left side, with 9 viei from Regio I (only a selection), goes on to 6 from
Regio X (a smaller selection), then to 17 from Regio XIII (this could be the
full list). The right side jumps back to Regio XII, with 12 vici, and finishes
with 22 from Regio XN (making Trastevere easily the best-known region).
The back of the monument is blank, which makes it extraordinarily unlikely
that the other Regions ever featured. It was seemingly up to each region and
vicus to decide whether to finance the extra stone cutting. 50 The names we see
are the result of local pride and the desire for self-advertisement. It may be no
coincidence that it is in the peripheral Trastevere that the local magistri show
most competitive zeal to memorialize themselves.
My argument that the viei are a system of local social respect is not
undermined by this failure. Augustus might like us to have a rosy picture of
everyone buying into his system. But there is great latitude for variation, and
not everyone cared equally at all periods or in all neighbourhoods. I draw
attention to one final bit of evidence, which is the funerary inscriptions of
those, typically craftsmen, who state their vicus on their tombstone. Take the
Vicus Longus of the Viminal (Regio VI). We have a nice couple, Nostia
Daphne the hairdresser and her partner Nerius Quadratus the goldsmith. Then
there is Daphne's freedwoman Nostia Cleopatra, a hairdresser too. Finally
there is Servilia Aucta from the Vicus Longus by the statue of Plancus
(probably Munatius).51 But then, what about all the tradesmen who omitted to
mention their vieus? I count only 24 individuals from 14 vici who expressed
their local affiliation in this way, out of the tens of thousands of funerary
inscriptions. 52 To return to the Vicus Longus, what do we make of Q. Fabius
Theogonus the pigmentarius who traded on the Esquiline near the statue of
Plancus, who omits the name of the vicus?53 It emerges that the vieus was
indeed a potential source of local pride and identity to the petty traders of
Rome; but that it did not necessarily work for all of them all of the time.
I started by raising the issue of the role of ideal and praxis in the
formation of city fabric. What I think emerges from my review of the evidence
is that we cannot regard vici as a sort of administrative structure imposed on
the urban fabric by the authorities. Vici are deeply rooted in praxis, a grassroots neighbourhood formation which is recruited by Augustus to support his
urban order. It follows that what we should expect on the ground is not a sort
so So Riipke 1998, op.cit. (n.48), 33-36.
CIL VI 37469 (Nostia Oaphne and Nerius Quadratus); 9736 (Nostia Oaphnidis I. Cleopatra); 10023
(Servilia Aucta).
S2 The count is based on the material in LTUR V (above).
S3 CIL VI, 9673.
SI
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of ideal order, but the natural agglomeration of activities that arise from the
economic life of the city. In the final part of this paper, I want to attempt to
restore the vicus to some sort of archaeological visibility. While in Pompeii it is
relatively easy to grasp a sense of neighbourhood, 54 in Rome it is exceptionally
difficult, because the archaeology of non-monumental Rome is so badly
neglected. I can offer no more than a few fragments.
For a vision of a compital shrine, we are reduced to a single
monument, the Compitum Acilii. 55 Its fragmentary survival is owed to a
double destruction. Because of its position at the bottom of a slope near the
valley of the Colosseum, it was first demolished by Nero in his post-fire
construction of the Domus Aurea (ironically for my argument, our single
shrine thus illustrates the lack of imperial respect for a local neighbourhood!);
it was then rediscovered during Mussolini's destructive building of the Via
dell'Impero. It illustrates the form of aedicula or temple in miniature, which is
often referred to in compital inscriptions (the Regionary Catalogues claim one
for each vicus). The aedicula stands to the vicomagister as the aedes to the
state magistrate.
In association with the aedicula one should look for some sort of
assembly hall - the word schola is favoured by modem scholarship - in
which the vicus officials could meet, keep their records (album), and surely
also feast (not specifically attested).56 The Fasti Magistrorum Vici from the
Via Marmorata were found in association with one such schola. 57 Its
dimensions are generous enough (12.10 x 6.60 m.) to allow substantial
gatherings. The niches, I note, would be handy for honorific statues, if any
could afford them, or at least for honorific inscriptions.
Both schola and aedicula would be suitable locations for the altars
which constitute the typical surviving compital monument. The altar of the
Vicus Aesc(u)leti was discovered in 1887 during the construction of the Via
Arenula, which slices through the grain of the ancient road pattern. It was
54 For the Pompeian material see the full discussion of W. van Andringa, 'Autels de carrefour,
organisation vicinale et rapports de voisinage 11 Pompei', Riyista di Studi Pompeiani II (2000),47-86.
55 Zanker 1988, op.cit. (n.17), 130-132; LTUR I, 314-315 s.v. Compitum Acilium; M. Dondrin-Payre,
'Topographie et propaganda gentilice: le compitum Acilium et l'origine des Acilii Glabriones', in
L 'Urbs. Espace urbain et histoire (Actes Colloque Rome, 1987), 87-109. On compital shrines, G.
Pisani Sartorio, 'Compita Larum: edicole sacre di Roma antica' in Edicole Sacre Romane (1990), 65ff.
56 LTUR IV, 243-261 collects toponyms identified as Scholae; on the type of structure, see B.
Bollmann, Romische Vereinshiiuser. Untersuchungen zu den Scholae der romischen Berufs-, Kult- und
Augustalen-Kollegien in [talien (Mainz 1998), esp 180-195 on Rome.
57 LTUR IV, 260-261 s.v. Schola (via Marmorata).
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associated with a pavement inscribed by the magistri vici Aescleti anni VIllI. 58
Thirty years later, the Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia was constructed in the
same spot, fragments of two further inscriptions emerged, but were never
reported. By a fine piece of detective work, Silvio Panciera has shown that
they came from dedications by the magistrates of the first year (i.e. 7 BC), and
by a group under Domitian who undertook restoration. 59 Because the
construction of both the Via Arenula and the Ministry were undertaken with
total lack of interest in the ancient urban fabric, we have lost a golden chance
to reconstruct the context of these inscriptions.
However, we have only to move a few yards westwards down the
same ancient road to meet an exceptional instance of an ancient vicus that is
preserved in the modem street pattern. The Vicus [Sta]blarius is one of only
three vicus names preserved on the Severan marble plan. 60 Emilio
Rodriguez-Almeida brilliantly demonstrated that the fragments belonged
near the Theatre of Pompey, and with a minimum of stretching fitting
perfectly into the modem street plan. 61 Lorenzo Quilici, in the course of
excavations near to S. Paolo alIa Regola, was able to show that the street
plan of the southern Campus Martius preserves extensively that of the
imperial period. 62 If we return to the Vicus Stablarius pattern, we may be
struck (as by other fragments of the same plan) by the dense network of
shops and small businesses that dominate the urban fabric.
It would be enormously valuable to see a vicus on the ground, not just
on a street plan. Rome offers just one exceptional example of something more
approaching an urban setting. The exhibition, Antiche Stanze, which 5 years
ago meticulously reconstructed the excavations in the Termini area, never
published since their demolition in 1948, called the area it reconstructed 'un
quartiere di Roma imperiale,.63 'Quartiere' is maybe an overstatement. In
antique terms, to reach the level of quartiere or contrada (or the various other
local divisions of the medieval city) you would need to look at a regio rather
than a vicus; and even for the latter, unless the statistics gravely mislead, you
LTUR I, 316 s.y. Compitum yici Aesc(u)leti.
S. Panciera, 'Ancora tra epigrafia e topografia' in L 'Urbs 1987, op.cit. (n. 55), 62-73.
60 LTUR V, 190-191.
61 E. Rodriguez Almeida, 'Forma Urbis Marmorea: nuoye integrazioni', Bullettino della Commissione
Archeologica Comunale di Roma 82 (1970171),113-115.
62 L. Quilici, '11 Campo Marzio occidentale' in Citta e architettura. Analecta Romana Instituti Danici
suppl. 10 (1983),59-85.
63 M. Barbera & R. Paris, eds., Antiche Stanze. Un quartiere di Roma imperiale nella zona di Termini.
Museo Nazionale Romano Terme Diocleziano, Roma dicembre 1996-giugno 1997 (Milan 1996).
S8
S9
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would be looking at 5-10 hectares, something more like one of Fiorelli's
regiones ofPompeii, composed of a good dozen urban blocks.
This is just a corner of a vicus, but it is enough to reveal something of
its cellular structure. I have in other contexts drawn attention to the way it
illustrates the mixture of rich and poor, of luxury and commerce. 64 There is a
dominant property, with fairly spectacular decoration, which we may call a
domus, though it evidently forms part of an insula. 65 But attached to the domus
is a range of rentable and commercial property. That it is interlinked is
emphasised by the network of drains, which connect all 5 blocks, and point to
simultaneous construction in the reign of Hadrian, presumably by a single
proprietor, possibly a member of the imperial family.66 Most conspicuously,
there is a balneum, a bath suite that is evidently intended for more than private
use by the residents. 67 There is commercial activity, in a fullery.68 There is a
good chance of rented cenacula above the domus, for though the curators of
the exhibition imagine the upper floor must have been restricted to slaves or
family members, the breadth of stairway and the external access would be
taken elsewhere as a sure sign of rental space. 69 Certainly there is rental
property in the complex of blocks over the road (CID). We can see the telltale
inner stairways of shop/flat units, and the exterior staircases of cenacula. 70
My interest in this context is attracted by the North Eastern block (B),
which butts against the Servian Agger. This was excavated during the first
construction of the station in the 1860s, and the records and details are
unclear. What is evident is that the lower floor is built around a single room of
exception size, and also, as Parker's photograph reveals, of exceptional height.
This has been interpreted as an unusually luxurious private apartment. 71 That
seems to me implausible, and I would rather see in it a large space for some
sort of communal activity along the lines of a schola or collegium. A parallel
See A. Wallace-Hadrill, 'Domus and Insulae in Rome: Families and Housefuls', in D.L. Balch & C.
Osiek, eds., Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue (Ann Arbor,
forthcoming 2003), ch. I.
6S EI-II, 13-16, 19-20,31: Barbera & Paris 1996, op.cit. (n. 63), 71-115.
66 Barbera & Paris 1996, op.cit. (n. 63),179-189
67 E12, 17-18,24-30,30,32-34,36: Barbera & Paris 1996, op.cit. (n. 63),117-167.
68 E21: Barbera& Paris 1996, op.cit. (n. 63),170-171.
69 Barbera & Paris 1996, op.cit. (n. 63), 71; contrast F. Pirson, Mietwohnungen in Pompeji und
Herkulaneum. Untersuchungen zur Architektur. zum Wohnen and zur Sozial- und
Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Vesuvstiidte (Munich 1999), esp. 75ff. on the implication of external stairs.
70 External stairs are visible in plan at C2 and 01; internal stairs at CS, 02-5.
71 Barbera & Paris 1996, op.cit. (n. 63),185-187.
64
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could be the collegium of the Augustales at Herculaneum. 72 This is both a
shrine and a meeting place, surely used for feasting; and it is the place where
the lists of the Augustales were displayed. It seems to me that there is a close
parallel between the local pride evinced by the Augustales of a small town,
and that of the magistri of a vicus in Rome.
What I see here is a rhythm of interconnected private spaces
(residences and shops), and common spaces (the balneum, and my suggested
scholalcollegium), as of residential and commercial. How does imperial
power 'inscribe itself on this complex? Not, we note, by rectilinear
planning: the angle introduced by the long bend of the Servian wall
generates an angle of 30 degrees, which is skilfully accommodated by the
architect in the ship-like prow in which the domus nestles. Yet there is a
good possibility that the investors were members of the imperial family
itself. Imperial order is visible in the high quality brick and concrete
construction of all these units, in the interconnectedness of the drains, the
healthy obsession with bathing, replicated so many times across the city; but
also I suggest in a sense of ordered local neighbourhood with focal points of
social interaction, local dignity, and respect for the system.
My argument, then, is that the way imperial power inscribes itself in
the ordinary urban fabric of the city is not so much about creating an 'ideal
city' of well-ordered grid patterns and straight avenues with vistas, but rather
about penetrating the socio-urban fabric, of acknowledging the potentially
dangerous clusters of local neighbourhoods and the 'low-life' they represent,
and by a social pact of offering respect recruiting them to a collusion in the
process of ordering the city. Emperors favoured grid plans, of course, and
when they had the chance like Nero constructed broad avenues with buildings
following strict regulations. But we never hear of them embarking on
programs of slum clearance, like Mussolini or twentieth-century town
planners. Respectful of property rights, they embraced local communities to
avoid alienation and recruit support for the system. It is, I suggest, in concern
for urban order at this micro-level, as much as in the macro-level of the
seating system of the Colosseum, that Roman imperial power displays its
chosen colours.
Rome, July 2003.
G. Guadagno, 'Herculanensium Augustalium aedes', Cronache Ercolanesi 13 (1983),
159-173; Bollmann 1998, op.cit. (n. 56), 348-354.
72
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THE EMPEROR AND PUBLIC WORKS IN THE CITY OF ROME
By
GERDA DE KLEIJN
The way that the public image of Roman emperors was shaped has been the
object of scholarly study since Zanker published his Augustus und die Macht
der Bilder. In many cases, these studies concentrate on the messages that the
man in power tried to convey with the structures he had built, his art program,
his coins, his inscriptions, and so on. They deal with the interpretation of
sculpture, with building policy, with the location of inscriptions and statues, and
with the communication of the emperor's virtues.
However, the perception of imperial power results not only from the
image that an emperor is able to communicate, but also from his deeds and
benefactions. As Beranger wrote: "L'exercice du pouvoir est inseparable des
soucis. Imperare, curare (cppoYriS€tv) ne sont pas pour rien synonymes. Le
second sonnait mieux que le premier et presentait sous un jour favorable
l'activite du chef"l In this view ruling implies taking care of, providentia 2
In this paper, I will return to the representation of power as indicated in
the words of Beranger. I hope to demonstrate that Agrippa's efforts in the
sphere of public works in the city of Rome supported Octavian's/Augustus'
ruling position from 33 BC onwards. It is my aim to show that these efforts
were effective not only because Augustus gave the impression that something
was done for the people in the city, but also because these efforts really did
make a difference to the living conditions of those people.
In his Plebs and Princeps, Yavetz argues that the aedileship of Agrippa
in 33 BC was meant to demonstrate the ruler's concern for the common people?
I think he is right. In the long term, however, such a demonstration will only
survive in the memories of the people if the emperor continues his efforts.
This paper will discuss that part of Agrippa's activities in the field of
urban public works that may have had a substantial effect on day-to-day life in
the city. For that reason, it will centre neither on public works like temples,
theatres and other magnificent buildings, nor on gifts to the people. The focus is
on those public works that are hardly visible to the eye because they lie
J. Beranger, Recherches sur l'aspectideo!ogique du pn·ncipat (Basel 1953), 195.
For providentia and other imperial virtues on the coins of later emperors see C.F. Norefla, 'The
Communication of the Emperor's Virtues', Journal o/Roman Studies 91 (200 I), 146-168.
3 Z. Yavetz, Plebs and Princeps (Oxford 1988, rev. ed.), 89.
I
2
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underground for the most part, the real infrastructure. Those are the sewers and
the water supply.
The significance of the urban infrastructure is recognized for instance by
Schneider, who suggested that a clearly effective infrastructure is important for
the legitimacy of the emperor's power. 4 This may be true in the first century
AD, but where did this idea stem from? Were the initial years of
Octavian'sIAugustus' reign decisive? Emily Gowers, analysing the symbolic
value of the Cloaca Maxima, called attention to a metaphor of Varr0 5 In his
Menippean satire Marcopolis, Varro compared a city to a human body: sensus
portae, venae hydragogiae, clauaca intestini. The senses are the gates, the veins
the aqueductslwaterworks, the sewers the intestines. 6 In this analogy of the
body, the aqueduct is given the role of vein containing essential liquid, and the
sewer is given the role of waste-disposal unit. Just as veins and intestines are
essential for human well being, a city cannot do without aqueducts and sewers.
At the end of the republic, Rome was in bad health. The population of
the city must have grown enormously, especially in the first half of the first
century BC. Nevertheless, from 125 BC onwards, not a single new aqueduct
had been commissioned and illegal tapping occurred frequently.7 Civil war and
political strife must have consumed almost all financial resources. It is safe to
assume that little attention was paid to the maintenance of the sewers and the
upkeep of the existing aqueducts. Therefore, both the water supply and the
drainage systems must have been in bad condition.
In 36 BC, Agrippa defeated Sextus Pompeius at the battle ofNaulochus
in order to secure the corn transports to the city and bring its food shortage to an
end. By that time, the office of aedile was so little sought after that no
candidates for election were available. 8 A few years later, in 33 BC, the year
that started with Octavianus as consul (ll), Agrippa took the office of aedile and
performed his assignment in a remarkable way. In addition to games, presents,
free entrance to the baths throughout the year, and a distribution of olive oil and
salt, he took in hand and paid for the repairs to public buildings, streets, sewers,
and aqueducts. 9
H. Schneider, 'Infrastruktur Wld politische Legitimation im truhen Prinzipat', Opus 5 (1986),23-51.
E. Gowers, 'The Anatomy of Rome from Capitol to Cloaca', Journal oJRoman Studies 85 (1995), 23-32;
H. 8auer, 'Cloaca Maxima' in E.M. Steinby (ed.), Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae, vo!. 1, A-C
(Rome 1993).
6 J.-P. Cebe, Vanvn, Satires Menippees. Edition, traduction et commentaire, vo!. 8, Marcopolis-Mysten'a
(Rome 1987), Fragment 292 (290).
7 Sextus Iulius Frontinus, De aquis urbis Romae 76.1-2.
8 Dio Cassius 49.16.2.
9 Dio Cassius 49.43.1-4.
4
5
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Cloacae
Dio Cassius, telling about Agrippa's activities as aedile, brings the purging of
the sewers into prominence. It is one of the first events that he records for the
year 33 BC. Even the boat trip that Agrippa made through the Cloaca Maxima
after he had unblocked mountains of debris, is recorded for 33 BC. ID If Dio is
right, Agrippa started the process of city recovery right from the beginning of
his period of involvement in urban life. He saw to the cleaning of the sewer
system at the first possible moment and brought it to a favourable conclusion at
great speed. Excess rainwater and street refuse were carried down, so that fewer
people had to walk the streets with their feet wet in the dirt. Near
contemporaries of Agrippa like the authors Dionysius of Halicarnassus who
lived in Rome from 30 BC, and Strabo who visited the city a little later,
included the sewers when they expressed great admiration for the capital of the
· 11
Roman E mplre.
Nevertheless, cleaning up sewers cannot have been an accepted way to
earn fame. This kind of activity must have been lowest in esteem. As a
consequence, " ... one cannot purge a city of its dirt except by staining (. .. ), in
Agrippa's case, one's public image.,,12 Rather, Agrippa's taking up the office of
aedile after his terms as praetor (40 BC) and consul (37 BC) as well as his
efforts in favour of the city sewers, show that this co-worker of Octavian was
kowtowing to the people of Rome.
Water supply
Up to the first century BC, water from the existing aqueducts was distributed
from castella, which were situated just inside the republican city wall. They
must have distributed the greater part of the water that reached the city within
the area enclosed by the wall. In the first half of the first century BC, however,
magnificent gardens were built north of the city, and luxurious villas were
constructed on the right bank of the Tiber. And what is more, during the civil
wars, people from the lower strata of society probably settled in Transtiberim,
on the Campus Martius, and along the via Appia. Because of the lack of
archaeological evidence it is impossible to know for certain whether
Transtiberim received water (from the aquae Appia, Anio Vetus or Marcia)
through the Tiber bridges. It is, however, not very likely, since little attention
Dio Cassius 49.43.1; Plinius Maior, Historia Naturalis 36.104.
Dionysius Halicarnassensis, Antiquitotes Romanae ill.67.5; Strabo 5.3.8.
12 Gowers 1995, op.cit. (n.5), 31.
10
11
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had been paid to the aqueducts in that period of time. Nor is it plausible that
buildings on the Campus Martius and the horti beyond were supplied with water
from the aqueducts. So the people living outside the city wall must have still
relied on traditional sources such as wells, cisterns and the river to meet their
need for water.
When Agrippa took over the responsibility for the urban water supply in
33 BC, he saw to it that the three older aqueducts were repaired. 13 Also he
ensured that the aqua Tepula was interrupted in order to join this aqueduct with
the aqua Iulia under construction. 14 When his aedileship came to an end,
Agrippa did not withdraw from his task, but pursued his activities, as if he were
- as Frontinus put it - a curator aquarnm for the rest of his life. The aqua Virgo
is an eye-catching result of this.
The volume of water entering the city must have increased considerably
(see table 1}. Around 25 BC, the volume must have sufficed for the inhabitants
of the city. The quantity available in 19 BC probably created the right condition
for ample water use, for example in the baths of Agrippa and in water works in
gardens in or near the city centre.
From Frontinus' introduction to one of the senatus consulta on the issue
of water supply from 11 BC, it can be inferred that under Agrippa's leadership
public fountains were built in the entire urban area, inside as well as outside the
republican city wall. 15 This implies that Agrippa extended the distribution
network beyond the Servian Wall. Although Frontinus does not mention
explicitly that Agrippa started this extension right from the beginning of his
activities in 33 BC, it is likely that this was the case. The most obvious
indication is the building of the Specus Octavianus, a branch from the Anio
Vetus, leading to a distribution point near the via Appia, south of Porta Capena.
Judging by the name of this branch, it was built before 27 BC. It must have
served the area along the Via Appia. Furthermore it is likely that Agrippa saw to
it that the older aqueducts were pushed on to Transtiberim and to the Campus
Martius before he built the aqua Virgo. 16 The latter aqueduct was finished in 19
Frontinus, De aquis urbis Ramae 9.9.
Frontinus, De aquis urbis Ramae 9.1-2.
15 Frontinus, De aquis urbis Ramae 104.1.
16 Frontinus, De aquis urbis Romae 11.1 mentions that Augustus had the aqua Alsietina built in 2 BC for his
Naumachia Augusti in order not to exhaust the water supply for that part of the city. If so, other aqueducts
must have brought water into Transtiberim at that moment of time. In addition to the aqua Virgo, these
aqueducts must have been the aquae Appia, Anio Vetus and Marcia, of which Frontinus wrote that they
supplied the right Tiber bank. The regiones VII and IX also received water from aqueducts repaired by
Agrippa (De aquis urbis Romae 79.2; 80.2; 81.2). See R. Taylor, 'A citiore ripa aquae: Aqueduct river
crossings in the ancient city of Rome' , Papers o/the British School at Rome 63 (1995),75-103.
13
14
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BC, and was the first to have its end outside the republican city wall. It must
have distributed its water outside the wall right from the start. Only after this
aqueduct was finished was water available in sufficient quantity to supply the
baths of Agrippa, and maybe some of the gardens in the north and at the
opposite Tiber bank (see figure 1).
\
\
\
, YII
\
•
]X
\
\
~
•
Repub·lcan Castelh.Jm
•
c...tellum made by
Agnppa
I
/'
\
I
/
~.-
~/
\
I
N
I
y.
Figure 1
In republican times, the water brought to the city by means of the
aqueducts was meant for the public at large. Some of this water was given to the
grounds of the most distinguished men of the republic, the principes civitatis.
The authority to grant such a private tap lay in the hands of the censor, or if
there were no such official, in the hands of one of the aediles. Complaints about
unlicensed private connections and the decades of little attention for the water
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supply make it plausible that by the middle of the first century BC a substantial
number of people had made their private connection to the public water supply
without proper consent. It must have been part of Agrippa's greater plan of
aqueduct repair to take away unauthorized private branches and connections to
the mains. In addition, if acting in the approved republican manner, he may have
redetermined - as written down in his commentarii - to whom the privilege of a
private connection to the public water supply was given. 17 In any case, Agrippa
divided the available quantity of water as best as he could between public
buildings, public fountains and private people. 18 His private familia aquarum
kept up the system.
In sum: Agrippa raised the volume of water available to the city,
extended its distribution to the entire built-up area, and made a sensible division
between consumer groups, taking into account the republican rules. Furthermore
he saw to the maintenance of the system.
What is the significance of Agrippa's acts in the field of the urban water
supply in the long term? In my opinion his significance is twofold. The first
time that the consequences of Agrippa's efforts for the urban water supply came
to the fore was shortly after his death. In 11 BC, Augustus decreed by edict the
right to own a tap to the people mentioned in Agrippa's commentarii.
Subsequently, he turned over the whole business to his benejicia. 19 This must
mean that he took over the granting of water concessions. He also established
standard sizes of the conduits and appointed a curator aquarum with the
senate's consent. 20 Furthermore he promised a major repair of all aqueducts, and
ordered new branches to supplement the aquae Appia and Marcia. 21 At that
moment, legislation regarding water supply was formally adjusted to the
existent situation. The princeps assumed responsibility for these public works,
while entrusting an official with the authority to supervise the execution of the
practical aspects. Agrippa had solved the problems in this field and had
prepared the way for the emperor's formal take-over. It was clear, for both the
urban population and future emperors that from then on the upkeep and
extension of the water supply system were imperial duties. Agrippa's second,
17 This is deduced from Frontinus, De aquis urbis Romae 99.3: Augustus quoque edicto complexus est, quo
iure uterentur qui ex commentarii Agrippae aquaes haberent, tota re in sua beneficia transiata; For republican
rules see G. de Kleijn, The Water Supply ofAncient Rome, City area, Water, and Population (Amsterdam
2001),93-100.
18 FrontinusDe aquis urbis Romae 98.2-3.
19 Frontinus, De aquis urbis Romae 99.3.
20 Frontinus, De aquis urbis Romae 99.4-5.
21 Res Gestae Divi Augusti 20.2 and Frontinus, De aquis urbis Romae 5.6. Repairs were fmished in 5 or 4
BC (CIL 6.1244).
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equally significant contribution was that he substantially raised the water
volume available to the city. This is particularly clear when compared to
Frontinus' time.
In the years that Octavian tried to turn himself into a princeps senatus, he
stressed his concern for the Roman republic. These were the early years of
Agrippa's acting as if he were curator aquarum. It is likely that Agrippa stuck
to the republican reservedness when granting water privileges. That meant,
according to Frontinus, that only the principes civitatis were given a private
water supply to their grounds. As a consequence, there was only a small number
of private taps, and the majority of the total amount of water was given to the
public. It is shown that the total volume in AD 97 had almost tripled compared
with that of25 BC.
Table 1: Water quantities.z 2
Total volume per day
At most 191,000 m3
ca. 34 BC
At most 283,000 m3
ca. 25 BC
At most 338,000 m3
ca. 19 BC
At most 635,000 m3
ca. 97 AD
Frontinus also provides data on the subject of water division (table 2).23 By his
time, about one third of the total water volume was distributed to the general
public. If these data may be combined, the inference must be that the total
amount of water tripled in the first century AD, whereas the public share
diminished from almost full to about one third. Assuming that the size of the
urban population had not changed in the course of the century, the available
volume per person at the end of the first century must have been roughly equal
to that of25 BC.
The nwnbers are derived from calculations made by civil engineers: D.R. Blackman, 'The volwne of
water delivered by the four great aqueducts of Rome', Papers o/the British School at Rome 46 (1978), 5272; H. Fahlbusch, '0be1- AbfluBmesstmg Wld StandardisierWlg bei den Wasserversorgoogsanlagen Rams',
in Wasserversorgung im antiken Rom (MOnchen & Wien 1989, 4th ed.), 134.
23 Frontinus, De aquis urbis Romae 78.
22
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Table 2: Water division according to Frontinus De aquis urbis Romae 78
quinaria
quinaria
4,063
in urbe
29%
emperor
1,718
12%
2,345
private people
17%
9,955
71%
emperor
1,708
Extra urbe
12%
private people
3,845
27%
public
4,401
32%
Conclusion
In 33 BC, the inhabitants of Rome were given the impression that Octavian was
concerned about their poor living conditions. He made Agrippa humble himself
for the well being of the people. And Agrippa's acts did have an impact: he
really did improve the living conditions of the people at large. Augustus'
providentia was shown not only by images and ideas, but also by a lifelong
concern about the peoples' basic needs. In this matter, as in many other ways,
Augustus can be regarded as the one who set the pattern that his successors
followed.
Nijmegen, September 2002
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UMANO, SOVRUMANO 0 DIVINO?
LE DIVINITA' AUGUSTE E L'IMPERATORE AROMA
di
SILVIO P ANCIERA
Quanto di umano, quanto di sovrumano e quanto di divino c' e neW
autorappresentazione del principe? E quanto di questa autorappresentazione
combacia con I'immagine che i cittadini ne hanno? Inoltre quali sono i modi in
cui, da varia parte, si contribuisce a costituire ed a mantenere un immaginario
collettivo in cui la figura del principe tutto potra comunque essere menD che
quella di un uomo qualsiasi?
Le valutazioni degli studio si non sono concordi, se e vero che anche nella
bibliografia piu recente continua a registrarsi una forte contrapposizione tra chi
nega che vi sia mai stata una divinizzazione ufficiale dell'imperatore vivente' e
chi invece la ritiene documentata, anche in Occidente, fin da Augusto?
Mantenendomi ai margini del grande problema del cosiddetto culto
imperiale3 vorrei qui limitarmi a considerare la questione delle divinita auguste.
Se le libazioni al Geoio imperiale nei banchetti pubblici, l'inserimento dello
stesso nella formula del giuramento e l'associazione del suo culto con quello
dei Lari nei compita comportarono il trasferimento sui piano collettivo di
pratiche religiose esistenti anche prima in ambito privato, e se il culto del
numen dell'imperatore pote sembrare il punto estremo cui si poteva giungere
senza varcare quell a soglia di una dichiarata divinizzazione del sovrano che il
costume romano rifiutava,4 quale significato vengono ad avere, nel quadro, le
divinita auguste ed illoro culto?
I D. Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West. Studies in the Ruler Cult of the Western Provinces of
the Roman Empire, n, I (Leiden 1991).
2 M. Clauss, Kaiser und Gott. Herrscherkult im romischen Reich (Stuttgart und Leipzig 1999).
J Sui valore puramente convenzionale da attribuire a questa definizione si veda, da ultimo, J. Scheid,
. Honorer le prince et venerer les dieux: cuIte public, culles de quartier et culte imperial dans la Rome
augusteenne, in Rome, les Cesars et la Ville aux deux premiers siecies de notre ere (Rennes 200 I), 85105.
4 Su ciascuno di questi punti, si vedano (con altra ampia bibliografia) i Ire studi citati nelle note
precedenti. Sui culto pubblico del Genius Augusti gia dall'eta augustea si veda in particoIare, da ultimo:
C. Letta, '11 culto pubblico dei Lares Augusti e del Genius Augusti in una dedica metrica da Acerrae',
Rivista di Culturo Ciassica e Medioevale 44 (2002), 35-43; Idem, 'Novita epigrafiche sui culto del
Genius Augusti in ltalia', Usi e abusi epigrafici. Colloquio Internazionale di Epigrafia Borghesi 2001.
Per la nuova lettura delle iscrizioni dell'arco di Medinaceli rispettivamente come: Numini Augusto
sacru[ m 1(lato settentrionale) e Numini Imp( eratoris) Domitiani Aug( usti) Ger(manici), poi con Troiani al
posto di Domitiani (lato meridionale): G. AlfoIdy & J.M. Abascal, El areo romano de Medinaceli
(Madrid 2002),71-103.
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E nota che daIl'eta augustea si moltiplicano i casi di divinita che
assumono l'epiteto sostanzialmente, mai prima portato daIle stesse, di
Augustus / Augusta. 5 Nessuno ha dubitato che questo fenomeno sia da porre in
relazione con l'inserimento nel 27 a.C. dello stesso epiteto, in funzione di
cognomen, nella nuova denominazione progressivamente elaborata per il
Principe. Si e discusso e si discute invece sui significato di questa novita dal
punto di vista religioso. Puo essere utile ricordare brevemente, sia pure
correndo qualche rischio di schematizzazione eccessiva, le quattro principali
posizioni assunte dagli studiosi al riguardo: 6
1) Una dedi ca a Mercurio Augusto non esprime culto a questo dio, ma culto ad
Augusto, 0 comunque all'imperatore in veste (ad esempio di generatore di
ricchezza) propria anche del dio.
2) Mercurius Augustus non e l'imperatore in veste del dio evocato, ma il dio
stesso, pero legato con il Principe e con la sua famiglia in tale particolare unione
da esseme guida, patrono, protettore in ogni circostanza e da essere quindi
particolarmente idoneo ad ogni forma di venerazione rivolta a vantaggio
dell'imperatore e dell a sua famiglia. Tale legame puo essere generato, 0
accentuato, da motivi topici (ad esempio dalla connessione tra il tempio di
Apollo e la domus imperiale sui Palatino, nel caso di Apollo Augustus).
3) Una dedica Mercurio Augusto puo essere considerata equivalente a
Mercurio et Augusto, vale a dire ad una dedica congiunta, espressa per
asindeto, a Mercurio ed all'imperatore-dio.
4) Una dedi ca Mercurio Augusto deve esser vista come niente piu che un atto
in cui si fondono devozione e piaggeria: devozione per il dio e piaggeria per
l'imperatore che, tramite l'epiteto, si vede a lui associato.
Come si vede, anche su questo particolare aspetto della piu ampia
questione del "culto imperiale", le posizioni sono molto divergenti: alcune
implicanti vere forme di culto, dirette od oblique, dell'imperatore; altre
distinguenti la figura del dio da queIla del sovrano, e cio ai piu diversi liveIli,
da queIlo di una distinzione che non esclude un rapporto strettissimo e
privilegiato, a quello dell a piu disincantata negazione di un qualsiasi rapporto.
Colpisce, scorrendo la bibliografia disponibile, la mancanza di una
puntuale verifica nelle fonti disponibili (ovviamente soprattutto epigrafiche)
del reale stato delle cose nelle varie epoche e nei vari luoghi. In un libro edito
j
Unica eccezione epigrafica:
elL v 4087 = e753 cfr. p.
946 = ILLRP 200 (ager Mantuanus, a. 59 a.c.)
[A]ug(uslis) Lan"bus.
La bibliografia al riguardo e stenninata; la principale si trova raccolta, oltre che nelle opere citate alle
nn. I e 2, in S. Montero - S. Morea (cur.), Romana religio, religio Romanorum. Diccionario
bibliografico de religiOn romana (Madrid 1999), 136-140.
6
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da poco si fornisce, e vero, un elenco di ben 209 divinita cui risulta attribuito
I'epiteto di Augustus / Augusta, ma senza una raccolta delle testimonianze
pertinenti (viene data una sola citazione per divinita) e quindi senza alcuna
possibilita di ripartizione areale e cronologica del culto delle medesime. 7
Ipotesi interpretative e generali a parte, e evidente che quello di cui abbiamo
bisogno per valutare I'estensione, I'importanza ed il significato del fenomeno,
e invece di sap ere quando, dove, a chi e da chi, il culto sia stato tributato. Per
quanto mi consta, un'inchiesta del genere e stata fatta sistematicamente
soltanto per la Spagna da Robert Etienne quasi cinquant'anni fa nel suo nota
libro sui culto imperiale nella penisola iberica. 8 Meno utilizzabile ai nostri fini
un altro libro recente sulle province germaniche e sulla Gallia Belgica. 9 E
merito dell'Etienne aver portato la questione fuori dal generico con tutta una
serie di osservazioni (sulla ripartizione geografica e cronologica delle
iscrizioni, sull'importanza relativa degli dei in causa, sull'origine sociale dei
fedeli e sui significato religioso e politico di questo tipo di culto), che
attendono ancora di essere messe a confronto con quelle conseguibili
applicando 10 stesso metodo, in aree diverse. In questa circostanza, vorrei
concentrare l' attenzione su Roma, che ha il vantaggio di costituire un ambito
ben definito, di disporre, da sola, di una documentazione comparabile a quella
di tutta la penisola iberica e, infine, fatto non trascurabile, di essere il centro
stesso da cui il fenomeno del culto delle divinita auguste si puo ritenere abbia
preso le mosse, per di piu nella immediata vicinanza e quindi sotto I'influsso
ed il controllo piu diretti del potere imperiale.
Tolti alcuni casi per vari motivi, \0 i documenti su cui si puo contare per
un'inchiesta sui culto delle divinita auguste aRoma, cioe le iscrizioni
7
Clauss 1999, op. cit. (n. 2), 527-532.
8
R. Etienne, Le culte imperial dans la Peninsule Iberique d 'Auguste a Diocletian (Paris 1958), 319-349.
9 U.-M. Liertz, Kult und Kaiser. Studien zu Kaiserkult und Kaiserverehrung in den germanischen
Provinzen und in Gal/ia Belgica zur romischen Kaiserzeit (Rom 1998), in part. 163-188. Secondo M.-Th.
Raepsaet Charlier, Diis deabusque sacrum (Paris 1993), 19, I'epiteto AugustuslAugusta si trova attribuito
a divinita: 31 volte in Aquitania, 86 nella Lionese, 4 in Belgica, 2 nella Germania Inferiore e 22 nella
Germania Superiore. Non considera le dediche alle di vinita auguste A. Chastagnol, 'L' expression
epigraphique du culte imperial dans les provinces gauloises', Revue des Etudes Anciennes 97 (\ 995),
593.{i 14 (per la Narbonese vedi anche Idem in Revue Archeologiques de Narbonnaise 32 [1999], 59).
10 Di dubbia autenticita 0 comunque di incerta interpretazione: CIL VI 437; efr. A. Gunnella, AA. Vv.,
Col/ezioni jiorentine di antichitil, IT, Palazzo Peruzzi, Palazzo Rinuccini (Roma 1980), 112 Uf. 81, tav.
XXXII, 2-3: I(ovi) S(ancto) Aug(usto)? CIL; I(mperio) S(i/vani) Aug(usti)? Gunnella; vedi anche E.
Schraudolph, R6mischen G6tterweihungen mit Reliifschmuck aus Italien. Altare, Basen und Reliefs
(Heidelberg 1993), 171 S4, tav. 14. - CIL VI 795: Eventui / Aug(usto) / feliciter. / Victoriis Aug(ustis)
feliciter. La tradizione ha pero Adventui e l'iscrizione mi sembra piu acclamatoria per un un vittorioso
ritorno imperiale che una dedica sacra. Cosi gia H.L. Axtell, The Deification ofAbstract Ideas in Roman
Literature and Inscriptions (Chicago 1907), 52; vedi anche T. Holscher, Victoria Romana (Mainz am
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Rhein 1%7), 63 (che parla tuttavia di am) .- CIL VI 807. Dubbio se si riferisca a divinita e, nel caso, a
quale: [Dia]nae, [Fonu]nae 0 [Faustilnae, [Ploti]nae, Sabi[nae] Aug(ustae), CIL. Chi pone I'iscrizione,
forse Wlliberto, sembra esser stato funzionario di Wl collegio. - CIL VI 30956: [L]aribus A [ug(ustis) - ]
I vici Bo[ -]. Incerta l'appartenenza aRoma. 11 Visconti la dice di Bovillae, il Dessau invece l' attribuisce
congettura1mente a Roma, dove peraltro Wl vicus Bo[--] e altrimenti sconosciuto. - CIL VI 40615 (=
39426?) (Iettura e integrazione della prima riga molto dubbie): [-I Aug(ust-) In[victo Soli?]; resterebbe
comWlque ignota la divinita augusta cui la dedica sarebbe stata posta pro salute et victoria et reditu di
Settimio Severo, Camca11a e Geta l' I gennaio 200 d.C.
L'epiteto e riferito a divinita, ma in contesto diverso da vere e proprie iscrizioni dedicatorie: J.
Scheid, Commentarii Fratrum Arvalium qui supersunt (Roma 1998), 285, fr. 99b, r. 2 cfr. 288 s.
Registrazione negli Atti degli Arvali di una serie di sacrifici verosimi1mente in Capitolio, comprendente
quello di una bosfemina a Felicitas Augusta. - Scheid 1998, op. cit., 59, I, r. 17: Salus Augusta p(ublica)
p(opuli) Q(uiritium) figura tra le divinita invocate dei voti arvalici del 3 gennaio 91 d.C. per Domiziano e
Domizia.
L'epiteto non compare in dediche a divinita, ma nella denominazione di are 0 signa (questi
docwnenti saranno comWlque eventua1mente richiamati anche nelle note di commento alla lista A): ClL
VI 130 cfr. pp. 3003, 3755. Supplementa Italica, Imagines, Roma I (Roma 1999), 380 nr. 1206:
apparterrit probabilmente alla base di Wl'immagine di Diana Augusta posta il 19 ottobre 241 nelle
adiacenze dei castra praetoria dai venatores immunes e dal custos vivarii cohortium praetoriarum et
urbanarum. - Sacrifici ad aram Pacis Augustae sono ricordati tre volte negli Atti degli Arvali del tempo
di Caligola (Scheid 1998, op.cit., 12b, r. 10, 12c r. 68, 15c, r. 10); I'epiteto di Augusta non e pero
attribuito a Pax in occasione di Wl sacrificio degli Arvali sui Campidoglio nel 66 (Scheid, ibidem, 30, I
cd, r. 12). Per Wl aggiornamento problematico e bibliografico su quest'am: Lexicon Topographicum
UrblS Romae (d'ora in avanti LTIJR) IV (Roma 1999), 70-74 e V (Roma 1999), 285 s. - Sacrifici ad
aram Providentiae Augustae sono registrati due volte negli Atti del tempo di Caligola (Scheid 1998,
op.cit., 12c, r. 56, 13f, r. 5). Su quest'am, la sua storia e il suo significato, oltre a Scheid, cit., 285: LTUR
IV (Roma 1999), 165 s. - CIL VI 632; ILS 5084 a. P. Sabbatini Twnolesi, Epigrajia anjiteatrale
dell 'Occidente Romano, I, Roma (Roma 1988), 55 nr. 46, tav. XV, fig. 2: si restaura Wl Silvanum
Augustum, cire Wl signum del dio, per conto di Wl collegio di gladiatori denominati qualche anno prima,
al momento della fondazione (ClL VI 631, a. 177 d.C.) Silvani Aureliani; 185-192 perche Commodo vi
e menzionato con il titolo di Felix. - elL VI 3721 = 3\055: Inventori iucis Soli I invicto Augusto. Non e
dedica ma legenda di Wl medaglione che, considerata falsa da F. Cwnont, Textes et monumentsjigurl!S
relatifs aux mysteres de Mithra, IT (Bruxelles 18%), 108 nr. 89, e invece ritenuta autentica da M.
Guarducci, Rendiconti Pontijicia Accademia Romana di Archeologia 30-31 (1957-1959), 161-169; vedi
anche J. Ruysschaert, ibid. 37 (\ 964-1965), 325-336; L. Michelini Tocci, I medaglioni romani e i
contomiati del Medagliere Vaticano (CiM del Vaticano 1%5),244. - CIL VI \03 cfr. p. 3003 = 30%2,
cfr. p. 3755; ILS 1879: una Victoria Augusta, cioe Wl'immagine della dea verosimilmente accompagnata
da Wl'iscrizione in cui era contenuto tale epiteto, figura tra i doni offerti alla schola degli scribi librari e
dei preconi degli edili curuli ne! Foro Romano, in occasione di Wl restauro databile tra i Giulio-Claudi e
la prima eta flavia (curatore del medesimo e Wl Bebryx Aug./. Drusianus che prima di diventare liberto
imperiale era stato schiavo, 0 del Druso morto nel 23 0 del Druso morto nel 33: H. Chantraine,
Freigelassene und Sklaven im Dienst der r6mischer Kaiser [Wiesbaden 1967], 311 nr. 119, 361 s.).
Dalle immediate vicinanze viene CIL VI 198 efr. 30712, 36747: Victoriae Imp. Caesaris Vespasiani
Augusti.
L'epiteto di Augustus non e attribuito ad una specifica divinita. CIL VI 540: Numini deor{um)
Aug(ustorum) sacrum, verosimilmente da riferire al complesso delle divinita auguste, vedi Fishwick
1991, op. cit. (n. 1),450-452 (diverseipotesi in ClL). -CIL, VI 1201, 31260 cfr. pp. 846: Aug(---).lUCr(-~
Titulus Diis Augustis, non imperatori Augusto dedicatum esse puto: AlfOldy, ClL VI p. 4335, con
datazione al IT sec. d.C. - CIL VI 30984 cfr. p. 3758. lLS 373 (ill sec. d.C.): Numinibus I Aug(ustis), /
Tutelae optilmae ,,"
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dedicatorie, sono in tutto 90 11 che elenco qui sotto nella lista A. I nomi degli
dei (con relativo epiteto) vi figurano in ordine alfabetico nella forma che
hanno nelle iscrizioni il cui riferimento bibliografico (CIL 0 dopo CIL) e dato
di seguito. Segue la datazione. In nota fornisco, per ciascuna, altra bibliografia
rilevante e gli e1ementi su cui si fonda la datazione che, per fortuna, puo essere
nella maggioranza dei casi, molto 0 abbastanza precisa.
A - Secondo divinita
Nr.ld.
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
A8
Divinita
Aiscolapio Augusto
Aesculapio Aug.
Apollini Aug.
Apollini Aug.
Apollini Aug.
[ConcJord[iaeJ Aug.
[ConcJord[iaeJ Aug.
[DJianae August.
Bibliografia
12 cfr. 30684, pp. 3003. 3753'"
30983 cfr. p. 375813
3314
35 cfr. p. 375515
4i 6
AE 1971,2717
AE1913,1 18
128 cfr. pp. 3003. 3755 19
Datazione
25d.C.
Eta adrianea?
211 a.C.
46d.C.
115 d.C.
eta augustea
I sec., I meta
7/6 a.C.
Solo latine; nessuna attestazione nelle IGUR.
ILS 3837. K.P. Almar, inscriptiones Latinae (Odense 1990), 145 nr. 99 con foto. Ara marmorea
dal\'Isola Tiberina, forse dal compitum del vicus Censori; LTUR V (Rorna 1999), 157. La data si ricava
dal\'anno 31 0 dell'era compitale.
13 ILS 3840. Leggo: Aesculapio et Saluti Aug(ustis), riferendo I'epiteto ad entrarnbe le divinita e non solo
alia seconda. Lastra dagli Horrea Galbana: LTUR ill (Rorna 19%),40 ss. Errata la datazione all'eta di
Galba proposta in Revue des Etudes Anciennes 86 (1984), 228; per la presenza tra i dedicanti di Ulpii e P.
Aelii sanl almeno di eta adrianea 0 posteriore.
14 Base del compitum di via Mannorata, sul quale: LTUR IV (Rorna 1999), 261 s. Qui e altrove
\'iscrizione e erroneamente datata all' I d.C.; i magistri vici che la dedicano sono in realta quelli del 21J
a.c. come risulta dall'anno dell'era compitale (il sesto) e daifasti del compitum: LIt, XIII, I p. 285.
15 ILS 3219. Ara dal compitum di via Mannorata (vedi n. prec.). La datazione deriva dal\'anno 52 0
dell' era compitale.
16n..s 1634. Base dal1aMoneta: LTUR ill (Rorna 1996),280 ss. Per la data efr. elL VI 43 (AI4), 44
(A20) del 28 gennaio (115 d.C.) dies imperii di Traiano, e 239 (Geniofam. monetal.); vedi anche A25 ed
A32: P. Herz, Untersuchungen zum Festkalender der romischen Kaiserzeit nach datierten Weih- und
Ehreninschriften (Mainz 1975), 136.
17 AM. Colini, Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia 43 (1970171), 55-70 con
foto e ricostruzione grafica. Ara da compitum in piazza Bocca della Verita. La datazione in eta augustea,
preferibilmente nel periodo 12-7 a.C., e suggerita all'editore dal contesto archeologico, dalla tipologia
dell'ara in travertino, dalla divinita cui e dedicata, dalla corona civica che vi e rappresentata e da
considerazioni storiche.
18 H:L. Wilson., American Journal ofArchaeologgy 16 (1912), 94-96 con fig. I (AE 19l3, I); ILS 9517;
H. Gwnmerus, Klio 14 (1914),145 s.; J. Andreau, La viefinanciere dans le monde romain (Rome 1987),
681 s. R. Friggeri, La collezione epigrafica del Museo Nazionale Romano delle Terme di Diocleziano
(Rorna 2001),74 fig. 7. Lastra che si asserisce trovata fra il Tevere ed il Monte Testaccio. La datazione
comunque nella prima eta imperiale suggerita dalla divinita, dalla paleografia e dal fatto che i dedicanti
offrono, oltre ad una statua della dea, tre imagines, forse d'argento, verosimilmente riferibili a personaggi
della casa imperiale. I pigmentarii ed i miniarii attestati nell'iscrizione sono sicuramente presenti aRoma
gia in eta augustea: C. Ricci, Geri6n 10 (1992), 129.
11
12
e
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Nr.ld.
A9
A10
A11
A12
A13
A14
A15
A16
A17
A18
A19
A20
Divinitll
Oianae Augustae
Oianae Augustae
[Oi]anae Aug.
Fonti Aug.
Forl[unae] Aug.
Forlunae Aug.
Forlunae Augustae
Respicie[nti]
Forlunae Augustae
Praesenti
{He]rculi Tuta[tori A]ug.
Herculi Aug.
Herculi Aug.
Herculi Aug.
Bibliografia
129LU
3686421
3686822
15023
3677324
43 cfr. p. 375525
181 26
Datazione
1 a. C'/1 d. C.
eta augustea?
11 sec., 11 meta
244-249 d.C.
181 b27
11 sec. fine"" sec.
343 cfr. 30743, pp. 833. 300428
301 cfr. 30731, ~.
3004. 3756 29
299 cfr. p. 3004
44 cfr. p. 375531
26d.C.
eta vespasianea
"" sec.
115 d.C.
11 sec. fine'" 1 sec.
"" sec.
115d.C.
Base 0 ara da compitum di ignota ubicazione. La data si ricava dall'anno 10 dell'era compitale.
Base 0 ara da compitum di ignota ubicazione. La data e ricavata dall'anno 70 dell'era compitale. Tra i
dedicanti compare IllI M Lurius Maritimus per il quale vedi anche n. s.
21 Ara dal Viminale. LTUR IT (Roma 1995), 16. La datazione, indicata soltanto con giomo e mese (12
agosto) e suggerita sulla base della tipologia dell'ara e dello stile dei rilievi sui fianchi: H. C. Bowennan,
Roman Sacrijicial Altars (Bryn Mawr 1913), 97; E. Schraudolph 1993, op. cit. (n. 10), 126 D5, tav. 2. Da
notare che la dedica e fatta da IllI M Lurius Satuminus e che IllI M Lurius Maritimus compare tra i
dedicanti di lllI'altra base 0 ara a Diana Augusta datata tra 1'1 a.C. e 1'1 d.C. (vedi n. prec.).
22 Due frammenti di tavola ora riediti con IllI terzo (CIL VI 38398), di cui prima non era stata
riconosciuta la pertinenza, in La collezione epigrajica dell'Antiquarium Comunale del Celio (Roma
2001),368 s., nr. 409, con tav. LXIV, fig. 1. L'intestazione Silvano et Dianae Aug(ustis), ritenuta dubbia
in CIL, non sembra da escludere dopo una verifica della parte conservata. La datazione e ricavata
essenziaImente dalla paleografia e della qualifica di me(n)s(or) ae[dificiorum] Augg. (i. e. Augustorum).
Per I'offerta di IllI signum di Diana Augusta nel241 d.C., vedi sopra in n. 10.
23 Parva basis dal Celio, d'incerto eollegamento con la casa dei Filippi, in cui WlO schiavo e autore della
dedica: LTUR I (Roma 1993), 209; IT (Roma 1995), 156; vedi anehe G. Cressedi, Un manoscrino
derivato dalle "Antichitil" del Piranesi, Vaticano - Latino 8091 (Roma 1975), 169; L. Avetta, Roma - Via
Imperiale (Roma 1985), 27 s.; E. Tortoriei, Bullenino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di
Roma 95 (1993), 161-172. !neerto il significato delle tre linerae singulares (M P. R.) che seguono la
dedica Fonti Aug.. Si eonosee in area IllI Fons Mercuri. Sieeome pero 10 schiavo dice di aver rifatto la
dedica, non escluderei che possano essere piuttosto le iniziali del nome del dedieante originario.
24 Ara. Cercata invano nel Foro Romano, dove fu vista: Iscrizioni greche e latine del Foro Romano e del
Palatino (Roma 1996), 56. La datazione dipende dal giudizio lineris pulchris del Bang.
25 ILS 1634. Base dallaMoneta (vedi sopra n. 16), esplicitamente datata al28 gennaio liS, dies imperii
di Traiano.
26 ILS 3704. Basis (CIL). La data si ricava dal fatto che il dedicante eIllIM Aur(elius) Ctesias Iunior. Sul
tempio e il vicus dellaFortuna Respiciens: LTUR IT (Roma 1995),276; V (Roma 1999), 166. La base fu
vista in hortis Carpensibus in Quirinali, ma I'originaria eollocazione pote essere tuttaltra.
27 ILS 3704. Sulla stessa base del numero precedente.
28 Base 0 ara da compitum ineerto della Regio X: LTUR ill (Roma 1999), 200. Datazione espressamente
indicata con anno vicano e eoppia consolare.
29 Ara dall'Emporium (Marrnorata): LTUR IT (Roma 1995),222; ill (Roma 1996),223. IT dedicante e
1llI0 sehiavo di Vespasiano.
30 Epistilio, cercato invano sui Palatino dove fu visto: Iscrizioni greche e latine, eit (n. 13), 39: LTUR III
(Roma 1996), 12. La datazione e congetturale.
19
20
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Nr.ld.
A21
A22
A23
A24
A25
A26
A27
Divinita
Herculi Aug.
Hereuli August.
[lsi]diAug.
lovi Maleciabrudi Aug.
l.o.MH Aug.
Laribus Augustis
Larib. Aug.
Bibliografia
Datazione
298 efr. p. 37560<
eta traianea?
AE 1927, 14533
eta eammadiana?
34934
11 sec.
III sec.
3679235
422 efr. 30765, pp. 3005. 375636 11 sec., fine
445 efr. p. 375637
7/6 a.C.
7/6 a.C.
446 efr. p. 3005. 3756 36
ILS 1635. A. E. Gardon, Album of Dated Latin Inscriptions IT (Berkeley- Los Angeles 1964), 40, nr.
175, tav. 77, figg. a, b; G. Spinola, 11 Museo Pio Clementino IT (CiM del Vaticano 1999), 58, nr. 77, fig.
10. Ara dalla Moneta (vedi sopra n. 16). Datazione esplicita al 28 gennaio lIS (119, per errore ILS e
altri).
32 ILS 1636. Ara 0 base di provenienza ignota, rna verosimilmente dalla Moneta come CIL VI 42 (AS),
43 (AI6), 44 (A22), tutte del 115 d.C. La datazione in etit traianea eproposta per confronto con queste.
33 O. Marucchi, Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia 4 (1925126), 394 fig. 5;
per la lettura corretta collegio iuvenum Racilianensium (non Racillanensium) e per la provenienza
dall'area dei vici Raciliani maioris e minoris in Trastevere, S. Panciera, Archeologia Classica 22 (1970),
159 SS.; LTIJR IV (Rorna 1999),249; V (Rorna 1999),187. La datazione e ricavata dalla paleografia e
dalle particolari relazioni con Ercole di Commodo.
34 Franunento indefmibile di provenienza ignota. Datazione su base paleografica, vedi 1. Di Stefano
Manzella, Index Inscriptionum Musei Vaticani, I, Ambulacrnm Iulianum sive "Galleria Lapidaria"
(Rorna 1995), 261 nr. 36. Il dedicante, il cui nome non e da leggere necessariamente [ - - - ] Datus
(altrettanto possibile e il comune Se]datus; vedi anche il meno comune Man]datus), sembra essere
quaestor in una comunitit isiaca. Nemmeno un'integrazione [Serapi]di puo tuttavia essere esclusa. L.
Vidrnan, Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Serapiacae (Berlin 1969), 207 nr. 399 (con datazione
I-IT sec.); M. Malaise, Inventaire preliminaire des documents egyptiens decouverts en Italie (Leiden
1972), lIS nr. 10; Idem, Les conditions de penetration et de diffosion des cultes egyptiens en ltalie
(Leiden 1972),145 nn. 2,10.
35 ILS 9282. Ara del c.d. Santuario siriaco sui Gianicolo; LTIJR III (Roma 1996), 138-143. La datazione
si ricava principalmente dall'osservazione secondo cui l'iscrizione ne sostituisce una precedente dopo un
incendio che ha distrutto il santuario della fme del IT sec., (in coincidenza con un terremoto nel 242): F.
Duthoy - 1. Frel, 'Observations sur le sanctuaire syrien du lanicule', Orientalia sacra urbis Romae
(Rorna 1996), 296, 298.
36 ILS 4292; Y. Hajjar, La Triade d'Heliopolis-Baalbek. Son culte et sa diffusion a travers les textes
litteraires et les documents iconographiques (Leiden 1977) I, 357 SS., nr. 286; 11, tav. CIX. Base
conservata dal Medioevo alle pendici del Gianicolo, ma proveniente senza dubbio dal c.d. Santuario
siriaco (vedi n. 35). Per la datazione alia fme del IT sec. vedi gia Cht. Hillsen, R6mische Mitteilungen 22
(1907), 247 ed ora Duthoy - Frel 1996, op. cit. (n.35), 296; preferiscono il III sec. B. M. Felletti Maj,
Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 75 (1953-1955), 140 n. 11; N. Goodhue,
The Lucus Furrinae and the Syrian Sanctuary on the Janiculum (Amsterdam 1975).
37 ILS 3613. Spinola 1999, op. cit. (n. 31),202 s., nr. 17, con principale bibliografia precedente. Ara di
provenienza ignota. La datazione si ricava dall'anno 10 dell'era compitale. Sull'insicurezza
dell'integrazione Laribus Augush's G[enis Caesarn]m data in CIL, vedi gia Dessau in ILS. Altri: G[enio
Caesaris] 0 G[enio Augusti] vedi E. Hiinlein Schllfer, Subject ond Ruler (Ann Arbor 1996), 76 con nn.
19,91,95.
38 ILS 3612; Museo Nazionale Romano. Le sculture I, 2 (Rorna 1981), 70 S.; M. Hano, in W. Haase & H.
Temporini, edd., Aufttieg und Niedergang der R6mischen Welt IT, 16, 3 (Berlinol New York 1986),2342;
Hiinlein Schllfer 1996, op.cit. (n. 37), 95 nr. 6, sempre con altra bibliografia; Friggeri 2001, op.cit. (n. 18),
72, fig. 5. Ara dall'Isola Tiberina, verosimilmente dal compitum del vicus Censori: LTIJR III (Rorna
1996), 100. La data si ricava dall'anno 10 dell'era compitale.
31
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Nr.ld.
A28
A29
A30
A31
A32
A33
A34
A35
A36
A37
Divinita
Larib. Aug.
Laribu[s Aug.]
Laribus Augustis
Laribus Augustis
Larib. August.
Lar. Aug.
Lar. [Aug.]
Laribus Augusti[s]
Laribu[s Aug.]
Laribus Augustis
Bibliografia
447 cfr. p. 3005. 3756'·
L'Urbs (Roma 1987), 64_7040
448 cfr. p. 375641
36809 42
30957 cfr. p. 375843
AE1964,7744
AE 1948, 8245
443 cfr. p. 300546
AE1980, 5547
AE 1960,648
Datazione
7/6 a.C.
7/6 a.C.
2a.C.
2 a.C.
213 d.C.
3/4 d.C.
eta augustea
eta tiberio-claudiana
I sec., I meta
56 d.C. (?)
39 ILS 3612a; Liebighaus Museum alter Plastik Frankfort am Main. Fuhrer durch die Sammlungen
Antike Kunst (Frankfurt am Main 1980), 267 S.; M. Buonocore, Camillo Massimo collezionista (Roma
1996), 195, 200 nr. 87. Ara compitale trovata sull'lsola Tiberina con la precedente e datata alIo stesso
anno (vedi n. precedente).
40 Omesso in AE. Epistilio dal compitum del vicus Aesculeti: LTUR I (Roma 1993), 316. La data si ricava
dall' anno I ° dell' era compitale.
41 ILS 3614; lliinI.ein Schiifer 1996, op.cit. (n. 37),95 nr. 2 con bibliografia precedente. Ara del compitum
vici Sandaliari: LTUR I (Roma 1993), 57; V (Roma 1999), 189. La data e doppiamente espressa con
I' era vicana e la coppia consolare.
42 Sull'altro lato [La ]rib. Aug. ILS 9250. Foto e bibliografia in Supplementa Italica. Imagines (1999), op.
cit. (nt. 10), nr. 5. Ara del compitum del vicus Statae Matris. LTUR V (Roma 1999), 191. La datazione e
indicata con coppia consolare e anno 6° di era vicana.
43 ILS 3615. Per una piu corretta lettura dell'iscrizione sulla fronte: S. Panciera, in L 'Urbs (Roma 1987),
68 s. Foto e bibliografia in Supplementa Italica. Imagines (1999), op. cit. (n. 10), nr. 6. Ara compitale del
vicus Aesculeti (vedi sopra n. 40). La datazione si ricava dall'anno 9° dell'era compitale.
44 AM. Tamassia in Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 78 (196112), 161 s.,
figg. 3-4. Ara del compitum Acilium di cui attestata l'esistenza ben prima della riorganizzazione
augustea: M. Domtin - Payre,L 'Urbs (Roma 1987),87-109; LTUR I (Roma 1993), 314 ss.; D. Palombi,
Tra Palatino ed Esquilino. Velia, Carinae, Fagutal (Roma 1997), 39-43; Idem, Rendiconti della
Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia 70 (1997-1998 [2000]), 115-135; F. Coarelli, Eutopia, n.s.,
1(2001),7-43 (sulla topografia dell'area). La datazione si ricava dall'anno 10° dell'era compitale, di cui
ingiustamente dubita (controllo autoptico) Dondin - Payre, op.cit., 103 n. 24.
45 C. Pietrangeli, Bullem'no della Commissione Archelogica Comunale di Roma 70 (1942), 127-130 figg.
1-2; vedi anche W. Herrnann, Romischen Gotteraltiire (Kallmunz 1961), 89 S., nr. 19; Schraudolph 1993,
op. cit. (n. 10), 230 L 98. Franunento di ara di provenienza ignota. Datazione su base stilistica e
prosopografica.
46 Ara di provenienza ignota. Datazione su base paleografica e stilistica. Schraudolph 1993, op.cit. (n.
10),229 L 92 tav. 34.
47 S. Panciera, Archeologia Laziale 3 (1980), 204 s., nr. 8, tav. XLIX, 1. Ara compitale dall'incrocio Ira
viale Africa (oggi A ventino) e via A ventina. La datazione si ricava dalla tipologia e dalla decorazione
dell'ara.
48 L. Moretti, Archeologia Classica 10 (1958), 231 s. nr. I (Idem, Tra epigrafia e storia [Roma 1990],
155 s. nr. I); AM. Colini - L. Cozza, Ludus Magnus (Roma 1962), 148 nr. 2, fig. 162; E.M. Smailwood,
Historia 17 (1968),384. Lastra dal compitum del vicus Comicularius: LTUR V (Roma 1999), 160. La
datazione e indicata, oltre che con il 61 ° anno dell'era compitale, con la coppia consolare L. Iunio
Gal/ione T. Cutio Cilto, gia attribuita al 55 d.C., oltre che dal Moretti e dalla Smailwood, da PA
GalIivan, Classical Quarterly 24 (1974), 293, 295, ma ora, con diverse argomentazionie, al 56 da G.
Camodeca, Zeitschrijt fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 63 (1986), 211-215, in part. 206-208. Sulla
e
222
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Nr.ld.
A38
A39
Divinita
Laribus Aug.
Larib[us Aug.]
A40
A41
Laribus Augustis
La[ribus] A[ugustis]
A42
Laribus Aug.
Bibliografia
449 cfr. p. 3756'·
L'Urbs (Roma 1987), 70-73 fig. 6750
450 cfr. 30768, pp. 3005. 375651
Bull. Com.,90, 2 (1985),279 nr.
1852
30954 cfr. p. 375853
A43
A44
A45
A46
A47
A48
[Laribu]s Aug.
Laribus Augustis
[Laribus A]ugustis
La[rum Aug.]
[Laribus Aug]ustis
[Laribus Augusto]rum
453 cfr. pp. 3005. 375654
451 cfr. 30769, pp. 3005. 375655
452 cfr. pp. 3005. 375656
3095857
AE1971,3356
AE 1971,3459
Datazione
83 d.C.
eta domizianea
98/99 d.C.
I sec.
I sec., 11 metal 11 sec., I
meta
I sec., fine I1I sec., in.
100 d.C.
109 d.C
116 d.C.
149 d.C.
161 d.C.
questione delle ere compitali anomale vedi da ultimo A. Fraschetti, Roma e il principe (Roma - Bari
1990), 265-268.
49 ILS 3617; D. Modonesi, Museo MafJeiano. Iscrizioni e rilievi sacri latini (Roma 1995), 78 s. nr. 83 con
foto. Epistilio dell'edicola compitale del vicus Honoris et Virtutis: LTIJR V (Roma 1999), 167 s. La
datazione si ricava dalla titolatura di Domiziano (cos. VIIII, des. X) e dall'anno 90 dell'era compitale.
50 Omesso in AE. Frammento di architrave da rifacimento dell'edicola compitale del vicus Aesculeti (vedi
sopra n. 40). E presente il nome di Domiziano; il terminus ad quem e costituito dall'incendio dell'80.
51 ILS 3618. Epistilio dall'edicola compitale del vicus Portae Collinae: LTIJR III (Roma 1996) 326; IV
(Roma 1999) 181, 198,316. La data si ricava dalla titolatura di Traiano (cos. If).
52 Base 0 ara di provenienza ignota, forse da WI vicus [--] Secundi, come proposto dall'Editrice (M.G.
Granino Cecere) per confronto con il vicus Longi Aquilae. La datazione e su base paleografica.
53 Ara dal Foro Romano, dove si conserva (inv. 12489). Discusso WI eventua!e rapporto con l'aedes
Larum in summa Sacra via; favorevole F. Coarelli, in LTIJR III (Roma 1996), 174; per altri piuttosto
da mettere in rapporto con WI compitum. Datazione su base essenzialmente paleografica. P. Zanker,
Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 82 (1970171), 149 n. 8, nr. 1I esclude
che appartenga alIa serie degli altari augustei. Nessuna proposta da parte di M. Hano 1986, op.cit. (n.
38), 2343 s., tav. Ill, 5; Schraudolph 1993, op.cit. (n. 10), 229 L 95; Hlinlein Schafer 1996, op.cit. (n.
37), 96 nr. 8.
54 ILS 3616. Foto inSupplementa ltalica. Imagines 1999, op. cit. (n. 10), nr. 129. Ara compitale del vicus
Trium ararum: LTIJR V (Roma 1999) 195. Datazione su base paleografica e prosopografica; sulla
pretura di C. Pontius Faustinus Granianus PIR2 P 799; non posteriore aI 136 essendo ancora in funzione
la commissione augustea di sorveglianza sulle Regiones: S. Panciera, Archeologia Classica 22 (1970),
146-151.
55 ILS 3619. Foto e bibliografia in Supplementa Italica. Imagines 1999, op.cit. (n. 10), nr. 2174. Epistilio
dall'Isola Tiberina, verosimilmente dal compitum del vicus Censori (vedi sopra nn. 38, 39). La datazione
e espressa con la coppia consolare e con I'anno dell'era compitale, pen) verosimilmente incompleto.
56 ILS 3620. Foto e bibliografia in Supplementa Italica. Imagines 1999, op.cit. (n. 10), nr. 2175. Epistilio
dall'edicola del compitum del vicus Iavis Fagutalis: LTIJR III (Roma 1996), 135, 193. La datazione si
ricava dalla titolatura di Traiano e corrisponde all'anno 121 0 (non si sa se da correggere) dell'era
compitale.
57 Cfr. F. Bianchi & P.L. Tucci, Melanges de l'Ecole Franfyaise de Rome, Antiquite 108 (1996), 47-53.
Epistilio di edicola da WI compitum di Trastevere. La datazione si ricava dalla titolatura di Traiano.
58 S. Panciera, Archeologia Classica 22 (1970), 138-151 con foto e ricostruzione grafica (parte delle
osservazioni in AB sono infondate). Lastra pertinente ad W1'edicola compitale ignota. La data si ricava
dalla titolatura di Antonino Pio e dalla coppia consolare.
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Nr.ld.
A49
A50
A51
A52
A53
A54
A55
A56
A57
A58
A59
A60
A61
Divinita
[Larib]us Augg.
Laribus Aug.
Larib. Aug.
Laribus Aug.
[La]ribus A[ugustis]
Laribus Aug.
Larib. Aug.
Laribus Augustis
Laribus Aug.
[La]ribus Augustis
Mar[ti] Aug.
Marti Aug.
Mercurio Augus[to]
Bibliografia
Datazione
45461
3095962
30960 cfr. p. 375863
30961 64
441 65
44266
44467
3095268
3701 =3096269
483 70
48471
283 cfr. p. 300472
168 d.C.
11 sec.?
203 d.C.
223 d.C.
222-235 d.C.
?
?
?
?
?
I sec., I metil?
1/11 sec.?
716 a.C.
45~
59 L. Bemi Brizio, Rendiconti dell 'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, cl. mor., ser. VIII, 26 (1971), 769778. Architrave di edicola compitale del [vicus statu]ae Verris sulla cui discussa ubicazione si veda, oltre
alia prima editrice (Regio IX), R.EA Palmer, Rendiconti della Pontijicia Accademia Romana di
Archeologia 51-52 (1978-1980), 111-136 (Regio IV); vedi anche F. Castagnoli, Rivistai di Filologia e
Istrozione Classica 90 (1982),499 n. 5 e Palombi, 1997, op.cit. (n. 44), 122 n. 195. La datazione si ricava
da1la titolatura di Marco Aurelio e Lucio Vero.
60 Nuovo lettura e interpretazione: A. Kolb, Zeitschrijt jiJr Papyrologie und Epigraphik 107 (1995), 205211 con foto (AE 1995,91). Frammenti di tavola di provenienza ignota. Datazione consolare.
61 Ara del chiostro di S. Paolo fl.rn. campata XIX, 6: G. Filippi, Indice della raccolta epigrajica di S.
Paolofuori le mura (CiM del Vaticano 1999),40 nr. 51339. Tra i magistri c'e un Ulpius.
62 Frammento di tavola da S. Martino ai Monti. Datazione da1la titolatura imperia1e. Mi chiedo se parte di
questa iscrizione, non piu esistente nell'Antiquarium comuna1e del Celio, sia da riconoscere in alcuni
frammenti recentemente pubblicati come inediti in CIL VI 40605 e 40750 e visti nelle casse gia al
Palazzo delle Esposizioni contenenti appunto materiali sgombrati dall'Antiquarium.
63 ILS 3621. Il genitivo del nome imperiale non dipende da Genio, ma da permissu: S. Panciera,
Archeologia Classica 22 (1970),148 s .. Tavola da edicola compitale del vicus Vestae: LTIJR V (Roma
1999), 198. Datazione consolare.
64 Per il genitivo del nome imperiale vedi n. precedente. Foto e bibliografia in Supplementa Italica.
Imagines, 1999, op. cit. (n. 10), nr. 1209. Frammento di tavola proveniente da edicola compitale di vicus
ignoto. Datata dal nome di Severo Alessandro.
65 Ara 0 base di provenienza ignota. Perduta. Non databile.
66 Ara 0 base d'ignota provenienza. Si conserva ancora nelle Grotte Vaticane.
67 ILS 7280. Epistilio (7) visto alle pendici del Palatino verso S. Gregorio. Perduto. Non databile.
68 Aretta pulvinata da area tra Ponte Sisto e Farnesina (Trastevere): LTIJR V (Roma 1999), 167. Si
conserva ancora al Museo delle Terme, inv. 27253. Il ClL, la dice litteris recentioribus.
69 Epistilio dalle vicinanze di SS. Giovanni e Paolo nei cui pressi si trovava il compitum del vicus Trium
ararum, vedi sopra n. 54. Perduto. Non databile.
70 Base 0 ara trovata sub Aventino in ripa Tiberis. Perduta. La datazione e proposta per un possibile
rapporto tra il dedicante (un M Lollius) e i non lontani HOlTea Lolliana prima delloro passaggio nella
proprieta imperiale con Claudio (E. Rodriguez Almeida, Il Monte Testaccio (Roma 1984), 101 n. 5. Sugli
hOlTea vedi anche L1UR III (Roma 1996), 43 s.
71 Base 0 ara di provenienza ignota. Perduta. I1 dedicante (T. Tettius Pudes) e veterano di un'unita non
indicata, forse urbana.
72 Sembrerebbe ara 0 base (ma Fabretti la dice in epistylio). Certo da un compitum nei pressi di S. Maria
in Cosmedin di dove deve venire anche A 86: S. Panciera, Archeologia Laziale 3 (1980), 203-206.
Datazione sulla base dell' anno 10 dell' era compitale.
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A66
A67
A68
Divinitll
Mercurio Aug.
Mercurio Aug.
Merc. Aug.
Deo sancto Mercurio
Aug.
MineNae Aug.
MineNae Aug.
Neptuno Aug.
A69
A70
[Pa]ntheo Aug.
Paci August.
A71
Pietati Augustae
Nr.ld.
A62
A63
A64
A65
Bibliografia
34 10
AE 1914, 13774
51975
AE 1977, 22 76
Datazione
3/2 a.e.
eta augustea
I sec.?
III sec., meta
268 cfr. p. 300477
401'8
536 cfr. 30786, pp.
835.3005.3757 79
559 cfr. p. 375780
199 cfr. 30712. 36747, pp.
3004.3757 81
562 cfr. pp. 3005. 375782
57 d.e.
139 d.e.
11 sec., meta
I
I
I
161-169 d.e.
71 d.e.?
22 d.e.; 43 d.e.
73 Ara 0 base (perduta) dal eompitum di Via Mannorata: LTUR IV (Roma 1999) 260 s. (ivi altra
bibliografia). La data del 3/2 a.C. (non dell' I a.C.) si ricava dall'anno V dell'era compitale e dai Fasti
dei magistri.
74 G. Mancini, Notizie degli Seavi di Antiehita (1913), 117; G. Gatti, Bullettino della Commissione
Archeologiea Comunale di Roma 41 (1913),77; E. Gatti, Studi Romani I (1913), 352 s., fig. 10. Vedi
anche Hermann 1961, op. cit. (n. 45), 63; Schraudolph 1993, op.cit. (n. 37), 147 M 5, tav. 9. Datazione su
base paleografica e stilistica.
75 Frammento d'ara trovata as. Cosimato di Trastevere. Perduta. Datazione puramente congetturale.
76 S. Panciera, Rendieonti de/la Pontificia Aeeademia Romana di Archeologia 48 (I 975n6), 302-308, cfr.
W. Eck, Zeitsehrift far Papyrologie und Epigraphik 37 (1980), 45-48. Base d'ignota provenienza.
Datazione su base prosopografica.
77 Foto e bibliografia in Supplementa Italiea. Imagines 1999, op.cit. (n. 10), nr. 120. Ara di magistri
fontani dall'Esquilino. Datazione consolare.
78 Architrave (?) d'ignota provenienza che non so se ancora si conservi, almeno in parte, nel convento di
S. Gregorio al Celio. Datazione consolare.
79 ILS 3284. A. Arnaldi, Rieerehe storieo epigrafiehe sui culto di Neptunus nell'Italia romana (Roma
1997), 93-98, nr. 3, fig. 2 a-c, vedi anche AE 1992, 114. Arula da fuori Porta Latina. La data e suggerita
daI nome del dedicante che e Illlliberto di Antonino Pio.
80 ILS 1383. Ara di provenienza ignota, ora nei Musei Vaticani, Cortile della Pigna. La data si ricava
dalla qualifica del dedicante come procurator Augustor(um) et Faustinae Aug. e dalle altre cariche
ricoperte: H. Devijver, Prosopographia militiarum equestrium, I (Leuven 1976), 484 s. nr. 120; IV
(Leuven 1987), 1615nr. 120; V (Leuven 1993),2147nr. 120.
81 Una datazione nel71 e sostenuta daI confronto con le altre basi trovate insieme nel Foro Romano (CIL
VI 196-198,200), tra cui CIL VI 200 e ora nuovamente datata con diversi argomenti al 17 novembre di
quest'anno da De Angeli e da G. Di Vita-Evrard, in un contributo in corso di stampa negii Atti del
Colloquio Borghesi 2001, cit. (n. 4). Poiche d'altronde M Arreeinus Clemens non pote dare il suo
assenso all'erezione del monumento che come membro (in quanto pretore) della commissione augustea
di sorveglianza sulle regioni, si dovrebbe ammettere ch' egii sia stato fatto prefetto prima della pretura e
che abbia assllllto quest'ultima nel 71 lasciando il pretorio a Tito: a favore Passerini, Athenaeum 18
(1940), 152 ss .. Contra G. Alfoldy, Fasti Hispanienses (Wiesbaden 1969), 22; G. Mennella, Athenaeum
59 (1981), 205- 208. A meno che la data di erezione non coincida con quella dell'autorizzazione (da
notare che, contrariamente all'uso, nell'iscrizione si sarebbe letto solo permissu M. Arrecini Clementis
senza indicazione della carica; forse perche questa non era piu attuale al momento della messa in opera
del monumento?). Per la registrazione negli Atti degii Arvali di sacrifici ad aram Pacis Augustae, vedi
sopra in n. 10.
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A72
A73
A74
A75
A76
Nr.ld.
Divinita
Sa/uti Aug.
Si/vano Aug.
Si/vano Aug.
SilvanoAug.
SilvanoAug.
Bibliografia
30983 efr. p. 375800
634 efr. 30804, pp. 3006.375784
635 efr. 30805, pp. 835.300685
3686886
3682587
A77
A78
A79
A80
A81
A82
A83
Sancto Si/vano Aug.
Si/vano Aug.
SilvanoAug.
Spei Aug.
Spei Aug.
Statae Matri August.
Statae Matri Augustae
637 efr.
63689
633 efr.
760 efr.
759 efr.
76493
802 efr.
p. 300688
30803, p. 300690
pp. 3006. 375791
30826, pp. 3006. 375792
pp. 3007. 375794
Datazione
eta adrianea
eta traianea
141 d.C.
11 sec., 11 meta
11 sec., 11 metatlll sec.,
I meta
111111 sec., in.
?
?
eta traianea-adrianea
?
6/5 a.C.
3/2 a.C.
ILS 202. Un riepilogo deJl'ampia discussione sul rapporto Ira questa epigrafe vista dall'anonimo di
Einsiedeln sui Campidoglio e la c.d. Aro Pietalis: LTIJR IV (Roma 1999) 87-89, con tutta la principale
bibliografia. Datazioni consolari.
83 Vedi sopra A2 con n. 13 ed inoltre in n. 10 (Atti degli Arvali).
84 ILS I 540a. Ara (?) d'ignota provenienza, ma forse da connettere con i1 vicus Frumentarius: LTIJR V
(Roma 1999), 166 s.; da qui viene allra dedica dello stesso schiavo di Traiano che ha posto la nostra (CIL
VI 544 cfr. p. 3005, 3757; ILS 1540).
85 A.E. Gordon, 1964, op. cit (n. 31) 75 nr. 203, tav. 92 b-c. Base dal Quirinale: LTIJR IV (Roma 1999),
316. Data consolare; il giorno deJla dedica (24 maggio) corrisponde al natale di Germanico, celebrato
anche in eta !arda: P. Herz 1975, op. cit. (n. 16),327 cfr. 212.
86 Vedi sopra A 12 con n. 23. Restauro di un signum di Silvano Augusto nel 185-192 d.C., vedi sopra in
82
n.lO.
Piccola base dal Celio nei pressi dei castro peregrinarum: LTUR IV (Roma 1999), 312. Il dedicante e
un veter(anus) Augg.
88 Rilievo di provenienza ignota riedito di recente, con diversa valutazione cronologica, da : R. Santolini
Giordani,Anlichita Casali (Roma 1989), 124 nr. 70, tav. XI (eta severiana). Scbraudo1ph 1993, op. cit.
(n. 10),169, S I, tav. 14 (eta tetrarchica).
89 Ara 0 base in travertino di ignota provenienza. Perduta. Organizzazione coJlegiale. Dedicante C. Iulius
Flarenlinus. Forse IIII sec. d.C.
90 Ara 0 base d'ignota provenienza a Mannheim? Dedicante un Aurelius senza prenome. Forse IIIIII sec.
d.C.
91 .ILS 3772. Ara trovata verosimilmente presso I'arco di S. Lorell2o alIa Marmorata: E. Rodriguez
Almeida 1984, op.cit. (n. 70), 101 n. 3. Dalla foto del pezzo, che si conserva ancora nel Museo Despuig a
Maiorca (ringrazio la coJlega Anna Pasqualini per avermene dato copia), non esc1uderei che la Regia
indicata non sia la XII, ma coerentemente la xm, con un'asta del numerale sulla cornice. Non oltre l'eta
adrianea perche e ancora funzionante la commissione augustea di sorvegliama sul1e regioni, vedi sopra
A43 con n. 54. Il pretore T. Calius Catu/linus Seslius Secundinus non ealtrimenti conosciuto.
92 Ara di provenienza ignota. Perduta? La dedica viciniae fa pensare ad un contesto compitale e, forse, ad
una datazione alta.
93 Piccola base certarnente trovata alia fine del XVII sec. nel fondo Capobianco circa 400 m. a NNO del
km. 14 deJla via Nomentana (L. Quilici - St. Quilici Gigli, Ficulea (Roma 1993), 211 con n. 487) ma
ricondotta a Roma per il contenuto che fa pensare a una dedica compitale. Non ne fu persuaso il Lanciani,
seguito dai Quilici. L'iscrizione, che pass<'> per il Museo Borgiano (vedi A. Russi, Epigrophica, 40[1978],
134 n. 20 ed ora F. Nasti, Iscriziani laline del Museo di Napoli, I (NapoJi 2000), 51 n. 49) non e perduta,
ma si conserva all'Antiquarium Comuna1e del Celio, NCE 4265. Datazione desunta dall'anno 2° dell'era
vicana.
87
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Nr.ld.
A84
A85
A86
A87
A88
A89
A90
Divinitli
Statae Fortunae Aug.
Statae Matri Aug.
Veneri August.
Victoriae Au[g.]
Victoriae Augustae
Bibliografia
761 cfr. pp. 3006. 3757.0
766 cfr. pp. 3006.375796
AE 1980,5497
791 98
31403-31404 cfr. pp. 3096sg ..
4345sg. 99
Volcano Quieto Augusto 802 cfr. pp. 3007. 375y1oo
Volcano Quieto Augusto 801 cfr. p. 375y1°1
Datazione
12 d.C.
44d.C.
1 sec., fine
115 d.C.
365-367 d.C.
3/2 a.C.
I sec., 11 meta
----
--
La prima considerazione che s'impone considerando questa lista e che i
documenti non sono moltissimi, sia in rapporto alle circa 1800 iscrizioni sacre
di Roma complessivamente disponibili (1 ventesimo), sia rispetto alle figure
divine in qualche modo venerate a Roma, circa 200. Le divinita auguste cui
sono rivolte le dediche non sono infatti piu di 25. La parte delleone efatta dai
Lares Augusti con ben 33 dediche,102 seguono Hercules e Silvanus con 6,
Mercurius con 5, Fortuna e Diana con 4, Apollo e Stata Mater con 3,
Aesculapius, Concordia, Mars, Spes, Victoria e Volcanus con 2; seguono altre
10 divinita con una sola attestazione ciascuna.
Sarebbe stato lecito aspettarsi - credo -, non dieo una minor preminenza
dei Lares Augusti che, vista l'importanza delloro culto in tutti i compita di
Roma, doveva considerarsi scontata, quanto piuttosto la presenza di piu
94 ILS 3306. A Panna, Iscrizioni latine Napoli 2000, op.cit. (n.93), 68 nr. 18 con foto a p. 273. Lastra dal
compitum del vicus Annilustri sull'Aventino: LTIJR I (Roma 1993),126 s. Per l'appartenenza al Museo
Borgiano vedi n. prec. La data si ricava da!l'anno 5° dell'era compitale.
95 ILS 3308. Ara 0 base del compitum dal vicus Sandalarius: LTIJR V (Roma 1999), 189. Perduta.
Datazione consolare.
96 ILS 3309; Friggeri 2001, op. cit. (n. 18), 73 fig. b. Ara 0 base dal compitum del vicus Minervi:
LTIJR V (Roma 1999), 180 s. La data e ricavata dall'anno 50° dell'era vicana(cfr. CIL Vl343: anno
32° = 26 d.e.).
97 S. Panciera, in Archeologia Laziale, 3 (1980), 203-206 con fota. Base dallo stesso compitum da cui
viene A 65, n. 76. La datazione si ricava dal dedicante che fu magister vici una prima volta nel 7/6 a.e. ed
una seconda nel 4/5 d.e. Qui appare come magister ter(tium), ma questa qualifica rappresenta
un'aggiunta alIa stesura originaria.
98ILS 1633; J. Vihonen, Iscrizioni latine Napoli, 2000, op. cit. (n. 93),67 s. nr. 17 con foto a 273. Lastra
(da base) scavata alIa Moneta vedi sopra AS. Datazione consolare. Per l'offerta di una Victoria Augusta
nella schola degli scribi librari e dei preconi, vedi sopra in nt. 10.
99 G. Alfoldy, Aurea Roma. DalIa cittil pagana alIa cittil cristiana (Roma 2000), 463 con foto. Basi di
statue dal ponte di Valentiniano; LTIJR IV, (Roma 1999), 107 s. Datazione dal nome (Simmaco) e dalla
funzione del dedicante.
100 ILS 3306. Per provenienza, bibliografia e datazione, vedi sopra n. 94.
101 ILS 3305. Epistilio perduto dal compitum del vicus Sabuci: LTUR V (Roma 1999), 185 s. Datazione
ricavata dal numero, peraltro incompleto, almeno 50°, dell'era compitale.
102 In realm di piu perche nell'elenco non sono state incluse le dediche compitali che non conservassero
almeno parte del nome delle di vinim.
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divinita 0 comunque di un maggior numero di attestazioni di culto per le
divinita presenti. Si suole ritenere che, con il passare del tempo, I' epiteto
Augustus / Augusta si sia banalizzato e pertanto sia stato generosamente
dispensato senza guardare troppo per il sottile ad un gran numero di dei.
Questo non e certamente il caso di Roma, che da questo punto di vista risulta,
se mai, in forte controtendenza. Un esempio limite e fornito da Silvanus, di
gran lunga la divinita piu venerata a Roma in eta imperiale (252 dediche
secondo un mio recente censimento).103 Ebbene soltanto in 6 di queste 252
dediche, tutte di eta imperiale, al dio viene attribuito I' epiteto di Augustus
(2,38%). Ad analoga conclusione si arriva considerando I'altra divinita,
Hercules, che per sei volte appare con il tholo di Augustus: le dediche romane
a questo dio sono infatti piu di 150 ed, anche ammettendo con larghezza che
un terzo siano di eta repubblicana (sono certamente di meno), resterebbe che
Ercole sarebbe detto Augustus in non piu del 6 % dei casi. Il confronto
potrebbe essere esteso con analoghi risultati alle altre divinita del gruppo.
Aggiungerei solo il caso di Mercurio perch6 un libro recente sui culto di
Mercurio in Spagna, contenendo comparazioni, da un lato con le province
gallico-germaniche, dall'altro con quelle africane,104 consente d'inserirlo
agevolmente in un quadro piu vasto. In totale le dediche di Mercurio aRoma
sono 37, quelle a Mercurio Augusto sono 6. Data I'importanza del dio tra le
divinita auguste, la percentuale sale in modo facilmente prevedibile al 16, 21
%. Ma e interessante il confronto con gli altri ambiti sopra ricordati. Il totale
delle dediche a Mercurio in Spagna e di 51; tra esse quelle a Mercurio
Augusto (13) rappresentano il 25,49 % quasi 10 punti piu che aRoma). E la
percentuale sale ulteriormente al 35,38 % in Africa (con 130 documenti),
mentre crolla al 4,34 % tra Gallie e Germanie, province che pure hanno
restituito ben 460 iscrizioni a Mercurio, peraltro in molti casi da considerare
interpretatio romana di un dio locale.
Anche ammesso che questi dati (che non ho verificato) siano soggetti a
qualche modifica, la disparita di comportamento da luogo a luogo non credo
sia in discussione. Ne consegue che, non solo I'epiteto non e cosi inflazionato
come si ritiene, ma la sua stessa presenza / assenza merit a attenzione 105 come
pure la ragione che di volta in volta puo averIa determinata.
103 'Silvano aRoma', inStudia in honorem Georgii Mihailov (Sofia 1995 [1996]),347-361 (248 testi);
addeAE 1990, 56e 118; 1991,295; 1993, 152.
104 G. Baratta,II culto di MercUl10 nella penisola iberica (Barcelona 200 I), 108, con n. 356.
105 Degno di nota, ad esempio, che l' epiteto Augustusl-a non e attribuito non solo ad alcuna delle di vinim
menzionate negli Atti dei Ludi secolari del 17 a.C. (Apollo, Diana, Hercules Victor, Ilithya, funo, funo
Regina, fuppiter Optimus Maximus, Iuppiter Stator, Iuppiter Tonans, Latona, Moerae, Ops, Terra Mater)
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Per quanto riguarda le divinita auguste nel loro complesso, il confronto
con il libro di Etienne mostra, con alcune coincidenze, anche cospicue
differenze. Dico le liste, non la lista, di Etienne perche, mentre qui per
comodita si e preferito redigeme una sola, egli ha scelto di compilame due:
una di quelle che, seguendo il Mattingly, il Charlesworth e il Nock, definisce
delle virtU imperiali lO6 e l'altra delle divinita auguste vere e proprie. Non senza
motivo, perche si tratta di figure religiose diverse anche se non sempre un
preciso confine risulta facilmente tracciabile. Il Fishwick propone a sua volta
di dividere in due la lista delle cosiddette virtu, mettendo da una parte quelle
che considera le virtu imperiali vere, come l'Aequitas, la Ciementia, la
Constantia, la Fides, l'Induigentia, la Iustitia e cosi via e dall'altra quelli che
possono considerarsi piuttosto i risultati, i benefici dell'azione imperiale come
la Libertas, la Pax, la Salus, la Spes e quant'altro. 107 Anche questa divisione
non ecomunque esente da qualche problema.
Da un confronto della lista Etienne delle virtU con la nostra risulta che
sono presenti in comune Concordia, Fortuna, Pax, Pietas, Salus, Victoria.
Assai diverso e pero in vari casi il numero delle attestazioni: 2 aRoma contro
5 in Spagna per Concordia; 1 contro 5 per Pietas; 1 contro 7 per Salus; 2
contro 11 per Victoria. Mancano inoltre nella lista romana Aetemitas, Bonus
Eventus, Iuventus, Libertas, Providentia,I08 Tutela, Virtus; mentre in quell a
spagnola non c' e Spes, peraltro presente a Roma solo 2 volte. Da notare che in
entrambe le liste mancano virtU "canoniche" imperiali (augustee in
particolare) come Clementia e Iustitia. 109 Pur facendo qualche parte
all' azzardo dei ritrovamenti, non si puo fare a meno di constatare che il
fenomeno romano risulta assai piu ridotto, sia quantitativamente, sia
sui quali vedi ora B. Sehnegg - Kohler, Die augusteischen Sakularspiele. Arehiv filr Religionsgeschichte
4 (Milnchen-Leipzig 2002), ma neppure ad alclll1a delle molte divinitll. pregate per Augusto dalliberto L.
Lucretius Zethus nell'1 d.e.: CIL VI 30975 = ILS 3090; efr. M. A. Cavallaro, Helikon 15-16 (19751976), 146-186. Nessuna divinitll. augusta neppure nei Ludi Seculari severiani: G. B. Pighi, De ludibus
saecularibus populi Romani Quiritium (2a ed., Amsterdam 1965).
106 H. Mattingly . 'The Roman Virtues', Harvard Theological Review 30 (1937), 103-117; M.P.
Charlesworth, 'The Virtues of a Roman Emperor', Proceedings of the British Academy 23 (1937), 105133; A. D. Nock, 'The Emperor's Divine Comes', Journal ofRoman Studies 37 (1947), 112-116 (Idem,
Essays on Religion and the Ancient World [Oxford 1972], 670.fJ75).
107 Fishwick 1991, op. cit. (n. I), 454474, in part. 460. Alla bibliografia sulle "virtU" imperiali indicata
Classen, 'Virtutes
nella nota precedente ed a quella registrata in Fishwick, aggilll1gere: e.
imperatoriae', Arctos 25 (1991), 17-39; C. F. Norefia, 'The Communication of Emperor's Virtues',
Journal ofRoman Studies 91 (2001), 146-168.
108 Per la quale vedi pero sopra in n. 10.
109 Contro l'idea di lll1 canone di virtU imperiali di origine filosofica formato da virtus, ciementia, iustitia
e pietas vedi in particolare A. Wallace- Hadrill, 'The Emperor and his Virtues', Historia 30 (1981), 298323 e Classen 1991, art. cit. (n. 107).
v.
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qualitativamente di quello spagnolo, come se la disponibilita a questo tipo di
culto, mutato I'ambiente, fosse piu ridotta e comunque diversamente orientata.
Nella stessa direzione si e condotti da un confronto della lista Etienne
delle divinita auguste con la nostra. Ancora una volta troviamo divinita
presenti in entrambe: Aesculapius, Apollo, Diana, Hercules, fsis, Mars,
Mercurius, Minerva, Neptunus, Pantheus, Silvanus, Venus. Ma in certi casi il
numero delle testimonianze e marcatamente diverso: Hercules e Silvanus (6 a
Roma e 3 in Spagna); pero Mars (2 aRoma 16 in Spagna). Mancano
d' altronde nella lista romana Caelestis, funo, fuppiter (presente solo il
Maleciabrudes e I'Heliopolitanus), Liber Pater, Luna, Lupa, Nemesis, Pollux,
Sol e Vesta, mentre nella lista spagnola sono assenti Fons, fuppiter
Maleciabrudes, fuppiter Heliopolitanus, Volcanus ed i Lares che invece
hanno 33 testimonianze aRoma, dando l'impressione di aver concentrato su di
se un culto altrove piu diffuso 0 caratterizzato da altri addensamenti (Mars,
Victoria, Venus, Salus, ad esempio).
Consideriamo ora la seconda tabella, in cui le dediche alle divinita
auguste sono ordinate cronologicamente.
B - Secondo cronologia
Nr.ld.
Datazione
B1 -A8
B2 =A26
B3 =A27
84 =A28
B5=A29
B6 = A61
87 =A82
B8 =A62
89 =A83
810 A89
811 = A30
B12 = A31
B13 = A3
B14 = A9
B15 = A86
B16 = A32
B17 =A33
B18 = A84
819 = A6
820 = A10
821 = A34
B22 =A63
823 = A1
824 = A17
7/6 a.C.
7/6 a.C.
7/6 a.C.
7/6 aC.
7/6 a.C.
7/6 a.C.
6/5 a.C.
3/2 a.C.
3/2 a.C.
3/2 a.C.
2 a.C.
2 a.C.
211 a.C.
1 a.C.l1 d.C.
I sec. a.C., fine
213 d.C.
3/4 d.C.
12 d.C.
eta augustea
eta augustea
eta augustea
eta augustea
25d.C.
26d.C.
=
Divinita
[D]ianae August.
Laribus Augustis
Larib. Aug.
Larib. Aug.
Larib[us Aug.]
Mercurio Augus[to]
Statae Matri August.
Mercurio Aug.
Statae Matri Augustae
Volcano Quieto Augusto
Laribus Augustis
Laribus Augustis
Apollini Aug.
Dianae Augustae
Veneri August.
Laribus Augustis
Lar. Aug.
Statae Fortunae Aug.
[Conc]ord{iae] Aug.
Dianae Augustae
Lar. fAug.]
Mercurio Aug.
Aisculapio Augusto
fHe]rculi Tutaftori A]ug.
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Nr.ld.
825 - A71
826 =A85
827 =A4
828 =A7
829 =A36
830 =A59
831 = A35
832 =A37
833 =A66
834 =A70
835 = A18
836 =A38
837 = A39
838 =A40
839 = A41
840 =A64
841 = A42
842 =A90
843 = A43
844 = A44
845 =A45
846 =A5
847 = A14
848 = A21
849 =A87
850 =A46
851 = A22
852 =A73
853 = A2
854 = A72
855 = A80
856 = A67
857 =A74
858 =A47
859 =A48
860 =A49
861 = A69
862 =A22
863 = A13
864 =A20
865 =A60
866 = A23
867 =A50
868 = A68
869=A11
870 =A75
871 = A25
872 =A77
873 = A51
874 = A52
Divinita
Pietati Augustae
Statae Matri Aug.
Apo/lini Aug.
[Go]ncordiae Aug.
Laribu[s Aug.]
Mar[ti] Aug.
Laribus Augusti[s]
Laribus Augustis
MineNae Aug.
Paci August.
Herculi Aug.
Laribus Aug.
Laribu[s Aug.]
Laribus Augustis
La[ribus] A[ugustis]
Mere. Aug.
Laribus Aug.
Volcano Quieto Augusto
[Laribu]s Aug.
Laribus Augustis
[Laribus A]ugustis
Apo/lini Aug.
Fortunae Aug.
Herculi Aug.
Victoriae Au[g.]
La[rum Aug.]
Herculi Aug.
Silvano Aug.
Aesculapio Aug.
Saluti Aug.
Spei Aug.
MineNae Aug.
Silvano Aug.
[Laribus AUg]ustis
[Laribus Augusto]rum
[Larib]us Augg.
[Pa]ntheo Aug.
Herculi August.
Fort[unae] Aug.
Herculi Aug.
Marti Aug.
[Isi]di Aug.
Laribus Aug.
Neptuno Aug.
[Oi]anae Aug.
Si/vanoAug.
I. 0. M. H. Aug.
Sancto Si/vano Aug.
Larib. Aug.
Laribus Aug.
Datazione
22 d.C.; 43 d.C.
44d.C.
46d.C.
I sec., I meta
I sec., I meta
I sec., I meta
eta tiberio - ciaudiana
56d.C.?
57d.C.
71 d.C.?
eta vespasianea
83d.C.
eta domizianea
98/99 d.C.
I sec. d.C.
I sec. d.C.
I sec., 11 meta
I sec., 11 meta
I sec., finelli inizio
100 d.C.
109 d.G.
115 d.C.
115 d.C.
115 d.C.
115 d.C.
116 d.C.
eta traianea
eta traianea
eta adrianea
eta adrianea
eta traianea-adrianea
139 d.G.
141 d.C.
149 d.C.
161 d.C.
169 d.C.
161 - 169 d.C.
eta commodiana
1/11 sec. d.C.
1/11 sec. d.C.
1/11 sec. d.C.
sec.
sec.
sec., meta
sec., 11 meta
sec., 11 meta
sec., fine
sec., finellll inizio
03 d.C.
223 d.C.
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Nr.ld.
875 =A53
876 = A12
877 =A76
878 = A15
879 = A16
880 =A65
881 = A24
882 =A88
883 = A54
884 =A55
885 =A56
886 =A57
887 = A58
888 = A78
889 = A79
890 = A81
Datazione
222 - 235 d.e.
244 - 249 d.e.
Divinita
{La]ribus A{ugustis]
Fonti Aug.
11 sec., 11 meta 1111 sec., I meta Si/vano Aug.
11 sec. fine 1111 sec.
Fortunae Augustae Respicie{nti]
11 sec. fine 1111 sec.
Fortunae Augustae Praesenti
III sec., meta
Deo Sancto Mercurio Aug.
III sec.
lovi Ma/eciabrudi Aug.
365 - 367 d.e.
Victoriae Augustae
Laribus Aug.
?
?
Larib. Aug.
?
Laribus Augustis
?
Laribus Aug.
?
{La]ribus Augustis
?
SilvanoAug.
?
SilvanoAug.
?
Spei Aug.
In base a questa lista si dovrebbe affermare che l' arco temp orale in cui
le divinita auguste sono document ate e assai ampio: dall'ultimo decennio a.c.
ad almeno il sesto decennio del IV sec. d. C. In realta dediche alla Victoria
Augusta dal ponte di Valentiniano a parte,1I0 documenti che per piu versi
costituiscono un caso a se (tra I'altro doveva esser stata rimessa da poco nella
curia I' ara deJla Vittoria che Costanzo IT aveva fatto togliere net 35 ill), non si
hanno sostanzialmente piu dediche a divinita auguste dopo il III sec. 0
addirittura dopo la meta di quel secolo. L'ultima delle dediche ai Lares
Augusti che, con il loro numero, costituiscono uno straordinario esempio di
continuita, e databile agli anni 222-235. In Spagna l'ultimo esempio datato e,
secondo Etienne, del tempo di CaracaJla 112 0 meglio di eta antoniniana; 113 ivi
stesso le dediche a Mercurio Augusto, secondo le ricerche deJla Baratta sono
per 10 piu dei secoli I e IT con qualche incerta espansione nel III limitatamente
aJla Gallaecia ed alla Lusitania. 114 L'ultima dedica datata a Mercurio Augusto
in Germania e del 249. 115
Vedi sopra con n. 99.
III Sulla rimozione dell'ara (e della statua) per volontl. di Costanzo JI ed il suo ripristino al tempo, come
si ritiene, di Giuliano con le [onti pertinenti: S. Mazzarino, 'Tolleranza e intolleranza: la polemica dell'ara
della Vittoria', Antico, tardoantico ed era costantiniana I (Bari 1974), 339-377, in part. 339-357 (p. 352
n. 32 per il ripristino); D. Vera, Commento storico aUe Relationes di Quinto Aurelio Simmaco (Pisa
1981),12 s.
112 CIL JI 2121; Etienne 1958, op. cit. (n. 8),340 n. 9.
113 CIL JI2 17, 56.
114 Baratta 200 1, op. cit. (n. 104), 108.
115 CIL XIII 6658; Liertz 1998, op. cit. (n.9), 174, 176.
110
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Va considerato inoltre che, tra I e III sec., allo stato almeno della nostra
documentazione, le divinita auguste sono lontane dal presentare a Roma uno
scaglionamento uniforme. L'unica attestazione di Venus e della fine del I sec.
a.e.; Stata Mater, Concordia, Pietas, non oltrepassano la meta del I sec. d.e.;
Volcanus e Pax non superano la fine del I sec.; Aesculapius, Apollo, Neptunus,
Salus, non vanno oltre la meta del IT: Diana, Hercules, Mars, Pantheus, non
oltrepassano il IT; Fortuna, Mercurius e Fons (come i Lares), non superano
forse la meta circa del III sec. Altre divinita invece presentano l' epiteto solo
tardi come Silvanus per cui non e attestato prima dell' eta traianea, e Iuppiter
Maleciabrudes ed Heliopolitanus, per cui l'abbiamo solo dalla fine del IT 0
inizio del III sec. Insomma anche dal punto di vista cronologico il paesaggio e
menD piatto ed uniforme di quel che si potrebbe credere.
E veniamo ai dedicanti, analizzati nelle tabelle C eO. Se, come sopra si
e sospettato, l'attribuzione dell'epiteto Augustus / Augusta ad una determinata
divinita non e irrilevante, si capisce l'importanza di registrare accuratamente
da parte di chi l'attributo econferito.
C - Secondo dedicanti
Nr. id. tipo di dedicante
uomo/donna
ingenuo
Dedica
tutti uomini
C1
C2
C3
C4
servo/liberto imperiale
servo/liberto non imperiale
C5
inc. con cognome greeo
C6
inc. con cognome latino
C7
inc. senza cognome
82, 814, 824, 825, 826, 834, 844, 856, 858, 859,
861, 865, 873, 877, 880, 882
835,846,847,848, [851],852,860,864,868,876
83,84,85,86,88,811,812,813,814,815,816,
817,818,823,827,834,836,838,840,842,844,
845, 848, 853, 858, 859, 870
81,82,86,89,810,814,824,826,830,832,833,
834, 843, 845, 848, 853, 867, 871, 875, 878, 879,
881,887,889
82,87,814,816,820,826,828,832,833,834,853,
857, 859, 862, 866, 874, 888
82, 829, 842, 849, 869, 870, 875, 876
I
,
Nella tabella C i dedicanti sono stati ripartiti secondo l'appartenenza ad
alcuni gruppi oppositivi: uomo/donna 0 ingenuo/schiavo-liberto, distinguendo
ulteriormente tra schiavi e liberti imperiali 0 di altri e mantenendo separati gli
incerti, che tali sono in realta, come vedremo, solo in esigua minoranza. 116
Prima constatazione su questa lista: nessuna donna tra i dedicanti (C 1).
Che le donne costituiscano in epigrafia un gruppo di dedicanti fortemente
116 La lista rende conto del nwnero dei docwnenti in cui i vari tipi di dedicanti OCCOITono e non di queUo
dei dedicanti, del resto non sempre accertabile.
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minoritario e fatto ben noto. Se consideriamo i dedicanti singoli di CIL VI,
vediamo che in 613 casi sono uomini e solo in 50 donne (anche insieme
appaiono poco: solo 62 volte). Qui va considerato pero che non c'e scarsita,
bensi totale assenza, come se venerare una divinitit augusta fosse una pratica
esclusivamente da uomini.
Seconda osservazione: ingenui certi (C2) appaiono soltanto in 16
dediche su 90. Inoltre solo in 4 casi, tutti per qualche verso anomali,117 il
dedicante ingenuo appartiene ad uno strato sociale elevato 0 addirittura
elevatissimo, come nella dedica pubblica B25 che e quella famosa alla Pietas
Augusta eseguita nel 43 da Claudio secondo un senatoconsulto del 22 (non
posso soffermarmi su questa intricata questione sulla quale ha fatto il punto da
ultimo Eugenio La Rocca)lIs 0 nel caso di B73 (dedica ai Lares Augusti di
Settimio Severo e Caracalla). B61 e una dedica a Pantheo Augusto da parte di
un procurator equestre di Marco Aurelio, Lucio Vero e di Faustina Augusta.
La dedica B80 e fatta ex oraculo a Mercurio Augusto da un senatore di origine
microasiatica (forse efesino) insieme con i suoi familiari, intomo alla metit del
ill sec. Da ultimo vengono le giit ricordate dediche alla Vittoria Augusta poste
suI ponte di Valentiniano tra il 10 marzo 365 e il 24 agosto 367 dall'ex
prefetto urbano L. Aurelio Avianio Simmaco. In altri due casi il dedicante,
verosimilmente ingenuo, e un veteranus: rispettivamente B65 a Marte e B77 a
Silvano. Nei rimanenti 9 documenti l'ingenuo compare insieme con dedicante
di condizione libertina, in particolare (7 casi) nell'ambito del culto compitale
tra i cui magistri, per 10 piu liberti, potevano esserci eccezionalmente anche
persone di nascita libera.
Tutti gli altri dedicanti sono schiavi 0 liberti, sicuri 0 molto probabili, ad
esempio per il cognome greco 0 per il contesto (ad esempio quello del culto
compitale in cui figurano).
Non sembra dunque inappropriato ricavare la conclusione ulteriore che a
Roma il culto delle divinitit auguste sia in misura nettamente preponderante un
culto privato servile 0 libertino.
Con la tabella D possiamo anche verificare in quale veste i dedicanti
dichiarino di comporre le loro offerte.
117
118
Sono indicati sotto nella tabella D al nr. 21 (=B25, 61,80,82).
LTUR IV (Roma 1999),87-89.
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D - Secondo qualifica dei dedicanti
Nr. id. qualifica dedicante
collegium struc{torum]
D1
collegium Larum praedio{rum - et] Dianae
D2
D3
D4
D5
D6
D7
D8
D9
D10
D11
D12
D13
D14
D15
D16
D17
D18
D19
D20
D21
8at{-]e . . .[per - - - cur]atorem et Eutychum
adiuto{rem]
conduct{ores] flaturae argen{tar(iae)] monetae
Cae{saris]
curatores tribus Suc(cusanae) lunior(um)
disp(ensator) fisci fr(umentarii)
magistri fontani
magistri / ministri vici
me(n)sor aedificiorum Augg.
officinatores et nummularii officinarum
argentariarum familiae monetari(ae)
officinatores monetae aurariae argentariae
Caesaris n(ostri)
optio et exactor auri argenti et aeris
optio et exactor auri arg(enti) aeris item
signatores, suppostores, malleatores monetae
Caesaris n(ostri)
pigmentarii et miniarii (?)
pr(ocurator), lib. imp.
quaestor di comunita isiaca
quinquennalis perpetuus collegii iuvenum
Racilianensium
sacerdos lO.M.H.
Dedica
885
860
849
834
852
833
81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89,
810,811,812,813,814,816,817,
818, 823, 824, 826, 827, 829, 832,
836, 838, 842, 843, 844, [850], 858,
859, 867, [873], 875, 887
869, 870
851
847
846, 847
848
828
864,868
866
862
871
835
865,877
853, 854
tabul(arius) a marmoribus
veter(anus), veter(anus) Augg.
vilici praediorum Galbanorum et plebs,
collegium salutare
personalita eminenti
825 (imp. Claudio), 861 (procur.
equestre), 873 (Impp. Setlimio
Severo e Caracalla), 880 (vir
clar~simu),
882 (ex praef. urb.)
Da questa lista risulta evidente che la maggior parte dei dedicanti
sottolinea la sua appartenenza a gruppi che, 0 sono direttamente relazionabili
alta figura imperiale, 0 desiderano essere messi in rapporto con essa. Oltre i
numerosi magistri e ministri vici, cui competeva il culto dei Lares Augusti e
del Genius Caesarum (D7) ed ai membri di un collegium Larum in una
proprieta imperiale (D2) si segnalano tutto il personale delta Moneta Caesaris
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(D3, D9, DlO, D11, D12), ed altri membri a vario livello dell'amministrazione
imperiale: un dispensator jisci jrumentarii (DS), un mensor aedificiorum (D8),
due procuratores libertini (D14), un tabularius a marmoribus (D18). Un
collegium structorum, non meglio identificato (D 1), fa una dedica dei Lares
Augusti alle pendici del Palatino: san'! verosimilmente costituito da structores
della casa imperiale. Una dedi ca alla Concordia Augusta ricorda che un
signum dell a dea, cum suis ornamentis e stato offerto, nel contesto di un
collegio di pigmentarii e miniarii insieme con imagines argenteas ((tres)),
verosimilmente dell'imperatore e dei membri della sua famiglia (DB). Una
dedica ad Ercole e posta da un qUinquennalis perpetuus collegi iuvenum
Racilianensium (DI6); se coglie nel vero la mia vecchia interpretazione che
mette in relazione questa organizzazione romana della iuventus con la
suddivisione della citta in regiones e vici (e in effetti esistono in vicus
Raciliani maioris ed un vicus Raciliani minoris),119 siamo indirettamente
ricondotti alle strutture (regiones, vici) che a Roma sono alla base del
cosiddetto culto imperiale. Una dedica Aesculapio et Saluti Aug(ustae) 0
Aug(ustis) e fatta da un collegium salutare istituito tra il personale dei praedia
Galbana (D20); primo destinatario della dedica e il numen dell a domus
Augusta ed essa e posta loco adsignato dal procurator patrimoni Caesaris
nostri. Lascio da parte qualche altro caso (D4, D6, D17, D19). Non mi sembra
comunque dubbio che il culto delle divinita auguste trovi la sua diffusione a
Roma, non solo quasi esclusivamente tra schiavi e liberti, ma anche tra schiavi
e liberti strettamente collegati con la casa imperiale. Solo in parte analogo il
quadro che Robert Etienne ricava dalla documentazione spagnola 120 nella
quale su 74 dedicanti solo 34, cioe il 43,24%, sono costituiti da schiavi (6),
liberti (8), indigeni (1), seviri (IS), magistri Larum (4).
Dopo questa rassegna, si puo tornare a chiedersi, prima di concludere,
che cosa significhino effettivamente queste dediche romane rispetto al
problema generale che si e posto all'inizio: sono manifestazioni di culto per un
imperatore-dio?; di culto congiunto per un dio e per l'imperatore?; di culto per
un dio in veste di guida e patrono dell'imperatore?; 0, infine, soltanto il
prodotto di una mescolanza di devozione verso gli dei e di piaggeria nei
confronti dell'uomo piu potente tra i potenti?
Nessun segno mi sembra ravvisabile di vero e proprio culto imperiale, ne
in proprio, ne sotto le sembianze delle varie divinita evocate. Escluderei che una
dedi ca Mercurio Augusto possa essere equivalente ad una dedi ca Mercurio et
119
120
Vedi sopra, n. 33.
Etienne 1958, op. cit. (n. 8), 345.
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AUgustO. 121 E vero che si possono trovare nomi di divinita giustapposti in
asindeto, ma in genere si tratta, per l'appunto, di piu divinita (almeno tre) e non
di due, tra le quali normalmente la congiunzione non manca, oltretutto per
l'equivoco che (in casi come questo) altrimenti ne conseguiva.
Che quando si pone una dedi ca ad una divinita con l'epiteto di Augusta
10 si faccia per pura piaggeria, al di fuori di ogni sentimento religioso, e
d'altronde una di quelle affermazioni che, essendo indimostrabili, risultano
storicamente inutilizzabili.
E certo invece che non possono riguardare, neppure indirettamente, un
imperatore-dio vivente, ne le dediche a divinita auguste poste dal sovrano
stesso come quella della Pietas Augusta da parte di Claudio (A71), 0 quella ai
Lares A ugusti da parte di Settimio Severo e Caracalla (AS I), ne quelle fatte da
altri a qualche divinita augusta pro salute dell'imperatore, tenuto ben distinto
dal dio invocato, come nel caso di Fons per i Filippi (AI2).
Le divinita sono d'altronde Augustae 0 Augusti? Ed e avvertibile nelle
dediche romane un'autentica differenza di significato tra le due denominazioni?
Se si scorrono le liste che ho prodotto si vede bene che in tutto l'arco
della documentazione, quando l'epiteto e scritto per esteso, esso si presenta
nella quasi total ita dei casi in forma aggettivale. 122 Non vedo motivo perche le
abbreviazioni dovrebbero essere sciolte diversamente.
In un solo caso (BS9) abbiamo sicuramente Laribus Augustorum (per
esteso) invece che Augustis. In un altro (B60), abbiamo Augg. scritto con due
G. 11 motivo di queste eccezioni e facilmente riconoscibile: con le prime due
dediche siamo negli anni della prima correggenza imperiale, quella di Marco
Aurelio e Lucio Vero, con la terza, ipotetica, in quelli delIa correggenza di
Settimio Severo e CaracalIa. Credo che il ricorso alla forma genetivale invece
che a quell a aggettivale, da un lato sia imputabile alle novita della
correggenza, dalI'altro mostri che, se con due imperatori si ritiene opportuno
scrivere Augustorum, in tutti gli altri casi in cui, con riferimento ad una
divinitil, si scrive Augustus / Augusta, l'epiteto non fosse sentito
sostanzialmente diverso da Augusti, 0 anche, piu tardi, da Augustorum. Del
resto che, tanto con Augustus quanto con Augusti, non s'intenda istituire un
rapporto con l'imperatore come istituzione, bensi concretamente con
121 Cosi da ultimo Clauss 1999, op. cit. (n. 2), 280 e 286 ss. Contro questa interpretazione e, in generale,
contro la tesi propugnata in questo libro di un vero e proprio culto generalizzato dell'imperatore vivente
sin dal tempo di Augusto: C. Letta, Athenaeum 99 (2002), 625-632.
122 82,9,10,11,12,14,16,20,23,25,32,38,42,44,45,58, 78, 79, 82, 85, 87. Non sono elencati i casi
in cui la forma estesa e fiutto di integrazione.
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l'imperatore regnante,123 e mostrato da dediche come la A40, la cui
intitolazione, a scanso di equivoci, suona Laribus Augustis Imp(eratoris)
Nervae Caesaris Traiani Aug(usti).
Ci si puo chiedere d'altronde se si awertisse una sostanziale differenza
tra una dedica Victoriae Augustae, comiti dominorum principumq(ue)
nostror(um) (A88) ed altra Victoriae Imp(eratoris) Caesaris Vespasiani
Augusti,124 0 tra due dediche, pressoche contemporanee ed entrambe delta
tribus Succusana, l'una Paci Augustae (A70), l'altra Paci aetemae domus
Imp(eratoris) Vespasiani Caesaris Aug(usti) liberorumq(ue) eius. 125
Ho il sospetto che cosi non fosse. Ritengo che, come delta Victoria
Augusta si poteva pensare e scrivere che era comes dominorum principumq(ue)
nostror(um), cosi si potesse pensare, anche se non si scriveva, che Aesculapius,
Apollo, Concordia, Diana e cosi via, in quanto Augusti / Augustae, stessero in
analogo, privilegiato, rapporto con l'imperatore, e non tanto con la sovranita in
generale, quanto con quelt'imperatore che al momento occupava il trono.
Forte di tanta divina assistenza, il principe, che non era dio, tuttavia agli occhi
dei suoi sudditi non era piu neppure un uomo. Si puo dire in qualche modo
che, come i suoi generali vincevano le battaglie, ma non celebravano il trionfo,
ricevendo solo gli omamenta triumphalia, cosi l'imperatore, non ancora
diventato dio, ma tuttavia superata la condizione umana, non ricevesse ancora
culto, ma fosse considerato gia meritevole di ornamenta divina. Per certi gruppi
di persone, in parte variabili secondo i tempi ed i luoghi (ed aRoma - come si e
visto - eminentemente costituiti da schiavi e 0 liberti, particolarmente legati alIa
figura ed all'amministrazione imperiale), venerare alcune divinita
chiamandole auguste poteva essere un modo per chieder loro di continuare ad
essere garanti delta riconosciuta sovrumanita del principe e per chiedere che
esse, come assistevano l'imperatore nel suo operare a beneficio di tutti, COS!
volessero estendere almeno in parte anche ad altri illoro potente aiuto.
123 Contra Clauss 1999, op. eit. (n. 2), 280-285, che vede nell'uso del genitivo la volontit di istituire
re1azione con IllI particolare imperatore mentre la forma aggettivale connetterebbe il dio in genera1e con
l'istituzione imperiale. Scettici sui pllllto, Ira gli altri, gill. AD. Nock, 'Studies in the Graeco-Roman
Beliefs of the Empire', Journal o/Hellenic Studies 45 (1925), 92 SS., Idem, Essays, op.eit. [no 106],41
ss.) e Fishwick 1991, op. cit. (n. I), 446.
124 ca VI 198 cfr. 30712, 36747; Iscrizioni laline Napo/i, I, 2000, op.cit. (n. 93), 58 nr. 5. Per lllIa
possibile dedica alia Vittoria di tre Augusti e due Cesari vedi ora G. L. Oregori, Zeitschrif/ for
Papyrologie und Epigraphik 86 (1991), 285 s. nr. 2 (AE 1991,274).
125 ca VI 200 efr. 30712,36747; Iscrizioni laline Napo/i, I, 2000, op.cit. (n. 93),58 ss. nr. 6.
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Cosi il culto delle divinita auguste aRoma ed altrove, pur con tutte le
ambiguita che porta con Se,126 non presuppone in linea di principio l'idea di un
imperatore-dio. Se mai, l'idea di un imperatore superuomo perche
divinamente assistito al punto da essere compartecipe dei poteri degli dei. 127
Roma, gennaio 2003
126 Sull'ambiguita, spesso intenzionale, come carattere da cui non si pu6 prescindere nell'esame del
fenomeno del cosiddetto culto imperiale, ambiguita favorita proprio perch!! "consentiva una ricezione dei
messaggi ideologici flessibile e graduata, a piu livelli, a seconda della cultura, delle tradizioni religiose e
politiche, della sensibilita dei diversi soggetti in gioco": Letta 2002, op.cit. (n. 121), 628 s.
127 Solo al momento di consegnare questo scritto per la stampa ho potuto prendere visione di altri due
recenti studi concernenti la questione qui trattata, 11110 in maniera generale, l'altro in modo specifico. Il
primo e 1. Gradel, Emperor Worship and Roman Religio (Oxford 2002), Ill1libro che in qualche modo
"sdrammatizza" I'opposizione uomo/dio in quanto I'autore ritiene che la divinita non sia Ill1 valore
assoluto, bensi una qua1ita che sarebbe attribuita dal fedele sulla base di una riconosciuta detenzione di
eccezionali (sovrwnani) poteri. Onori divini sarebbero stati tributati gift ad Augusto vivente in ambito
privato e municipale; non invece nel culto pubblico; cosi in linea generale anche in seguito.
Programmaticamente le divinita auguste non sono trattate. Una cosa sarebbe tuttavia attribuire epiteto di
AugustuslAugusta ad Ill1 dio, che risulterebbe in tal modo vagamente collegato con I'imperatore, altra dire
quello stesso dioAugusli, fatto che comporterebbe la nascita di lll1a nuova divinita e la sua appropriazione
da parte dell'imperatore come sua divinita tutelare (103-105). Dubito che questa distinzione, se anche
pote esservi in origine, sia stata sempre mantenuta ed a tutti i livelli. Tutto il libro merita comlll1que
Wl'approfondita discussione. Sulla preSWlta inesistenza di Wl culto del Genio di Augusto a Pompei ed
altrove, vedi intanto i contributi di C. Letta citati sopra (n. 4). L'altro studio e I'articolo di A. Villaret,
'L'association de I'empereur et des dieux en Aquitaine. Son role dans la societe et les mentalites',
Aquitania 16 (1999), 127-151: esso consiste nella plll1tuaie raccolta e nell'esame analitico delle
testimonianze epigrafiche, da Ill1 lato di dedica congilll1ta all'imperatore ed a divinita (non a virtU)
auguste. Abbiamo dlll1que Ill1 altro studio specifico sui tema. L'a. ritiene che non vi sia sostanziale
differenza tra le due espressioni di culto, che costituirebbero piuttosto due diverse modalita di
associazione degli dei all'imperatore, di cui diverrebbero protettrici particolari (il culto delle divinita
auguste sarebbe stato prevalente al sud della provincia per influsso narbonese). Come aRoma, I'uso si
estende dall'eta augustea alia meta del III sec. e le divinita sono praticamente sempre Augustae e non
Augusli. Notevoli invece le diversita per quanto riguarda gli dei prescelti (nella stragrande maggioranza
interpretabili come gallo-romani 0 indigeni) e quanto ai dedicanti (essenzialmente notabili locali e
peregrini; anche qualche donna; pochi gli schiavi ed i liberti). Non mancano testimonianze d'iniziativa
pubblica, ma si tratta per 10 piu di culto privato, espressione, secondo \'a., «d'lll1 sentiment religieux
authentique qui allie "I' amour de I' Auguste" (Veyne) a la foi dans les dieux traditionelles de la cite,
cooperation dont on attend des biens aussi vitaux que la sante, le saiut, la fecondite, la proSperiteH. Altri
studi analitici a carattere regionale potranno contribuire ad lll1'ulteriore precisazione del quadro.
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ANCYRA, ANTIOCHIA E APOLLONIA.
LA RAPPRESENTAZIONE DELLE RES GESTAE DIVI AUGUSTI
a
PAULA BOTTER!
Credo si possa affermare senza tema di smentite che non esiste studioso del
mondo antico che non si sia imbattuto nel testa epigrafico delle res gestae divi
Augusti e non ne conosca il contenuto e la storia dell a sua scoperta. Ne sono
prova, del resto, la cospicua bibliografia sull' argomento e gli studi recenti ed
ancora recentissimi che mostrano un rinnovato interesse storiografico per il
primo imperatore di Roma e la fondazione del suo potere. 1 Ed in particolare,
10 confermano anche gli argomenti delle comunicazioni di questo convegno.
Come indicato nel titolo di questo intervento, visiteremo i luoghi di
esposizione delle Res gestae divi Augusti e il contesto entro il quale esse
erano destinate a provocare il loro impatto comunicativo, naturalmente nelle
local ita in cui sono state ritrovate. Perch6 le res gestae monumentali
rappresentano, a mio parere, I' espressione piu compiuta del linguaggio
visivo dell' apparato propagandistico augusteo, come manifesto insuperabile
dell' autorappresentazione celebrativa del princeps e del potere. IIIustreremo
qui geografia, spazi urbani e monumenta, ossia i testi e i loro contenitori,
entrambi veicoli di cia che conserva e trasmette la memoria di uomini e
vicende insigni. 2
Se, come ho detto, il testa delle res gestae Divi Augusti e fonte ben
nota, forse non altrettanto noti sono i luoghi da cui provengono e dove si
conservano le iscrizioni, ad iniziare da Ankara. Certo, i resti del santuario, un
tempo dedicato ad Augusto e alia dea Roma, sono ancora ben visibili (un po'
meno visibile, attualmente, e I'iscrizione); ma cia che la citta moderna ha
coperto e non lascia piu scoprire e I'intero ambiente figurativo entro cui la
rappresentazione visiva delle res gestae potevano agire da dispositivo
simbolico.
Naturalmente, anche la citta moderna non e sfuggita alle norme piu 0
meno sotterranee che regolano la comunicazione del potere attraverso
I W. K. Lacey, Augustus and the Principate. The Evolution of the System (Leeds 1996); W. Eck,
Augustus und seine Zeit (Miinchen 1998); P. Southern, Augustus (LondonINew York 1998); J
Bleicken, Augustus. Eine Biographie (Berlin 1998); P. Botteri, 'Missione in Turchia: il Monumentum
Ancyranum', Quademi di Storia 54 (2001), \33-148, in part. 137, n.IO.
2 J Le Goff, 'DocumentolMonurnento', in Enciclopedia Einaudi (Tarino 1978) 5, 38-48; G. Belloni,
Le antichita romane. L 'uomo romano: afJermazione del dominio e fermenti dello spirito (Bologna
1996), \35 ss.
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I'organizzazione urbanistica. Quando Ankara divenne capitale del paese si
trasforma completamente: da grosso borgo di 30 mila anime, in citta e
megalopoli (dati aggiornati pariano di 5 milioni di abitanti). L' arteria
principale che I'attraversa da Sud a Nord per circa 6 km si chiama Bulvari
Atatilrk. La strada congiunge il quartiere dove si trovano quella che fu la
residenza governativa di Gazi Mustafa Kemal (ora trasformata in Museo), e
l' attuale palazzo presidenziale al quartiere di Ulus, terminando ai piedi deIla
statua equestre del pater patriae (Ataturk). Essa stabilisce, dunque, un
collegamento e non solo ideale, tra la sede politica del primo Presidente
storico della repubblica ad una delle sue raffigurazioni eroiche, in veste di
combattente, restauratore della liberta. Alle spalle del bronzo di Ataturk a
cavallo inizia il quartiere di Ulus, il vecchio centro dell a citta, dove I' antico e
il vecchio si confondono con il nuovo, creando contrasti ambientali e
strutturali violenti, risultato di una ere se ita per accumulo, senza alcuna
pianificazione. Nel centro del quartiere, trasformato dagli interventi
urbanistici dell'ultimo ventennio, e ancora riconoscibile la zona elevata su
cui sorgeva I'acropoli antica (Tav. V, fig. I). Una moderna scalinata
monumentale porta fino aIla spianata di cemento che circonda una moschea,
un minareto ed i resti del tempio di Augusto (Tav. V, fig. 2).
La vicinanza dei due edifici non sorprende. Come altrove - e gli
esempi non mancano certo - esiste anche qui una stratigrafia cultuale
profonda, prodotta daIla tendenza a prolungare nei secoli la sacral ita dei
luoghi: pare che gia i Frigi avessero dedicato il sito al culto delle loro antic he
divinita anatoliche (Men e Cibele).
La costruzione romana mostra i segni di molti rimaneggiamenti e delle
trasformazioni subite attraverso il tempo e la storia. Nel VI secolo, chiesa
bizantina; nel XV scuola teologica per i Dervisci con l' aggiunta dell a moschea
ottomana. Congiunta ad un'anta del tempio, la moschea venne costruita neIla
prima meta dei XV secolo per onorare Haci Bayram Veli, carismatica guida
spirituale di una confraternita dei Dervisci di Ankara, morto nella prima meta
del '400. Il santuario islamico e stato quasi completamente ristrutturato. Solo il
piccolo mausoleo adiacente, custode per un periodo deIle spoglie del Maestro,
e il minareto hanno conservato la forma originaria. Lo spazio interno ed
esterno del tempio e ora adibito a deposito di materiale archeologico e di
detriti, ma ha accoIto anche un cimitero turco. NeIl'area anti stante la moschea
e il tempio, i fedeli islamici continuano a celebrare funerali, matrimoni e
circoncisioni. Raramente a questa folla si mescolano persone estranee. E
quando cia avviene, si tratta di piccoli gruppi 0 di singoli individui, di solito
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palesemente stranieri, spinti dalla curiosita di visitare le rovine romane, che le
guide turistiche indicano con scarsa evidenza. Nel famoso Museo delle Civilta
Anatoliche, unica meta obbligata di tutto il turismo in transito ad Ankara, e dal
quale si vede benissimo il tempio, non esiste una sola indicazione che ne segnali
1'ubicazione e l'opportunita di una visita. Come del resto, non esiste alcuna
forma di pubblicita per it passato romano della citta, presente nei resti di un
prestigioso impianto termale ad ipocausto, e in quelli dei teatri, semisepolti dai
rifiuti. Eppure, l'edificio che fu dedicato al divo Augusto e alIa dea Roma,3
conserva il testo bilingue delle res gestae Divi Augusti, una pagina di storia
straordinaria, segnata da forti connotazioni simboliche, pari, oserei dire, a
quelle che rendono grandiosa l' Acropoli di Atene 0 i Fori di Roma. Del
celebre monumento rimangono ancora in piedi i fianchi della cella, legati
insieme dal pronao, che conserva it maestoso portale dell a cella. Nella parte
posteriore dell'edificio, aggiunti all'opistodomo, 1'abside e la cripta della chiesa
bizantina. Tutte le modifiche subite nel corso dei secoli hanno completamente
alterato la fisionomia originaria del tempio e del suo contesto, in modo tale
che quasi nulla si puo capire dell'assetto urbanistico di eta romana.
Tuttavia, sull' anta sinistra del pronao (sinistra per chi guarda
dall' esterno il portale dell a cella) si conserva in buona parte l'iscrizione, che
ricorda i sacerdoti provinciali preposti annualmente al culto imperiale4 dal 23
al 39. La lista appartiene dunque all' eta di Tiberio e Caligola, ed in base a
questo elemento cronologico alcuni studio si datano anche il tempio. 5
Personalmente non credo che si possa stabilire un rapporto tra la datazione
dei sacerdoti del cuho imperiale e la fondazione del tempio. Ma cia non
rientra nell'ordine dell'odierna discussione. Ci interessa invece I'elenco delle
opere realizzate grazie all'evergetismo dei ministri del culto. Come, ad
esempio, i doni offerti alia citta di Ancyra dal sacerdote dell'anno 23 d.e.,
Pilemene, figlio del re Aminta. L'iscrizione ricorda la generosita di questo
sacerdote di stirpe reale, che ha regalato alia citta i terreni su cui si erge il
C. Fayer,!1 culto della Dea Roma. Origine e diffusione neU'!mpero (Chieti 1976).
OGIS ll, 533; M. Schede & D. Krencker, Der Tempel in Ankara (Berlin 1936), 52 s. eT. 43-44a; L.
Robert, Les Gladiateurs dans I'Orient grec (Amsterdam 1971, reimp. de l'ouvrage paru en 1940),
135s.; RK. Sherk, The Legates of Galatiafram Augustus to Diocletian (Baltimore 1951), 26s.; E.
Bosch, Quellen zur Geschichte der Stadt Ankara im Altertum (Ankara 1967), 35 s.; H. HiinleinSchilfer, Veneratio Augusti. Eine Studie zu den Tempeln des ersten romischen Kaisers (Roma 1985),
185 s., con bibliographia).
5 Sulla datazione del tempio, per esempio, cf. S.RF. Price, Rituals and Power. The Roman imperial
cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge 1984), 267s.; H. Halfmann, 'Zur Datierung und Deutung der
Priesterliste am Augustus-Roma Tempel in Ankara', Chiron 16 (1986), 35-42. Cf. Boueri 200 I, op.cit.
(n.1), 133-148, in part. 141 n.19.
3
4
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Sebasteion e dove si svolgevano le feste pubbliche, le cerimonie, le corse
con i cavalli, i concorsi ginnici e cosi via. Davanti al tempio di Augusto e
Roma doveva esserci, dunque, un grande spazio pubblico destinato alle feste
e ai giochi ma non il solo Pilemene era stato prodigo evergeta. Anche gli
altri sacerdoti galati avevano seguito il cerimoniale dell' offerta previsto dal
culto imperiale con intere forniture di olio per la cittadinanza, giochi
venatori, gladiatori 6 e spettacoli teatrali. Una ventina d'anni fa (1982) e stato
scoperto ad Ankara un teatro romano. 11 complesso si trova poco distante dal
tempio di Augusto, e non e che parzialmente scavato. Alcune preliminari
proposte di datazione 10 collocherebbero nella prima meta del I secolo d.e.,
piu 0 meno contemporaneo, dunque, all' iscrizione dei sacerdoti del koinon
dei Galati. Per quanto ad oggi ne sappiamo, potrebbe trattarsi di un impianto
collegato all' area del santuario, come quelli recentemente studiati nella
Narbonese e nella topografia augustea di qualche citta della penisola
iberica. 7 Penso in particolare a Tarragona.
11 testa latino del 'testamento' di August0 8 e inciso sulIe pareti del
pronao, a sinistra e a destra di chi entra, prima di oltrepassare il portale che
introduce alIa cella. Si presenta diviso in modo identico da una parte e
dall'altra, per 3,60 m. di larghezza su ciascun lato, e 2 m. e 48 di altezza
(complessivi 17,86 m2) (Tav. V, fig.3). La traduzione greca si trova invece
suI muro esterno della cella e si sviluppa su una fascia lunga circa 20,30
metri, e alta Imetro e 25, pari ad una superficie di 21,55 m2 (Tav. V, fig.4).
Detto per inciso, il testo greco delle res gestae Divi Augusti rappresenta da
sempre, per gli studio si, un semplice supporto ad integrazione dell' originale
latino e, salvo rarissime eccezioni,9 non e considerato che un complemento
testuale della copia latina, del tutto privo di autonomia.
Ma lasciamo da parte i problemi relativi al testa dell'iscrizione, problemi
di cui ci stiamo occupando altrove. Cia che qui interessa e l' ambiente in cui
l'iscrizione augustea ha sede, perch6 e legittimo chiedersi quale fosse realmente
l'impatto del messaggio, oltre quello legato al culto dell'imperatore e, piu in
generale, al valore simbolico del monumento 'iscritto'.1O
Robert 1971, op.cit. (n. 4).
P. Gros, 'Theatre et culte imperial en Gaule Narbonnaise et clans la peninsule Iberique', in W.
Trillmich & P. Zanker, edd., Stadtbild und Ideologie. Die Monumentalisienmg hispanischer SUidte
zwischen Republik und Kaiserzeit (Milnchen 1990), 381-390.
8 Rimando alIa pUbblicazione recente di F. Guizzi, Augusto. La politica della memoria (Roma 1999).
9 W. Weber, Princeps. Studien zur Geschichte des Augustus (StuttgartlBerlin 1936); G. Vanotti, Il testo
greco delle Res gestae divi Augusti: appunti per un'interpretazione politica, GIF 27 (1975), 306-325.
10 C. Williamson, 'Monuments of Bronze: Roman Legal Documents on Bronze Table', Classical
Antiquity 6 (1987),160-183.
6
7
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Il tempio di Augusto ad Ankara si presenta come un edificio
grandioso (all'incirca 36X55), originariamente rialzato su un podio a gradini,
per cui il rapporto tra I'iscrizione e il pubblico era diverso da oggi. L'insieme
sembra ispirarsi ai modelli ellenistici piu noti dell' Asia Minore, come ad
esempio quelli famosi di Ermogene a Magnesia del Meandro (Artemis e
Zeus), 0 quello successivo di Aizanoi, costruito al tempo di Adriano, e che
conserva sulle sue pareti i famosi contenziosi giuridici circa i terreni sacri del
tempio. ll Tutto considerato, net tempio di Ankara 10 spazio laterale tra la
cella e le colonne del peristilio non sembra tale da consentire una prospettiva
adeguata a chi volesse fermarsi a leggere la traduzione greca del testa di
Augusto. 11 rapporto fra le misure del corridoio e le lettere e inadeguato,
anche se conosciamo formule precise che indicavano come le scritture
ufficiali da esporre nei luoghi pubblici dovessero de piano recte legi. E non
dimentichiamo che, net caso specifico, anche la copertura del tetto non
garantiva certo al lettore condizioni ideali di luce. Comunque sia delicatezza del potere - nella traduzione greca dell' intestazione e stata
soppressa la frase originaria del testo latino, che avrebbe ricordato ai
provinciali I' avvenuta annessione a Roma, operata da Augusto: qui bus
orbem terrarum imperio populi romani subiecit. Piu visibile, e molto
probabilmente piu chiara ed agevole, la lettura delle due epigrafi latine
all'ingresso della cella, ossia, il testo destinato ad un pubblico - dobbiamo
supporre piu ristretto -perche la maggioranza dei provinciali parlava greco.
La condizione attuale del testa delle epigrafi e tale da far temere per
la loro sopravvivenza. Desidero segnalare che un gruppo di studiosi del DSA
dell'Universita di Trieste, sta conducendo un progetto, intitolato 'Ancyra', 12
e che per prima cosa e stato eseguito con il sistema della fotogrammetria, un
calco virtuale di tutte le pareti iscritte. Ora stiamo progettando una copertura
adeguata per il tempio e le iscrizioni. Il monumento e stato da quest'anno
inserito dall'associazione del World Monuments Fund, nella lista dei cento
monumenti mondiali da salvare.
Voglio precisare che in questa sede presento solo una rassegna delle
indagini preliminari di una ricerca in corso, condotta nelle tre citta dell' Asia
Minore, dove fino ad ora risultano esser state inviate copie delle res gestae
Divi Augusti: oltre Ankara, Yalvav e Uluborlu.
II U. Laffi, '1 terreni del tempio di Zeus ad Aizanoi', Athenaeum 49 (1971), 3-53; R. Naumann,
Zeustempel zu Aizanoi (Berlin 1979).
12 Sito web: univ.itl-ancyra/
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Se Ankara! Ancyra era la citta piu importante della Galazia, non
meno importanti dovevano essere Antiochia e Apollonia di Pisidia,
rispettivamente Yalvay e Uluborlu, anche se ai nostri giorni, Yalvay e
specialmente Uluborlu, situate nella regione dei laghi dell' Anatolia
occidentale, appaiono solo come modesti centri urbani.
Quando nel 25 ebbe luogo I' annessione dell a Galazia e del vasto
regno di Aminta, Augusto pianifico un ampio programma di fondazioni
coloniarie, come Cremna, Comama, Olbasa, Parlais, Iconium, Germa,
Antiochia di Pisidia etc. 13 Antiochia e stata ristudiata e di recente pubblicata
da Stephen Mitchell e Marc Waelkens. 14 Forse non a torto Mitchell e
Waelkens definiscono Antiochia di Pisidia una delle piu importanti citta
dell'impero romano d'oriente. A giudicare dai resti grandiosi dei suoi edifici,
ancora solo parzialmente portati alIa luce, e dalle 19 arcate superstiti del
poderoso acquedotto, visibili per chilometri e chilometri, non e difficile farsi
un' idea delle dimensioni dell a citta e della densita dei suoi abitanti (Tav. V,
fig.5). Quando da Augusto in poi inizia un sistematico processo di
romanizzazione dell' Asia Minore, la citta di Antiochia, gia fondazione
seleucide, viene rifondata con il no me di Colonia Caesarea Antiochia e
diventa un punto nevralgico della rete viaria che, dalle citta costiere dell a
provincia d' Asia, raggiunge l'oriente. Secondo calcoli basati soprattutto
sull' evidenza epigrafica e numismatica, ad Antiochia si insediarono
moltissimi coloni romani, quasi tutti veterani (V legione Gallica e la VII
Macedonica, come mostrano le monete) in cerca di sistemazione e di terra,
con le loro famiglie. 15 La parte della citta che qui ci interessa e il centro, in
prossimita dell'incrocio tra il cosidetto decumano massimo ed il cardo, dove
sorgeva il tempio, probabilmente un Augusteum, forse dedicato anche al
culto della dea Roma,16 come si era verificato in altre local ita orientali, a
partire dal periodo post-aziaco (Nicomedia, Pergamo, Mylasa, Ancyra, etc.)
(Tav. V, fig.6). 11 santuario, di dimensioni piuttosto contenute, sorge nella
posizione di mezzo di un ampio emiciclo, un'esedra semicircolare limitata
nella parte posteriore del tempio da una collina rocciosa, tagliata alIa base
per dar luogo alIa costruzione di un vasto colonnato a due piani, con
botteghe. Di fronte al tempio, si stende un' ampia spianata, a cui si accedeva
per una breve scalinata, attraverso un grandioso propyl on, formato da tre
In generale, ef. B. Leviek, Roman Colonies in Southern Asia Minor (Oxford 1967).
S. Mitehell & M. Waelkens, Pisidian Antioch. The Site and its Monuments (London 1998).
IS B. Leviek, Roman Colonies in Southern Asia Minor (Oxford 1967), 29-41.
13
14
16
Mitehell & Wae1kens 1998, op.eit. (n. 14), 157 s.
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arcate (Tav. V, fig.7). Sappiamo da un'iscrizione che 10 spazio era indicato
Augusta plateia, mentre al piano inferiore c'era la Tiberia plateia. Sparsi in
quest' area sono stati trovati oltre 200 frammenti della versione latina delle
res gestae di Augusto. Il tempio e la sua collocazione contestuale, ricordano
altri impianti analoghi di eta augustea, come gia ha rilevato Mitchell e prima
di lui P. Zanker.17 Tutta la planimetria della 'piazza', con tempio e ingresso
ad arcate monumentale si ripete altrove, ad esempio in Asia Minore, gia a
partire dall' eta ellenistica. La sistemazione, invece, come alcuni studio si
suggeriscono, della lunga iscrizione latina all'interno dei piedritti di sostegno
degli archi del propyl on, sembrerebbe piuttosto una novita. Perch<! incidere
tutte le Res gestae di Augusto in latino, sulle pareti del passaggio principale
tra le due piazze, dove nulla invitava alla lettura, ma anzi, sostare avrebbe
potuto creare disagio agli altri passanti ed un probabile impedimento al
traffico? Leggendo le relazioni di scavo, da Ramsey a Robinson, fino ai
racconti del dr. Mehmet Ta~lin,
attuale direttore del Museo di Yalv~,
non
pare vi sia alcuna certezza per evincere che i frammenti siano caduti
dall'interno dei propilei. L'area del ritrovamento e abbastanza indefinita,
anche se concentrata nella zona delle due platee. Gli abitanti dell a regione,
che per secoli hanno sfruttato le rovine di Antiochia come una cava di
materiale da costruzione, e i fenomeni naturali cui anche questa parte della
Turchia va soggetta, terremoti, gelate, neve etc., spesso sono stati causa di
vistosi sconvolgimenti. E' sufficiente passeggiare tra le rovine di Antiochia
per rendersene conto. Fino a prova contraria, in base a questi soli elementi, la
collocazione delle res gestae all'interno del passaggio del propylon rimane
congetturale, anche se recenti studi hanno integrato l'iscrizione che
sovrastava il portico centrale, riconoscendo una dedica ad Augusto risalente
all' anno 2 a. C. 18 In base alla lettura di questa iscrizione, qualora la si accetti,
sarebbe plausibile collocare anche il manifesto augusteo in questo
programma architettonico, tutto dedicato al principe.
Ma a dire il vero, gia A. von Premerstein, nel 1932, aveva espresso piu
di qualche perplessita sulla provenienza del luogo di esposizione dei
frammenti delle Res gestae 19 e suggeriva la possibilita che appartenessero al
basamento di una statua, come ad esempio aRoma, gli elogia del Foro di
17 Mitchell & Waelkens 1998, op.cit. (n. 14), 160 ss.; P. Zanker, Augustus und die Macht der Bilder
(Milnchen 1987), 312 (trad. it. 328 s.).
18 T. Drew-Bear, 'Pisidia Antiocheiasmm parlak donemlerini yansltan yazltlar', XII Ara~tim
(1994),
13-17.
19 'Gliederung und Aufstellung der Res gestae divi Augusti in Rom und im pisidischen Antiochia',
Klio (1932), 224 s.
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Augusto. Ricordo, per inciso, che una testa colossale di statua, raffigurante il
princeps, e stata ritrovata da D.M. Robinson nella campagna di scavi del 1924.
In definitiva, oggi non e ancora possibile stabilire la collocazione
esatta del documento augusteo. A mio parere, seguendo le indicazioni
paradigmatiche suggerite dai lavori stimolanti di P. Zanker e di altri 20
sull'impatto della comunicazione del potere per l'eta augustea, credo si possa
ipotizzare che I'iscrizione sia stata esposta net sito piu significativo della citta,
in relazione con il culto dell'imperatore. Ad Antiochia, come ad Ancyra, il
luogo idoneo della scrittura sembra essere il tempio, dove la funzione
simbolica e preminente e cosi forte, al punto da avere quasi un valore
ontologico, un valore in se. Cosi, net caso di Antiochia, persino la
comprensione linguistica diventerebbe secondaria: importante e il segno. Fino
a prova contraria, siamo nel campo delle ipotesi.
A tutt' oggi, e noto, il caso ci ha restituito un certo numero di
frammenti di copie delle res gestae, a parte il monumento di Ankara. Che si
tratti di copie provenienti da una copia dell'esemplare inciso aRoma ed
esposto davanti al Mausoleo di Augusto, e I'ipotesi piu verosimile. I
frammenti provengono tutti da un' area abbastanza circoscritta dell' Anatolia
occidentale. Naturalmente, non possiamo escludere l'esistenza di altre copie
dell'index, non soltanto nelle province d'Oriente dell' Asia Minore, ma anche
dell'Occidente. Penso, ad esempio, in particolare alIa Spagna e alia
Narbonese, dove I'assetto urbano augusteo ha rivelato I'iterazione dei modelli.
Il problema della destinazione e della pubblicita delle res gestae e
ancora piu complicato per quanto riguarda Apollonia. Nulla 0 quasi e stato
portato alia luce della citta anti ca. La fortezza che domina il territorio, prima
luogo dell'insediamento seleucide e in seguito di quello romano, e oggi un
ammasso di rovine, quasi indecifrabili. Nella piana sottostante, sparsi per
qualche chilometro, per quanto ho potuto vedere, dappertutto affiorano resti di
bastioni, di iscrizioni rovesciate: alcune diventate ormai quasi illeggibili per la
lunga esposizione, altre invece, di recente emerse nelle zolle fresche dei campi
appena arati, appaiono in ottime condizioni. Blocchi di calcare con l'iscrizione
greca delle Res gestae di Augusto, sono stati trovati sull' acropoli, in alto, sulla
collina abitata fino a mezzo secolo fa, e poi abbandonata per un insediamento
moderno, nella piana dell'attuale Uluborlu. I blocchi che conservano pezzi
dell'iscrizione greca sono oggi nel Museo di Yalvay e ad Afyon (non vidi). Un
tempo, formavano il basamento di un gruppo statuario, raffigurante la famiglia
di Augusto, databile agli anni seguenti la morte dell'imperatore, perche Livia e
20
L. Haselberg, 'Imaging Augustan Rome', Joumal a/Roman Archaeology 13 (2000), 515-528.
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definita Sebaste (Augusta), titolo assunto solo durante la vedovanza. La
superficie dedicata all'iscrizione e troppo limitata per contenere anche il testo
latino. Anzi, in questa circostanza si efatta una scelta precisa: solo la versione
greca. Il demos degli Apolloniati e di altre nazioni, Lici e Traci, hanno
consacrato questo monumento ad Augusto e alla sua augusta famiglia: al
successore Tiberio, ai principi Germanico e Druso.
Apollonia, di cui non possediamo molte citazioni letterarie (mentre il
corpus di tutte le sue iscrizioni e ben lungi dall' esser completato e studiato),
ripopolata dai coloni romani in eta augustea, rappresenta comunque un
insediamento strategico dell a massima importanza. All'uscita di una stretta
gola della catena del Tauro, si adagia in un fertile piana irrigua, dominata da
una rocca collinare, molto ben difendibile. Da Apollonia si giunge
agevolmente ad Antiochia, e da Antiochia si percorre una delle direttrici
maestre dell' Anatolia meridionale, fino alla Siria.
A Roma le Res gestae divi Augusti sono state collocate davanti al
Mausoleo del Principe. Il disegno di Augusto era trasparente: legittimazione
del potere, fondazione di un impero e volonta dinastica.
Ad Ankara, divenuta la capitale amministrativa dell a nuova provincia
di Galazia (singolarmente non menzionata nelle res gestae), e sulla
superficie di un tempio superbo che viene inciso il testamento d' Augusto.
All' esterno, la gente leggeva nella propria lingua, mentre all' interno, altra
gente, po chi, leggevano nella lingua del potere.
Ad Antiochia, le Res gestae Divi Augusti sono rimaste nella sola
versione latina, la lingua tuttavia dei documenti ufficiali. La dimensione del
testo suggerisce che si era previsto per I'esposizione uno spazio ben
delimitato ma di sicuro impatto visivo. Non mi pare logico pensare al
passaggio trafficato dei propilei.
Da Apollonia, si e visto, provengono solo dei blocchi massicci,
ritrovati in alto, dove la colonia stava arroccata. La situazione archeologica
di Apollonia e estremamente complessa, soprattutto per la buona ragione che
e ancora da scavare. Nella zona sotto stante I'acropoli, il moderno centro
abitato si e insediato di recente sull'antico, e ad ogni scavo di fondazione
(abitazioni, fognature e quant' altro), emergono strati dell' abitato sottostante,
che vengono immediatamente ricoperti 0 distrutti. E' il ca so consueto e
banale di tantissimi altri siti del mondo antico, malgrado I'emergere di
testimonianze anche di carattere "nazionale", come ad esempio i monumenti
funerari frigi a porta, tipici di queste aree dell' Asia Minore. Pensare di trarre
conclusioni da questa situazione archeologica mi pare, per il momento,
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ancora inopportuno. Nel caso particolare di Apollonia poi, dobbiamo
limitarci a prendere atto che i coloni degli Apolloniati, dei Lici e dei Traci,
hanno voluto ono rare Augusto e la sua famiglia, riproducendo nel basamento
di un gruppo statuario, una versione comprensibile delle Res Gestae Divi
Augusti, testimonianza del potere soprannaturale delle immagini imperiali,
come del resto ha detto in modo molto eloquente anche S. Rice, nel suo
bellissimo libro su Rituals and Power (Cambridge, 1984).
Trieste, Settembre 2002
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THE PERCEPTION OF IMPERIAL POWER IN APHRODISIAS:
THE EPIGRAPHIC EVIDENCE
By
ANGELOS CHANIOTIS*
The modern visitor to Aphrodisias, who usually arrives in the city after a visit
to the splendid ruins ofEphesos and on his way to the spectacular landscape of
Hierapolis, sees a fairly typical urban center of a Roman province. Unusual is
perhaps the abundance of marble statues and the excellent preservation of the
public buildings, but at first sight there is nothing that would warn him that he
is entering the most glorious city of the most distinguished Demos of the
Aphrodisieis, allies of the Romans, devoted to the emperor, free and
autonomous. I An ancient visitor, a citizen of another city in the Roman
Empire, would probably not have failed to notice the elevated status of this
city. If he did not do so by reading the inscriptions, e.g., on the epistyles of
buildings built by C. Iulius Zoilos, the priest of Aphrodite and the Eleutheria, 2
then he would do so as soon as he used the coins, inscribed with the words
Eleutheria ton Aphrodisieon under Hadrian and Gordian III or Eleutheros
Demos under Gordian Ill, coins that commemorated the confirmation of the
privilege of freedom by the Roman emperors. 3 But should our ancient visitor
have stayed at Aphrodisias for several months or years, would he have noticed
any difference between the life in this city and in other urban centers of the
Roman East that lacked these privileges - as a modern European notices
some differences as soon as he enters the United Kingdom? Any contracts our
imaginary visitor may have entered into with the Aphrodisians would have
been dated according to the months of the local calendar, among them months
with the names Ioulios (MAMA VIII 541), Kaisar (MAMA VIII 322) or
Klaudios (MAMA VIII 566A). His partners might be Roman citizens; the
population would use Latin words every now and then.4 At the festivals of the
* I am very grateful to Joyce Reynolds and Charlotte Roueche for providing information on
unpublished material and to Rudolf Haensch and Christina Kokkinia for their critical remarks.
I
For these titles of Aphrodisias see J. Reynolds, Aphrodisias and Rome: Documents Jrom the
Excavation oJ the Theatre at Aphrodisias (London 1982), from now on A&R, 43 L1. 1-5; cf. A&R 42
L1. 6-8.
2 A&R 36, 37, 39. For a new fragment of A&R 39 see A. Chaniotis, 'New Inscriptions from
Aphrodisias (1995-200 I)', American Journal oJArchaeology (forthcoming), no. 12.
3 D. MacDonald, The Coinage oJAphrodisias (London 1992), 82, 126, 132.
4 E.g. uno\;. see below, npoll<i1:a ( = probata): on stones reused for the bouleuterion (unpublished);
cf. A. Chaniotis, 'Alltagsskizzen aus Aphrodisias', Ruperto Carola. Forschungsmagazin der
Universitat Heidelberg (2002) I, 6f.; cpa~iA.l:
Ch. Roueche, PerJormers and Partisans at Aphrodisias
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city he would notice the prominent position of the high priest of the emperor
cult. In the stadium members of the tribes, the subdivisions of the citizen body,
would be seated together, among them members of the tribes Rhomais and
Hadrianis could also be observed. 5 On a walk through the city he would see
the statues of the emperors in prominent places, the Sebasteion, the complex
dedicated to their worship, or the honorary statues for proconsuls of Asia. 6
Of course the nature of our evidence, public documents, honorary
inscriptions and epitaphs, does not allow us to form a clear picture about the
way the privileged status of Aphrodisias influenced the life of its citizens or its
visitors. We can be certain that the Aphrodisians were proud of this status and
we do know that they did not neglect to refer to their privileges whenever they
faced a problem, in particular whenever the community or individual citizens
wanted to avoid a financial burden (A&R 14-15). But naturally the public
inscriptions inform us only about the successful requests of the Aphrodisians,
not about their failures. Bearing this in mind, let us now turn to the epigraphic
evidence and the way it reflects the perception of imperial power.
Sometime around A.D. 230 the authorities of Aphrodisias covered the
wall of the north parodos of the city's theater with 16 documents that provide
important information about Aphrodisias' privileges.? These documents date
from c. 38 B.C. to c. A.D. 224. Under the reign of Gordian III (after 243)
more recent documents of similar content were added to this dossier. These
and other relevant documents were published by Joyce Reynolds, and her
pioneer work in the discussion of the individual texts is the basis of my paper. 8
Reynolds characterized this epigraphic monument as the 'archive wall'. This
term is somehow misleading. 9 City archives contain documents that have been
deposited in them regardless of their relative importance. What we have on the
north parodos of the theater is the result of a selection, and we cannot be even
certain whether all the documents (including documents sent by Roman
(London 1993), no. IS; <\IiO'1(o,,: MAMA VIllS38; <\IOUVOT] and lCa~1ti(J;pov:
Th. Reinach, 'Inscriptions
d'Aphrodisias', Revue des Etudes Grecques 19 (1906), 103-10S, no. 17; lCOUpOWp: Ch. RouecM,
Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity (London 1989), no. ISO.
5 Rhomais: MAMA VIll413; Hadrianis: unpublished epitaph.
6 Sebasteion: R.R.R. Smith, 'The Imperial Reliefs from the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias', Journal of
Roman Studies 77 (1987), 88-138. Honorary statues for proconsuls: M. Vinicius (A&R 4Sa, ca. 12-10
B.C.?), P. Vinicius (A&R 4Sb, AD. 2), Sulpicius Priscus (A&R 47, ca. AD. 222-233), 1. Egantius
Victor Lollianus (SEG XLIV 863, AD. 244/24S), P. Aelius Septimius Mannus (SEG XL VI 1394, ca.
AD. 2S0-260).
7 Full discussion of this dossier by J. Reynolds in A&R, pp. 33-148; further bibliography in SEG
XXXII 1097; XXXIII 855; XXXIV 1044; XXXV 1081; XXXIX 1101.
8 Reynolds 1982, op.cit. (n. I).
9 Cf. C.P. Jones, American Journal of Philology 106 (1985), 262-264.
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emperors to Ephesos, Samos, and Smyrna; A&R 12-14) were in fact kept in
the archive of Aphrodisias. The authorities responsible for inscribing or
reinscribing these documents have carefully selected from a large number of
documents only a very small number of texts, exactly the texts that highlighted
the city's privileges, especially its status as a free and autonomous city. A
central theme in these texts is the fact that the Aphrodisians had offered great
services to the Romans as their trustworthy allies (A&R 7 LL. 1-8; 8 LL. 2129; 12 LL. 5-7; 13 LL. 3).
If one studies only these documents, one gets the impression of
continuity: time and again we read that the emperors confirmed the privileges
of freedom, autonomy and freedom from taxation (A&R 15, 17, 19-21,25),
and Septimius Severus and Caracalla underline precisely the fact that the
privileged status had remained unchanged until their reign (A&R 17 L. 11-12;
18 L. 5).
But in order to fully understand the importance of the privileges we need
to look at the documents that were not selected to be inscribed on the archive
wall, documents from the Republican period that have survived in inscriptions
other than this monument of Aphrodisian self-representation in the third
century. The earliest among them are documents from the period of the
Mithridatic Wars. We observe in them a vocabulary of subordination. A decree
of Plarasal Aphrodisias in 88 B.C. (A&R 2) expresses the attitude of this
community towards the Romans. Its envoys ask the proconsul of Cilicia Q.
Oppius to give his instructions (LL. 4f.: epitassein); 10 they inform him that the
citizens of PlarasalAphrodisias did not want to live without the rule
(hegemonia) of the Romans. The second document informs that Oppius
accepts the request of this community to undertake the position of a patron
(A&R 3). This attitude is paralleled by one of the clauses of the treaty of
alliance between PlarasalAphrodisias, Kibyra and Tabai (A&R 1).11 I am
referring to the clause which obliges these communities never to undertake
anything against the Romans (" .. and in order that they shall take no action in
opposition either to the Romans or to each other and that no one shall draft,
advocate, introduce a proposal or record anything contrary to what has been
written in the sworn agreement"). Such a clause is characteristic for treaties
10 The words epitagma and epitage are used, e.g., in letters of Hellenistic kings sent to subordinate
conununities; see C.B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (London 1934), nrs.
681. 9 and 75 1. 13.
11 On the date see R.M. Errington, "8eCx 'PWllll und romischer EinfluJ3 siidlich des Miianders im 2. Jh.
v. Chr.', Chiron 17 (1987), 97-118 (after 167 B.C.); G. Theriauit, Le culte d'Homonoia dans les cites
grecques (Lyon-Quebec 1996),82-85 (after 129 B.C.).
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between a hegemonial power and a subordinate community.12 A still
unpublished honorary decree for the local benefactor Hermogenes also reveals
the mentality of dependence in the late Republican period. Hermogenes had
become a great benefactor of the polis thanks to the relationship (gnosis) he
had established with the Roman authorities. 13
The situation changed dramatically in the year 39 B.C. when Octavian
and the senate awarded a series of privileges, described in detail in the relevant
senatus consultum (A&R 8) and summarized in another document (A&R 9);
both texts are found in the 'archive wall'. The later documents of the 'archive
wall' inform us that these privileges remained unchanged until the reign of
Septimius Severus and Caracalla, as the two emperors write in two letters in
AD. 198 and between 200 and 205 (A&R 17 and 18); they were confirmed by
Gordianus III in AD. 239 and Traianus Decius and Herennius Etruscus in
AD. 250 (A&R 20 and 25).
The Aphrodisians were conscious of the fact that their position was
privileged, not only with regard to their relationship with Rome, but also with
regard to other cities in the East. Bearing in mind the competition among the
cities of the Greek east it is interesting to notice that two of the documents
selected to be inscribed in the theater not only mention Aphrodisias' privileges,
but compare the position of this city with that of other cities. A letter of
Octavian to a certain Stephanos expresses precisely this unique position (A&R
10):
I have freed Zoilos' city ... This one city I have taken for my own
out of all Asia. I wish these people to be protected as my own
townsmen (translated by J. Reynolds).
This is even more clear in Octavian's subscript to Samos (A&R 13 = IG XII
6.1, 160) with which he rejects the Samian request to be awarded freedom:
You yourselves can see that I have given the privilege of freedom
to no people except the Aphrodisieis, who took my side in the war
See e.g., A. Chaniotis, Die Vertrage zwischen kretischen Poleis in der hellenistischen Zeit (Stuttgart
1996),92 and 96f.
13 A. Chaniotis, art. cit. (n. 2) no. I L1. 16-18:
1tapa Te I TalC; E~oucrialC;
Kat TOlS TtYOU~EVlC;
1tA.eicr'tT\V yvwmv Kat crooT[a]mv crxwv e-uepYE'tT\crev Kat liux TomolV ~EYlcr'ta"iv
1tOA.tV ("a man
who has established relationships and has received appreciation (recommedendation) by the
authorities and the officials (governors?) becoming a great benefactor of the polis through these as
well").
12
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and were captured by storm because of their devotion to us. For it
is not right to give the favour of the greatest privilege of all at
random and without cause. I am well-disposed to you and should
like to do a favour to my wife who is active on your behalf, but not
to the point of breaking my custom. For I am not concerned for
the money which you pay towards the tribune. But I am not willing
to give the most highly prized privileges to anyone without good
cause (translated by 1. Reynolds).
The inclusion of this document - which is not addressed to Aphrodisias and
does not directly concern this city - in the dossier demonstrates that the
Aphrodisians were aware of the fact that they had succeeded exactly where
others had failed.
This proud and self-confident attitude is, again, confirmed by other texts,
public and private documents preserved in inscriptions other than the archive
wall. In addition to the cult of Eleutheria (A&R 33 and 39), the members of
the local elite did not neglect to mention these privileges in the inscriptions
they set up. An early inscription, probably still of the late first century B.c.,
honors an anonymous man who had been active for the freedom and the laws
of his country: 14 He had struggled for the freedom (of the fatherland) and the
laws and the right of asylum and the privileges granted to it. In an inscription
commemorating his foundation (A&R 43, c. A.D. 200), M. Aurelius Hermes
Pa[--] not only mentions these privileges (eleutheras kai autonomou poleos),
but also underscores the fact that they had been awarded and confirmed by the
senate and the emperors (kata ta dogmata tes hierotates synkletou... kai tas
theias antigraphas) and protected by treaty oaths (kata ta horkia). The horkia
mentioned here can certainly be identified with the treaty of alliance between
PlarasalAphrodisias and Rome concluded during the second triumvirate, of
which a clause survives in one of the documents of the 'archive wall' (A&R 9).
An even more interesting piece of evidence, because of its private nature,
is the epitaph of the high priestess lulia Paula (MAMA VIII 564, c. A.D. 200250). The inscription on her sarcophagus highlights the fact that she was a
descendant of those who had contributed to the city's autonomy (ton synaition
tei polei tes autonomias apogonos).
14 A&R 41: a'¥{J)vlcral1evo<; Be Kat ltept -ri\<; EAeugepia<; Kat ,WV I VOI1{J)V Kat -ri\<; acruAia<; Kat ,WV
lieOoI1Ev{J)v I [q,llAav9pWn:{J)v C ... who has struggled for the freedom (of the fatherland) and the laws
and the right of asylum and the privileges granted to it").
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It was on the basis of such self-confident expressions of freedom from
the imperial power that Joyce Reynolds and Robert Tannenbaum did not
exclude the possibility that Roman laws (e.g., the legislation concerning the
Jews) were not automatically in force at Aphrodisias, a free city. 15 One may
indeed find supporting evidence pertaining to the fact that these privileges
were taken seriously. When a citizen of Aphrodisias, Ti. Julianus Attalos was
asked to undertake a liturgy connected with the temple of the emperor cult in
Smyrna, he refused to do so. The Smyrnaians appealed to the emperor Trajan,
but received the answer they deserved (A&R 14):
I wish no one from the free cities to be forced into performing your
liturgy, and especially no one from Aphrodisias, since that city has
been removed from the formula provinciae so that it is not liable
either to the common liturgies of Asia or to others.
Hadrian's reaction was similar, when the city objected to the tax on the use of
iron nails (A&R 15); he mentions the fact that he had confirmed Aphrodisias'
freedom and autonomy and accepts this request. 16
When the Aphrodisians invited the proconsul of Asia Sulpicius Priscus
(c. A.D. 222-235) to visit their city and sacrifice to Aphrodite for the wellbeing of the emperor, his reaction was very reluctant. In his letter, after
mentioning the city's freedom, he informs the Aphrodisians about his intention
to come to the city, only if "neither a law of your city nor a senatus consultum
nor an instruction nor a letter of the emperor prevents the proconsul from
making a stay in your city" (A&R 48).17 The formulation used in this letter
places the laws of the Aphrodisians on the same level as expressions of the will
of the Roman authorities (senatus consulta, edicta, epistulae).18 This
doubtless made the Aphrodisians again very proud, and we should not be
surprised that such an answer was included in the dossier of the 'archive wall'
J. Reynolds & R. Tannenbaum, Jews and Godfearers at Aphrodisias (Cambridge 1987),43-45.
For a second copy of this letter see J.M. Reynolds, 'New Letters from Hadrian to Aphrodisias:
Trials, Taxes, Gladiators, and an Aqueduct', Journal ofRoman Archaeology 13 (2000), 15r
17 cr R. Haensch, Capita provinciarum. Statthaltersitze und Provinzialverwaltung in der rbmischen
Kaiserzeit (Mainz 1997),297 n. 199.
18 R. Haensch, 'Das Statthalterarchiv', ZRG 109 (1992), 277 n. 198, has, however, tentatively
suggested an alternative interpretation of v0110e; tile; 1tOA.ew<; Vl1ciiv : not 'a law of your city', but 'a law
regarding your city', since it is hardly conceivable that a city on it own account could forbid a
representative of the imperial administration to visit it. I do not believe that the formulation used in
this documents permits this interpretation.
15
16
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along with far more important documents such as the senatus consultum of 39
B.C. or imperial letters.
But does the picture remain the same when we leave the 'archive wall'
and look at evidence that was not and could not be included in it? A
particularly interesting and hitherto rather neglected group of testimonia
consists of epitaphs, testaments and donations that guarantee the validity of the
testator/donor's wishes. Such declarations that the testator's wish cannot be
changed, neither by a magistrate nor by a private person, have a long tradition
in the Greek East and one can easily find standardized formulations e.g. in the
material collected by Bernhard Laum,19 among them the foundation of Attalos
in Aphrodisias:
Neither a magistrate nor a secretary (?) nor a private person will
have the authorisation to transfer the entire capital or part hereof
or any part of the interest or to change the account (of the
receipts) or to use the money for a different purpose, neither by
organising a separate vote nor by means of a decree of the
assembly, a letter (of the emperor or the governor?), a decree (or
senatus consultum or a decree of the provincial koinon?) or a
written declaration nor through violence of the mob nor in any
other way, but the money should be used only for (the purpose
stated) in the testamentary disposition written by me. 20
In this document the potential intervention of non civic authorities is only
indirectly implied by the terms epistole and dogma. This possibility is more
explicitly ruled out in the foundation of C. Iulius Demosthenes at Oinoanda,
which forbids any violation ofDemosthenes' will, any changes in the use of the
funds (11 Et aUYJv xpEiav /1E'ra8ij "tov 1t0po[v] ), any decree and petition to a
provincial governor to this effect (11 E1OTJYYJOTJ"tat 11 'VYJ<I>I.OTJ"tal
11 iJYE/10Vl £v"tuxij 1tEpi "tou /1iJ YEI. vEcr8ai n U1t' £/10U ~hEcr"taA/1vQ)
).21
A petition sent to the governor with regard to the affairs of Oinoanda is
not surprising, since the Lykian city lacked the privileges of Aphrodisias. When
19
B. Laum, Stiftungen in der griechischen und romischen Antike I (Leipzig 1914), 190f.
MAMA VIII 413: [E~cr"tV
,.li],re apxov"tt ,.I1'rre ypUlJ.llJ.u-reJi? 1J.l][-rel iOlc.OTI) 1J.l]-re IJ.E[pOc;] [1J.l]l-re
nav 1J.l]-re apXUiOlllJ.l]-re I [-ro][KollllJ.e-ruyuyetV TllJ.e-runoA.oy[ilcrucr8ulIJ.TJoE: El~
ii-repov Xpl]cru[crI81m
IJ.TJOE:V 1J.l]-re 'VTJ~opi
[loi~
cruv-rcXcrcrOV-rl 1J.l]-re 'VTJ~icrI.U[-l
11J.l]j-re Ol' EJ[lcr-OATj~
1J.l]-re oui oOYIJ.[ul
"[Q~
1J.l]-re oui anoypu~
TlOXAtKj~
KU-rI\aPl]ce~
IJ.TJOE: aAA[q>l -rponq> IJ.TJOeVt Tl el~
IJ.OYTJV -ru[ul-rlTJv
-ri]v 1iJr' EIJ.OU yeYPUlJ.lJ.EYTJV [ollu-rayl]v.
21 M. Warrle, Stadt und Fest im kaiserzeitlichen Kleinasien. Studien zu einer agonistischen Stiftung
aus Oinoanda (Munich 1988), 9.
20
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the proconsul was reluctant even to visit Aphrodisias (see above), it is quite
surprising to see that several Aphrodisieis included in their testaments a clause
forbidding interventions of the governor that might change their will. We know
of this clause from excerpts of testaments referring to the right of burial and
inscribed on sarcophagi. The following variants are hitherto known:
1. CIG 2829 = MAMA VIII 554 LL. IOf.: omc OH1 'VTI<1>icrJlo'to<;
oihc Ot' EV'tcU~ro<;
liYcJlOVtlCll<; oihc aAAm 'tP01tql
2. 1.M.R. Cormack, 'Inscriptions from Aphrodisias (found in 1893)" ABSA
59 (1964), 24f. no. 32 b: [---] f\ Ev'tcu~m<;
liYcJlOVtlCll<;
3. Reinach, art. cit. (n. 4), no. 163 L. 1: [--- EV'tcU~]ro<;
liYcJlovo<;
4. Chaniotis, art. cit. (n. 2), no. 26: ou'tc OU1 'VTI<1>icrJlo'to<; f\ OUl anou
~OU(A)l<;
f\ ~[v'tcu]lro<;
liYcJlovmv
5. unpublished epitaph (inv. 67.507): [ou'tc OUl 'VTI<1>icrJ.Lo'to<; f\ ? Ot'] anou
~ouAij[
<; ---]
6. unpublished epitaph (69.28 + 71.445): [-- ouM ] 'VTI<1>icrJlo'to<; 6voJlon
ouo[e --- ]
These texts place the will of the deceased person concerning burials in his or
her sarcophagus above other ( obviously conceivable) sources of legal norms,
i.e. above the decrees of the assembly (psephisma), the acts of the council
(aktos boules), and the intercessions of the provincial governor (enteuxis
hegemonike or hegemonos/hegomonon). The word enteuxis means both a
petition and a petition that has received a positive response. 22 Similar clauses
in epitaphs of other areas are unknown, and the next parallels are epitaphs that
mention the approval of a provincial governor for the erection of a grave or
the deposition of a testament in his archive. 23 One might be tempted to assume
that the expressions listed above were automatically taken from the formulary
of testaments used in cities that lacked Aphrodisias' privileges, but this can be
ruled out, since we know these expressions only from epitaphs of Aphrodisias.
We, therefore, have to assume that at least at a certain period of time the
E.g., in the inscription of Skaptopara: IGBulg IV 2236 + SEG XLIV 610 + SEG XL VIII 956; K.
Hallof, 'Die Inschrift von Skaptopara. Neue Dokumente und neue Lesungen', Ch iron 24 (1994), 425427.
23 TAM IT I 122 (erection ofa grave monument); TAM III I 657 (a copy of the testament kept in the
governor's archive); on this practice see Haensch, op. cit. (n. 17) 295 and 305; cf. SEG XXIV 569
(Thessalonike, 3rd cent. AD.): AO-yOV -uq,e~t
'reil KU'ra KUtpOV irye!!ovet (the violator of a grave would
be subject to punishment by the governor). SEG XXXIII 1162 may refer to a testament which was
drafted in accordance with the rules laid down by the imperial procurator. I am very grateful to R.
Haensch who discussed this subject with me and provided these references.
22
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Aphrodisians expected interventions of the proconsul Asiae, no less than
decrees of their assembly or the council of their city.
Now the question arises how realistic this expectation would be and
what might cause an intervention of the proconsul Asiae. Again, some
inscriptions may provide the answer: we know that the Aphrodisians
themselves were sometimes more than willing to forget their privileges and
request the intervention of the provincial governor, particularly with regard to
the finances of their city. As we learn from a letter sent to Aphrodisias by
Commodus in A.D. 189 (A&R 16) the Aphrodisians asked the proconsul to
come to their city and take care of the problems of their internal financial
administration. The fact that Commodus had to intervene and send his friend,
the jurist Ulpius Marcellus, shows, as Joyce Reynolds has pointed out, that the
proconsul was as reluctant about accepting the request of the Aphrodisians as
Sulpicius Priscus thirty years later. A decretum of the proconsul Silius Italicus
in A.D. 77, with which he confirmed decrees concerning the treatment of
Aphrodite's pigeons (MAMA VIII 411), was most probably the result of a
request of the Aphrodisians and not of the proconsul's initiative. Joyce
Reynolds has collected several fragmentary documents that concern the
presence of curatores reipublicae in Aphrodisias. 24 This evidence shows that
interventions of imperial and provincial authorities were not only to be
expected, but also that they were requested by the Aphrodisian authorities, if
not necessarily welcomed by the entire population.
An inscription from Beroia published recently gives us an interesting
insight into such interventions (SEG XL VIII 742 = I.Beroia 7). L. Memmius
Rufus, an otherwise unknown proconsul of Macedonia under Trajan or
Hadrian, issued an edict concerning the funding of the gymnasium. The
gymnasium of Beroia was periodically closed because of financial problems;
the proconsul's intervention aimed at creating a fund of 100,000 denarii, the
interest of which (6,000 denarii) should be used for the gymnasium; the capital
consisted of money earlier bequeathed to the city by prominent citizens and of
the public revenues from water mills. Despite the fragmentary state of
preservation we may be certain that the money diverted by the proconsul to the
gymnasiarchical funds had only partly been donated for this purpose. The
money left by a certain Julianus to the city was indeed meant to be spent on the
01>1'0 'to aA£t1tTIlCoV). On the contrary, the money bequeathed
gymnasium (d~
by Plautianus Alexandros was intended for a phallus, probably for a Dionysiac
24
A&R, pp. 184-197.
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procession;25 other money was originally given for the supply of the city with
grain. 26 In this document we clearly see in practice what Attalos of
Aphrodisias
was
afraid
might
happen
with
his
donation:
ILE'tuyaYEtV llILE'ta1toAoy[t]cracr8m, d~
£'tEPOV xpfJcra[crI8]a. The proconsul
disregarded the will of testators and donors and used the money bequeathed
for a different purpose. He was able to proceed only because he could count
on the support of the local elite27 and this suggests that his decision was by no
means approved by the entire population. 28 The explicit reference to the
support of the honoratiores in his 'struggle' (synagonisamenon) makes sense
only if the governor had to overcome some substantial opposition. The
inscription of Beroia shows that the fear of some Aphrodisians that successful
petitions to the local authorities (enteuxeis) might cancel the provisions of their
testaments was not purely imaginary.
The evidence which I have presented briefly, suggests that Aphrodieis
were consciounsly trying to find a balance between the illusion of freedom and
the reality of imperial power29 They seem to have succeeded in retaining their
status and repeatedly defending their privileges from those who tended to
ignore them, tax-collectors or their neighbors. Sometimes, when pressing
matters demanded the support of the imperial administration, they themselves or rather the elite or a group within the elite - were willing to forget the
privileges and requested the intervention of the provincial authorities. In her
commentary on an unfortunately very fragmentary letter of Hadrian concerning
itself with chresmatikai dikai Joyce Reynolds has very aptly summarized this
practice:
It is a commonplace that a small and powerless city-state lying
inside a Roman province was liable to find that its privileges were
steadily eroded, and might even collaborate, without realizing it, in
the process; and it is hardly surprising to find that while Hadrian
claims that he is maintaining Aphrodisias privileges [.. ], his actions
int' airtou xa[p10geV'Ca].
25liTlvapta XEtAla 'Ca intep 'Cou <jlaAAou U~ElV
26 'Ca h 'Cou into Eut..atou liogeV'Coc; OEtW[ u Ao"(EugeV'Ca 7, 'EATl~()1Ytc.OV
'Cou OEt'COU XciPl'COC;
OUVIiE6~va
IiTlvcipla.
27 ouva"(wlO~e
ouv ~Ol
Kat 'Cc.Ov K[pano'Cffiv'" 7 ----- ca. 29 ---- -riic; l3ouAijc;, OUVEltVEOOav o'i
'CE ltpc.O'Collta'Cptlioc; Kat i) f30UA[i] ----I
28 For rivalries and social conflicts in the cities and interventions by the governor see most recently E.
Meyer-Zwiffelhoffer, nOAITIICcOq £ipXe1v. Zum Regierungsstil der senatorischen Statthalter in den
kaiserzeitlichen griechischen Provinzen (Stuttgart 2002),298-306.
29 er. H. Halfinann, 'Die Selbstverwaltung der kaiserzeitlichen Polis in Plutarchs Schrift Praecepta
gerendae rei publicae', Ch iron 32 (2002), 83-95.
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are in some ways equivocal, while those of the Aphrodisians, who
feel the need for his support and approval, play into Roman
hands. 30
Sometimes the Aphrodisieis seem to have failed in keeping their autonomy
intact. And then it required excellent rhetorical skills in order to present a
financial burden not as a violation of freedom, but as an invitation to voluntary
assistance. A superb example of these rhetorical skills is a letter of Gordian III
in A.D. 243 (A&R 21). Probably after an earthquake, Aphrodisias was asked
to contribute money to the victims of the disaster. In reply to the protest of the
envoys of the city, Gordian gave the following answer:
The resolution of Asia which associated you too with those
assisting the victims of misfortune was not a command, but a good
administrative act placing you among those who take part in
beneficent activity of a type which you undertake also among
yourselves when you help with preparations for the erection of a
house for those in need. And for the future there is no necessity to
fear; for among free men, and you have a very great share of
freedom, the only law in such matters is what you are willing to
do.
The Aphrodisians did not neglect to inscribe this letter too on the 'archive
wall'.
Heidelberg, January 2003
30
Reyno1ds, art. cit. (n. 16), 13.
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JURISDICTION AND THE REPRESENTATION OF POWER,
OR THE EMPEROR ON CIRCUIT
By
BERNARD STOLTE
Some inscriptions are just unlucky. Such, I believe, is the case of SEG XVII
759, inscribed on a temple in Dmeir in Syria. It was discovered, together with
two other ones - or, to be precise, one partial copy, which can be used to
supplement and correct part of its twin, and another inscription - in 1934,
described by Henri Seyrig, and first published by Pierre Roussel and
Ferdinand De Visscher in the 23rd volume of Syria, I with the impressum
1942-1943 but not available until 1945 and then not everywhere, though
Jeanne and Louis Robert managed to report it in their Bulletin Epigraphique
in the Revue des Etudes Grecques of 1944 2 It was studied by the legal
historians Arangio-Ruiz (1948)/ Wenger (1951)4 and Kunkel (1953).5 The
latter revised its text, which then was printed in the Supplementum
Epigraphicum Graecum XVII of 1960. Subsequently new readings were
proposed by Naphtali Lewis in 19686 and James H. Oliver studied the text
again in 1974 7 None of these publications was based on autopsy, not even
the editio princeps, since its authors had to work from the notes of Seyrig. I
am informed that the inscription is still in situ, but I have been unable to
obtain a recent photograph. The plate supplied in the editio princeps has not
been of much help. The most recent archaeological publication I have traced
is a 'Vorbericht' by Elfriede Briimmer and dates from 1985 8 She corrects the
plan of the temple and mentions the inscription, but does not discuss it. A set
1 P. RousseJ & F. De Visscher, 'Les inscriptions du temple de Dmeir', Syria 23 (1942-1943), 173200.
2 Revue des Etudes Grecques 47 (1944), 234, no. 181; see also 61 (1948),206, no. 248.
3 V. Arangio-Ruiz, 'Testi e documenti 1. Una "cognitio" dell'Imperatore Caracalla in Syria',
Bollettino dell' Istituto di Diritto Romano 49-50 (1948), 46-57.
4 L. Wenger, 'Ein Prozess vor Caracalla in Syrien. Zu einer neu bekannt gewordenen Inschrift',
Annual're de I' Institut de philologie et de I' histore orientales et slaves II (1951) ( = OaYlCapneta.
Melanges Henri Gregoire ill), 469-504.
5 W. Kunkel, 'Der ProzeB der Gohariener vor Caracalla', in Festschrift Hans Lewald (Basel 1953),
81-91, repr. in W. Kunkel, Kleine Schriften zum romischen Strafoeifahren und zur romischen
Veifassungsgeschichte (Weimar 1974), 255-266. I quote from the latter edition.
6 N. Lewis, 'Cognitio Caracallae de Goharienis: Two Textual Restorations', Transactions of the
American Philological Association 99 (1968), 255-258.
7 lH. Oliver, 'Minutes of a Trial Conducted by Caracalla at Antioch in AD. 216', Melanges
helteniques ofJerts a Georges Daux (Paris 1974),289-294.
8 E. Brilrnmer, 'Der Riimische Tempel von Dmeir. Vorbericht', Damaszener Mitteilungen 2 (1985),
55-64 with Tafel 22-25, with relevant archaeological literature.
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of good photographs remains a desideratum. I have based myself on the text
as in SEG XVII no. 759, with the supplements proposed by Lewis. 9
The importance of this inscription for our knowledge of the imperial
procedure per cognitionem has been noted in Kaser's Romische
ZivilprozejJrecht, and as in Hackl' s second edition of this work lO it has been
included in the index, there really is no longer any excuse for legal historians
to ignore it. John Crook!! and Fergus Millar!2 have paid it a fair amount of
attention, and on this well-prepared ground I should like to discuss it because
of its relevance to the 'representation of power' .
The visibility of the Roman emperor consisted not least in his
jurisdiction. To quote Fergus Millar:
"The main significance of the imperial jurisdiction, however, does
not lie in the execution of political enemies, or even of rich men
for their wealth, but in its routine nature and often insignificant
subject-matter, whose very unimportance reflects his subjects'
conception of him as a source oflaw and justice." 13
The same point had been noted at the end of the second century by
Theophilus, bishop of Antioch:
"You will say to me, 'Why do you not worship the emperor?'
Because he was made not to be worshipped but to be honoured
with legitimate honour. He is not God, but a man appointed by
God, not to be worshipped but to judge justly.,,!4
The emperor as a fair judge fits well into the image of the Hellenistic king, a
point we may take for granted here. The emperor has to be accessible to his
subjects, who may approach him for the purpose of arbitration and
adjudication and for whom he is the ultimate authority. Jurisdiction, in other
Cr. also the discussion of some passages by Oliver, op.cit. (n. 7).
M. Kaser & K. Hackl, Das romische ZivilprozefJrecht (Munich2 1996).
!! J. Crook, Legal Advocacy in the Roman World (London 1995),91-95.
12 F. Minar, The Emperor in the Roman World (31 BC-AD 337) (London 1977, 2nd ed. 1992), 38,
121,233,455,535-536; Idem, The Roman Near East (31 BC-AD 337) (Cambridge/ London 1993),
143,317-318.
13 Minar, op.cit. (n. 12),240.
14 Theophilus, Ad Autolycum 1.11, trans!. By R.M. Grant and quoted by Minar, op.cit. (n. 12), 507
with n. 1.
9
10
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words, is to them a representation of his power. On a practical level, this
gives rise to the problem of availibility of the emperor, preferably in person,
and if not, represented by someone who would act 'in the name of the
emperor'. His subjects would of course try to present their case if the
emperor happened to visit in person, or would otherwise themselves go to
Rome, or, if acting as a community, send an embassy.
The case we are dealing with here is unusual. The emperor is 'on
circuit'. Caracalla is in Antioch in 216, and is somehow approached by the
villagers of Goaria or Goharia. I pass by the geographical problems; it may be
Cehere of the Tabula Peutingeriana and is present-day Kara, north-east of
Damascus. Suffice it to say that the temple of Dmeir must have been a cultcentre for the area east and north-east of Damascus, between that city and the
desert. Strictly speaking, the villagers of Goharia have left their own province
personally to address the emperor, for in 194 Syria had been divided into
Syria Coele in the north, with Antioch as its capital, and Syria Phoenice in the
south, to which they belong. The text tells the next stage of the story:15
In the consulship of Sabinus and Anulinus, on the [sixth] day
before the Kalends of June at Antioch, when Imp. Caesar M.
Aurelius Felix Augustus Parthicus Maximus Britannicus Maximus
Ge[rmanicus] Maximus, having been saluted by the praetorian
prefects, e(minentissimi) v(iri), also by the amici and the
princ(ipes) o.!ficior(um), had taken his seat in the auditorium, he
ordered to be admitted Aurelius Carzeus son of Sergius 16 the
defensor of the Goharieni acting against Avidius Hadrianus the
contractor, which cognitio the emperor deigned to undertake,
with the advocate Egnatius Iulianus, while Avidius Hadrianus the
contractor was with the advocate Lollianus Aristaenetus. 17
Of these, Aristaenetus said: "I object". 18
Lollianus said: "You have ordered that the cognitio should
proceed."
15 The English translation has been compiled and adapted from the works of Millar and Crook
(above, nn. 11 and 12). See also the summary of the text by Oliver, op.cit. (n. 7), 291-292, whose
explanation of xwpav iiXEt (293) I cannot accept: in my view it means 'applies', 'has been advanced
rightly', in which sense it may be found passim in Byzantine legal Greek.
16 Oliver, op.cit. (n. 7),293, prefers 'Serg(ianus)' over 'son of Sergius'.
17 But see on these names below, p. 266 with n. 22.
18 This is a plunge in medias res: there must have been at least a libel/us with the demands of the
plaintiffs.
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Aristaenetus said: "Cases on appeal are determined by law. Either
the governor accepts the appeal and it comes to your dikasterion,
or if he does not accept it, how can the case be admissible? After
many hearings and verdicts you were approached with petitions
from the Goharieni. A man who was neither an advocatus nor an
ambassador [but ... ] a private person entered a petition that you
should be the judge rather than the governor. You said to him, 'If
you wish me to hear it, I will hear it.' [We], having objected
[from the beginning to this], now that we enter under the rules of
the court [object to the case], on the grounds that they neither
have a case on appeal nor can have [access to your diaksterion]."
Lollianus said: "The peasants who, along with other requests,
have approached you, have brought you this supplication. Cassius
has not allowed the objection that they have not complained
earlier. He has introduced into your imperial dikasterion with the
other petitions that ....... you have ordered that this is read ... "
(Col. 11)
Antoninus Augustus said: "You say then that he has not made an
appeal?"
Aristaenetus said: "They do not have a case on appeal, because it
was not allowed."
Antoninus Augustus said: "Look here, let me speak according to
my own opinion also in this matter. He has not made an appeal,
nor has he complained, nor was this matter spoken of before the
governor. 'I complain about you before the emperor', he says.
Don't you wish me to hear the case?"
Aristaenetus said: "Of course."
Antoninus Augustus said: "If I were in a hurry to rise from here, I
would say 'The objection is allowed'. In what, then, am I
criticised?"
Lollianus said: "I will speak not more than half an hour."
And he added: "To the peasants, the case is over matters of piety,
to you nothing is more important than piety. So now they have
confidence in the present instance in engaging in a case before a
most pious king and judge. There is a famous temple of Zeus in
their territory, which is visited by people from all the
neighbouring regions. They go there, and arrange processions to
it. Here is the first wrong committed by our adversary. He enjoys
[immunity from taxation and] exemption from liturgies, wears a
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gold crown, enjoys [precedence], has taken the sceptre in his
hand and has proclaimed himself the priest of Zeus. Let him show
that he has been considered worthy of that present. For I, in his
presence, will read (a document) that not even his father ... "
(Col. III has been lost)
Of the many aspects that deserve our attention I single out the following.
First, the most striking feature of these minutes of a hearing by Caracalla is
the Latin framework, in which spoken words are reported in Greek. ArangioRuiz has suggested that the Greek is a translation from the Latin, or 'almeno
che chi le [i.e., the Greek statements] ha redatte avesse maggiore familiarita
col latino che col greco'. He based his suggestion on the employment of
~£I.ul>oat,
frequent absence of the article, and some other incorrect Greek
expressions such as v6~
instead of lCO-r<l -roue; v6~oue;
(11. 8 and 15) and the
construction of the sentence at 11. 15-16. None of these cases seem to me very
strong. Given the conjectural state of the text, I would refrain from inferences
as to construction. I would prefer to explain supposed irregularities from the
fact that all Greek here has been spoken by Romans, namely Caracalla and
the two advocates. 19 In addition, let us not forget that Modestinus, writing
after Caracalla, makes the point that it is difficult to express Roman legal
concepts in Greek (D. 27,1,1,1). A certain awkwardness should therefore not
surprise us.
The development of a Greek legal language for Roman law would
require a much longer treatment than I can give it here: I accept the minutes
as a truthful account on this point, especially as their form is not unique. The
papyri have preserved several similar cases. One thing, though, is interesting:
these cases all stem from Egypt and date mostly to the fourth century and
later. It has been held that not until the fourth century did Latin become the
official language in court proceedings in the eastern part of the empire. If I
am not mistaken, we have only one similar report from the same period as
our inscription, a papyrus20 of AD 212-213, which is of uncertain provenance,
and of the date of which I am not yet entirely convinced. The Iuncinus
mentioned there could be one of several possibilities;21 the editor identifies
him with the Baebius Iuncinus of P.Giss. 40 11, 1. 14 - incidentally, in a
constitution transmitted as the 'twin' of the constitutio Antoniniana - , and
As already noted by Kunkel, op.cit. (n. 5),257 n. 9.
P.Ross.- Georg. 5.18.
21 ILS 1434 (cf. RE IT 2730 s.v. Baebius 29: iuridicus Aegypti) and P.Tebt. IT, 46, 286 (cf. RE VI,
2603 s. v. Flavius 108).
19
20
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on that identification, together with a palaeographical argument, depends the
dating. That papyrus apart, the inscription from Dmeir would be our oldest
witness for minutes of a hearing in this form. The use of Latin in official
proceedings in the East is, of course, in itself a representation of power.
Second, the persons speaking. Caracalla is there with full titulature.
The two advocates have been identified by Kunkel with tolerable certainty as
L. Egnatius Victor Lollianus and C. Sallius Aristaenetus, both of the
senatorial order and amici of the emperor. They act for the parties in the
case, Lollianus for Carzeus as defensor of the Goharieni, and Aristaenetus for
the manceps, or 'contractor', Avidius. The names Iulianus and Lollianus in 11.
5-6 must be the result of confusion on the part of the mason. 22 Crook lists our
case as one in which the advocates are recruited from the consilium of the
emperor. The suggestion of Williams that this was only to have some fun
must be rejected as fanciful. 23 The picture arising from this inscription shows
us members of a small local community travelling at least some 350 kms to
Antioch, synchronizing their arrival with the presence of the emperor,
securing a hearing and legal assistance on the highest level, getting formal
procedural objections set aside and eventually - we may assume - winning
their case.
Third, this is an inscription, not an archival document. To execute the
inscription, however, such a document must have existed and have been
available. If we had known this text from an Egyptian papyrus, we would
simply have added it to our documentation of actual court cases. We would
probably not have been greatly surprised about the Greek text in a Latin
framework. In that sense the inscription from Syria confirms for this province
what we know, or take for granted, in the case of Egypt, at a fairly early date.
The presence of the emperor and his hearing of a case in deviation from
normal procedure would be equally notable in both provinces, indeed
anywhere in the empire.
The availability of this text in Syria need not surprise us. A copy of
the acts of a case would have been handed to the parties on request.
Apparently the Goharieni had asked for those minutes. But we are dealing
with an inscription and therefore must assume a purpose of publicity.
To my knowledge this is one of only two inscriptions with the minutes
of a case. (The other one, more fragmentary and less informative on legal
procedure, is also inscribed on this temple and concerns the disappearance of
22
23
For discussion see Kllllke1, op.cit. (n. 5),258-259.
11),94.
er. Crook, op.cit. (n.
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its statues; it was published together with our inscription. 24) One may wonder
what purpose they would serve. To be sure, the publication of a favourable
verdict in a case may help maintaining in the future the rights of the winning
party. But the full minutes? A well-known case of 'advertising' the legal
position of the victorious party is the inscription of the so-called lis
fullonum. 25 Although many details are obscure, this much seems clear: in
Rome, in AD 226, in a cognitio procedure before the praejectus vigilum, the
fullers successfully refuted a claim that they had to pay. Two further attempts
to make them do so were also dealt with by praejecti vigilum, one of whom
was the jurist Herennius Modestinus, already mentioned before, and were
equally unsuccessful. The successive verdicts were engraved in marble. We
do not know where these marble tablets were put up. They were discovered
in the Esquiline region about 1700 and published by Fabretti in 1702; at some
point one half got lost and the other half now is in the Capitoline Museum.
Obviously publication of these verdicts aimed at advertising the rights of the
fullers and deterring further attacks on them.
The publication of the full proceedings in the case of the Goharieni
remains to be explained. That they must in fact have been considered to be of
great significance may be inferred from the fact that they were posted up
twice: first on the podium, then a second time on one of the antae. In the
context of this volume, it is attractive to speculate about the significance of
these inscriptions. Personally I think we cannot be greatly mistaken if we
interpret them as a guarantee of the rights of the Goharieni in the
appointment of a priest to the temple of Zeus Hypsistos. They were a
prominent display of the imperial protection these rights enjoyed and a
permanent representation of the emperor's power to protect. The choice to
publish the full proceedings instead of the mere verdict, I would suggest, is
connected with the special role of the emperor in this case, brought out so
much more clearly in the full proceedings than in the verdict.
For it is not so much the emperor's position as a judge that is
significant here, although it is of course important, but his assistance to the
villagers against formal procedure and the machinery ofthe law. The standard
procedure would have been a hearing in first instance in a local court, after
which an appeal could be made to the judge a quo, who, within 30 days, had
to hand over to the appellant his written opinion and the acta to submit them
See above, n. 1.
CIL VI, 266 = FIRA rn, no. 165. Cf. F.M. De Robertis, 'Lis fullonwn (CIL VI 266): Oggetto della
lite e causa petendi', in W. Haase & H. Temporini, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang der r6mischen
WeltII 14 (Berlin-New York 1982),791-815.
24
25
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to the judge ad quem. The latter here would have been the governor, Cassius,
who probably is D. Pius Cassius, governor of Syria Phoenice in 213. 26 From a
negative decision of the governor an appeal was open to the emperor.
The inscription permits us to see enough of the facts of this case to
conclude that the formally correct procedure apparently had not been
followed. There is no full agreement in the secondary literature as to where
precisely the Goharieni had deviated from the royal road. Here we only note
that they were pointed in the right direction by the emperor, the full measure
of whose assistance therefore could only be appreciated by recording more
than just the favourable verdict.
This, I submit, is the significance of the elaborate record of the case of
the Goharieni. Not only was the emperor in a position and willing to consider
and decide their case, but he was prepared to do so against the rules of the
game, to be seen to make justice prevail over law. One wonders who had the
greater interest in displaying the imperial intervention: the villagers, to whose
advantage the verdict had been, or the emperor, whose power was thus
represented for all to see. On balance, I think, the villagers, and one cannot
exclude the pride of one of the protagonists as the moving factor.
Nevertheless, the emperor would have been pleased.
Groningen, November 2002.
26
PIR rr2 112 I1f. 479, but cf. the cautious notes of Kunkel, op.cit. (n. 5),264-266.
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REPRESENT ATION AND PERCEPTION OF ROMAN IMPERIAL
POWER IN GREEK PAPYRUS TEXTS FROM AD 238 1
By
JANNEKE DE JONG
'What's in a title?' At first sight, this question may seem a little awkward. In
fact, it is hard to answer a question like this without a context and a certain
amount of background information. Therefore, before I get into a more
detailed discussion of what the title ofthis paper suggests, I will give a brief
sketch of the framework in which I would like to put this question.
To begin with, let us define time, place and subject of investigation.
In this paper that will be imperial titulature in Greek papyrus texts from
Egypt, from AD 238. This year is highly interesting for Roman imperial
history, with an empire-wide revolt and no less than seven different
emperors who were recognized by the senate and people of Rome. That they
were officially recognized in Egypt too, is proved by a number of papyrus
texts from this province. In what follows, some of those texts will be
considered in light of their meaning for Roman authority. Based on those
texts a hypothesis will be put forward, speculative though it may be,
regarding representation and perception of Roman imperial power in Egypt.
Military difficulties started to occur from the second half of the
second century onwards. 2 During the reign of Marcus Aurelius there were
problems at the frontiers;3 in addition, the succession by his son Commodus
marked the end of the 'golden age' of adoptive emperors.4 When Commodus
was killed, a new emperor was proclaimed, P. Helvius Pertinax, who was
killed soon after his imperial proclamation. As a result of this, a civil war
1 This paper was presented as a poster at the 3rd workshop of the international network 'Impact of
Empire', 20-23 March 2002 in Rome. It serves as an illustrating example for a wider topic, i.e.
imperial representation in the late 2nd and 3rd century AD, which I will deal with in my PhD study. The
major part of the research was carried out during a stay in Heidelberg. An early and preliminary draft
of this paper was read by M. Peachin and T. Kruse, who both have made useful suggestions, and to
whom I express my thanks. I owe further thanks to D. Hagedorn, who kindly showed me two unedited
Heidelberg papyrus texts from AD 238, to which reference is made in the appendix (nos. 11 and 12).
2 L. de Blois, 'Emperor and Empire in the Works of Greek Authors', in W. Haase and H. Temporini
(Hrsgg.) Au/stieg und Niedergang der Romisehen Welt II 34,4 (1998), 3395-3396, esp. note 10 and 11
for an extensi ve bibliography.
3 A. Birley, Mareus Aurelius. A Biography (London 1987), 121-126; 140-151; 159-183.
4 For the succession of Marcus Aurelius by Commodus and its place in dynastic policy, see 0.1.
Hekster, Commodus. An Emperor at the Crossroads (Amsterdam 2002), \5-39. For the historical
background and the political struggle following the murder of Commodus see: A. Birley, Septimius
Severus. The A/nean Emperor, (London 1988),89-128.
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was fought between the most important military leaders, with the
emperorship at stake. The winner of this civil war, Septimius Severus,
founded a new dynasty. It now became visible that the character of
emperorship had changed. More openly than ever before, the emperor's
position was based on military support. Still, Septimius Severus managed to
create an appearance of dynastic continuity by linking himself to the family
of Marcus Aurelius. 5 That he succeeded in doing so is proved by the fact that
his dynasty lasted for more than four decades. But, by then, the problems had
increased and the last ruling Severan, Severus Alexander, no longer enjoyed
trust and loyalty from his soldiers. When he was murdered by his own
troops, the dynastic continuity of emperors of the first two centuries had
come to an end. The next half-century faced many short rules of so-called
soldier emperors. The first one of low background was Maximinus Thrax. 6
He had not even reigned for three years when a revolt broke out in Thysdrus
(Africa) that spread all over the empire. Between the beginning of this revolt
and the accession of the third Gordian, in the second half of 238, there had
been four other claimants to the throne, but none of them survived the battle
for the purple. However short their reigns may have been, we know they
were officially recognized as emperors in various provinces, including
Egypt. 7 In this paper, the papyrological evidence from Egypt will be taken
into account. Only few papyri from AD 238 are preserved: a search in the
Heidelberger Gesamtverzeichnis results in 11 papyri (and two inedited
Heidelberg papyri) that can surely be dated to AD 238. Still, they represent
the reigns of all seven emperors that this year saw. Examination of imperial
elements will reveal both conspicuous similarities and differences in the
rendering of the titles of the different emperors. The question to be
considered below is whether those similarities and differences allow us to
make presumptions on presentation and perception of the imperial power.
Before I turn to the discussion of the relevant papyrus texts, some
remarks on papyrus texts in general need to be made. One must realize that
the nature of these documents is totally different from that of our other
5 D. Baharal, Victory of Propaganda. The Dynastic Aspect of the Imperial Propaganda of the Severi:
the Literary and Archeological Evidence AD 193-235 (Oxford 1996), 34-42.
6 Herodian 7.1.1. NB: Herodian already considered Septimius Severus to be a soldier emperor: cf. G.
Alf<ildy, 'Zeitgeschichte IllId Krisenempfindllllg bei Herodian', Die Krise des romischen Reiches
(HABES 5), (Stuttgart 1989),273-294.
7 X. Loriot, 'Les premieres annees de la grande crise du me siecle: De l'avenement de Maximin le
Thrace (235) 11 la mort de Gordien m (244)" in W. Haase and H. Temporini (Hrsgg.) Aufstieg und
Niedergang der Romischen Welt II 2 (1975), 657-787; with an extensive (thematic) bibliography on
pages 777-787.
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sources. Papyrus texts were written for private purposes, in the sense that
they were not meant to last for generations, 8 to reach a large public, or to
influence public opinion, in the way that, for example, literary works,
inscriptions, and coins did. Inherent to this private character of papyri is their
variety of contents. As a result of the coincidental preservation of papyri, we
have documents of various kinds, ranging from horoscopes to tax receipts,
and from reports of proceedings to letters of fathers to their families. Among
this variety of texts, there are also documents dealing with administrative
matters of all kind, which we would call 'official', and would probably
categorise differently from texts that were written by private individuals for
private reasons, e.g. private correspondence. But however interesting a
categorisation by topics may be, this is not a matter to be treated here. 9 Still,
we should not forget that none of the texts, whatever their 'category', were
meant to survive. That they all provide us with very interesting information
about Roman Egypt remains a fortunate coincidence.
In this paper, 13 texts are taken into account. Criteria by which they
were chosen are firstly the secure dating to AD 238 10 and secondly the
presence of imperial titulature. Of these texts, 10 deal with public, and 3 with
private matters. In almost all cases the imperial titulature is used to date the
document or the 'action' described within the document; only in nr 4 this
may not be true. I I However, one may wonder what exactly the function of a
dating formula was. Was it used simply to date a document, or is there more
to it? Did it give a document its official character, for instance? And what
about the titles that were used: were they chosen at random, or may we
assume that they were used for some purpose, say propaganda? And do the
texts from the year AD 238 bring anything to light that may have a more
general applicability? I am not claiming that I will offer definite answers to
those questions; but it will, nonetheless, be interesting to compare the
However, for private pwposes, documents might be copied over and over again, so that as a result
they sometimes did last for generations.
9 The texts examined here can all be considered 'official'. On categorisation or typology of papyrus
documents, see R.S. Bagnall, Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History (London - New York 1995),
22-24.
10 Texts that are dated in the reign of Maximinus (and Maximus) and of Gordian III alone, but without
certainty for the year, are not taken into account. The relevant texts are gathered in the appendix.
11 E.g. in nos. 7 and 8 the year of the harvest is dated by means of the imperial titulature. Nr 4 is
difficult to interpret: see the introduction and comment by the editor, P. Oxy. 51, 3607. That the
titulature in nr 6 is used to date the document, is suggested by the editor (p.Flor I 98, note to lines 5-6).
Nr 12 is too damaged to make any certain statements about the titulature.
8
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different titulatures used in the documents. In this way, it is at least possible
to see in what way the different emperors were presented.
The construction and development of imperial titulature is an
interesting phenomenon. As Hammond has described in his article on
imperial elements in the formula of Roman emperors, official imperial
titulature consists of republican and imperial elements. 12 His investigation,
however, focused on inscriptions and coins. If we now turn to imperial
titulature that is used in papyrus texts, several features become clear. To
begin with, most papyrus texts were written in Greek. As for the imperial
titulature, this means that the Latin titles are translated in Greek, which is not
very surprising. However, when imperial titles are used, we see that in most
cases the republican elements are left out. Only in documents in which the
emperor himself addresses the receiver directly, like edicts, the more
elaborate titulature is used. The reason why the republican elements were left
out in most texts, can only be guessed at. Was this for the sake of brevity? It
may have had to do with the fact that use of the emperor's name to simply
date documents did not need repetition of his exact powers. They did not
matter, or in any case would not be of additional value. Use of the emperor's
name and - when one chose to do so - honorific additions conferred enough
reverence. In any case, the republican elements were not the most
indispensable elements for referring to the emperor.
The imperial part of the titulature can be divided in five elements: 13
1. Imperator Caesar Augustus; 2. praenomen and/or nomen gentile and/or
cognomen; 14 3. honorific epithets, e.g., pius, jelix; 4. victory titles, e.g.
parthicus; 5. emphasis on the hereditary nature of the imperial position by
means of listing predecessors, especially in the 2nd and early 3rd century. 15
Although in this basic structure of the imperial titulature we can
observe continuity from the Augustan era up to the third century, there were
changes as well: by the time the Severan dynasty had come to power, the
imperial titulature had grown in length. More important than the increasing
length, however, was the shift from personally applicable titles to
generalized standard titulature. A good example of this phenomenon is
visible in the development of the meaningful name Imperator Caesar
12 M. Hamrnond, 'Imperial Elements in the Formula of the Roman Emperors during the first two and a
half Centuries of the Empire', Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 25 (1957), 20-21.
13 Hamrnond 1957, op.cit. (n. 12), 20-21 discemed four elements, considering victory titles as honorific
epithets; 21-58 gives a fiuther discussion of these elements.
14 One or more of these names are inserted between Imperator Caesar and Augustus.
15 Hammond 1957, op.cit. (n. 12),55-58; this practice died out after Severus Alexander.
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Augustus, that Octavian had created for himself. 16 It was passed on to his
successors and, as the empire and the imperial constitution developed,
became a purely authoritative designation. 17 The same applies to the
honorific epithets: originally meant to specify (qualities ot) a particular
emperor, e.g. pius for Antoninus, they became mere descriptions of imperial
merits, independent from the emperor. 18
Although Hammond confined his research to the first two and half
centuries of the empire, I think it is legitimate to apply Hammond's division
of the imperial titulature to the titles in the Greek texts from AD 238. The
imperial titulature had by then achieved the standard form, which can, at
least in papyri, still be recognized in the titulature of the following
generations of emperors. With regard to our selected papyrus texts, we can
make the following observations: 19
- The first element occurs in almost all titles. The Latin imperial designation
'Imperator Caesar Augustus' is rendered in Greek as AU'tOlCPCl1:COP Kdioop
D:~o'ts.
Only three times is D:~o'ts
used without AmolCpa'tcop Ko'ioop,
or 5, 9b and 12 (in or 5 the papyrus has broken off, so Au'tolCpa'tcop Ko'ioop
might have been there, and 12 is heavily damaged). In 3a, 3b, 4, and Ba
Au'tolCpa'tcop Ko'ioop D:~o'ts
is not used at all; instead, in all these texts
but for the heavily damaged or 4, after the emperor's names
Koioop 6 lCUptoS is added. Nr 8 has Ot lCuptot lJl1WV added as an extra
element before the imperial title, nomina and epithets.
- The second element occurs in all attested titles in elaborate form (i.e., the
complete series of names). Only in nos. 6 and 10, one of the nomina of
Pupienus (Mo1;l.110s), is lacking. In 9a the cognomina nOU1ttTJVos and
Bot...Jftvos are erased; this is probably a consequence of damnatio
memoriae. 20
- Honorific titles, which form the third element are listed in almost all cases.
and EU-CUXlJs are not used in nos. 3a, 3b, 4, 12 (the
The honorific Euo£~lJs
latter two are too damaged to be sure whether it was there) and 13 a.
- Victory titles are only attested for Maximinus and Maximus. The other
emperors were in power for too brief a period to have received any victory titles.
16 R. Syme, 'Imperator Caesar: A Study in Nomenclature', Roman Papers I 29 (Oxford 1979),361377, argues on page 374 that Augustus 'exalts himself above all rivals or forerunners in the choice of
names as of titles. '
17 Harnmond 1957, op.cit. (n. 12),21-41,58,60.
18 Harnmond 1957, op.cit. (n. 12),41-54.
19 For the imperial titulature in the texts from AD 238, see appendix.
20 D. Kienast, Romische Kaisertabelle 2 (Darmstadt 1996), 191-194.
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- The fifth element, listing of the predecessors, does not occur in our sample,
and actually this element is missing in imperial titulature in papyri in
general. 21 On the other hand, in nr 1 Maximinus' son is described as
6 1.£pc&ta'to<; Ka'icrap :E£~acr'to<;
uio<; 'tou :E£~amou.
In my view, this should
not be taken as listing of a predecessor, but rather as a reference to the
dynastic stability Maximinus pretends to secure. This father-son relationship
occurs in more papyrus texts containing titulature of Maximinus and
Maximus. 22 The same phenomenon can be observed in nr 4, lines 9-10 (here
where the relationship between the
with KUPto<; instead of :E£~acr't6<;),
Gordians is made clear.
From this comparative overview, we can deduce that the overallstructure of the imperial titulature is identical for the different emperors. At
the same time, the occurrence of slight differences suggests flexibility. What
can we learn from those observations considering representation or
perception of the emperors of the year AD 238?
As stated above, papyri containing imperial titulature can all be
considered official documents. May we, therefore, assume that occurrence of
imperial titulature is expected to follow official prescripts? Although the
titulatures we have seen show close similarities, it is apparent that the scribe
had freedom to choose between different descriptions. The number of texts
considered here is very small; the variation in titulature no doubt was much
bigger than the one represented here 23 On the other hand, it may be
significant that even with so few texts preserved, there are so many
similarities between them. So, to come back to the 'officiality' of titulature:
how was a new emperor communicated to the inhabitants of the empire?
And was an official titulature communicated along with the emperor?
When a new emperor was proclaimed, his proclamation and titulature
had to be confirmed and offered to him by the senate. 24 The position of the
senate, and therefore its role in 'creating' a new emperor, had become
weaker in the course of time. A good example of this is Maximinus Thrax ,
who owed his imperial position exclusively to his soldiers. This soldier21 P. Bureth, Les Titulatures imperiales dans les papyrus, les ostraca et les inscriptions d 'Egypte (30
a.c.- 284 p.c.) (Bruxelles 1964),passim.
22 Bureth 1964, op.cit. (n. 21),111-12, nr I; 4; 6; 9; 10; II (nr lIon p. 112 has TTalC instead of Jt.6c).
NB: the numbers are not printed in Bureth's compilation.
23 For numerous variations in imperial titulature in general, one just has to browse through the works
of Bureth, 1964, op.cit. (n. 21) or M. Peachin, Roman Imperial Titulature and Chronology, AD. 235284, (Amsterdam 1990).
24 Peachin 1990, op.cit (n. 23), 3-7; R. Talbert, The Senate o/Imperial Rome (Princeton - New Jersey
1984),354-356.
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based regime was a thorn in the flesh of the senate. So, when in AD 238 in
Africa Proconsularis a rebellion broke out,25 and the two Gordians were
proclaimed emperors, the senate was quick to undertake action. Letters were
sent to the governors of the provinces to inform them of the political
situation and of the senatorial decision to support the new rulers. However,
since the new emperors were killed within a few weeks, the senate had little
choice but to push through its own policy, i.e., to get rid of Maximin us, and
appoint two senators as the new emperors. The Roman mob was outraged,
and the senate could only 'agree' with having a child, the grandson of the
first Gordian, acclaimed designated emperor. After a reign of a few weeks,
the senatorial emperors were killed, and the designated Caesar was
acclaimed emperor Gordian (Ill). Within half a year, three imperial
acclamations of five emperors had taken place. So, three times, letters of
notification of this must have been sent to the provinces. The contents of
such letters can only be guessed at. They may have contained the official
titulature of the new emperor, so that all officials who were active in the
administration of the empire at once knew how to refer to their new ruler. Or
perhaps only the fact of the proclamation of a new emperor was
communicated, without prescribed standard formulas. The provincial
administrators, familiar with using imperial titulature, knew exactly how to
make a new imperial title out of the personal names of the new emperor. It is
more probable that the senate communicated the new emperor and his new
titles at the same time. The close parallels in the titulature that we have seen
above can be taken as a support for this hypothesis. It has been assumed that
such a communication, in which dating formulas were prescribed, in Egypt
took place every year after the Diocletianic reforms; the prefect of Egypt in
Alexandria acted as the intermediary between the central and provincial
administration. 26 This annual communication of the state of imperial affairs
may well have been a continuation of an earlier practice. Although the titles
were only used for dating purposes, they still reflect imperial merits,
especially in the use of victory titles and epithets. Can this kind of use of
imperial titulature be considered propaganda? The uniformity in titulature in
papyrus texts is not uniform enough to prove deliberately chosen formulas,
whereas the diversity is not diverse enough to disprove it. Regarding
25 For a description of the course of the revolt and events related to it, see Loriot 1975, op.cit. (n.7),
esp. 688-724.
26 R.S. Bagnall, A. Cameron, S.R. Schwartz, K.A. Worp, Conculs of the Later Roman Empire
(Atlanta, Georgia 1987), 67-8.
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documentary sources that make use of elements such as imperial
acclamations and tribunician powers, which are helpful to date the
document, I think there is truth in Kienast's statement: 'Man muB ferner
betonen, daB alle die eben genannten, fur die Datierung wichtigen Elemente
primar einen politischen Charakter tragen und ihre chronologische
Bedeutung meist erst sekundarer Natur ist. ,27 Certainly, use of the imperial
titles does suggest an awareness of, and familiarity with, the constitutional
power; apparently one had some freedom of choice, though the easiest thing
to do was to stick to the example set by the highest authorities. However, the
question remains whether use of imperial titulature in papyrus texts is
purposeful propaganda. Rather, if one defines propaganda as a process in
which several factors are involved, as Baharal does, it appears again that use
of imperial titles to date documents should not be considered as pure
propaganda. Baharal argues that 'In summary, there are six elements
involved in the process of propaganda: the initiator, audience, medium,
symbols or words, message and purpose,28 If this model is applied to
papyrus texts, a general statement about the use of titulature as propaganda
would be something like: '''Advertising' the emperor propagated by the
highest authorities to reach the subjects in order to get support for the (new)
emperor was conveyed by means of written words." In this, the advertising
of the emperor can be regarded as the message that was meant to be made
public; the initiator responsible for sending out this message would be the
highest authorities; its audience, of course, the subjects; purpose of
transmitting the message would be to make the emperor acceptable, and,
therefore, have him accepted. This would all be achieved by means of using
imperial titulature, written down on papyrus. The only respect in which
imperial titulature in papyrus texts does not fit into this scheme is that it is
used not as a message per se, but rather as an addition, maybe even
enrichment of a text, with the very practical purpose of dating the document.
Therefore, I would plea to consider the use of imperial titulature in most
papyrus texts not as propaganda in itself, but as as a reflection of this
'propagandistic' policy.
The question how the message that had been sent out was perceived
is difficult to answer. Since it is not possible to look into people's minds, we
27 Kienast 1996, op.cit (n 20), 21. Kienast mentions the 'eben genarmten Elemente' on p. 20-21, for
example consulates, imperial acclamations and victory titles. For a monograph on the latter category, victory
titles, see P. Kneilll, Die Siegestitulaturder romischen Kaiser, Hypomnemata 23, (GOttingen 1969).
28 Baharal 1996, op.cit. (n. 5), 2.
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can only hypothesise about this. But the fact that in most of the cases there is
great similarity in the titulature that was used suggests that on the one hand
the authors of the documents were not too critical in their choice of titles. On
the other, they did not do their best to be inventive either. Writing down
imperial titulature was a mechanical, but necessary, act. The suspicion rises
that one perceived the emperor as an authority rather than as an individual,
and, consequentially, that in using titulature it mattered more to express that
authority than to link it to a man.
The fact that we have papyrological evidence attesting all the emperors
proclaimed by the senate in AD 238 proves that Egypt was loyal to Rome: it
means that the people who were responsible for the administration, and
therefore government, of Egypt were loyal to their superiors in Rome. The
use of the imperial titles, even if only to date a document, was a way to
express this loyalty.
When notifying the provincial administration after the proclamation
of an emperor, the senate communicated the imperial titulature to present the
new emperor. Though there are only very few documents attesting the
different reigns of AD 238, the imperial formulas are very similar. This
points to the existence of an official standard titulature that could be used for
any emperor. We have seen that imperial titulature in general consisted of
certain elements that are mutatis mutandis applicable to all emperors. The
papyrus texts from AD 238 illustrate this very well: considering the
shortness of some of the reigns in AD 238, we can only admire the speed of
the Roman administration in adapting to new rulers. The standard elements,
in which only the personal nomina of the ruling emperor should be filled in
at the adequate place, were very convenient. Besides that, the emperors of
AD 238 were almost proclaimed ad hoc, which caused the practical problem
that there was no time to think elaborately about individualised titulatures.
The standard was simply applicable to anyone.
In terms of representation, we can say that standardisation of formulas
and the absence of individualisation, except by using the emperor's personal
name, may not have had a propagandistic effect to promote the individual
emperors, but maybe the appearance of continuity of imperial authority was
created by using generalized structures. In this sense it did have a
propagandistic effect for 'the emperorship'. In any case, in the third century it
was the authority of the emperor that mattered, not his personal qualities.
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Following this, in terms of perception we may conclude that in Egypt
in this period the emperor was not perceived as an individual with personal
qualities, but rather as the person who was merely filling in a vacant place.
Local administrators followed the instructions they got from higher hand.
Thanks to standard titles they were able to change quickly from one emperor
to another in writing their documents. Although we can never be sure of
what people were actually thinking, it is likely that the presentation of the
emperor determined the way in which he was perceived. This applies to
presentation and perception of imperial power by means of titulature in
Greek texts of AD 238 as well: perception of the emperor depended on how
he was presented. His abstract presence was rendered by the use of titles. For
the authors of the documents under consideration and the people who would
deal with them, that sufficed.
Nijmegen, October 2002
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Appendix: Imperial titles in Greek texts from AD 23829
1. sPP XX 37,12-18 (29-1-238)
Public (administrative): registration of cattle, addressed to the basilikos
grammateus. Titulature used to date the document.
Ail"tOlCp<l-tCOP Kaicmp ra"ioe; 10uAtoe; Oufjpoe; Ma~tJl"ivoe;
E-O~ile;
Eutuxi]e;
u~a(Jt6e;
rEPJlavtKOe; JlEytcrtOe; ~aKtOe;
JlEytcrtOe; LapJlattKOe; !lEytcrtOe; Kat
ra"ioe; 10UAtoe; Oirilpoe; Ma~tJloe;
rEPJlavtKoe; JlEytcrtOe; ~aKtOe;
JlEytcrtOe;
LapJlattKOe; JlEytcrtOe; 0 1.EpciYtatOe; Kaicrap LE~acrtoe;
U1.0e; tOU u~acrto
2. SPP XX 47 = CPR 6, 1-2 (3-2-238)
Private: contract of a sale of land. Titulature used to date the document.
AUtOKpatcop Ka"icrap ra"ioe; 10uAtoe; OiJfjpoe; Ma~tJl"ivoe;
E-O~ile;
EuttJxi]e;
u~acrt6e;
3. a. P.Oxy. XLIII 3107, 2-5 (7-4-238)
Public (administrative): receipt for dyke- and other taxes. Titulature used to date the
document.
rdiot' 10uAtot OirilPOt Ma~tJivoe;
Kat Ma~tJloe;
u\.oe; rEPJlaVtK01. JlEytcrtOt
~aKt01.
!lEytcrtOt LapJlattK01. JlEytcrtOt KaicrapEe; 01. KUptot
3. b. P.Oxy. XLIII 3107,12-15 (13-6-238)
Public (administrative): receipt for dyke- and other taxes. Titulature used to date the
document.
MapKoe; AvtWvtoe; rOp0laVOe; PffiJlaVOe; LEJl1tpCOVlaVOe; Aq,ptKaVOe; Kat MapKoe;
AvtWvtoe; rOpOtavoe; PffiJlavoe; UJl1tpCOVtavoe;' Aq,ptKaVOe; KaicrapEe; 01 KUptot
4. P.Oxy. LI 3607 (before 13-6-238)
Accession edict; titles too damaged to be sure, and so is the purpose of the titulature
used.
1. 5: MapKoe;' AvtWvtoe; rOp0laVOe; PffiJlaVOe; UJl1tpCOVlaVOe; Aq,ptKaVOe;
11.9-10: MapKoe; AvtWvtoe; rOpotaVOe; PffiJlavOe; LEJl1tpCOVlaVOe;
Aq,ptKaVOe; 6 utOe; tOU Kupiou llJlmv
11. 11-12: MapKoe;' AvtWvtoe; rOp0laVOe; PffiJlavoe; UJl1tpCOVlaVOe; Aq,ptKavoe;
11. 16-17: MapKoe;' AvtWvtoe; rOp0laVOe; PffiJlaVOe; UJl1tpCOVtavoe; Aq,ptKaVOe;
11. 17-18: MapKoe;' AvtWvtoe; rOp0laVOe; PffiJlaVOe; LEJl1tpCOVlaVOe; Aq,ptKavOe;
29 NB: the titulature is rendered in the nominative case here (whereas in the docmnents they are in
genetive case). Furthermore, I took over the titulatures as they were restored by the various editors: in
most texts the titulature survived in such way that restoration is more or less secure; only nos. 4, 6, 11
and 12 are very damaged and should be considered with extra caution. Also the spelling has been
made uniform, e.g. M~tl1voC;
(nr I) was spelled ~tf.1e\VOC;
in the original text.
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5. SB XVIII 13153, 1-4 (20-6-238)
Private: end of a renting contract. Titulature used to date the document/year of the
lease (?).
MapKo<; Av'tciJvto<; loplhavo<; PWflavo<; LEIl1tpOJVtavo<;' A<j>ptKavo<; Kat MapKo<;
Av'tciJvto<; 10POtavo<; PWflavo<; LEIl1tPOJVtaVo<;' A<j>ptKavo<; EUo~£1.<;
EirruXE1<;
LE~acr'toi
6. P.Flor. 198,5-6 (238)
Public (administrative): order of the basilikos grammateus
Use oftitulature not clear. Restored by editor (note to line 5-6)
Au'toKpa'tOJp Ka1.crap MapKo<; KAcOOto<; ITOU1ttT]vo<; EUo~l]<;
EirruXl]<; LE~acr'to<;
Kat AirtoKpa'tOJp Ka1.crap MKtIlO<; KalAto<; KaAo1l1vo<; BaA~vo<;
EUo~l]<;
Eu't1lXl]<; LE~acrto<;
Kat MapKo~
Av'tciJvto<; 10POtavo<; 01.Epcirca'to<; Kalcrap
7. O.Leid. 259, 2-8 (21-7-238)
Public (administrative): granary receipt. Titulature used to date the year of the
harvest.
AU'tOKPCltOJP Ka1.crap MapKo<; KAcOOto<; ITOU1ttT]vo<; Ma~tlo<;
EUo~l]<;
EirruXl]<;
L£~acrto<;
Kat AirtoKpa'tOJP Ka1.crap M:KtIlO<; KalAto<; KaAo1l1vo<; BaA~vo<;
EUo~l]<;
Eu't1lXl]<; LE~acr'to<;
Kat MapKo<;' Av'tciJvto<; 10POtavo<; 0 'tEpcirca'to<;
Ka1.crap
8. O.Bod!. II 1621, 1-4 (21-7 and 11-8238)
Public (administrative): granary receipt (IlETPlllla Bllcaupou). Titulature used to
date the year of the harvest.
Oi. KUptot iUHl)V AirtoKpa'£~
Ka\.crp£~
MapKo~
KA.cOto~
rOU1tlV~
Mal;tO~
Kat MKtIlO<; KalAto<; KaAo1l1vo<; BaA~vo<;
EUo~£1.<;
EirruXE1.<; L£~acr'toi
9.a. P. Oxy. XII 1433, co!. i, 16-26 (29-8 to 27-9 238)
Public (administrative): reports of tax-collectors to a strategos. Titulature
of the names deleted. Titulature used to date the year for which the taxes
paid.
Au'toKpa'top£<; KalcrapE<; MapKo<; KAcOOto<; [[ ITOU1ttllvo<;]] Kat
KaiAto<; KaAo1l1vo<; [BaA~vo<;]
EUo~1.<;
EirruXEt<; LE~acr'tol
Kat
AV'tciJvto<; 10POtavo<; 01.Epcirca'to<; Ka1.crap
with part
had been
MKtIlO<;
MapKo<;
9.b, P. Oxy. XII 1433, col. ii, 45-49 (28-9 to 27-10 238)
Public (administrative): reports of tax-collectors to a strategos. Titulature used to
date the year for which the taxes had been paid.
MapKo<; Av'tciJvto<; 10POtavo<; EUo~1l<;
EirruX1l<; L£~acr't6<;
280
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10. SPP XX 51, 21-25 (8-9-238)
Private: contract of loan of grain. Titulature used to date the document.
Ail'toKpa'tcop Ka1.oap MapKo~
KA.cOto~
Ilo'1tT\v~
Eoe~i]
EiYruX]~
L.e~ao't
Kat AirroKpa'tcop Ka1.oap MKt~O
Kal.Ato~
KaA.o1Jv~
BaA.lftvo~
Eoe~i]
El)'t1JXi]~
L.e~ao't
Kat MapKo~
Av'tro~
rop8tavb~
0 l.epciYta'o~
Ka1.oap
11. P.Heid. Inv. G 175R, 1-2 Summer 238 (ined.)
Public (administrative): end of a petition. Titulature used to date the document and
mostly restored.
Au'toKpa'tcop Ka1.oap MapKo~
KA.cOto~
Ilo'1tT\v~
Ma~to
Eoe~ij
Eir1JXj~
L.e~ao't
Kat AirroKpa'tcop Kal.oap MKt~O
Kal.Ato~
KaA.o1Jlv~
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Eu't1Jxij~
L.e~ao't
Kat MapKo~
Av'tcbo~
rop8tav~
0 \.epciYta'o~
Ka1.oap
12. P.Heid. Inv. G 546 (238) (ined.)
Public (administrative). Petition? (Too damaged to determine)
I. 4: Ilo'1tT\v~
Ma~to
Kat f1elCt~o
KaiA.to~
I. 5: L.e~ao'ti
I. 17:" Av'tcbo~
rop8tav~
13.a. P. RyI. II 100,4-5 (12 October 238)
Public (administrative): application for a lease ofland to pasture sheep
Titulature to denote the year for which the lease is set
MapKo~
Av'tro~
rop8tav~
Kaloap 0 KUpto~
13.b281 P. RyI. II 100, 15-17 (12 October 238)
Titulature to date the whole document
Au'toKpa'tcop Ka1.oap MapKo~'
Av'tro~
rop8tav~
Eoe~ij
EiYruXj~
L.e~ao't
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NAIrn UND FERNE KAISERLICHER MACHT: DAS BEl SPIEL KOLN
Von
WERNERECK
Die Szene ist bekannt. Eine Gruppe von Pharisaem will nach Lukas 20, 20ff.
Jesus entweder vor dem Volk oder der hochsten romischen Provinzautoritat,
dem praefectus Iudaeae Pontius Pilatus, in Schwierigkeiten bringen; sie
fragen ihn deshalb, ob es ihnen, den Juden, erlaubt sei, dem Kaiser Steuem
TJllae; Kaia-apt <j>opov oouvat il ou; 20, 22). Er
zu zahlen oder nicht (£~a-nv
aber antwortet mit einer Gegenfrage, nachdem man ihm einen Denar
gereicht hatte: "Wessen Bild und Aufschrift zeigt er (der Denar)?"
(nvoe; EX£t £i1..-:ova Kat E1tt'Ypa<j>i]v; 20, 24), worauf er die Antwort erhalt:
Kaia-apoe;.
Einfacher, aber auch selbstverstandlicher als in dieser Szene konnte
man nicht zeigen, wie die politische Macht Roms, verkorpert im Kaiser, in den
Provinzen prasent war und worin sie sich ganz selbstverstandlich
konkretisierte. FOr glaubige Juden war es unertraglich, da/3 Kaiserbilder nach
Jerusalem gebracht wurden. Die Prafekten Judaas der thihen Jahre nach der
Provinzialisierung lieBen deshalb die Bilder des Herrschers von den
Feldzeichen nehmen, wenn sie mit ihren Truppen nach Jerusalem hinauf
zogen - es sei denn, sie wollen die Bevolkerung provozieren wie Pontius
Pilatus dies getan hat. 1 Doch romische Denare, auf denen generell nicht nur
der Name, sondem auch das Bild des Herrschers erschien, waren
offensichtlich ganz selbstversUindlich auch in den Handen von glaubigen
Juden. Es waren ja die Schriftgelehrten und Priest er selbst, die Jesus den
Denar gereicht hatten 2 Der feme Kaiser war unmittelbar durch sein Bild
prasent, jeder konnte eine Vorstellung davon haben, wer derjenige war, der
von Rom aus die Welt regierte, dem alle gehorchen und Steuem zahlen
muBten. Kein sonstiges Medium der Kommunikation machte den Kaiser so
gegenwartig, so omniprasent wie die MOnzen. Natiirlich gab es in alien
Stadten des Reiches Statuen und Portrats, auch gemalte Bilder, die dem
Herrscher Gestalt verliehen, in alien Stadten gab es statuarische Darstellungen,
oft verbunden mit Inschriften, die Namen und Hoheitstitel verkOndeten. 3
Selbst in Waldgirmes, der zwischen ca. 5 v. Chr. und 9 n. Chr. an der Lahn
b. J. 2, 169-171; ant. 14,65-67.
Lucas 22, 19.
3 Vg!. nur beispielsweise G. A1fo1dy, Statuen in Venetia und Histria. Epigraphische Quellen, Abh.
Heide1b. Akad. Wiss., Phil-Hist. Kl. 1984, 3, Heide1berg 1984.
1 Josephus,
2
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aus dern Nichts erbauten Siedlung fur dort wohnende Germanen, war bereits
eine iiberlebensgroBe bronzene Reiterstatue des Augustus errichtet worden. 4
Manche dieser Statuen stand en auf gewaltigen Bogen hoch iiber allen
Betrachtern; niernand konnte sie iibersehen. 5 Schon in dern erst zwei bis drei
lahrzehnte alten oppidum Ubiorum stand offensichtlich ein solcher Bogen, urn
den Ruhm des Herrscherhauses an der Rheinfront zu verkiinden. 6 Irnrner
wieder trafen auch Schreiben aus der Zentrale des Reiches ein, durch die der
Herrscher rnit seinen Untertanen in Kontakt trat. Wer lesen erlernt hatte,
konnte die ipsissima verba nachlesen, weil sie zurnindest fur eine gewisse Zeit
in der Stadt offentlich zuganglich waren, geschrieben vielleicht auf tabulae
dealbatae oder gelegentlich auch sofort auf Stein oder Bronze. Aber sie
wurden auch offentlich vorgetragen, irn Theater od er auf den offentlichen
Platzen einer Stadt. Manche dieser Schreiben verbreiteten das Bild des Wohltaters der Menschheit; nicht wenige solcher Briefe sind in epigraphischer
Form auf uns gekornrnen. 7 Doch haufiger enthielten sie Anordnungen iiber
neue Forderungen gegeniiber den Untertanen, oft finanzieller Natur; diese sind
jedoch zurneist verloren gegangen; es lohnte sich nicht, sie in dauerhafter
Form zu publizieren und so zu bewahren. 8
Durch all diese Medien war der ferne Kaiser prasent, selbst bis in die
kleineren Siedlungen und Dorfer hinein. Denn zurnindest die Miinzen
gelangten iiberall hin. Dennoch: Der Herrscher blieb weit entfernt, er war
4 A. Becker, Die Ausgrabungen in Lahngau-Waldginnes 1999. Eine nova colonia aus der Zeit des
Kaisers Augustus im Lahnta1?, in: Denkmalpflege und Kulturgeschichte. Landesamt fUr
Denkmalpflege in Hessen Heft 2, 1999, 6Off.; ders., Eine romische Stadt an der Lahn?, in: Antike Welt
31,2000,60Iff
5 W. Eck - G. Foerster, Ein Triumphbogen fur Hadrian im Tal von Beth Shean bei Tel Shalem, JRA
12, 1999,294-313 mit der neueren Literatur.
6 H. v. Hesberg, Bauteile der frilhen Kaiserzeit in Koln. Das Oppidum Ubiorum zur Zeit des Augustus,
in: Grabung - Forschung - Prasentation. Festschrift Gundolf Precht, Xantener Berichte 12, Mainz
2002, 13ff., bes.20f
7 Die Masse dieser Texte mit kaiserlichen Schreiben bei lH. Oliver, Greek Constitutions of Early
Roman Emperors from Inscriptions and Papyri, Philadelphia 1989 mit den Erganzungen bei V. 1.
Anastasiadis - G. A. Souris, An Index to hnperial Constitutions from Greek Inscriptions and Papyri 27
BC to 284 AD, Berlin 2000, 2ff.
8 W. Eck, Zur Einleitung. Romische Provinzialadministration und die Erkermtnismoglichkeiten der
epigraphischen Oberlieferung, in: Lokale Autonomie und romische Ordnungsmacht in den
kaiserzeitlichen Provinzen vom I. bis 3. Jahrhundert, hg. W. Eck, Milnchen 1999, Iff. Zu dem
Schreiben des Antoninus Pius an Ephesus CL Eph. V 1491), das bisher durchwegs als Tadel an der
Stadt angesehen wurde und deshalb als einer der wenigen kaiserlichen Briefe mit negativem Inhait
gaIt, siehe jetzt mit einer neuen Erganzung und dann positiven Aussage Chr. Kokkinia, Letters of
Roman authorities on local dignitaries. The case of Vedius Antoninus, ZPE 142,2003, 197ff.
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kein deus praesens9 Weit konkreter waren da schon die Statthalter, die als
seine Vertreter in der Provinz agierten, seine Prokuratoren mit ihrem nicht
immer sehr beliebten Personal aus kaiserlichen Sklaven und Freigelassenen
und schlieBlich die Soldaten, die mehr als alle anderen Reprasentanten
kaiserlicher Macht iiberall gegenwiirtig waren.lO Der Kaiser geh6rte vor allem
in den Wirkungen, die von ihm ausgingen, zur Normalitat des provinzialen
Lebens, nicht jedoch seine unmittelbare Gegenwart.
Dennoch gab es die Vorstellung, da/3 der Herrscher vor art erscheinen
miisse, da/3 seine Gegenwart notwendig sei. Geradezu klassisch ist dies im s.c.
de Cn. Pisone patre im Jahr 20 n.Chr. vom Senat formuliert worden:
Germanicus Caesar, qui a principe nostro ex auctoritate huius ordinis ad
rerum transmarinarum statum componendum missus esset, desiderantium
praesentiam aut ipsius Ti. Caesaris Augusti aut fiUorum alterius ipsius. 11
Tatsachlich hat ja auch Germanicus den Osten des Reiches als Tiberius'
Reprasentant besucht. Ahnlich driickt diese Vorstellung Velleius Paterculus an
zwei Stellen seines Werkes aus: Hispaniae nunc ipsius Augusti praesentia,
nunc Agrippae.. .multo varioque Marte pacatae; 12 ferner: Caesar circumferens
terrarum orbi praesentia sua pacis suae bona.13 Und schon Horaz hatte fur
Augustus formuliert: 0 tutela praesens [taUae dominaeque Romae .14 Auch der
anonyme Panegyriker, der im Jahr 311 vor Constantin in Trier sprach, weiJ3
urn die Vorstellung von der segensreichen Gegenwart des Kaisers, wenn er
von den prachtvollen Bauten dieser Stadt sagt: Quae certe omnia sunt
praesentiae tuae munera. 15 Und ein anderer Panegyriker riihmte Trier, quae
adhuc adsiduitate praesentiae tuae prae ceteris fruitur.16 Mit der
unmittelbaren Prasenz des Herrschers sollen Gliick und Wohlstand, Sicherheit
und Ordnung angekommen sein. Die Menschen warten auf das Erscheinen des
Kaisers, was die Griechen als Epiphanie bezeichnen. Die Sphare zu den
Gottern wird beriihrt.
Siehe z.B. AE 1980,52; vgl. AE 1919,26; 1920,23; 1957,246.
Vgl. z.B. B. Isaac, Anny and Power in the Roman World: A Response to Brian Campbell, in: Anny
and Power in the Ancient World, hg. A. Chaniotis - P. Ducrey, Stuttgart 2002, 181ff.
11 W. Eck - A. Caballos - F. Femandez, Das senatus consultwn de Cn. Pisone patre, Milnchen 1996,
40f. Zeile 30ff.; 162.
12 Velleius Paterculus 2, 90, I.
13 Velleius Paterculus 2, 92,2.
14 Horatius, carm. 4, 14, 43f.
15 Pan. Lat 6 (7), 22, 5.
16 Pan. Lat. 5 (8), 2, I.
9
10
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DaB solche Satze zumeist mehr ober die Vorstellungen einzelner
Rhetoren und Theoretiker als ober die Realitat aussagen, braucht nicht betont
zu werden. Deshalb ist es vielleicht aussagekraftiger, sich an einem konkreten
Fall zu vergegenwartigen, was die Anwesenheit eines Kaisers fur eine
Provinzstadt wirklich bedeuten konnte - oder vielleicht auch die Abwesenheit.
Manche Stadte bieten sich fur solche Betrachtungen an, etwa Ephesus, Athen,
Antiochia in Syrien oder Alexandria in Agypten. 17 Sie alle waren Hauptzentren des Imperiums mit Oberdurchschnittlich gro13er Bevolkerung und
daraus resultierenden Problemen. Vor allem aber waren sie kontinuierlich Ziel
auch der Herrscher, soweit sie das Reich bereisten. Doch es sei gestattet, die
angesprochene Thematik an einem Exemplum zu betrachten, das mir
geographisch und sachlich naher liegt, namlich an der Colonia Claudia Ara
Agrippinensium, dem heutigen Koln. Diese Stadt bietet sich vielleicht auch
deswegen an, weil sie vom Beginn der monarchischen Herrschaft in Rom bis
fast ans Ende des westrornischen Teils des Reiches, wenn auch mit gro13en
Intervallen, immer wieder von einzelnen Herrschern aufgesucht wurde, in sehr
unterschiedlichen politischen und militarischen Situationen. 18
DaB der zentrale stadtische Kern des Stammes der Ubier an der Stelle
des heutigen Koln entstand, war eine direkte Folge der von Augustus
angeordneten Offensive gegen die
rechtsrheinischen
Germanen.
Topographische Gegebenheiten wie die RheintalstraBe, das hochwasserfreie
Plateau und der durch eine vorgelagerte Rheininsel geschaffene natOrliche
Hafen waren wohl die Voraussetzungen, daB das romische Militar und vor
allem der Oberkommandierende der Offensivarmee dort bald ofter Station
machten. Die Folge war der durch romische Krafte betriebene systematische
Ausbau der Stadt, nicht nur in der Grundri13planung, sondern auch der
konkreten Ausgestaltung des Ortes mit monumental en Steinbauten, und zwar
noch in augusteischer und frOhtiberischer Zeit. Das frOheste Monument, das
dies zeigt und auch sehr genau datiert werden kann, ist das sogenannte
Ubiermonument, vermutlich ein Eckturm der Stadtbefestigung, der gerade
nicht auf ubische Initiative zurOckgeht, sondern eindeutig von einer romischen
Autoritat veranla13t wurde. Allein aus diesem Monument, dem kleinen
17 Siehe zu diesen Stadten im Zusammenhang mit Kaiserbesuchen H. Halfmann, Itinera principum.
Geschichte und Typologie der Kaiserreisen im Romischen Reich, Stuttgart 1986; auch bei J. Lehnen,
Adventus principis. Untersuchungen zu Sinngehalt und Zeremoniell der Kaiserankunft in den Stadten
des Imperium Romanum, Frankflut 1997 ist einiges dazu angemerkt.
18 Siehe dazu im Oberblick H. Volkmann, Romische Kaiser in Koln, Gymnasium 1967, 119ff.;
ausfuhrlich in Kiirze W. Eck, Geschichte der Stadt Koln - Die romische Zeit (in Druckvorbereitung).
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Uberrest eines groBeren Ganzen, lieBe sich der kaiserliche Wille ableiten, der
hinter der Erbauung dieses stadtischen Zentrums, dieser "Stadt aus dem
Nichts" stand. 19 Die Siedlung verfugte offensichtlich nach kurzer Zeit noch
unter Augustus rucht nur Ober Wohnmoglichkeiten, die selbst fur den
Oberkommandierenden Germanicus und seine Frau Agrippina adaquat waren,
sondem auch Ober offentliche Monumentalbauten wie Tempel und Portiken.
Sogar ein Ehren- oder Triumphbogen muB damals bereits fur einen der Trager
der politisch-militarischen Macht, also fur Augustus, Tiberius oder
Germanicus errichtet worden sein. Von all dem sind zwar nur noch
jammerliche Reste in Form von Kapitellen, Saulentrommeln oder Saulenbasen
und Gesimsen erhalten. Doch Henner von Hesberg hat zu Recht nochmals auf
die an sich banale Erkenntrus verwiesen, daB jedes architektorusche Fragment
auf etwas ursprunglich Ganzes, auf ein gesamtes Bauwerk verweist. 20 Die
Konsequenz dieser Uberlegung ist fur Koln, daB dieses schon zu Beginn
seiner Existenz sich nicht wie ein germanisches Bauemdorf prasentiert hat,
sondem ein auf die Anwesenheit der Trager der hOchsten militarischen und
politischen Macht ausgestalteter Ort war, der zudem durch den Altar fur den
provinzialen Herrscherkult der Provinz Germania eine besondere politische
Qualitat erhielt. Waren aber nicht Tiberius oder Germanicus mit ihrem Stab
oder Hof, wie immer man das nennen will, dorthin gekommen und fur langere
Zeit prasent gewesen, dann hatte sich, nach allem was fur uns erkennbar ist,
die Siedlung nicht entwickeln konnen oder zumindest nicht in der Art, wie es
dann tatsachlich geschah. Die praesentia dieser Mitglieder der domus Augusta
war die Voraussetzung fur die Entstehung dieses stadtischen Mittelpunkts. Ob
Augustus selbst jemals bis an die Stelle des spateren Koln gekommen ist, laBt
sich nicht sagen. Aber es ist durchaus moglich, daB er si ch wahrend seines
langen, von 16 - 13 v.Chr. dauemden Aufenthalts in den gallischen Provinzen,
auch bis in die nordlichen Rheing~d
begeben hat, zumal da in dieser Zeit
die Entscheidung ober die Eroberung der rechtsrheinischen Gebiete getroffen
wurde. Die Prasenz der ersten Truppen unmittelbar an der Rheinfront geht
bereits auf die Zeit von Augustus' Prasenz in Gallien zuruck.
Die Erhebung des Zentralorts der Ubier zur Kolonie im Jahr 50
vollzog sich allerdings ohne jede personliche Anwesenheit der beiden
Personen, die diese Entscheidung getroffen hatten: Claudius und Agrippina.
Dennoch: Wie auch immer die wirklichen aktuellen Motive Agrippinas
19 Siehe vorerst W. Eck, Die Anfange des romischen Koln. Logistisches Zentrwn zur Unterwerfung
Germaniens, Koiner UniversitlitsjournaJ 32,2,2002, 56fT.
20 Hesberg, Bauteile (Arun. 6) 13fT.
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gewesen sein magen, ohne ihre nur dem Zufall zu verdankende Geburt in dem
Vorort der Ubier 35 Jahre fiiiher ware die Stadt am Rhein nicht das Objekt
ihres Ehrgeizes geworden, den eigenen Geburtsort ebenso hervorgehoben zu
sehen wie Lugdunum, wo ihr Gatte das Licht der Welt erblickt hatte. 21 Die
Folgen dieses "kurzmstigen Aufenthalts" Agrippinas fur das innere Leben der
groBen Gemeinde waren grundstiirzend: eine politische Einheit, die civitas der
Ubier verschwand entweder direkt oder doch bald danach, eine ramische
Kolonie trat an ihre Stelle. Zahllose Menschen waren von der Entscheidung
des Kaisers und seiner Gemahlin, die im fernen Rom gefallt worden war,
betroffen. Ob es dariiber Verhandlungen mit Vertretern der Ubier am
Kaiserhof gegeben hat, ist nicht uberliefert - maglich ist es, wahrscheinlich ist
es nicht. Der ferne Herrscher und noch mehr seine Gattin an seiner Seite, sie
wuBten, was richtig und wichtig war fur die Menschen am Rhein.
Dann erlebte die Stadt am 2. Januar 69 die Akklamation des Vitellius
durch die Truppen am Rhein, den Ausgangspunkt turbulent er Ereignisse, die
das Gemeinwesen in die schlimmste Krise seiner ramischen Geschichte vor
der Mitte des 3. Jh. stiirzten. Fur einen Augenblick war die Stadt Mittelpunkt
des politisch-miliHirischen Lebens des Reiches. Manche Bewohner mochten
persanliche Hoffuungen damit verbinden. Die Agrippinenser unterstiitzten wie
andere Gemeinden in Gallien den in ihren Mauern weilenden Herrn - was
ware ihnen auch anderes maglich gewesen? Doch die Anwesenheit des neuen
Herrschers dauerte nur kurz. Die Folgen freilich trafen die CCAA fur die
nachsten drei Jahre in besonders harter Form. Es hatte auch das physische
Ende der Kolonie sein kannen. Zu welchen konkreten Folgen das zufallige
Ereignis der Akklamation eines Herrschers in der Stadt gefuhrt hiitte, das
enthullte sich nicht mehr, da Vitellius bereits vor Ende des Jahres 69
scheiterte. Wer ihn unterstiitzt hatte, muJ3te froh sein, wenn dies vergessen
wurde. Schon damals bewahrheitete sich jedoch ein gelaufiger Kal'scher Satz,
der - auf Hochdeutsch - lautet: "Es ist noch immer alles gut gegangen".
Knapp 30 Jahre spater wurde erneut ein Kaiser in der Stadt ausgerufen,
dies mal freilich nicht durch die Truppen gegen den legitimen Herrscher in
Rom; vielmehr erhielt Traian Anfang Februar 98 die Nachricht vom Tod
seines Adoptivvaters und seiner eigenen Akklamation als Augustus apud
21 Siehe dazu ausfuhrlich W. Eck, Agrippina - die 'Stadtgrilnderin' Koins. Eine Frau in der
frilhkaiserzeitlichen Politik, Koln2 1993, 77ff.; H. Galsterer, Von den Eburonen zu den
Agrippinensern. Aspekte der Romanisierung am Rhein, KJ 23, 1990, 117ff.
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Agrippinam. 22 Er hatte kurz vorher, im Oktober 97, durch eine sorgfaltig von
Rom und von der Provinz aus inszenierte Pression seine Adoption durch den
kinderlosen, mehr als 66 lahre alten Kaiser Nerva durchgesetzt; spa.ter wurde
behauptet, lupiter selbst habe dem regierenden Kaiser diesen Gedanken
eingegeben 23 Real war nur die militarische Macht, die hinter Traian stand.
Diesmal muBte niemand in Koln uberlegen, ob es klug sei, diesem neuen
Kaiser zuzujubeln. Die Akklamation war unstrittig. Emeut war die Stadt
Mittelpunkt der Politik des gesamten Reiches; nicht nur die senatorischen und
ritterlichen Amtstrager, die nicht an Rom gebunden waren, eilten an den
Rhein; auch die Stadte und civitates Italiens und der Provinzen sandten ihre
fuhrenden Manner an den Rhein, urn den neuen Kaiser zu begriiBen. Koln
wurde zu einem Sammelpunkt der Kulturen des Imperiums, und all das nur
deswegen, weil der Princeps sich in ihren Mauem aufhielt. 24 Fur manche der
Stadtbewohner mochte sich durch die Anwesenheit so vieler zahlungskraftiger
Gaste ein sehr konkreter Gewinn ergeben. Auch groBe Politik erlebte man.
Denn Casperius Aelianus, einer der Pratorianerprafekten, der im Verlauf des
lahres 97 zusammen mit seinen Pratorianem Nerva im Stich gelassen hatte,
wurde an den Rhein gerufen und hier kurzerhand beseitigt.25 Andererseits kam
eine Gesandtschaft des Senats, ehrwiirdige Herren im romischen Burgerkleid,
hierher, urn Traian als den neuen Herm zu begriif3en. Koln erlebte die groBe
Welt des Imperium. Geschah aber mehr? Gab es Folgen fur die Stadt selbst
oder ihre Bewohner? Blieb etwas Dauerhaftes von dieser Anwesenheit
Traians, die vermutlich doch einige Monate gewahrt hatte? Nach den uns
erhaltenen QueIlen hat diese praesentia principis zu nichts Dauerhaftem
gefiihrt - auBer zur Griindung der zweiten colonia am Rhein, der colonia Ulpia
Traiana (Xanten). Die Agrippinenses behielten dies wohl eher als nicht so
ganz erfreuliche Geste des neuen Herrschers im Gedachtnis. Denn mit dem
einmaligen Status der Stadt a1s einzigem hochprivilegierten Ort in der Provinz
Niedergermanien war es nun vorbei. Doch angesichts der Quellenarmut, und
Eutropius, breviarium 8,2,2; Epitome de Caesaribus 13,3; Hieronymus, Chronik 275f. Zeile 16 zum
Jahr 2113; Orosius 7,12,2; Sidonius Apollinaris, carm. 7,114f.
23 W. Eck, Traian: Der Weg zum Kaisertum, in: Traian, hg. A. Niinnerich-Asmus, Antike Welt,
Sonderband, Mainz 2002, 7ff. sowie ders., An Emperor is Made: Senatorial Politics and Trajan's
Adoption by Nerva in 97, in: Philosophy and Power in the Graeco-Roman World: Essays in Honour of
Miriam Griffin, hg. Gillian Clark - Tessa Rajak, Oxford 2002, 211 ff.
24 Siehe allgemein zu den Folgen der Anwesenheit eines Herrschers in provinzialen Stadten H.
Halfmann, Itinera principum. Geschichte und Typologie der Kaiserreisen im Romischen Reich,
Stuttgart 1986, 124ff. 151ff.
25 Cassius Dio 68, 5,4.
22
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zwar auch bei den epigraphischen und archaologischen Zeugnisse, verbietet es
sich, aus dem Schweigen der Quellen etwas abzuleiten 26
Nach der Abreise Traians in den Donauraum im Sommer 98 scheint
fur mehr als 150 Jahre kein Kaiser, aber auch kein Mitglied der kaiserlichen
Familie mehr den Weg an den Niederrhein genommen zu haben, au/3er
vermutlich Hadrian. Doch selbst von ihm wissen wir nicht, ob er Koln
besucht hat, als er auf seiner Reise nach Britannien durch die gallischen
Provinzen zog; dies ist freilich sehr wahrscheinlich; denn weshalb hatte er
ausgerechnet die niedergermanische Provinzhauptstadt vermeiden und sie
damit desavouieren sollen?27 Dagegen kam Septimius Severus bei den
Kampfen gegen Clodius Albinus in den Jahren 196/7 kaum bis an den Rhein.
Daruber war wohl kaum jemand in der Stadt besonders unglOcklich; ein im
BOrgerkrieg engagierter Kaiser konnte zu ungewohnlichen Ma/3nahmen
gezwungen sein.
Niemand in der CCAA war freilich schon zu Beginn des 2. Jh. in der
Lage zu erkennen, da/3 fur Koln eine Epoche geendet, daB etwas Neues
begonnen hatte. Die Kaiserbesuche horten auf, die Nicht-praesentia des
Kaisers wurde zur Normalitat, so wie sie fur fast alle provinzialen Stadte
gait. Damals mochten manche in Koln dies bedauert haben; denn nach den
allgemeinen Vorstellungen brachte die Anwesenheit des Kaisers laetitia und
gaudium mit sich, auch wenn dies niemals voll zugetroffen hat 28 Erst mehr als
150 Jahre spater merkte man, welch glOcklicher Zustand mit der Abwesenheit,
der absentia, des Herrschers verbunden sein konnte, nicht ursachlich, aber als
Symptom. Denn als kurz nach der Mitte des 3. Jh. Kaiserbesuche in der
CCAA wieder einsetzten, war die Zeit eine and ere geworden. Die
Kaiserbesuche wurden haufiger, aber von gaudium und laetitia war kaum
mehr etwas zu spiiren?9
Man konnte sich beispielsweise vorstellen, daB manche Bewohner der Stadt die Chance ergriffen,
vom Kaiser ftir sich selbst oder einen der SOhne die Aufnahme in den equester ordo zu erbitten.
Direkte Zeugnisse aus dieser Zeit gibt es allerdings dafiir nicht. FOr die spatere Entwicklung, die
freilich damals ihren Anfang genommen haben konnte, siehe W. Eck, Ein Kolner in Rom? T. Flavius
Constans als kaiserlicher Pratorianerprafekt, in: Grabung - Forschung - Prasentation. Festschrift
GundolfPrecht, Xantener Berichte 12, Mainz 2002, 37ff.
27 Siehe zu den Reisen Hadrians Halfmann (Anm. 24) I 88ff.; ferner AR. Birley, Hadrian. The restless
emperor, London 1997, passim.
28 Lehnen (Anm. 17) 45.
29 Zu dieser Epoche jetzt auch H. Hellenkemper, Koln 260 - 355 AD. Ein unruhiges Jahrhundert
Stadtgeschichte, in: Grabung - Forschung - Presentation. Festschrift Gundolf Precht, Xantener
Berichte 12, Mainz 2002, 43ff.
26
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Der erste gesicherte Besuch eines Herrschers nach Traian erfolgte
mehr als ISO Jahre nach dessen Aufenthalt. Durch eine Inschrift aus
Aphrodisias in Karien wissen wir, daB nicht nur Gallienus sich in der CCAA
aufgehalten hat, sondem auch sein Vater Valerian, was den literarischen
QueUen nicht zu entnehmen war. Denn von Agrippina aus hat Valerian einen
Brief an diese kleinasiatische Gemeinde gerichtet. 30 Die Datierung des
Briefes ist zwar verIoren, do ch kann man mit guten Griinden davon
ausgehen, Valerian habe sich im Sommer 257 in der niedergermanischen
Metropole aufgehalten und dabei den Brief nach dem Osten gesandt. 31
Warum beide Augusti in diesem Jahr an den Rhein gezogen waren, ist keiner
QueUe direkt zu entnehmen; doch angesichts der Gesamtlage des Reiches
und der vielen anderen Unrubeherde kann dieses Faktum nur heiBen, daB die
Rheinfront hochst gefahrdet war. Ansonsten ware der Kaiser nicht
zusammen mit seinem Sohn nach dem Norden gezogen. Bezeugt sind
Durchbriiche von Alamannen an oberer Donau und am Oberrhein. Doch
auch die Franken am Niederrhein diirften sich damals deutlich bemerkbar
gemacht haben.
Reflex des Aufenthalts der beiden Kaiser sind die Beinamen Valeriana
GaUieniana, die die Stadt angenommen hat. 32 Sie sind noch heute auf dem
Bogen des Nordtores, der im Romisch-Germanischen Museum wieder aufgesteUt ist, zu lesen. Sie sind vieUeicht auch mit einer partiellen Emeuerung
und Ausbesserung der Stadtmauer verbunden, nicht jedoch mit einem Neubau,
wie dies gelegentlich behauptet wurde. Noch wichtiger ist jedoch, daB damals
aus dem an der Donau gelegenen Viminacium ein Teil des Personals der
dortigen Miinzstatte nach Koln verIegt wurde. 33 Das geschah vielleicht schon
im Jahr 256; auf jeden Fall kann dies nur heiBen, daB die Kaiser davon
ausgingen, am Rhein werde in der nahen Zukunft ein Schwerpunkt der
kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen liegen, weshalb eine Miinzstatte
notwendig sei, die die Truppen kontinuierIich mit Geld versorgen wiirde.
Valerian verIieB die Stadt bald wieder. Doch zumindest GaUienus
muB iiber langere Zeit sein Hauptquartier in der CCAA aufgeschlagen
haben. Dazu bestand offensichtlich auch aller Grund. Denn im Jahr 258 oder
J. Reynolds, in: Ch. Roueche, Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity, London 1989, 1fT.
M. Christol, Les deplacements du college imperial de 256 a 258: Cologne, capiIale impenale,
Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz 8, 1997, 243fT.
32 CIL XIII 8261 = B. und H. Galsterer, Die romischen Steininschriften aus Koln, Koln 1975, Nr. 184.
33 G. Elmer, Die Milnzpriigung der gallischen Kaiser in K6ln, Trier und Mailand, Bl 146, 1941, 1fT.;
M. Christol, EfTort de guerre et ateliers moneIaires de la penphene au nr siec\e apr. l.-C. L' atelier de
Cologne sous Valerien et Gallien, in: Armees et fiscalite dans le monde antique, Paris 1977, 235fT.
30
31
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259 scheint es zu massiven EinbrOchen von Reichsfeinden an der Rheinfront
gekommen zu sein, trotz der Anwesenheit des Herrschers. Zwar gibt es dafur
kaum vertrauenswiirdige schriftliche Quellen, obwohl der spatantike Autor
Aurelius Victor behauptet, frankische Scharen seien durch ganz Gallien bis
nach Tarragona in Spanien vorgedrungen. 34 Doch es gibt objektivere
Quellen, die eine Aussage erlauben. Denn im gesamten Gebiet westlich von
Koln bis weit nach Belgien hinein haben sich zahlreiche Miinzhorte
gefunden, deren SchluBmiinzen in das Jahr 258 oder 259 gehoren. Solche
Miinzschatze wurden z. B. in Erftstadt, Euskirchen, Xanten, Miirlenbach
(Kreis Daun) und vor allem in Niederbieber aufgedeckt.35 Obwohl derartige
Miinzkomplexe aus sehr verschiedenartigen GrOnden vergraben word en sein
konnen,36 laBt die zeitliche Massierung in den Jahren 258/9 und auch die
Zusammensetzung mit groBter Wahrscheinlichkeit nicht mehr an einzelne
sehr individuelle GrOnde denken, die zur Verbergung im Boden gefuhrt
haben. Vielmehr weisen sie auf ein weitgespanntes, katastrophales
kriegerisches Ereignis hin, das auch die Umgebung von Koln getroffen
haben muB. Diesem Einbruch von Germanenscharen, der nicht vor dem
Jahre 259 erfolgt sein kann, vielleicht sogar erst im Jahr 260, sind aber
offensichtlich schon deutliche Spannungen vorausgegangen, die es wohl
verstandlich machen, daB Gallienus fur einige Zeit seinen Sitz am Rhein
genommen hat.
Doch andere Katastrophen zwangen ihn, die Rheinfront zu verlassen.
Seinen Sohn Saloninus lieB er in Koln als seinen Vertreter zurOck. Schon im
Jahr 258 hatte dieser den Caesartitel erhalten, wornit er als Vertreter der
kaiserlichen Macht auftreten konnte. Koln blieb sein Zentrum, obwohl ihm
alle gallischen Provinzen untergeordnet waren. 37 Das kann nur heiBen, daB
an diesem Teil der Grenze auch die groJ3te Gefahr drohte. Was spater
Dioc1etian systematisch betrieb, namlich, groBere Provinzkomplexe durch
die Anwesenheit eines Mitglieds des Kaiserkollegiums zu starken, das deutet
Aurelius Victor, Caes. 33, l.
Siehe das Material bei H. -J. Schulzki, Der Katastrophenhorizont der zweiten Halfte des 3.
Jahrhunderts. Historisches Phiinomen und numismatischer Befund, KJb 34, 200 I, 7ff.
36 Vg\. K. Strobel, Pseudophanomene der romischen Militiir- und Provinzgeschichte am Beispiel des
,,F alles" des obergermanisch-raetischen Limes. Neue Ansatze zu einer Geschichte der Jahrzehnte nach
253 n. Chr. an Rhein und oberer Donau, in: Roman Frontier Studies 17, 1997, Zalau 1999, 9ff., der
darauf zu Recht hinweist; doch selbst wenn beispielsweise die Befunde von Niederbieber eher mit den
inneren Unruhen erklart werden mussen, kann dies bei den anderen Miinzfunden auf der linken
Rheinseite kaum der Fall sein.
37 Dies darfman vielleicht aus AE 1971,23, einer Weihung der tres provinciae Gal\iae an Saloninus in
Rom, entnehmen.
34
35
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sich hier bereits an. So mochte man si ch in der niedergermanischen
Hauptstadt damit trosten, daB die Prasenz des Kaisersohnes eine Gewahr
gegen auBere Gefahren bot.
Allgemeine Sicherheit garantierte sie dennoch nicht, wie sich bald
zeigte. Denn die eigentliche militarische Macht und der Zugriff auf die
Truppen in der Germania inferior lag in der Hand eines anderen, des Marcus
Cassianius Latinius Postumus. Ob er dort als Statthalter fungierte oder als
auBerordentlicher Heereskommandeur, laBt sich nicht sicher entscheiden.
Am wahrscheinlichsten ist immer noch, daB er senatorischer Legat in
Niedergermanien war. Er rebellierte schlieBlich gegen Saloninus, als der
junge Herrscher von Postumus' Truppen die Herausgabe der Beute
verlangte, die sie eben rauberischen Germanenscharen abgenommen hatten.
Hatte Postumus dem Verlangen zugestimmt, ware er als erster ein toter
Mann gewesen. Postumus zog mit seinen Truppen gegen Koln, wo Saloninus
seinen Sitz hatte, und begann die Belagerung. 38 Soweit wir wissen, war dies
die erste richtige Belagerung durch feindliche Truppen, die die Stadt bisher
erlebt hatte. Nur die Situation des Jahres 69/70, als die Germanen und
Bataver vor den Mauem lagen, war in etwa vergleichbar. In dieser hochst
gefahrlichen Situation lieB sich Saloninus noch selbst zum Augustus, also
zum gleichberechtigten Kaiser neben seinem Vater ausrufen, vielleicht in
dem Glauben, so groBere Autoritat zu gewinnen und si ch dadurch bei den
Truppen doch noch durchsetzen zu konnen. Ob der junge Kaiser sich hatte
langer halten k6nnen, laBt sich nicht sagen; denn Postumus' Truppen waren
natiirlich auch in der Belagerungstechnik geschuIt und hatten die notwendige
Ausriistung zur Verfugung. Doch vielleicht ist es gar nicht zu einer wirklich
langeren Belagerung gekommen. 39 Auf jeden Fall geschah die Entscheidung
von innen her. Nach Zosimus 40 iibergaben Saloninus' Soldaten die Stadt an
Postumus, weil die Folgen der Belagerung si ch bemerkbar machten. Nach
Zonaras, einem byzantinischen Autor der 1. Halfte des 12. Jh., ubergaben
diejenigen, die in der Stadt weilten, Koln an den Angreifer. 41 Das kann si ch
auch auf die Agrippinenses selbst beziehen, also die Stadtbewohner im
Gegensatz zum militarischen und administrativen Personal urn Saloninus.
Zosimus I, 38, 2.
Allerdings soUte man dies auch nicht ausschlieJ3en; immerhin konnte die Erneuerung der
Stadtmauer, die im 3. Jh. an manchen Stellen von Grund aus erfolgte, eine Folge einer Belagerung und
Zerstorung einzelner Teile der Mauer gewesen sein.
40 Siehe Anm. 38.
41 Zonaras 12,24.
38
39
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Undenkbar ist das nicht; denn vor allem die Interessen der Kolner
Fuhrungsschicht reichten uber den Stadtkern hinaus. Vor den Mauern lagen
ihre Guter und Betriebe, die dem Zugriff der Belagerer ausgeliefert waren.
Zudem waren sie vielleicht ebenfalls schon von der Vorstellung ergriffen,
daB unter den Bedingungen der kontinuierlichen Bedrohung von auBen ein
naher, mit der Region starker verbundener Kaiser groBeren Vorteil versprach
als nur der Sohn des regierenden Kaisers Gallienus, selbst wenn dieser
inzwischen selbst zum Augustus avanciert war. Vermutlich hatte man auch
schon von der Katastrophe des aiteren Augustus Valerianus im Osten gehort.
Wie auch immer das gewesen sein mag: Wohl im Hochsommer 260 wurden
Kolns Tore geoffnet, Saloninus und sein Berater ausgeliefert; Postumus lieB
beide umbringen. 42 Es war der erste Kaisermord, den die Stadt erlebte.
Fur mehr als das nachste Jahrzehnt war die CCAA der Mittelpunkt
eines eigenen Reiches. 43 Die Munzstatte blieb bis Anfang der 70er Jahre in der
Stadt. Und notwendigerweise kehrte Postumus so wie auch seine rheinischen
Nachfolger Victorinus und Tetricus immer wieder in diese Stadt zurUck.
Munzen verweisen auf den processus consularis; so liegt es nicht allzu fern
anzunehmen, die verschiedenen Kaiser hatten ihre Konsulate in ihrem
Zentrum angetreten. 44 Panegyriker, die wir auch in der Umgebung dieser
gallischen Gegenkaiser vermuten durfen, konnten darin schwelgen, die glucklichen Folgen der praesentia Augusti in der niedergermanischen Kolonie zu
beschreiben, ahnlich wie dies der Panegyriker von 311 getan hat, als er die
Folgen der Entscheidung Constantins fur Trier geschildert hat. Er spricht vom
Palatium, den Thermen, den Portiken, quae certe omnia sunt praesentiae tuae
munera. 45 Die Rede eines Panegyrikers der Zeit des Postumus ist uns nicht
erhalten. Ein Redner Mtte allerdings wohl auch Schwierigkeiten gehabt, im
Angesicht von Bilrgem der Stadt von solch willkommenen Folgen der kaiserlichen Prasenz zu sprechen. Denn zumindest die Ergebnisse der archaologischen
Forschung lassen auch nicht im Ansatz erkennen, daB die Prasenz dieser
gallischen Kaiser erfreuliche Auswirkungen fur das Erscheinungsbild der
Stadt gehabt hatte, etwa durch neue, monumentale Bauwerke 46 Lediglich an
den Mauern lassen sich Erneuerungen nachweisen, die jedoch auch nicht
Zosimus I, 38; Zonaras 12,24.
Dazu L Konig, Die gallischen Usurpatoren von Postumus bis Tetricus, MUnchen 1981.
44 Vg!. H. Drinkwater, The Gallic empire, Stuttgart 1987, 174. 185. 186.
45 Pan. Lat 6 (7), 22, 5.
46 G. HeUenkemper Salies, Hofkunst in der Provinz? Zur Denkmaluberlieferung aus der Zeit des
Gallischen Sonderreiches, BJb 184, 1984, 67fT.
42
43
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zwingend def Anwesenheit def Herrschef vefdankt wefden miissen. Was also
hatte die Prasenz der Herrscher fur mehr als 10 Jahre fur die Bewohner der
Stadt bedeuten konnen? Erschien sie nur als unwillkommene Last, die durch
Einquartierung und stetige Einforderung von Steuem spiirbar war? Vermutlich
hatte doch etwas anderes im Vordergrund gestanden, eine Vorstellung, wie sie
Ammianus Marcellinus im Jahr 365 die Berater Valentinians I. formulieren
lieB. Denn als der Kaiser in diesem Jahr nach dem Osten autbrechen wollte,
urn seinem Bruder Valens gegen den Usurpator Procopius zu Hilfe zu eilen,
wiesen sie ihn darauf hin, er solle nicht die westlichen Provinzen verlassen
und sie so dem Ansturm der Barbaren preisgeben. Gesandte der Stadte
Galliens seien zu ihnen gekommen und hatten flehentlich gebeten, ne in re bus
duris et dubiis impropugnatas eas relinqueret, quas praesens eripere poterit
discriminibus maxim is, metu ambitiosi nominis sui Germanis incusso. 47
Valentinians Name also hat si ch den Germanen als furchtbar eingegraben,
doch dies nur deswegen, weil er personlich in Gallien anwesend war. Das
Itinerar, das sich aus den Propositionsvermerken der von Valentinian
erlassenen Gesetze rekonstruieren laBt, zeigt auch, daB er sich kontinuierlich
weitgehend in Gallien aufgehalten hat. 48 Von da her gewinnt die Aussage
Ammians auch fur die Zeit der gallischen Regionalkaiser reale Substanz, eine
Substanz, wie sie spater in geradezu stereotyper Weise auch bei den gallischen
Panegyrikem immer wieder aufscheint. 49 Umgekehrt veranlaBt die absentia
des Kaisers die Barbaren, emeut anzugreifen, wie etwa die Konige der
Francia, qui per absentiam patris tui (namlich des Constantius Chlorus) pacem
violaverant, wie ein Panegyriker gegeniiber Constantin betont. 50 Solches
Denken und Fiihlen kann man bei den Bewohnem der Grenzstadt Koln sogar
in besonderem voraussetzen - und vielleicht auch eine Portion Dankbarkeit
gegeniiber denen, die aus der Sicht Roms und der jeweils vom Senat
akzeptierten Kaiser nur Rebellen in Gallien waren.
Die Situation der Bedrohung verminderte sich zwar an dieser Grenze
gegen Ende des 3. Jh., aber grundlegend veranderte sie si ch nicht mehr. So
blieb auch dieses Gefuhl der Erleichterung, der starkeren Sicherheit bei der
Anwesenheit des Kaisers. Deutlich wird dies nochmals besonders bei
Constantin, der in den ersten Jahren seiner Regierung fast in jedem Jahr am
Ammianus Marce1linus 26, 5, 12.
O. Seeck, Regesten der Kaiser und Papste fur die Jahre 311 bis 476 n.Chr., Stuttgart 1919, 226ff.
49 R. Beck, Die "Tres Galliae" und das ,,Imperium" im 4. JahrhundeJt, Zilrich 1969; darin Kap. ill: Die
gallischen Panegyriker und die Kaiserprnsenz, S. 96fT
50 Pan. Lat. 6 (7), 10,2.
47
48
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Niederrhein und auch in der Colonia Agrippina erschien. 51 Schon 308
kampfte er am Niederrhein gegen Frankenkonige, die er dann allerdings
nicht in Koln, sondern in Trier im Amphitheater zur Abschreckung fur
andere Reichsfeinde vor einem groBem Publikum hinschlachten lieB.52
Spatestens 310 muB er sodann den Bau der Brucke von der Stadt Koln zum
gegeniiberliegenden Kastell Divitia, der einzigen festen Bruckenanlage am
Niederrhein, angeordnet haben.53 Vollendet wurde diese Anlage aber wohl
erst spater. Zumindest das castrum selbst wird wohl erst gegen 315 fertig
gestellt gewesen sein; denn die Bauinschrift, die nur durch die Uberlieferung
in der Vita des Abtes Heribert von Deutz auf uns gekommen ist, verweist
bereits auf die Decennalien und die vota fur die Vicennalien. Noch wichtiger
aber ist, daB in dieser Bauinschrift, in der auch die Soldaten der zweiundzwanzigsten Legion als ausfuhrende Krafte genannt werden, gerade auf die
Anwesenheit des Herrschers verwiesen wird; denn der Text erwahnt, der
Bau sei durchgefuhrt worden, nachdem virtute domini Constantini Maximi
Pii Felicissimi Invicti Augusti die Franken in ihrem eigenen Land besiegt
worden seien. Dann aber folgt etwas, was in einer Bauinschrift hochst
auifallig ist: der Bau sei erfolgt sub praesentia principis SUi. 54 Auch im
militarischen Kontext kann also diese Vorstellung ihre Wirksamkeit
entfalten. 55 Das hieB selbstverstandlich nicht, der Herrscher sei wahrend der
gesamten mehr als funfjahrigen Bauzeit des Kastells in Koln gewesen;
vielmehr hat Constantin wahrend dieser lahre fast alle Provinzen seines
Reichsteils besucht. Aber der Bau erfolgte nicht durch irgend jemanden aus
der Militarhierarchie, sondern auf personliche Anordnung des Kaisers. Dies
alles war so wichtig, daB die F ertigstellung des Deutzer Kastells am Rhein
sogar in prunkhafter Form auf einem Goldmultiplum denen mitgeteilt wurde,
die besonders an der Verteidigung des Reiches Anteil hatten: den kaiserlichen
Truppen. 56 Denn die Miinze, die zur Verteilung an die Truppen bestimmt war
und friiher auf die Erneuerung der Trierer Moselbrucke bezogen wurde,
bezeugt den Bau des Deutzer Kastells mitsamt der zugehorigen Brucke. In der
51 Siehe zu den Daten Seeck (Arun. 48) 159ff.; T. D. Bames, The New Empire of Diocletian and
Constantine, Cambridge 1982, 47ff.
52 Pan. Lat. 6 (7), 10ff.; 4 (10),16, 5f Vg!. Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire 1,1971,113. 599.
53 Pan. Lat. 6 (7), 13.
54 CIL XIII 8502 = Dessau 8937 = Galsterer (Arun. 32) Nr. 187.
55 Vgl. auch Synesius, de regno 19.
56 M. R.-Alfoldi, Das Trierer Stadtbild auf Constantins Goldmultiplum: ein Jahrhundertirrtum, in: dies.,
Gloria Romanorum. Scluiften zur Spiitantike, hg. H. Bellen - H.-M. v. Kaenel, Stutt. 2001, 143ff.
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Mitte des Geschehens aber steht, auch in dem Bild auf der MOnze, der Kaiser
personiich.
Der haufige Aufenthalt Constantins in Koln hatte aber offensichtlich
noch andere Folgen fur die Stadt, fur eine bestimmte stadtische Gruppe und
vielleicht auch fur ihn selbst. Denn als Ende 312 sich die Donatisten aus
Africa urn die Klarung ihrer Vorwiirfe gegen den von ihnen nicht
anerkannten Bischof von Carthago, Caecilianus, an Constantin wandten,
bestimmte er Bischof Miltiades von Rom als Richter, ordnete ihm aber
gleichzeitig noch drei weitere BischOfe als Beisitzer zu, und zwar drei
BischOfe aus Gallien und Germanien: Reticius von Augustodunum
(Autun),57 Marinus von Arelate (Aries) und Maternus von Agrippina, eben
Koln 58 An all en drei Orten hatte sich Constantin in den Jahren vor 312
aufgehalten. 59 Die Wahl dieser BischOfe kann kein Zufall gewesen sein;
vielmehr mu/3 man wohl schlie/3en, da/3 Constantin selbst (und vielleicht
auch hochrangige Berater aus seiner Umgebung) mit diesen lokalen Leitern
christlicher Gemeinden schon vorher zusammengetroffen ist und sie als
herausragende Fohrungspersonlichkeiten erkannt hat. Deshalb konnte auch
seine Wahl speziell auf sie fallen und nicht auf BischOfe italischer Stadte,
wie es aus der Situation heraus, in der er seine Entscheidung in Italien zu
treffen hatte, nahe gelegen hatte.
Constantin hat also wohl in den entsprechenden Stadten wahrend
seiner verschiedenen Aufenthalte nicht nur mit den Oblichen honorati der
politischen Gemeinden Verbindung aufgenommen, sondern wohl auch mit
den Fiihrern der christlichen Gemeinden. Macht man si ch dies klar, dann
erklart es sich auch weit einfacher, weshalb es vor der Schlacht an der
Milvischen Brucke gegen Maxentius zu der Entscheidung fur den
Christengott gekommen ist. Der Kaiser hatte offensichtlich durch den
Kontakt zu den christlichen Gemeindeleitern Kenntnisse ob er diesen neuen
Kult erhalten, die seinen Vorstellungen von Politik und Religion entgegen
kamen und bald darauf ihre Wirkung entfalten konnten. Hosius v. Corduba
ist vermutlich doch nicht der einzige christliche Berater Constantins
gewesen, sondern vor allem gallische BischOfe, darunter Maternus von Koln.
FOr die christliche Gemeinde in Koln konnte die Bekanntschaft ihres
"Hirten" mit dem Herrscher des Westens durchaus Vorteile gebracht haben.
Hieronymus, vir. ill. 82; ep. 5, 2. 37.
Euseb., h. e. 10,5, 19f.; Optatus v. Mi1eve 1,23.
59 Siehe Bames (Anm. 51) 68ff.
57
58
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Die Anwesenheit der Herrscher in Koln la13t sich fast durch das
gesamte 4. Jh. hindurch verfolgen. Crispus, Constantins Sohn, weilte am
Niederrhein, ebenso Constantins andere Sohne, Constantinus 11. und
Constans. 60 Anla13 war fast stets eine militarische Bedrohung durch Stamme
im Vorfeld des Reiches, unter denen verschiedene Teilstamme der Franken
die aktivsten waren. Schon damals gelang aber kein auf langere Zeit
fortwirkender uberzeugender Sieg. Die Anwesenheit war fast stets ein
Zeichen fur eine aktive Gefahrdung der Reichsgrenze. Die Prasenz der
kaiserlichen Macht war ambivalent.
Koln wurde sogar nochmals Schauplatz einer Usurpation, die freilich
wegen ihrer mehr als kurzen Dauer selbst keine wesentlichen Folgen fur die
Stadt nach sich ziehen konnte. Die wirkliche Gefahr kam von au13en. 355
hatte in der Hauptstadt der Germania secunda, wie die Provinz damals
genannt wurde, der Heermeister Silvanus das Kommando uber alle
romischen Truppenverbande in Gallien, eine nominell nicht geringe Machtstellung; allerdings hatte die Schlacht bei Mursa im Jahr 351 gewaltige
Lucken im gallischen Heer, das Magnentius in den Donauraum gefuhrt hatte,
hinterlassen. Silvanus selbst war frankischer Herkunft, jedoch bereits im
Reich aufgewachsen. Dennoch benutzten seine Gegner auch seine ethnische
Herkunft als Argument gegen ihn. Nach Ammianus Marcellinus intrigierten
am Hof Constantius 11. nach dem Sieg uber Magnentius eine Reihe von
hochgestellten Amtstragern gegen Silvanus, angeblich, weil man ihm, der
schnell seinen Aufstieg gemacht hatte, die militarische Machtposition nicht
gonnte. Man verfa13te gefalschte Briefe, die jedoch zunachst wie echt
wirkten, weil sie Silvanus' richtige Unterschrift trugen; man hatte den
ursprunglichen Text mit Ausnahme der Unterschrift ausgewaschen. Aus
diesem gefalschten Schreiben aber konnte man auf die Vorbereitung einer
Usurpation ruckschlie13en, wenn man nur genugend Mi13trauen gegen hohe
Amtstrager in sich trug. Das soli bei Constantius 11. generell der Fall
gewesen sein. Obwohl der Schwindel schliel3lich auffiog, war Silvanus
schon uber die Intrigen und die Gefahr, die ihm daraus drohte, informiert; er
schlo13 aus der Erfahrung, die er bisher mit Constantius 11. gemacht hatte,
da13 ein einmal gegen eine bestimmte Person gefa13ter Verdacht zwingend
Folgen haben wiirde. Das brachte ihn, so die Uberlieferung, schliel3lich dazu,
sich der Bedrohung durch die Akklamation zum Kaiser in Koln zu
60
c. Tb. 3,5,7 (Juni oder Juli 345).
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entziehen 61 Das war im Spiitsommer des Jahres 355. 62 Wenn die Nachricht,
die Usurpation habe insgesamt nur etwa 28 Tage gedauert, zutriffi,63 mu/3 die
Nachricht von der Erhebung aus Koln sehr schnell nach Mailand gelangt
sein, wo sich Constantius 11. aufhielt. Er beauftragte sogleich einen anderen
Militiir, Ursicinus, damit, sich nach Koln zu begeben, urn mit der Usurpation
fertig zu werden. In Eilritten gelangte dies er in die Germania secunda, nur
von wenig mehr als zehn Leuten begleitet, zu denen auch der Historiker
Ammianus Marcellinus gehorte, dem wir einen relativ ausfuhrlichen Bericht
verdanken. 64 Ursicinus hatte, so Ammianus, gehoffi, in Koln anzukommen,
bevor man dort wiederum wu/3te, da/3 der Kaiser in Mailand bereits
informiert war. Das hiitte es den Ankommlingen angeblich erlaubt, als eine
normale Gesandtschaft zu erscheinen, die lediglich die Nachricht
iiberbringen soUte, Silvanus werde durch Ursicinus abgelost; Silvanus selbst
aber soUe sich zu weiterer Verwendung nach Mailand begeben. Doch das
GerOcht war schneUer als die kleine Reisegruppe. So war Silvanus auf der
Hut, in der Stadt hatte er zudem zahlreiche Truppen in der Stadt
zusammengezogen. In der damaligen Bedrohung durch die Franken konnte
das fur die Bewohner eine beruhigendes Gefuhl verbreiten. Durch diese
Vorsichtsma/3nahmen des Silvanus war Ursicinus gezwungen, si ch zuniichst
so zu geben, als ob er mit Silvanus gemeinsame Sache machen woUe. Das
schien deswegen durchaus plausibel, weil auch Ursicinus in einem iihnlich
gespannten Verhiiltnis zum Kaiserhof stand wie der Usurpator. Auf diese
Weise konnte Ursicinus seine Pliine verheimlichen und sie dann doch ins
Werk setzen. Durch Bestechung einiger Truppenteile, cler sogenannten
bracchiati und cornuti, die offensichtlich direkt in Koln einquartiert waren,
gelang es schliel3lich, Silvanus zu beseitigen. Am frOhen Morgen, wohl im
September,65 brachen sie, wie Ammianus sagt, in die regia ein, was nach
aUem, was wir wissen, nur das Praetorium in Koln meinen kann, und suchten
Silvanus. Doch dieser war nicht dort, wo man ihn vermutet hatte, vielmehr
Ammianus Marcellinus 15,5,1 ff.
Als Datum findet man fast liberal I den 11. August genannt; das geht auf eine Berechnung von O.
Seeck, Zur Chronologie und Quellenkunde des Ammianus Marce1linus, Hennes 41, 1906, 481ff., bes.
501 zuriick; vg!. ders., Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt, Stuttgart 1922 (ND 1966), IV 231
und 466f. zurilck. Doch enthiilt diese Berechnung zu vie1e Unbekannte, als daB man sie als gesichert
ansehen diirfte.
63 Aurelius Victor, Caes. 42,16; Epitome de Caes. 42, 10; Eutrop, breviarium 10, 13.
64 Andere kurze Berichte bei Aurelius Victor, Caes. 42, 16; Sozomenus, historia ecc1esiastica 4, 7, 4;
Socrates, historia ecc1esiastica 2, 32, 11; Iulian, oratio 1,48 b/c. Wichtig ist auch Zonaras 13, 9,22-24.
65 Es soil der 7. September gewesen sein; das genaue Datum wiederum nach Seeck (Amn. 48) 232.
61
62
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gerade auf dem Weg in ein christliches Kultgebaude (ein conventiculum ritus
Christiani in den Worten des Ammianus). Er fluchtete zwar noch in eine
aedicula, in ein kleines Haus, das auf dem Weg zu der Kirche lag. 66 Doch es
nutzte ihm nichts. Die Hascher streckten ihn nieder. 67 Einige der zivilen und
militarischen HeIfer des Silvanus wurden gefangen genommen, vermutlich
nach Italien geschaffi und dort hingerichtet. 68
So lautet der Bericht Ammians uber den Usurpationsversuch des
Silvanus und seine Beseitigung. Er befriedigt in vielfacher Hinsicht nicht. 69
Denn vor all em die Vorbereitungen des Silvanus fur seine eigene
Proklamation muten dilettantisch an und auch das Vorgehen des Ursicinus, in
dessen Umgebung Ammianus die Ermordung des Usurpators miterlebt und
auch mitvorbereitet hatte, erscheint wenig durchsichtig. Deshalb sind
verschiedene Versuche untemommen worden, die Oberlieferung anders zu
verstehen. Man hat sogar angenommen, Silvanus habe in Wirklichkeit
uberhaupt keinen U surpationsversuch untemommen, vielmehr habe Ursicinus
aus Griinden der Politik am Hof Silvanus umgebracht, weil si ch bestimmte
Plane andernfalls nicht verwirklichen lieBen. Ammianus habe dann die
gewundene Erzahlung erfunden, urn Ursicinus' Handeln - und damit auch
sein eigenes - zu erklaren oder besser zu beschcmigen. Diese Erklarung
scheitert freilich daran, daB schon kurz nach dem Ereignis und lange vor
Ammianus berichtet wird, Silvanus habe sich gegen Constantius emp6rt?O So
ist man zuletzt doch wieder zu der Ansicht gekommen, Silvanus habe
tatsachlich diesen Versuch gemacht. Allerdings durfe man sich Silvanus nicht
Conventiculum kann keineswegs als kleines Gebilude fur den christlichen Kult verstanden werden,
weil-iculum nicht notwendig eine Verkleinenmg signalisiert, vg!. auch J. Kremer, Studien zum fii1hen
Christentum in Niedergermanien, Diss. Bonn 1993, 114; ebensowenig bedeutet aedicula Kapelle,
sondem ein kleines Gebiiude unterschiedlicher Form. Der christliche Kontext hat meist dazu gefilhrt,
daB die -mogliche- Bedeutung ,,Kapelle" als selbstversUindlich angesehen wurde.
67 Ammianus Marcellinus 15,5,24-31; wie die Ulcke in 5, 5, 30 genauer zu Mien ist, liiI3t sich nicht
erkennen.
68 Ammianus Marce1linus 15,6.
69 Siehe zuletzt vor allem U. SilI3enbach, Das Ende des Silvanus in Koln. Statthalterpalast,
Falmenheiligtum und Bischofskirche im frohchristlichen Koln. Eine Bemerkung des Anunianus
Marcellinus zum Jahr 355, in: Jahrbuch des Koln. Geschichtsvereins 55, 1984, IfI; J. F. Drinkwater,
Silvanus, Ursicinus and Anunianus: Fact or Fiction?, in: Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History 7,
hg. C. Deroux, BIi!sse1 1994, 569ff.; B. Bleckmann, Silvanus und seine Anhanger in ltalien: Zur Deutung
zweier kampanischer lnschriften for den Usurpator Silvanus (ClL X 6945 und 6946), Athenaeum 88,
2000, 477ff.; ferner R. Syme, Ammianus and the Historia Augusta, Oxford 1968, 53ff. und T. D. Bames,
Ammianus Marcellinus and the Representation of Historical Reality, Ithaca 1998, 18f.
70 So Aure1ius Victor, Caes. 42, 14ff. in seinem kleinen GeschichtsabriB aus dem Jahr 360 sowie bei
Kaiser Julian in seinern Brief an die Athener aus dem Jahr 361 (or. I, 48 hlc).
66
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als einen barbarischen Franken vorstellen, der im romischen Milieu keinen
Rilckhalt gefunden habe; vielmehr milsse man die Hinweise in der
Historiographie beachten, Silvanus sei, trotz seiner Herkunft, ein kultivierter
Mann gewesen, der auch zu alten Familien in Italien Beziehungen gehabt
habe. Damit wilrde der Usurpation doch ein weit ernsterer Hintergrund
zugewiesen. 71 Wenn man freilich von diesem Blickwinkel aus auf die
Usurpation blickt, dann kann es si ch nicht mehr nur urn eine aus dem
militarischen Milieu geborene Angelegenheit handeln, dann waren auch zivile
Kreise darin eingebunden. Warum nicht auch Bewohner Kolns?
Wenn das so war, dann hat dies allerdings nach der Beseitigung des
Silvanus wenig Konsequenzen nach sich gezogen. Denn kurze Zeit nach
dem Ende des Aufstandsversuchs, vielleicht sogar als Folge des
gescheiterten Aufstands, brach ilber die Stadt eine Katastrophe herein, wie
man sie bisher nicht erlebt, ja frilher nicht einmal fur moglich gehalten hatte:
die Stadt wurde erstmals in ihrer Geschichte von Reichsfeinden erobert. Die
Prasenz des Silvanus und seiner Truppen hatte dies im Jahr 354/5 noch
verhindert, obwohl nach der Eroberung all er sonstigen romischen Stiltzpunkte das gesamte niederrheinische Gebiet von den Franken bereits in
Besitz genommen worden war. Silvanus' Tod offnete ihnen faktisch auch die
Tore der letzten romischen Festung am Rhein.
Erst zehn Monate spater wurde Koln von den Romern zurilckgewonnen. Iulian, der Neffe von Constantius 11., kam als Caesar nach
Gallien und konnte Koln wiedergewinnen; seine praesentia erlaubte
zumindest eine gewisse Wiederbelebung der Stadt, wenn auch keine vollige
Erholung. Vielleicht hat er auch dafur gesorgt, daB das Gelande zwischen
der bisherigen romischen Stadtmauer und dem Rhein damals bereits in den
ummauerten Bereich einbezogen wurde. Moglicherweise veranlaBte er auch
die Stationierung eines Teils der romischen Rheintlotte in diesem neuen
Stadtteil Kolns.72 So mochte seine Anwesenheit bei der zahlenmaBig bereits
geschrumpften Kolner Bevolkerung wieder einige Hoffnung erweckt haben.
Solange Iulian sich in Gallien aufbielt - bis 360 - blieb tatsachlich die Lage
am Rhein im wesentlichen ruhig, ja selbst der Abmarsch nach dem Balkan
zum Kampf gegen Constantius 11. loste keine Einfctlle von jenseits der
Grenzen aus. Valentinian I. konnte so auf Iulians Werk aufbauen und die
Siehe Bleckmann (Amn. 69) 477fT.
Siehe N. Aten - Gjergj Frasheri - F. Kempken - M. Merse, Ausgrabungen auf dem Heumarkt in
Koln. Zweiter Bericht zu den Untersuchungen von Mai 1997 bis Apri11998, KJb 31,1998, 481fT., bes.
488fT.; femer Hellenkemper (Amn. 29) 52.
71
72
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Grenze noch weiter befestigen. Fast seine gesamte Regierungszeit von 365375 blieb er in Gallien; auch Koln besuchte er,73 doch ein langerer
Aufenthalt ist nicht mehr nachweisbar. Es gab wichtigere Orte als die so
schwer gepliinderte Stadt.
Kurze Besuche kann man auch von den folgenden Kaisern vermuten,
nachweisen aber la13t es sich fur niemanden mehr; do ch all dies stand nur
noch im Zusammenhang der schnellen Grenzsicherung. Valentinian H., der
jiingere Sohn Valentinians I., ist am 2. Marz 390 in Confluentes (Koblenz)
nachgewiesen,74 wo er einen Erla13 ausgefertigt hat. Die Reise auf dem Rhein
hatte ihn in einem einzigen Tag auch nach Koln fuhren konnen. Ob dies
geschehen ist, bleibt offen. Das gilt auch fur Eugenius, den von dem Heermeister Arbogast vorgeschobene Usurpator von 392-394. Zwar kennen wir
aus Koln noch eine Inschrift, die von der Erneuerung eines gro13eren
Bauwerks spricht. 75 Diese Ma13nahme erfordert jedoch nicht die Anwesenhe it des Kaisers selbst. Dennoch ist sie aus der Gesamtsituation heraus sehr
wahrscheinlich, nicht weniger als die der ephemeren Herrscher, die si ch in
den ersten Jahrzehnten des 5. Jh. fur jeweils kurze Zeit im nordlichen Gallien
am Kampf urn die Macht beteiligten: Constantinus Ill. oder Iovinus. Doch
fur Koln als romische Stadt war es letztlich ohne Belang, ob der jeweilige
Machthaber nahe oder fern war. Realitat hatten fur die Bewohner Agrippinas
nur noch die frankischen Kleinkonige. Als si ch einer von ihnen im
ehemaligen Praetorium der romischen Statthalter niederlie13, war die Welt
verandert 76 Nun gait es, sich auf die Nahe des frankischen Konigs
einzustellen.
Koln, Januar 2003
73
c. Th. 11, I, I; vg!. Seeck (Arun. 48) 31. 234.
c. Th.
10, 18,3 (Seeck).
CIL XIII 8262 = Dessau 790 = Galsterer (Arun. 32) Nr. 188. Dazu als letzte umfassende
Behandlung Th. GIiinewald, Arbogast und Eugenius in einer Kolner Bauinschrift (ClL XIII 8262),
KJb 21,1988, 243fT.
76 G. Precht, Baugeschichtliche Untersuchungen ZUlU romischen Praetorium in Koln, Koln 1973,28 fT.
74
75
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IM SCHATTEN DES KAISERS:
UBERLEGUNGEN ZUL. MINICIUS NATALIS QUADRONIUS VERUS
UND SEINER BEZIEHUNG ZU HADRIAN 1
Von
ANDREAS KRIECKHAUS
Fur Anthony R. Birley
zum 08.10.2002
I
Der Hippodrom yon Olympia im August 129: 2 Die Quadriga des romischen
Senators L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus (der "JOngere"), Sohn des
Suffektkonsuls yon 106, L. Minicius Natalis (der "Altere") aus Barcino,
siegt bei den olympischen Spielen im Wagenrennen, einer elementaren
Disziplin der hippischen Agone. 3 Sie wird yermutlich yon einem
professionellen Athleten gelenkt, wahrend der o'tpa:tTJ'YtKOS (praetorius)
Minicius Natalis - noch ohne ein neues Amt 4 - als Besitzer des Gespannes
1 Einige haufige bzw. besondere Abkiirzungen:
Birley 1997 = A R. Birley, Hadrian. The Restless Emperor (London-New York 1997)
Cabal10s Rufmo 1990 = A Caballos Rufmo, Los senadores hispanorromanos y la romanizacion de
Hispania (siglos I al III p.C.), 2 Biinde (Ecija 1990)
Groag 1932 = E. Groag, 'Minicius', RE XV (Stuttgart 1932), 1828ff., Nr. 18 u. 19
Habicht 1985 = C. Habicht, Pausanias und seine .. Beschreibung Griechenlands" (Miinchen 1985)
IRB = S. Mariner Bigorra (Hg.), Inscripciones Romanas de Barcelona (Barcelona 1973)
IRC IV = G. Fabre, M. Mayer u. 1. Rom (Hgg.), Inscriptions Romaines de Catalogne, Band IV (Paris
1997)
Roman Papers I-VII = E. Badian u. AR. Birley (Hgg.), Ronald Syme, Roman Papers, 7 Biinde (Oxford
1979-1991)
Verrie 1989 = F.-P. Verrie, 'La inscripci6 olimpica del barcinonense Lucius Minicius Natalis
Quadronius Verus', in: Espacio, tiempo y forma (arqueol.), Revista de la Facultad de Geografia e
Historia 2 (1989), 303ff.
2 Der Hippodrom von Olympia ist lokalisiert, jedoch noch nicht ausgegraben. Eine Rekonstruktion legt
1. Ebert, 'Neues zurn Hippodrom und zu den hippischen Konkurrenzen in Olympia', Nikephoros 2
(1989), 89ff. vor.
3 Zu L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus vg!. PIR2 M 620; Groag 1932, 1836ff.; W. Eck, 'Minicius',
RE Supp!. XIV (Stuttgart 1974),283; R. Etienne, ,Les senateurs espagnols sous Trajan et Hadrien', in
Les Empereurs romains d'Espagne (Paris 1965), 72; Caballos Rufino 19901,1, 227ff., Nr. 128. Zu L.
Minicius Natalis vg!. PIR2 M 619; Groag 1932, 1828ff.; Etienne 1965, a.a.O., 62f.; Caballos Rufino
1990 1,1, 226f., Nr. 127.
4 L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus sollte erst urn das Jahr 130 als Legions1egat der legio VI
Victrix in der Provinz Britannia, deren Statthalter zurn damaligen Zeitpunkt Sex. Iulius Severus war,
wieder in Erscheinung treten. Eben dieser Iulius Severus hatte vor 120 die legio XIV Gemina
kommandiert, in der der jiingere Minicius Natalis wahrend dieser Zeit als Militiirtribun tatig gewesen
war. Somit ist es nicht unwahrscheinlich, daB Severus urn 130 Kaiser Hadrian seinen ehemaligen
Tribun fur den Posten des Legionslegaten empfahl. Vg!. dazu AR. Birley, The Fasti of Roman Britain
302
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auf der Tribune sitzt und nach dem Sieg seines Schutzlings den Olkranz des
Siegers in der Vorhalle des Zeus Olympios-Tempels entgegennimmt. 5
So etwa konnte man si ch die Szenerie vorstellen, die sich bei der 227.
Olympiade darbot. Eine Beschreibung der Ereignisse urn das Wagenrennen
fehlt; daB die Quadriga des jungeren Minicius Natalis den Sieg errang,
wissen wir lediglich durch eine Inschrift aus Olympia, von der deutsche
Archaologen zu Beginn des Jahres 1878 zwei Fragmente entdeckten. Diese
wurden durch Karl Purgold und Wilhelm Dittenberger ediert. 6 Ende der
achtziger Jahre des letzten Jahrhunderts kam ein drittes Fragment hinzu, so
daB der zweizeilige Text nun nahezu vollstandig vorliegt:
[A. MtVtKtOSl NcL'tiiAtS O''tP<X'tl1YtKOS 'OAU~1ta
't£AEtCll VEtKllO'<XS aYE I 811KEV 'to &p~<x,
At~Ul1S·7
O'KS' &p~<x't
un<x'tos, av8un<x'toS
Die Art und Beschaffenheit des Inschriftentragers - drei Kalksteinblocke,
insgesamt ca. 2,8 m breit, mit diversen Vertiefungen auf der Oberseite (Oxford 1981), 108 Wld 245f. sowie Arnn. 50.
5 DaB der Pferdesport in der Antike ein Sport der Reichen war Wld man grundsatzlich zwischen dem
Besitzer respektive Geldgeber Wld dem Wagenienker zu Wlterscheiden hat (auch bei der Siegerehrung,
bei der grundsiitzlich der Rermstallbesitzer den Kranz erhielt), braucht wohl nicht weiter ausgefllhrt zu
werden. FOr denjilngeren Minicius Natalis betont I. Roda dies dennoch nochmals: 'Luci Minici Natal
Quadroni Ver i la societat barcelonina del seu temps', Revista de Catalunya 32 (1988), 46f. VgI.
allgemein zur Geschichte von Olympia, den Wettkampfen Wld Bauten H.-V. Herrmann, Olympia.
Heiligtum und Wettkampfstatte (Milnchen 1972) Wld A. Mallwitz, Olympia und seine Bauten
(Darmstadt 1972). Den Ablauf der Ereignisse bei den olympischen Siegesfeiem und die Aufstellung
der Siegerstatuen beschreibt H. Buhrnann, Der Sieg in Olympia und in den anderen panhellenischen
Spielen (Miinchen 21975), 53ff.
6 IOlymp. 236 = Sylloge 840. Zwei spanische Beitrage haben sich in jiingerer Vergangenheit
intensiver mit der Inschrift auseinandergesetzt: Verrie 1989, 303fT und J.-V. Rodriguez Adrados, 'El
barcelones Lucio Minicio Nadal, campe6n olimpico', in: J. Zaragoza & A. Gonzalez Senmarti (Hgg.),
Homenatge a Josep Alsina. Actes del Xe simposi de la secci6 catalana de la SEEC I (Tarragona 1992),
431ff. In beiden Fallen - insbesondere jedoch im zweiten - ist kritisch anzumerken, daB wichtige
auBerspanische Forschungsliteratur nicht verwendet wurde. Rodriguez Adrados kennt zudem offenbar
den drei Jahre zuvor erschienenen Beitrag seines Landsmannes Verrie nicht, da er ihn nicht zitiert. Ein
Blick in SEG 35 (1985), 385. 1775 und SEG 42 (1992), 388 hiitte Abhilfe schaffen konnen. Hinzu
kommt, daB Rodriguez Adrados die vollig abwegige These vertritt, der altere Minicius Natalis sei der
Olympiasieger von 129 gewesen. Dies macht er vor allem an seiner m.E. hochst problematischen
Deutung des Begriffes c'tpa'trrYuceX; als "General" Wld nicht als praetorius fest.
7 Vg!. zum dritten Fragment Verrie 1989, 305f. Die von ihm vorgeschlagene Erganzung A. Mwi1Cl.O<;
(statt AoulCtO<; Mtvi1Cl.O<; in IOlymp. 236 = Sylloge 840) am Anfang des Textes ist aufgrund der
Textsymmetrie in beiden Zeilen nach der Entdeckung des dritten Fragments nun mehr als
wahrscheiniich. Verrie zitiert keine Erstpublikation des neuen Fragments; auBer in seinem Beitrag, der
in SEG 42 (1992), 388 Erwiihnung findet, ist es ID. W. bisher nicht veroffentlicht worden.
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weist daraufhin, daB es sich ursprunglich urn ein Monument mit Wagen und
Wagenlenker handelte, somit also urn das Siegesdenkmal des jiingeren
Minicius Natalis. 8 Aufgrund der aktuellen Fundsituation muB man von einer
Gesamtbreite von ca. 3,5 m und vier Quadem ausgehen. 9 Entdeckt wurden
die Steine in der im Westen von Olympia gelegenen Palaestra, also ein
wenig auBerhalb der Altis, des Kultplatzes, wo sich no ch zu Pausanias' Zeit
zahlreiche Statuen, deren Aufstellung den Athleten bzw. Mazenen nach
deren Siegen erlaubt wurde, urn den Zeustempel gruppierten. 1O
Betrachtet man den Inschriftentext, so drangt sich eine Frage auf, die
auch den Ablauf der Ereignisse nach dem Wagenrennen betriffi:: LieB der
jiingere Minicius Natalis nach seinem Olympiasieg das ihm zugebilligte
Monument schon 129 errichten, oder erst (fruhestens) urn 154? Die
Tatsache, daB der Senator zum Zeitpunkt des Sieges Pratorier war, scheint
zunachst fur die erste Variante zu sprechen, doch miiBte man dann die am
Ende des Textes aufgefuhrten Amter Suffektkonsulat (139) und Prokonsulat
von Africa proconsularis (urn 154) als spatere Erganzungen ansehen, wie
dies in der Vergangenheit auch zum Teil geschehen ist. 11 Wesentlich
8 Zu den olympischen Siegerstatuen vg!. grundlegend H.-V. Herrmann, 'Die Siegerstatuen von
Olympia', Nikephoros I (1988), 119fT., der am Ende seines Beitrages eine ausflihrliche Liste aller
belegten Siegerstatuen bietet. Vg!. ferner G. Lippold, 'Siegerstatuen', RE IT A (Stuttgart 1923),
2265fT. Die ma13gebliche Sammlung aller bekannten Olympiasieger der Antike stellt immer noch L.
Moretti, Olympionikai. I vincitori negli antichi agoni olimpici (Rom 1957) dar, jetzt ergiinzt durch ein
Supplement desselben Autors: 'Nuovo supplemento al catalogo degli Olympionikai', Miscellanea
Greca e Romana 12 (1987), 67fT. Allerdings fmdet sich in diesem Supplement keine neue Literatur zu
Minicius Natalis.
9 Filr Einzelheiten bezilglich der BeschafTenheit und MaJ3e vg!. IOlymp. 236 und Venie 1989, 305fT.
Venie macht in seinem Beitrag deutlich, daJ3 das Monument ursprilnglich aus vier Kalksteinblocken
bestand. Der fehlende Block konnte bei den bisherigen Grabungen noch nicht gefunden werden.
Diesen Hinweis verdanke ich Prof. Dr. U. Sinn (Wilrzburg).
10 Vg!. zur Entdeckung der Steine IOlymp. 236 und Venie 1989, 305. Zumindest die 1878 gefundenen
Fragmente a und b waren als Spolien in der byzantinischen Aufmauerung der Ostmauer der Palaestra
wiederverwendet worden. Pausanias schildert im 6. Buch seiner ,,Beschreibung Griechenlands"
(Pausanias, Graeciae descriptio 6.1-18) bei seiner Siegerstatuenperiegese, we1che Monumente er
Mitte des 2. Ja1trhunderts in der Altis von Olympia vorfand.
11 Beispielsweise durch Dittenberger in Sylloge 840 (Consulatus et proconsulatus postea additi
videntur), Groag 1932, 1842 (,,Die beiden hochsten Amter sind [... ] wohl erst nachtraglich
hinzugefilgt.") und Moretti 1957, a.a.O. (Anm. 8), 163, Nr. 846 (,,Le qualifiche -I)1t<l1;OC; e aveu1UX'COC;
nell'iscrizione di Olimpia sembrano aggiunte in un secondo tiempo perche il vincitore si qualifica
all'inizio come O"tpa't11'YtKOC; = praetorius."). Man muJ3 diesen Forschem freilich zugestehen, daJ3 sie
die heute gilltige Datierung von Suffektkonsulat und Prokonsulat des jilngeren Minicius Natalis noch
nicht kannten (geschweige denn das neugefundene dritte Fragment der Inschrift), somit also von
falschen Voraussetzungen ausgingen. Zur Statthalterschaft vg!. B.E. Thomasson, Fasti AJricani.
Senatorische und ritterliche Amtstrtiger in den romischen Provinzen NordaJrikas von Augustus bis
Diokletian (Stockholm 1996),61 f., Nr. 74.
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ilberzeugender hingegen mutet die zweite Variante an: Zieht man mit
Christian Habicht cr'tpa.'tT\'YtKO<; zu VEtKTJcra.<; und setzt uvE8T\KEV erst nach
der Bekleidung der Amter eines una.'to<; und eines uv8{>1ta.'to<; At!3uT\<; an,
so wird durch die beiden Verben eine Trennung von Sieg und Weihung
deutlich; der Sieg fand 129 statt, die Weihung etwa 25 Jahre spater. 12 Diese
Trennung war keineswegs ungewohnlich, wie der ReiseschriftstelIer
Pausanias, der Olympia aus eigener Anschauung kannte, mehrmals in seiner
"Beschreibung Griechenlands" andeutet. 13
Hier ist ein Hinweis von Wilhelm Gurlitt beachtenswert, der bereits
1890 bemerkte, daB man die Inschrift mit einer Textpassage bei Pausanias in
Verbindung bringen dilrfe, wo dieser einen romischen Senator erwahnt, der
"zu seiner (sc. Pausanias') Zeit" nach einem Sieg im Wagenrennen in
Olympia eine Bronzestatue mit dazugehoriger Inschrift als Siegesdenkmal
errichten lassen wo lIte und bei den Grabungen in unmittelbarer Nahe der
Oinomaossaule auf Waffen, Zaumzeug und Gebisse stieB.14 Gegen Gurlitts
heutzutage weitgehend akzeptierte These l5 wurden in der Vergangenheit
gewisse Bedenken angemeldet: Einerseits berief man sich auf das bereits
ob en erwahnte - wie wir heute wissen - falsche zeitliche Argument, 16
andererseits wurde darauf hingewiesen, daB sich die bei Pausanias
beschriebene Statue nicht mit dem Wagendenkmal des Minicius Natalis in
Einklang bringen lasse. 17 Es muB jedoch zweierlei angemerkt werden: Zum
einen kam die Errichtung zweier unterschiedlicher Monumente durch einen
Olympiasieger aus den oben genannten Grilnden der Trennung von Sieg und
12 So Habicht 1985, 183f. Auch Venie 1989, 307ff. vertritt die These einer spiiteren Weihung,
allerdings ganz offensichtlich ohne Kenntnis des Buches von Habicht und dessen philologischer
Argumentation. Er stiitzt sich bei seinen Ausfilhrungen vor allem auf materielle und technische
Aspekte in bezug auf die Beschaffenheit der drei vorhandenen Quader bzw. der Inschrift darauf und
spricht sich vehement gegen eine spiitere Ergiinzung von Konsulat und Prokonsulat aus.
13 Pausanias, Graeciae descn'ptio 6.10.4, 6.10.6 und 6.16,6. Vg!. dazu Habicht 1985, 183.
14 Pausanias, Graeciae descriptio 5.20.8: [ ... ] cr'\lVE~I1
OE 1CIX't~
El!E 'tot6voe. avijp ~uAfjc;
't'il<;
Prol!IXi.rov aVEtAe'to 'OAUl!1ttK1lV vi.lC'I1V· E9EArov OE Vn:OAt1tEcr9at 't'il<; Vi.lC~
Vn:Ol!V'I1l!IX XIXAlCfjV
ei,lCova cruv emYpUl!l!IX'tt, ropucrcrev et; 1tOi.'l')CYW ~a9pou:
[ ... ]. Vg!. W. Gurlitt, Ober Pausanias (Graz
1890),421, Anm. 37.
Vg!. etwa Birley 1997, 216 und 343; Verrie 1989, 307ff., Anm. 7; Habicht 1985, 183fT.; Rodriguez
Adrados 1992, a.a.O. (Anm. 6), 431f. H.-V. Herrmann (Herrmann 1988, a.a.O. [Anm. 8], 182) listet
das Monument des Minicius Natalis unter "Siegerstatuen, die nicht bei Pausanias erwiihnt, aber
archiiologisch-epigraphisch greitbar sind" auf, was darauf schlieJ3en liiBt, daB dem Autor entweder die
Diskussion iiber Pausanias, Graeciae descriptio 5.20.8 unbekannt ist oder er der These nicht folgt.
16 Zu den Beflirwortern dieser These vg!. Anm. 11. Zudem zeigt C. Habicht (Habicht 1985, 18Iff.),
daB die Pausaniasstelle (vg!. Anm. 14) zeitlich sehr wohl in die zwanziger Jahre des 2. Jahrhunderts
El!E dementsprechend deutet.
eingeordnet werden kann, indem er den Ausdruck lCIX't~
17 Bedenken beziiglich der Beschaffenheit des Denkrnals iiuJ3ern etwa Purgold in IOlymp. 236 und
Groag 1932, 1842.
15
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Weihung durchaus vor;18 zum anderen ist es moglich, daJ3 Pausanias, dessen
Augenmerk keineswegs auf romische Olympiasieger gerichtet war, "sich
sehr wohl mit einer etwas groJ3zOgigen Bezeichnung der Form eines
Denkmals begniigt haben konne, das fur ihn ohne Interesse war.,,19 Dies
wiirde bedeuten, daB er mit der "Bronzestatue" do ch das minicische Wagendenkmal meinte.
Aus den vorausgegangenen Bemerkungen lieJ3e si ch nun
hypothetisch folgender Ablauf der Ereignisse rekonstruieren: Der Pratorier
L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus verzichtete nach dem Sieg seiner
Quadriga im Sommer 129 aus unbekannten Griinden auf eine sofortige
Statuenweihung. Viele Jahre spater, nach seine m Engagement in Africa
proconsularis urn 154, hat er dann, mittlerweile mit einer weitaus groJ3eren
auctoritas und dignitas ausgestattet, in der Nahe der Oinomaossaule inmitten
der Altis ein Monument mit Wagen und Wagenlenker errichten lassen, urn
so an seinen Sieg zu erinnern und den Akt der Weihung zu vollenden 20
Pausanias berichtet von sich, er habe den Ausschachtungsarbeiten beigewohnt. 21 Dieses Ereignis trug si ch zu einer Zeit zu, als Olympia gerade die
233. Olympiade erlebt hatte (153) und quasi zeitgleich die bedeutende
Stiftung einer Exedra mit dazugehOrigem Aquadukt durch den mit Hadrian
18 Zur moglichen Aufstellung zweier Monumente vg!. Habicht 1985, 184, der u.a. auf Pausanias,
Graeciae descriptio 6.10.6 verweist. Vg!. auch Arun. 12 zur Trennung von Sieg und Weihung bei
Minicius Natalis.
19 Habicht 1985, 184. So auch E. Groag (Groag 1932, 1842), der bemerkt: ,,Indes besteht die
Mog1ichkeit, daJ3 der Perieget keinen Wert darauf ge1egt hat, die Beschaffenheit des Denkmals, das fUr
ihn ohne jedes Interesse war, genauer zu bezeichnen." Pausanias' Werk ist gepragt von dessen
Vorliebe fOr die archaische und klassische griechische Zeit. Hellenismus und Romerzeit kommen
dagegen sehr kurz. Man sollte jedoch nicht pauschalisieren und behaupten, Pausanias habe die Romer
an sich als Feinde betrachtet, sondern seine zweifellos vorhandenen Ressentiments auf die Herrschaft
der Romer in Griechenland beziehen. Diese gemii/3igte Ansicht vertraten zu1etzt K.W. Arafat,
Pausanias' Greece. Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers (Cambridge 1996), bes. 202ff. und Habicht
1985, 118ff. Pausanias' volliger Verzicht auf die Erwahnung romischer Siegerstatuen und -namen bei
seinem literarischem Rundgang durch die A1tis (Pausanias, Graeciae descriptio 6.1-18) dOrfte also
priroiir mit den oben geschilderten, von ihm in seinem Werk gesetzten Prioritaten zusammenhangen.
Vg!. Herrmann 1988, a.a.O. (Arun. 8), 123ff., der weitere mogliche Griinde dafur anflihrt, warum die
epigraphische Evidenz vor Ort in keinster Weise dem Pausaniastext entspricht. DaB die besagte
Episode in Pausanias, Graeciae descriptio 5.20.8 dennoch ilberliefert ist, liegt mE. nur darin
begrilndet, daJ3 der Schriftsteller die Beschreibung der Oinomaossauie, die das eigentliche Thema des
Kapitels ist, durch eine interessante Begebenheit auskleiden wollte.
20 Darnit ist natOrlich die Variante mit zwei verschiedenen Monumenten nicht ganz ausgeschlossen.
Wenn jedoch die vorgestellte Version zutriife, so ware das Siegermonument von Olympia keineswegs
das einzige Monument, das fUr Minicius Natalis nach seinem Prokonsulat errichtet wurde, oder das er
selbst in Aufirag gab; so wurden ihm etwa CIL II 4510 = IRE 31 = IRC 32 und CIL II 4511 = IRE 32
= IRC IV 33 frilhestens 154/155 dediziert.
21 Pausanias, Graeciae descriptio 5.20.8.
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befreundeten Senator Ti. Claudius Atticus Herodes und seine Frau Annia
Regilla vollzogen worden war. 22
Die ,Olympia-Episode' ist nicht zuletzt deshalb von Interesse, weil sie
die einzige nachgewiesene Verbindung beider Minicii Natales zum Osten des
romischen Reiches aufzeigt. Niemals vor oder nach dem Sieg haben Vater und
Sohn Amter in den ostlichen Provinzen bekleidet, niemals - nach allem, was
wir wissen - Kontakte dorthin gepflegt?3 Man konnte spekulieren und fragen,
ob es dann als ein Zufall zu werten ist, daB der jiingere Minicius Natalis in
dem Jahr mit seiner Quadriga in Olympia vertreten war, in dem Kaiser
Hadrian von den Athenern den Titel 'OAUjl1tWC; erhielt 24
Der Philhellene Hadrian, beseelt von dem Gedanken an ein groBes
panhellenisches Programm, hatte sich bereits urn 111 und 124/125 in
Griechenland aufgehalten; bei seinem ersten Besuch hatte er das Biirgerrecht
und das Archontat der Stadt Athen erhalten, beim zweiten Besuch, in dessen
Verlauf er wohl auch Olympia streifte und die dortige Statue des Zeus
Olympios restaurieren lieB, war er u.a. in die eleusinischen Mysterien
eingefuhrt worden?5 Kontakte zu ,griechischen' Senatoren wie dem jungen
Ti. Claudius Atticus Herodes wurden intensiviert, nicht zuletzt durch eine
22 Dokurnentiert durch IOlymp. 610-626. Regilla erscheint als offizielle Stifterin der Exedra (IOlympia
610). Dazu W. Ameling, Herodes Atticus (Hildesheim 1983) I, 91ff. und n, 127f Vg\. ferner P.
Graindor, Un milliardaire antique. Herode Atticus et sa Jamille (Kairo 1930), 85ff. und 191ff. (mit
Abbildungen) sowie die Abbildungen bei Herrmann 1972, a.a.O. (Anm. 5), 191ff. Es wird vielfach in
der Forschung angemerkt, daB Pausanias dieses Bauwerk in der ,Beschreibung Griechenlands'
verschweigt. Die Griinde hierfilr dilrften sowohl in der oben angesprochenen Prioritatensetzung des
Autors (vg\. Anm. 19) als auch darin Jiegen, daB er das imposante Bauwerk offenbar als fill Olympia
unpassende ,Luxusarchitektur' verschmahte. Vg\. die Forschungsdiskussion bei Habicht 1985, 137f,
Anm. 74. Quellenbefund und Litemtur zu Herodes Atticus sind sehr urnfangreich. Es sollte daher
geniigen, bier auf H. Ha1fmann, Die Senatoren aus dem ostlichen Teil des Imperium Romanum bis zum
Ende des 2. Jh. (Giittingen 1979), 155ff., Nr. 68, zu verweisen, der al1e bis dahin bekannten
Quellenbelege und wissenschaftlichen Beitrage bequem auflistet. Erganzend seien Ameling 1983,
a.a.O., I und fur einige neuere Erkenntnisse (etwa beziiglich der Laufbahn) AR Birley, 'Hadrian and
Greek Senators' , Zeitschrifi Jar Papyrologie und Epigraphik 116 (1997), 209ff., bes. 22 9ff., genannt.
23 Mit einer kleinen Ausna1une: Moesia inJen'or, wo sich der jilngere Minicius Natalis urn 115 als
Militiirtribun und ca. 142-144 als Statthalter aufhie1t, war teilweise griechisch. Vg\. AR Birley,
'Some Governors of Moesia inJerior', in: G. Fi11iip (Hg.), Festschrifi Jar JenD Fitz. JenD Fitz
septuagenario 1991 (Skekesfehervar 1996), 49f
24 VgL Birley 1997, 219f und W. Weber, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Kaisers Hadrianus
(Leipzig 1907), 209ff. zur Verleihung des Titels und den Umstanden. Seit 129 frrmierte er im Osten
unter diesem Tite\.
25 Vg\. Birley 1997, 58ff. und 175ff. Die genaue Chronologie der Reisen Hadrians ist weiterhin ein
Gegenstand intensiver wissenschaftlicher Diskussion. Dazu auch H Halfmann, itinera principum.
Geschichte und Typologie der Kaiserrreisen im RDmischen Reich (Stuttgart 1986), 188ff. sowie AR
Birley, 'Hadrian's Tmvels' in der vorliegenden Publikation. DaB Hadrian Olympia besuchte, macht
Birley 1997, 181 sehr wahrscheinlich.
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Forderung der Karrieren. 26 Nun kehrte er 128/129 nach Griechenland
zuriick, nicht nur, urn wiederum nach Eleusis zu reisen, sondern sicherlich
auch, urn die von ihm initiierte Vollendung des Zeus Olympios-Tempels in
Athen zu se hen und den oben erwahnten Titel anzunehmen, der de facto im
Osten des Reiches zu einer Gleichsetzung mit Zeus fuhrte. 27 In Hadrians
gro13em Gefolge durfte sich bei dieser Griechenlandreise auch L. Minicius
Natalis Quadronius Verus, sein quaestor Augusti aus dem Jahr 121,
befunden haben, der dann wenig spater Richtung Olympia weiterzog,
wahrend Hadrian nach Kleinasien reiste. 28
Die Besucher der 227. Olympiade des Jahres 129 sahen in dem
Senator Minicius Natalis in jedem Fall einen Reprasentanten der romischen
Macht. Er konnte zwar seinen Sieg, der im ubrigen einzigartig ist,29 nicht
einplanen, aber dennoch erfullte es ihn sicherlich mit einem gewissen Stolz,
diesen Sieg als Vertreter Roms davongetragen zu haben und im Anschlu13 im
Tempel des Gottes geehrt worden zu sein, mit dem der Kaiser si ch so eng
verbunden fuhlte. Interessant ist, daB er dieses besondere Ereignis in seinem
Leben nach dem heutigen Erkenntnisstand fast eine Generation spater - lange
nach Hadrians Tod - lediglich an dem Ort des Geschehens herausstellte.
Adressaten des Monuments konnten somit nur die Menschen sein, die die
Altis von Olympia besuchten, also etwa Athleten, Zuschauer oder Pilger. 30
Alles in allem bleibt zunachst unklar, ob der jungere Minicius Natalis durch
die statuarische Nahe zu Zeus Olympios personliche Nahe zu Hadrian
demonstrieren wollte. 31 Einige Bemerkungen zu weiteren Verbindungen
zwischen dem Senator und dem Kaiser konnten ein wenig Licht in das
Dunkel bringen.
11
26 Vg!. Birley 1997, a.a.O. (Arun. 22), 229ff. sowie Bir!ey 1997,63,89, 177 und 217. Zu Herodes
Atticus' Vater vg!. auch Halfmann 1979, a.a.O. (Arun. 22), 120ff., Nr. 27.
27 Vg!. Birley 1997, 215ff. und Weber 1907, a.a.O. (Arun. 24), 208ff. mit Arun. 739. Jilngst hat W.
Eck (W. Eck, D. MacDonald & A. Panger!, 'Neue Diplome fUr das Heer der Provinz Syrien', Chiron
32 [2002], 434ff.) versucht zu zeigen, daB Hadrian erst 129 nach Griechenland abgereist ist, da er 128
in den Diplomen nicht als Prokonsul bezeichnet wird. Anders A.R. Birley in diesem Band.
28 So auch Birley 1997,216.
29 Eine rasche Durchsicht der einschlagigen Inschriftenpublikationen und oben zitierten Listen von
Hemnann und Moretti (vg!. Arun. 8) ergab, daB L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus bis jetzt der
einzige uns bekannte Senator der Kaiserzeit ist (auJ3erhalb der Kaiserfamilien), der in einem
olympischen Wagenrennen den Sieg errang.
30 Man hatte vielleicht ein weiteres Ehrerunonument in Barcino, der patria der Minicii Natales,
erwarten konnen.
31 Die Oinomaossaule, in deren Niihe sich das minicische Monument offenbar befand (nach Pausanias,
Graeciae descriptio 5.20.8), stand nur wenige Meter nordostlich des Zeus Olympios-Tempels.
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Zwei Familien dominierten in der Hohen Kaiserzeit die in der Tarraconensis
gelegene Stadt Barcino, die Pedanii und die Minicii Natales, wobei keineswegs vollig sicher ist, daB die senatorischen Pedanii von dort stammten, da
wir lediglich indirekte Zeugnisse - wie etwa eine alIgemein starke Abundanz
von Pedanii vor Ort - besitzen. Da aber vice versa bis jetzt Gegenbeweise
fehlen, hat sich die Forschung mehr oder weniger darauf geeinigt, Barcino
als patria zu favorisieren. 32 Ronald Syme, der ebenfalls fur die se Losung
pladierte,33 bemerkte jedoch: "Between Minicii and Pedanii no links of
blood or propinquity can be discovered.,,34 Seine auf den vorliegenden
Fakten beruhende FeststelIung laBt Spielraum fur prosopographische
Spekulationen, vorausgesetzt, man akzeptiert die These zweier bedeutender
senatorischer Familien in Barcino, was in der Folge geschehen solI. Unter
dieser Pramisse kann man weiter fragen, ob moglicherweise doch verwandtschaftliche Beziehungen zwischen den Pedanii und den Minicii Natales
existierten: Dies ware keineswegs unmoglich, zumal man bis heute weder
den Namen der Mutter des alteren Minicius Natalis noch den der Frau seines
Sohnes kennt.
L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus wurde urn 96 in Barcino, der
patria seiner Familie, geboren. 35 Der Name seiner Mutter ist nicht
32 Die Diskussion iiber die Herkunft der senatorischen Pedanii ftihrt in extenso Caballos Rufmo 1990
1,2, 416f (mit weiterer Literatur). Er sortiert die Familie unter Senatores incerti et incena origine ein.
In der Tat sind die Indizien, die fur Barcino sprechen konnten, nicht sehr gewichtig, da ausnalnnslos
indirekter Art; es fehlen direkte Quellenbelege. Neben dem m.E. einzigen ilberzeugenden Argument,
nlimlich den zahlreichen inschriftlichen Belegen fur Personen mit dem nomen gentile Pedanius in
Barcino, nennt Caballos Rufmo iiuBerst unsichere Punkte, wie etwa die familiiiren Kontakte der
Pedanii zu dem vielleicht aus Spanien stammenden 1. Iulius Drsus Servianus oder den gemeinsamen
ordentlichen Konsuiat des Cn. Pedanius Fuscus Salinator mit Kaiser Hadrian im Jahre 118. Insofern
besitzen die Bedenken, die insbesondere P. Le Roux (,Les senateurs originaires de la province
d'Hispania citerior au Haut-Empire romain', in: Epigrafia e ordine senatorio II [Rom 1982], 448f.)
vorbringt, eine gewisse Re1evanz. Auch K. Wachtel (pIR2 P 202) mochte Le Roux' These nicht
ganzlich ablehnen, scheint aber das Votum der iilteren Forschung flir Barcino zu bevorzugen.
33 Vg!. etwa R. Syme, Tacitus II (Oxford 1958), 785; ders., 'Rival Cities, notably Tarraco and
Barcino', Ktema 6 (1981), 280 = Roman Papers IV, 87 und 282 = 89f.; ders., 'More Narbonensian
Senators', Zeitschriftfur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 65 (1986), 14 = Roman Papers VI, 222.
34 Syme 198111988, a.a.O. (Anm. 33),284 = 91.
35 CIL II 4511 = IRB 32 = IRC IV 33. Dort wird nicht nur deutlich, daJ3 Minicius Natalis in Barcino
geboren wurde, sondern auch, daJ3 dies im Januar oder Februar geschah. Das genaue Geburtsjahr ist
unsicher; es hiingt von der Datierung der spater bekleideten Amter ab. In der F orschung herrscht
diesbezilglich Dneinigkeit: E. Groag (Groag 1932, 1837) denkt an 97, weil er die Quiistur sehr spat
datiert (123), ebenso R. Etienne (Etienne 1965, a.a.O. [Arnn. 3],72). Die PIR (PIR2 M 620) nimrnt das
Jahr 96 an, ausgehend von einer Bekleidung der Quiistur um das Jahr 121. So auch J. Fitz, Die
Verwaltung Pannoniens in der Hohen Kaiserzeit. Bd. II (Budapest 1993), 666. Caballos Rufino 1990
I, I, 228, spricht von "probablemente del ano 96 0 97", kann sich also nicht defmitiv entscheiden. M.E.
ist die friihere Datierung zu priiferieren; Minicius Natalis hiitte dann mit 18 sein erstes Amt bekleidet
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iiberliefert, doch ist es nicht unwahrscheinlich, da/3 sie zu den Quadronii
gehorte: Sein Vater fuhrte 106 gemeinsam einem Landsmann namens Q.
Licinius Silvanus Granianus,36 einem Tarraconenser, die fasces als Suffektkonsul. Es ist auffallend, da/3 ihre Sohne, L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius
Verus und Q. Licinius Silvanus Granianus Quadronius Proculus,37 beide das
au/3erst seltene nomen gentile Quadronius trugen?8 Somit liegt die
Vermutung nahe, da/3 sie miteinander verwandt waren, wahrscheinlich iiber
die mutterliche Seite: Ronald Syme konnte uberzeugend darlegen, da/3 jeder
von beiden Senatoren wohl eine Mutter namens Quadronia hatte und diese
Schwestern waren. 39 Zum gemeinsamen Konsulat der Vater schreibt er: "The
consulships of Natal is and Silvanus reflect (it should seem) the influence of
Licinius Sura.,,40 L. Licinius Sura (cos. su.!J. 97 (?); cos. Ilord 102; cos. 111
ord 107) aus der Tarraconensis, engster Vertrauter Trajans (dessen
Wurzeln, wie die Hadrians, ebenfalls in Italica lagen), fungierte moglicherweise als Patron einiger Senatoren spanischer Herkunft, u.a. des alteren
Minicius Natalis. 41 Uber diese Verbindung diirfte in der Folge ein sehr enges
(tresvir monetalis im Jahre 114) IIIld ware spater, im Alter von 24 Jahren, als candidatus principis fill
die Quiistur designiert sowie kurz vor seinem 25. Geburtstag in dieses Amt eingesetzt worden.
36 ZU Q. Licinius Silvanus Granianus vg!. PIR2 L 247; A. Stein, 'Licinius', RE XIII (Stuttgart 1926),
459; Caballos Rufino 19901,1, 180ff., Nr. 101.
37 ZU Q. Licinius Silvanus Granianus Quadronius Proculus vg!. PIR 2 L 249; E. Groag, 'Licinius', RE
XIII (Stuttgart 1926), 459ff.; A. Stein, 'Licinius', RE Supp!. VII (Stuttgart 1940), 418; Caballos
Rufino 1990 1,1, 182f., Nr. 102.
38 Die PIR kennt neben diesen beiden nur noch einen Senator Init dem Namensbestandteil Quadronius:
T. Iulius Maximus Manlianus Brocchus Servilianus A. Quadronius [Verus?) L. Servilius Vatia Cassius
Cam[ars?) aus Nemausus (PIR2 1426; E. Groag, 'Iu1ius', RE X [Stuttgart 1918], 678f). Aufgrlllld der
Seltenheit des nomen gentile ist m.E. davon auszugehen, daJ3 dieser Suffektkonsul von 112, der
vermutlich aus Nemausus stammte IIIld Patron von Calagurris in der Tarraconensis war (vg!. etwa ClL
XII 3167 = ILS 1016), Init den anderen Quadronii verwandt war, sehr wahrscheinlich durch Adoption.
AhnIich Le Roux 1982, a.a.O. (Anm. 32),448. Drei Quadronii aus Narbo (ClL XII 4414.4415. 5081)
waren offenbar Freigelassene dieses Mannes.
39 R. Syme, 'Pliny the Procurator', Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 73 (1969), 233 = Roman
Papers II, 770, nahm zuniichst nur eine verwandtschaftliche Beziehllllg an; spater prazisierte er diese
These, indem er die Vermutllllg auBerte, die beiden Konsuln von 106 hiitten jeder eine Quadronia
geheiratet: Syme 1981/1988, a.a.O. (Anm. 33),282 = 89; 'Spaniards at Tivoli', Ancient Society 13114
(1982/83), 247 = Roman Papers IV, 99f.; 'Clues to testamentary adoption', Epigrafia e Ordine
Senatorio I (Rom 1982), 403 = Roman Papers IV, 165. Zustimmend O. Salomies, Adoptive and
Polyonymous Nomenclature in the Roman Empire (Helsinki 1992), 141f. IIIld Caballos Rufmo 1990
1,1, 183 IIIld 228.
40 Syme 196911979, a.a.O. (Anm. 39),233 = 770.
41 So die Vermutllllg von R. Syme (Syme 198111988, a.a.O. [Anm. 33), 283 = 91): ,,Minicius Natalis
belonged to the faction of Sura, such is the assumption." Vg!. ders., 'Hadrian and the Senate',
Athenaeum 62 (1984), 37f. = Roman Papers IV, 302. Zu Licinius Sura vg!. PIR2 L 253; E. Groag,
'Licinius', RE XIII (Stuttgart 1926), 471ff.; Caballos Rufmo 1990 1,1, 183ff. Eine Verbindllllg dieses
Senators zu den senatorischen Pedanii, deren Herkunft aus Barcino, wie bereits erwiihnt wurde,
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Verhaltnis zum Kaiserhaus gewachsen sein, welches sich nicht zuletzt
evident durch das Engagement des L. Minicius Natalis im ersten Dakerkrieg
(1011102) und seine spatere langjahrige Statthalterschaft in der fur Rom
militarisch wichtigen Grenzprovinz Pannonia superior manifestierte. 42
Eine andere "spanische" SenatorencIique in Rom fuhrte der ebenfalIs
sehr einflu13reiche L. Iulius Ursus Servianus (cos. suff 90; cos. Ilord. 102;
cos. III ord. 134),43 der iiber seine Tochter, die en. Pedanius Fuscus
Salinator (cos. ord. 118) geheiratet hatte,44 nicht nur mit den Pedanii,
sondern als Hadrians Schwager auch mit den Aelii aus Italica verwandtschaftlich verbunden war. 45 Beide Rivalen, Servianus und Sura, bekleideten
102 gemeinsam den ordentlichen Konsulat. AIs letzterer im Jahre 108 starb,
diirften dessen Schiitzlinge in Hadrian einen neuen Patron gefunden haben.46
Die Beziehungen der Minicii Natales zum Kaiser waren in der Folgezeit
offenbar gut; zumindest gibt es keine Hinweise fur das Gegenteil. Sie
konnten nicht nur bei der Durchfuhrung der Amtsgeschafte in Rom
intensiviert werden, sondern auch in Phasen der Erholung im nahen Tibur,
wo neben anderen senatorischen Familien aus Spanien auch die Aelii und die
Minicii Natales begiitert waren und der Olympiasieger nach 139 als Patron
fungierte. 47 In diesem Zusammenhang sei erwahnt, daB einige Votivunsicher ist (vg!. dazu Arun. 32), ist nicht nachweisbar.
1. Minicius Natalis ging hochdekoriert aus dem Krieg hervor; vg!. dazu nur die Inschriften ClL IT 4509
= 6145 = lLS 1029 = IRE 30 = IRC IV 30 (Barcino) und ClL VI 31739 = 41109 (Rom) mit den
Hinweisen auf diverse dona militaria. Zum Statthalterposten in Parmonia superior vg!. zuletzt Pitz 1993,
a.a.O. (Arun. 35),474 und Birley 1997, 89. Die epigraphische Evidenz zeigt jetzt, daB der altere Minicius
Natalis mindestens von 112 bis in die hadrianische Zeit hinein Stattha1ter der Provinz war. Prof. Dr. W.
Eck (Koln) danke ich in diesem Zusammenhang fur den Hinweis auf neue Mi1itiirdip10me.
43 Zu Iulius Ursus Servianus vg!. PIR2 1631 und 569; E. Groag, 'Iulius', RE X (Stuttgart 1918), 882ff.;
Caballos Rufmo 1990 1,2, 386ff. Seine Herkunft ist sehr Wlsicher; sowohl eine spanische als auch eine
narbonensische patria werden diskutiert.
44 Zu Pedanius Fuscus Salinator vgl. PIR2 P 200; E. Groag, 'Pedanius', RE XIX (Stuttgart 1937),
21ff.; Cabal10s Rufino 1990 I 2, 418f., Nr. 146.
45 Das komp1exe Beziehungsgeflecht zwischen Sura, Servianus, Nerva, Trajan und Hadrian beschreibt
R. Syme, 'Hadrian's Autobiography: Servianus and Sura', Bormer Historia-Augusta-Colloquium 1986
(Bonn 1991), 189ff. = Roman Papers VI, 398ff.
46 So Syme 1984/1988, a.a.O. (Arun. 41), 37[ = 302 und Bir1ey 1997, 54.
41 Wenn Rom fur die Senatoren das negotium symbolisierte, so stand eine Stadt wie Tibur fur das
otium. Ronald Syme (Syme 198311988, a.a.O. [Arun. 39],241 = 94) beschreibt sie folgendermaBen:
"The charm of Tibur is on abundant testimony: the fresh air, the cascades of the Anio, the groves and
the orchards." Die Erkenntnis, daB dort vor allem Senatoren aus dem spanischen Raum begiltert
waren, verdanken wir ebenfalls Syme 198311988, a.a.O. (Arun. 39), 241ff. = 94ff.). Vg!. dazu auch
Birley 1997, 192f. Zum Grundbesitz der Minicii Natales vg!. ausflihrlich A.M. Andermahr, Totus in
praediis. Senatorischer Grundbesitz in [talien in der Friihen und Hohen Kaiserzeit (Bonn 1998), 342f.
Den Patronat notieren 1. Harmand, Le patronat sur les collectivites publiques des origines au basempire (Paris 1957), 225 und R. Duthoy, 'Le profil social des patrons municipaux en Italie sous le
42
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inschriften auf Marmorbasen aus Tibur und aus anderen Stadten Italiens
erhalten sind, die eine besondere Vorliebe des jiingeren Minicius Natalis fur
mehrere, vomehmlich ostliche Gottheiten, namlich Hercules Victor
(Schutzgott von Tibur), Asklepios, Helios, Sarapis und Isis, aufzeigen 48 Das
muB umso mehr erstaunen, als der "westliche" Senator, der auBer bei seinem
Olympiasieg nie im Osten weilte, solch ein lebhaftes Interesse fur Gatter aus
diesem Raum entwickelte.
Bemerkenswert ist gleichfalls, daB - nach all em, was wir bisher
wissen - L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus und Hadrian die einzigen
beiden Senatoren der romischen Kaiserzeit waren, die drei Militartribunate
in Folge innehatten, Hadrian zwischen 95 und 98, Minicius Natalis zwischen
ca. 115 und 117.49 Man kann diese auBergewohnliche Amterkonstellation
wo hi als einen puren Zufall werten, do ch scheint es, daB der Senator aus
Barcino alle drei Tribunate bei Legionen im Donauraum innehatte, den
letzten um 117 bei seinem Vater in Pannonia superior, der dort damals, wie
bereits angedeutet wurde, Statthalter war. 50 Letztendlich wird der Kaiser
Haut-Empire', Ancient Society 15-17 (1984-1986), 145, Nr. 223, auf der Gnmdlage von CIL XIV
3599 = lLS 1061 = Inser. Ital. 4,1,113. Zu Hadrians Villa in Tibur vg!. etwa H. Kiihler, Hadrian und
seine Villa bei Tivoli (Berlin 1950) und M.T. Boatwright, Hadrian and the City of Rome (Prineeton
1987), 138ff.
48 ClL XI 2925 = lLS 3221 (Volci); IGR 11391 (Minturnae); CIL XIV 3554 = lLS 3415 = Inser. Ita!.
4,1,56.3599 = lLS 1061 = Inser. Ital. 4,1,113. 3600 = Inser. Ital. 4,1,114; IG XIV 1125 = IGR 1,376 =
Inser. Ita!. 4,1,33 (alle Tibur). Minieius Natalis' besondere Beziehung zu Tibur wird aueh durch das
Amt des curator fani Herculis Victoris dokumentiert, das er nachweislich innehatte (ClL XIV 3599 =
ILS 1061 = Inser. Ital. 4,1,113). Vergleiehbar ist der fast gleiehaltrige P. Mununius Sisenna Rutilianus
(consul suffectus 146), der wohl ebenfalls aus Spanien stammte, auch patronus von Tibur und curator
fani Herculis Victoris ebendort war (ClL XIV 3601 = lLS 1101 = Inscr. Ital. 4,1,115). Vg!. Andermahr
1998, a.a.G. (Anm. 47), 346 mit weiterer Literatur.
49 Dazu zuletzt Birley 1997, 37: ,J!adrian's third military tribunate is unparalleled [... ]. But the
circumstances in 97 were very special: Hadrian was now, after all, the nearest male kinsman of the
heir to the throne [sc. Trajan]." Vgl. auch R. Syme, 'Domitian: The last Years', Ch iron 13 (1983), 141
=Roman Papers IV, 272.
50 Beobachtet von R. Syme, 'A Dozen early Priesthoods', Zeitschriftfur Papyrologie und Epigraphik
77 (1989), 247f = Roman Papers VI, 425. Vg!. zu dem Sachverhalt auch Fitz 1993, a.a.G. (Anm. 35),
663ff und Anm. 42. Es kann hier nicht der Ort sein, die gesarnte Laufbahn des 1. Minicius Natalis
Quadronius Verus neu zu diskutieren; dies wurde an anderer Stelle geleistet, z.B. von Caballos Rufino
1990 I, I, 228, der zahlreiche Untersuchungen bequem zusammenfaJ3t. Dennoch seien ein paar kurze
Bemerkungen zu den Tribunaten erlaubt: Der jiingere Minicius Natalis fungierte um 115 als
Militllrtribun der legio I Adiutrix, die unter dem Kommando des baetischen Legionslegaten A.
Platorius Nepos, eines langjiihrigen Freundes und Landsmannes Hadrians (vg!. Historia Augusta, Vita
Hadriani 4.1f), stand. Der exakte Aufenthaltsort der Legion (und darnit auch des Minicius Natalis)
um 115 ist unsicher; einige pllidieren fur Dacia, andere meinen, daB sie in den Partherkrieg involviert
war (vg!. Birley 1981, a.a.G. (Anm. 4),103). Bei den in Dacia nachgewiesenen Soldaten der legio I
Adiutrix k6nnte es sieh aber auch lediglieh um eine Vexillation gehandelt haben. So die plausible
Erkllirung von I. Piso, Fasti provinciae Daciae, Band I: Die senatorischen Amtstriiger (Bonn 1993),
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spatestens jetzt auf seinen jungen "spanischen" Landsmann aufmerksam
geworden sein. Ein Zusammentreffen in Barcino, das Hadrian auf seiner
Reise nach Tarraco zu Beginn des Jahres 123 sicherlich besuchte, ist eher
unwahrscheinlich, da der jiingere Minicius Natalis zu dieser Zeit wohl den
Volkstribunat in Rom innehatte. 51 Dessen ungeachtet konnte aber sein Vater,
der seine Amterlaufbahn 122 mit dem Prokonsulat in Africa proconsularis
beendet hatte, den Kaiser empfangen und ihm die imposante minicische
Thermenanlage vorgefuhrt haben.52 en. Pedanius Fuscus Salinator und seine
Frau lebten damals wohl noch und konnten ebenfalls vor Ort gewesen sein,
wahrscheinlich als Hadrians Reisebegleitung. Der Senator, der funf Jahre
zuvor den ordentlichen Konsulat mit dem Onkel seiner Frau bekleidet hatte,
ware zu diesem Zeitpunkt ohnehin der perfekte Erbe fur Hadrian gewesen. 53
Es wurde lange Zeit geratselt, warum der Kaiser L. Minicius Natalis
Quadronius Verus vor seinem Tod im Jahre 138 nicht mehr zum Konsulat
verholfen hat, zumal dieser candidatus principis fur Quastur (1201121) und
Volkstribunat (1221123) gewesen war und als quaestor Augusti engsten
Kontakt zum Kaiser gehabt hatte, nicht nur in Rom, sondern sicherlich auch
auf einigen der Reisen, die der Kaiser fortan unternahm. 54 Eine plausible
7f., der die ooterschiedlichen Meinoogen gegenilberstellt. Urn 116 hatte Minicius Natalis dasselbe
Amt bei der legio XI Claudia in Moesia inferior (ooter dem Statthalter Q. Pompeius Falco) inne ood
urn 117 bei der legio XIV Gemina in Pannonia superior (wohl ooter seinem Vater als Statthalter ood
dem Legionslegaten Sex. Iulius Severus). Wenn sich der jooge Minicius Natalis urn lIS wirklich im
Osten auihielt, so ware natilrlich Symes oben zitierte Beobachtoog nicht haltbar. Die Chronologie der
Militartribunate ist insgesarnt sehr spekulativ ood hypothetisch. Es ware z.B. zu fragen, ob jeder der
drei Tribunate wirklich nur ein Jahr dauerte.
51 Ein Besuch Hadrians in Barcino ist schon wegen seiner verwandtschaftlichen Beziehoogen zu den
Pedanii mehr als wahrscheinlich. Vgl. Birley 1997, 146f. zur Reise nach Spanien.
52 Mit ClL IT 4509 = 6145 = lLS 1029 = IRB 30 = IRC IV 30 ist die Bauinschrift des balineum der
Minicii Natales in Barcino auf oos gekommen. Der jilngere Minicius Natalis erscheint dort als
tribunus plebis designatus, was bedeutet, daB die Anlage kurz vor Hadrians Besuch oder sogar aus
AnlaB seiner Ankooft in Barcino eingeweiht wurde. Vgl. dazu W. Eck und F.J. Navarro, 'Das
Ehrenmonurnent der Colonia Carthago fUr L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus in seiner
Heimatstadt Barcino', Zeitschriji fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 123 (1998), 237ff. ood A.
Krieckhaus, Fallstudien zu senatorischen Familien und ihren Heimatstadten im I. und 2. lahrhundert
n.Chr. (in Vorbereitoog).
53 So Birley 1997, 146. Pedanius Fuscus Salinator ood seine Frau sind ab 118 nicht mehr belegt, wie
schon Ronald Syme feststellen muJ3te (R. Syme, 'The Ummidii', Historia 17 (1968), 87 = Roman
Papers II, 674 ood ders., 'Umrnidius Quadratus, capax imperii', Harvard Studies in Classical
Philology 82 (1979), 290 = Roman Papers Ill, 1160). Vgl. PIR2 P 200; Birley 1997, 201f. ood 215;
Caballos Rufino 1990 1,2, 418. Dennoch ist es m.E. mehr als wahrscheinlich, daB sie 123 noch lebten
ood erst in den spateren zwanziger Jahren starben.
54 Eine Ausnahme dilrfte Hadrians Reise in den Nordwesten darstellen, die im Frilhjahr 121 begann:
Offenbar verzichtete der Kaiser (zooachst) auf seine beiden quaestores Augusti: Es ist narnlich
epigraphisch bezeugt, daB der jilngere Minicius Nataiis, wahrend er noch die Quastur bekieidete, in
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Erklarung hat Werner Eck geliefert: "Ganz offensichtlich trat nach einer
anfanglichen Fbrderung des jungen Senators durch Hadrian in den spaten
Regierungsjahren dieses Kaisers eine Abkiihlung in den guten Beziehungen
ein. Denn ansonsten hatte L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus friiher zum
Konsulat kommen miissen. ,,55 Diese "Abkiihlung" ist zeitlich nur schwer
greitbar; bis zur Pratur (127) ist keine Verzbgerung in der Lautbahn
festzustellen. Danach vergingen jedoch deutlich mehr als 10 lahre bis zum
Konsulat im lahre 139 - eine sehr lange Zeit fur einen ehemaligen
candidatus principis und Sohn eines sehr einfluBreichen Senators, der es bis
zur Statthalterschaft von Africa proconsuiaris gebracht hatte. 56
Man kbnnte also geneigt sein, irgendwann in der Zeit zwischen 127
und 138 einen Bruch in der schon fast traditionell engen Beziehung der
Minicii Natales zum Kaiserhaus zu vermuten. Dies fuhrt uns zu den Pedanii
zuruck: Wenn der jiingere Minicius Natalis eine Pedania geheiratet hatte,
vielleicht eine Tochter oder Schwester des Cn. Pedanius Fuscus Salinator,
dann bestiinde die Mbglichkeit, daB die Verweigerung des Konsulats suo
anno mit den Ereignissen, die sich im Zuge der Adoption des L. Ceionius
Commodus durch den mittlerweile erkrankten Hadrian 136/137 zutrugen,
zusammenhangt: L. Iulius Ursus Servianus und sein Enkel Fuscus, ganz
offensichtlich der Sohn des ordentlichen Konsuls von 118 und der Nichte
Hadrians, waren mit der Entscheidung des Kaisers nicht einverstanden und
planten wohl einen Umsturz, der jedoch scheiterte und beider Leben
Africa proconsu!aris als Legat an der Seite seines Vaters, der urn 1211122 den Prokonsulat der Provinz
innehatte, tiitig wurde (vg!. Thomasson 1996, a.a.O. (Anrn. 11), 62 und 107, Nr. 26 rnit
Quellenhinweisen). Der uns narnentlich nicht bekannte Arntskollege des Minicius Natalis verweilte
vennutlich in Rom beirn Senat. Der Grund dafilr konnte darin liegen, daJ3 der ab epistulis C. Suetonius
Tranquillus - neben dem praefectus praetorio C. Septicius Clams - mit Hadrian unterwegs war. So die
These von Syrne 198911991, a.a.O. (Anrn. 50), 247f. = 425; ders., 'The Travels of Suetonius
Tranquillus', Hermes J09 (1981), 11 0 = Roman Papers Ill, 1342; ders., Hadrianic Proconsuls of
Africa, Zeitschriftfar Papyrologie und Epigraphik 37 (1980), 6 = Roman Papers Ill, 1307; ders. 1958,
a.a.O. (Anrn. 33), 779f. So auch Birley 1997, 115 und ferner ders. 1981, a.a.O. (Anrn. 4), 365ff. (zu
Septicius Clams und Sueton).
55 W. Eck 1974, a.a.O. (Anrn. 3),283.
56 Zurn Konsulat: AE 1955,17 = CIL XVI 175. Minicius Natalis' Arntskollege, dessen Name im
genannten Militiirdiplom nur zurn Teil erhalten ist, war rnit groJ3er Wahrscheinlichkeit L. Claudius
Proculus Cornelianus, der moglicherweise ebenfalls aus dem spanischen Raurn starnrnte (PIR 2 C
979/980). So bereits G. Alfoldy, Konsulat und Senatorenstand unter den Antoninen.
Prosopographische Untersuchungen zur senatorischen Fahrungsschicht (Bonn 1977), 138f. und 322
sowie Caballos Rufmo 1990 I 2, 344f., Nr. I 9. Zur Dauer einer pratorischen Laufbahn vg!.
grundlegend W. Eck, 'Beforderungskriterien innerhalb der senatorischen Laufbahn, dargestellt an der
Zeit von 69 bis 138 n.Chr.', in: ANRW II 1, 181ff. = 'Criteri di avanzamento nella carriera senatoria
(69-138 d.C.)', in: W. Eck, Tra epigrajia prosopograjia e archeologia, Scritti scelti, n'elaboroti ed
aggiomati (Rom 19%), 36ff. (mit Erganzungen).
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kostete. 57 Dieser Coup d'Etat muB negative Auswirkungen auf die Beziehung
Hadrians zu den nachsten Verwandten der Verschworer gehabt haben, die
natiirlich auch seine (angeheirateten) Verwandten waren. Unter den oben
geschilderten Voraussetzungen konnten L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus
und seine Familie sehr wohl davon betroffen gewesen sein. 58 Wie auch immer
- nachdem der neue Kaiser Antoninus Pius den Thron bestiegen hatte, gehorte
der Senator aus Barcino zu den ersten, denen die Konsulwiirde zuteil wurde,
was m.E. ein untrugliches Zeichen dafur ist, daB seine Familie damals - neben
den mit Hadrian eng verbundenen baetischen Annii Veri - zu den wichtigsten
senatorischen Familien aus dem spanischen Raum zahlte.
III
"He paid ambitious honour to old Hellas by winning a chariot race at
Olympia. In Italy he worshipped Hercules at Tibur - but also Aesculapius.
At another town, however, it was Serapis and Isis , of the myriad names'. ,,59
So faBt Ronald Syme die "ostlichen" Aktivitaten des jiingeren Minicius
Natalis knapp zusammen. Auch Hadrian kam auf seinen Reisen durch den
Osten des romischen Reiches mit den erwahnten Gottheiten in Kontakt, auch
Hadrian hatte eine besondere Beziehung zu Zeus Olympios, auch Hadrian
liebte alles Griechische. Man kann festhalten, daB L. Minicius Natalis
Quadronius Verus bei seinem Auftritt in Olympia, das im iibrigen durch
seine jahrhundertealte Tradition in gewisser Weise eine Art Symbol fur das
alte Griechenland darstellte, nicht nur einen Sieg fur si ch selbst, sondem
auch fur das Imperium Romanum davontrug und eben diesen Staat und
seinen eigenen Stand, den ordo senatorius, dort reprasentierte. Hier nun aber
von einer Art ,Nacheiferung' des Kaisers zu sprechen, wiirde zu weit gehen,
zumal ein starkes Interesse fur griechische Sprache, Philosophie, Religion,
Kunst und Kultur in den romischen Oberschichten im 2. Jahrhundert
bekanntermaI3en en vogue war.
Die iibrigen diskutierten Beruhrungspunkte zwischen Hadrian und
57 Zur Adoption des L. Ceionius Cornmodus und den Folgen vg!. zuletzt Birley 1997, 289fT., zu (Cn.
oder L. Pedanius) Fuscus (Salinator) PIR2 P 198; E. Groag, 'Pedanius', RE XIX (Stuttgart 1937), 19f.;
Caballos Rufmo 1990 I 2, 413fT., NI. I 44. Der genaue Ablauf der Ereignisse ist aufgrund der
1lllgilnstigen Quellenlage nur schwer zu rekonstruieren.
58 Der Text auf einer Mannorbasis aus Laviniurn (Ende des I.lAnfang des 2. Jahrhunderts) ofTenbart
den Namen des dort anscheinend begilterten Senators L. Valerius Publicola Messa1a Helvidius Thrasea
Priscus Minicius Natalis (AE 1998, 280). Bei diesem Mann kiinnte es sich urn einen Enkel des
jilngeren Minicius Natalis handeln, was bedeuten wiirde, daB dieser Nachkornmen hatte. Eine andere
Miiglichkeit ware, daB er die Namensbestandteile ,Minicius Natalis' durch Erbschaft erhielt.
59 R. Syme, 'Antonine Govenunent and Governing Class', Roman Papers V, 682.
315
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dem jiingeren Minicius Natalis unterstreichen diese Ansicht, zeigen sie doch
einen Mann, der trotz seiner mehr oder weniger erfolgreichen Lautbahn und
seiner guten Kontakte immer im Schatten anderer Senatoren und nicht
zuletzt des Kaisers stand und in der letzten Regierungsphase Hadrians
offenbar politisch "kaltgestellt" war, vielleicht aufgrund seiner ob en
vermuteten verwandtsehaftliehen Beziehung zu den Pedanii. In den auf uns
gekommenen literarisehen Quellen hat er denn aueh - Zufall oder nieht keinerlei Beriieksiehtigung erfahren. Dessen ungeaehtet diirfte der Beitrag
gezeigt haben, daB die folgenden Worte Edmund Groags heute mehr denn je
ihre Giiltigkeit besitzen: "Aus epigraphisehem Material das Wesen einer
Personliehkeit zu ersehlieBen, seheint wohl ein vergebliehes Beginnen;
immerhin lassen sieh vielleieht gerade in unserem Falle [se. L. Minieius
Natalis Quadronius Verus] aus den Insehriften gewisse Sehliisse ziehen.,,60
Diisseldorf, Marz 2003
60
Groag 1932, 1840f
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Anhang: Vorschlag fiir ein Stemma der Minicii Natales und der Quadronii
L. Minicius [---)
00
Pedania [---]7
[A.?) Quadronius [Verus?) oo?
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, Adoption?
I
Quadronia [Procula?)
L. Minicius Natalis 00 Quadronia [Vera?)
cos. suff. 106
PIR2 M 619
T. Iulius Maximus Manlianus Brocchus Servilianus
A. Quadronius [Verus?) L. Servilius Vatia
Cassius Cam[ars?)
cos. suff. 112
PIR2 I 426
L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus 00 Pedania [---)?
cos. suff. 139
PIR2 M 620
Minicia [---?)
00
L. Valerius Publicola [---?]
?
L. Valerius Publicola Messala Helvidius Thrasea Priscus Minicius Natalis
cos. ord. 196
AE 1998,280
00
Q. Licinius Silvanus
Gratianus
cos. suff. 106
PIR2 L 247
Q. Licinius Silvanus Granianus Quadronius
Proculus
PIR2 L 249
BETWEEN CRITICISM AND PRAISE: PROVINCIALS' IMAGE OF
THE GOVERNOR IN THE LATER ROMAN EMPIRE *
By
DANIELLE SLOOTJES
"With fortunate omens have you come from the emperor,
brilliant as a ray of the sun that appears to us on high. Thus a
favorable report long ago brought word of your fortunate arrival
and the most enviable lot of your subjects".!
For centuries, provincial communities in the Roman Empire dealt with the
presence of governors, which created a certain expectation in behavior, both
for provincials and for governors themselves. My purpose is to take a closer
look at the relationship between the two in the period of the Later Roman
Empire, with a focus on the provincials' perspective: how far can we
determine their attitude toward the governor, how did they show appreciation or criticism - of his actions, how did they portray him? Did the governor,
indeed, appear 'brilliant as a ray of the sun'? These concerns contribute to a
broader study I am currently conducting on the representation of the governor
in the Later Roman Empire, based on a wide range of source materials,
literary, epigraphic, artistic. In this paper, however, I limit myself to literary
sources, in particular the works of Menander Rhetor and Libanius. I also
concentrate on criticism, because I have found that those who criticize the
governor exploit the same themes as those who praise him, and because it
clearly seems possible to determine provincials' expectations through their
criticisms. I introduce some sections from Libanius, which are notably
revealing in this respect. The last part of the paper focuses on how Libanius'
criticism illuminates an important part of the character and rhythm of
provincial life.
Before criticism, the concept of praise needs to be discussed briefly,
because in my argument the two are closely connected. During the governor's
*This paper was originally given at the third Workshop of the Network 'Impact of Empire' (Rome,
March 2002). Many thanks to the Network and in particular Prof. Lukas de Blois for offering me the
opportunity to contribute. Special thanks to Prof. Richard Talbert for his valuable suggestions.
I Menander Rhetor 378: aM' 7jxel, /kev e7l"' a.1lTiol, lTUpj3oAol, ex f3a,ITIAew, Aa./k7l"eO" wlT7I"ee ,qAiou
<pa.llJea T/, axT/, avw!7ev ,q/kiv 6<p!7eilTa.· OVTW 7I"WI /kev a')-~
<p,qWYJ ;Jt7rne/Ae -r7}v e7l"' a.1lTiol, a<p/S/v
xa.i eUXTa.lon:i:M,/v ,.,.aiea.v TWV iJm}xowv. For the text see D.A. Russell & N.G. Wilson, eds., Menander
Rhetor (Oxford 1981). The translations throughout this paper are based on their edition as well, with
some changes where appropriate.
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stay there were several occasions on which provincials would have a chance to
honor him with a speech of praise, for example, on his arrival, or in gratitude
for benefactions he had bestowed on a city, or because he was celebrating a
festival there. Speeches for governors were part of a series of rituals designed
to establish a relationship between the person who was welcomed or praised
and those who welcomed and praised him. Not only did the words of a speech
honor the governor, they also defined his position 2
The common themes of praise are well laid out by Menander Rhetor
(PLRE I 595), an orator and teacher of rhetoric in the late third century. In
his instructions for two of his speeches to a governor (the speech of arrival: 0
e7rlf3a/)QIO~
378-388, and the speech of praise: 0 7rQoO"cpwlnx~
415-418),
he recommends the following elements: expression of joy at the governor's
arrival or presence; praise of his family, education, deeds and virtues; and a
general comparison to characterize him as being far superior to everybody
else 3 These common themes of praise, I argue, also appear in criticism.
In the works of Libanius (PLRE I 505-507) there are remarkable
examples of reproaches to a governor for his lack of ability to govern. For
instance, the Speeches 45 ('To the emperor, on the prisoners') and 33 ('To
the emperor Theodosius, against Tisamenes') -dated to the late 380s- are
paired together in modern scholarship, because both address the conditions
in the prisons, and demonstrate a negative view of governors. According to
Libanius, prisons in Antioch were overcrowded, because governors were too
slow in fulfilling their judicial functions as well as in executing those
sentenced to death.
Both speeches address the emperor. Speech 33 is specifically directed
against Tisamenes (PLRE I 916-917), who was governor (consularis) of
Syria in 386. Libanius hoped to get the emperor's support in removing him,
because of his inability in office. He starts by expressing frustration instead
of the customary joy and excitement over the presence of the governor. He is
clearly aware that in a speech for the governor praise was usually expected,
and he appears apologetic that this will not be the case here, for he will take
the opposite approach: "Ideally, Sire, everyone sent out to the government of
the provinces should be so good that I should be able to say something better
S. Price, Rituals and Power. Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge 1984),7-8.
Menander gives instructions for two other types of speeches for governors: the speech of invitation:
KA'1}TIXO, (424-430), and the speech in 'talk' fonn: AaAUl. (388-394).
2
3
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about Tisamenes. Indeed, my preference is not so much to speak ill of him as
the reverse.,,4
He briefly discusses Tisamenes' family background, explaining that,
although he came from a respectable family, and was on course for a good
education, he suddenly decided to head for the less respected life of
dancing. 5 As Menander Rhetor advises, in a speech of praise, to mention
good family background and good education was important, because it
would show that the governor was a respectable and sophisticated person 6
To state the opposite about the governor as Libanius does here, sets the tone
for his negative portrayal and assessment of Tisamenes. Libanius' slant
makes Tisamenes' situation seem even worse, because he did, in fact, come
from a respectable family and had started a good education until, evidently,
he decided to head into the wrong direction. The ideal of a respectable and
sophisticated governor is tellingly reversed in this image of Tisamenes.
Jurisdiction was one of the governor's most important and timeconsuming activities. In a speech of praise, when discussing the virtue of
justice, one would emphasize that the governor had a sense of humanity
toward his subjects, was uncorrupt, free from partiality and prejudice in his
judicial decisions, and treated the rich and poor equally.? Fair treatment of
the poor is a recurring theme in other sources; the jurist Ulpian, for example,
stressed it when he explained the duties of the governor. 8 Libanius
demonstrates the opposite in Tisamenes, who allegedly has a total lack of
interest in court cases and, when he must hear them, no determination in
bringing them to an end. Tisamenes is represented as a governor who would
p.ey OUTW<; a:rral/Ta<; a:ya.9-ou<; eTya, TOU<; em Ta<; TWY "y.9-WY tiexa<;
4 Libanius, Oratio 33.1: "E~e,
"x7Tep.7Top.eyOu<;, W f3a,IT,AeU, WITT' ep.ol YUY "selya, Ae'Ye,Y T' 7Teel T,ITap.evou f3eAT'OY, xal ')'tie ov~e
xaxw<; Ae'Ye,Y ~'OY
oITTi /LO' P.ii.MOY .;; TOUYaYTioy'. The text of Libanius is taken from the Teubner
edition by R. Foerster, ed., Libanii Opera (Stuttgart 1906). The translations are based on the Loeb
translations by AF. Norman (Cambridge (MA)lLondon 1977), with changes where appropriate.
5 Libanius, Oratio 33. 3.
6 Menander Rhetor 379-381 and 415-416.
7 Menander Rhetor 379: OUXOUY ~'xQ,ITe
p.EY 'r)p.'Y Ll7Tee TOY AiaxoY, 1J7Tee TOY Miywa, 1J7Tee TOY
'Pa~Q,p.y9-u·
xal TOUTOU ap.e,yoy 1i~7}
7Teop.aYTeuop.a" W "EM'r)ye<;. xal ei7TWY Ta To,aUTa xal 7TAeiw
7Teel ~'xa,oITuY7}<;
OT' ou~el<;
a~ixw<;
oixwe, TO ~eITp.W-r7}OY
.;; lJix'r)Y ~Wue,
Tcji yop.ljJ, ou 7T(lOXe,.9-7}ITeTa,
7TAOUuIO<;, ou xap.ai 7TeITelTa' AO'YO, TOU 7Tey'r)TO<; ~ixa,o<;
7T07TaUIT.9-WITay 7}P.ly 01 rrAouIT'o, Tal<;
7Tee,ouITia,<; xop.rroup.evo" 7Te=UIT.9-WITay olrreY'r)Te<; tl~ueop.yO'
T7}Y Q,IT.9-eye,ay ("As our judge he will
outclass Aeacus, Minos, or Rhadamanthus -nay, men of Hellas, I prophesy he will do better than
this ... " These and similar remarks may be made on the theme of justice: "No one will dwell in prison
unjustly, or be unjustly punished; the rich will not be preferred, nor the poor man's just cause fall on
the ground. So let our rich men cease to boast of their resources and our poor cease to complain of
their weakness. ")
8 Dig. 1.16.7.
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prefer to be at a public entertainment, "he shunned courts; hankered after
invitations to the hippodrome and the theatre" (33.8), while he should be
concerned with justice in court: "he is the greatest stumbling-block to the
administration of justice", because he is "incapable of seeing where justice
lies and refusing to keep his mouth shut. He burbles in a pointless flood of
words so as to distress the ears and weary the feet of the lawyers" (33.9)9
Again, praise and criticism are opposite sides of the same coin; the reverse
rhetoric from Libanius' speech shows the same expectation about the
governor's conduct in fulfilling his judicial responsibilities: provincials are
hoping for a governor who is fair and competent in court, a governor who is,
as Menander states it, "above gain and pleasure". 10
Tisamenes' lack of ability is not confined to judicial irresponsibility.
With regard to tax collection, the second main duty of the governor,
Libanius accuses him of asking for the taxes too early and of consciously
trying to hurt the provincials. He even publicly calls him a laughable fool:
cL xaTa'YEAaITTe.l1 This by no means exhausts the insults in the speech, but I
want to proceed to some general features of provincial government, which
set the speech in context.
As a member of the curial class of Antioch, Libanius is not
necessarily representing the view of the whole provincial population.
Nevertheless, he still reveals some of their expectations in the way he
expresses his anger and frustration at the governor's misbehavior. We could
call this a mirror image of what the governor should be, of the provincials'
expectations, and of what Menander recommends. Every negative comment,
when turned into the positive, is a reflection of provincials' hopes. Menander
too acknowledged this possible function of negativity, when he stated that in
a speech of welcome it is permissible to give a vivid portrayal of bad
treatment by the former governor, for this will be an encouragement to the
Libanius, Gratia 33.8: '!'UrT! /kev a:lra TWV lJ/xwv, ev e"xii (Je a/ xA7;ue,,; a, xaAel ,.,.ev /mro(JeO/kO"
xaAeI (Je '&eaTea, and 33.9: /ke'YiU7'1) Tal, (Jixal, av'&eWTrO, OUTOUI {3M/l'YI I... } o/he ou Ta (J,xa,ov eUTlv
i~e;lJ
exwv OUTe UIW7rav aieouf,UVo), aMQ. (/2WV axeWTqJ eeu#VJ.TI oiip m 're iL'T'a. aVIl1.Ual xa.' XOt/;a1
TOI, UUV(JiXOI, TO", TrO(Ja". er. Gratia 45.20: Ti OQV OUTOI TrOlOUUIV 0/ uw'r'ijee, a.~/OuvTe,
tlvo,.,.,;{eu'&al;
~exoulv
tlt/;6/kevol ,.,.ev TauTa, tlt/;6/kevol (Je exelva, vuv /kev XaAOU/keVOI, vuv (Je xai ov XaAOU/keVOI xai
TWV xA7;uewv (Je evia, aVTo; ucpO., aVTo", xaAouul ("So what do our governors do - these aspirants to
9
the title of 'saviors'? They hurry to see first this show, then that, sometimes by invitation, sometimes
not, sometimes actually self-invited, for obviously they are self-invited when they personally ensure
that the future hosts flock to their doors").
10 Menander Rhetor 380: eUTal XeeiTTWv xee(Jou" XeeiTTWv 0(Jovwv.
11 Libanius, Gratia 33.19.
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new governor to act differently.12 By the same token, many of the praises
recommended by Menander are designed to direct and inspire the governor
to rule well.
While there is not much evidence of open rebukes to a governor, the
speech against Tisamenes is not an isolated case. There are others by
Libanius himself. 13 In the early fifth century there is a notable example in the
work of Synesius, bishop of Cyrene (PLRE 11 1048-1050), who wrote
against the new governor of Libya Superior, Andronicus of Berenice (PLRE
11 89-90), because his appointment had allegedly been illegal. 14 Synesius,
like Libanius, offered a negative portrayal of the governor in regard to his
family background, education and sense of justice, and Andronicus emerged
as a pest, a wicked ruler destructive to his province. 15 Synesius' work is
instructive, because it presents a clash between a bishop and a governor.
Ever since the official adoption of Christianity by Theodosius the Great
(379-395), bishops had gained a key role in provincial communities. 16
Hence, they started to interfere with the governor's business, and inevitably
the two parties would clash. 17
The obvious first place in the Later Empire to express provincial
grievances and ask for requests was the provincial council. It continued to
function as a representative body, discussed matters of provincial interest,
and sent delegations to the vicar or praetorian prefect, who could in turn
refer them to the emperor. 18 The situation of Libanius is rather exceptional,
12 Menander Rhetor 378: " ... and amplify their hardships, not, however, speaking ill of the
predecessor, but simply reporting the subjects'misfortune. Then go on: 'When night and darkness
covered the world, you were seen like the sun, and at once dissolved all the difficulties'."
13 cr Libarllus, Gratio 57, against Severus; Gratio I, 26, 27, 28 and 29, all containing negative
statements against !callus; Gratio 44 and 54, Libarrius attacking Eustathius for not treating Libarrius
with sufficient respect.
14 CJ 1.41; no man was allowed to become governor of his province of his birth. By 610 this law was
ignored and governors were often natives of the area they governed. See also J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz,
Fall and Decline o/the Roman City (Oxford 2001), 279.
15 See Synesius, Epistula 41, 42,72,73,79, and 90, edited by.A. Garzya, Synesii Cyrenensis Epistolae
(Rome 1979).
16 AH.M, Jones, The Later Roman Empire 284-602 (Baltimore 1964), 165.
17 See Liebeschuetz 2001, op.cit. (n. 14), 152. The emperor Justinian (527-565) made it part of the
bishop's duty to supervise the governor. Upon entering the province, a new governor had to take an
oath in presence of the metropolitan bishop and leading citizens (Novella 8.14). Furthermore, Justinian
invited the bishop and leading citizens to bring complaints about the governor to the attention of the
emperor. If a citizen could not get justice from the governor, he was to take his matter to the bishop
who would take every step to see that justice was done, with the last resort of informing the emperor.
18 The following law from 382 illustrates that the provincial council was still regarded as an accepted
institution for dealing with provincials' business: CTh 12.12.9, ad provinciales: Sive integra dioecesis
in commune consulerit sive singulae inter se voluerint provinciae convenire, nullius iudicis potestate
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in that he claims a more direct link to the emperor; both speeches (45 and
33) addressed him, and he states that the emperor would expect him to
criticize the governor. In Speech 45 he says: "You (the emperor) will ask,
"How can it be that you (Libanius) have neglected this, when you should
reprove the governors and tell them what you are telling me now, and not
allow them to be slack, even if they want to be?,,19 Emperors were concerned
about their subjects, and at the same time wanted to know what their
governors and other officials were doing. In 331, Constantine the Great
(312-337) even ordered that written records of the acclamations of the
provinces had to be sent to the emperor for review. 20 As 'semi-spontaneous'
tractatus utilitati earum congruus difJeratur ("If an entire diocese should consult in common, or if
separate provinces should wish to meet with each other, by the power of no judge shall any discussion
be deferred if it is suitable to their advantage", text by Th. Mommsen & P. Meyer (Berlin 1905), and
translation by C. Pharr (New York 1952). Cf. Ammianus Marcellinus 28.6.7 for a reference to the
annual meeting of the provincial council in Tripolis.
19 Libanius, Gratio 45.16: Kal nw, rrU nSetSWea,. Se7Ju'TI. (}eov snlTtlJ-iiv TS TOI, ae')(.OU(TI xal mum Ii
vuvl Aeret, Ae'YStV xal pH)(}e fJoUAolJ-eVOt, eq.$vIJ-SIV entTeenStv. Cr. the reverse rhetoric in Menander
Rhetor 417-418: "Let us compose decrees to send to the emperors in praise and admiration, and in
prayer for many years of his (governor's) rule. Let us send statues to Delphi, to Olympia, to Athensfirst however filling our own cities with them. Let him be depicted with his subject people all around
him, all giving thanks and applauding. Let cities lead the procession in the picture, represented as
women, bright-faced and rejoicing".
20 CTh 1.16.6, ad provinciales (= CJ 1.40.3): iustissimos autem et vigiiantissimos iudices publicis
adclamationibus conlaudandi damus omnibus potestatem, ut honoris eis auctiores proferamus
processus, e contrario iniustis et maleficis querellarum vocibus accusandis, ut censurae nostrae vigor
eos absumat; nam si verae voces sunt nec ad libidinem per clientes effusae, diligenter investigabimus,
praefectis praetorio et comitibus, qui per provincias constituti sunt, provincialium nostrorum voces ad
nostram scientiam referentibus, ("we grant to all persons the privilege of praising by public
acclamation the most just and vigilant judges, so that We may grant increased accessions of honor to
them. On the contrary, the unjust and the evildoers must be accused by cries of complaints, in order
that the force of Our censure may destroy them. For we shall carefully investigate whether such
utterances are truthful and are not poured forth effusively and wantonly by clients. The praetorian
prefects and the counts who have been stationed throughout the provinces shall refer to Our Wisdom
the utterances of Our provincials")' Cf. CTh 12.12.9 of 382 ad provincials: sicut licere columus
oppressis dejIere quae peiferunt, ita provinciales nostri nec incassum peregrination em suscipiendam
eaque ad sacras aures deferenda cognoscant, quae probabiliter principibus adserantur nec supeif/uis
perennitatem nostram existiment actibus occupandam ('Just as it is Our will that the oppressed
provincials shall be permitted to lament their sufferings, so Our provincials shall know that they must
not undertake such a pilgrimage in vain and that they must convey to Our sacred imperial ears those
matters which may reasonably be alleged before the Emperor, and they must not suppose that Our
Eternity should be besieged with superfluous transactions"). See also J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz, Antioch.
City and Imperial Administration in the Later Roman Empire (Oxford 1972),209, and A. Cameron,
Circus Factions. Blues and Greens at Rome and Byzantium (Oxford 1976),241 for more discussion on
the semi-constitutional status of acclamations. Cf. C. RouecM, 'Acclamations in the Later Roman
Empire: New Evidence from Aphrodisias', Journal ofRoman Studies 84 (1984), 181-199.
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expressions of a unanimous crowd, acclamations illustrate that provincials
knew that demonstrations of negative sentiments were allowed 21
Any individual, even though he spoke on behalf of a community or a
province, took a risk by exposing himself to the anger and possibly revenge of
a governor, or the governor's supporters. Libanius himself shows his
awareness of this risk when he states at the beginning of his speech 33: "now
the person, whose many words and actions have secured him as our governor,
will be annoyed at my remarks and will seek to do harm to the one who has
provoked him, for his influence is all that he could wish it to be"n
Why, then, would Libanius even dare to speak negatively about the
governor in public? For provincials to be upset about the governor's behavior
was hardly a novelty of the Later Roman Empire. Under the Republic and the
Principate provincials could, and did, accuse the governor of misconduct
after his term of office in the repetundae courts or the senate. It seems,
though, that even the latter court stopped functioning in the early third
century, when we find the last known repetllndae case under Septimius
Severus. 23 The Roman world was changing, and provincials needed to find
other ways to express their frustration.
Several features of the Late Roman world perhaps acted to make it less
'perilous' to rebuke the governor openly during his term of office. First, the
reforms of Diocletian (284-305) led to a new division into many more
provinces, and a novel system of dioceses and prefectures, headed by vicars
and praetorian prefects respectively. By breaking up the larger provinces and
by creating separate military commanders (duces), Diocletian diminished the
status of provincial governors. At the same time, many more men became
21 By the fourth century, acclamations had become less spontaneous, and increasingly standardized
and regulated, shouted according to certain rhythms. G.S. Aldrete, in Gesftlres alld .~clamTios
ill
Allcielll Rome (Baltimore 1999), 128-131, argues that the formulaic character of acclamations does not
necessarily exclude tlexibility, and proves his point with some examples of standard expressions of
acclamations adapted into something completely different.
22 Libanius, Gralio 33.2: " Ikev ouv, IV OUTO, ie~lV
7}1k11W, rroMa Ikev elm;'v, rroMo. iJe 1rol7}rTrL,
.~IlTioche
XrLAe7rO, Te err; TOI, Ae'Y0IkEVOI, erTTrLI XrLi t;'f}T7}rTel TOV AeAUrr'f}XOTrL 7rOI"i)rTrLl XrLX1,J:; OUrT'f}:; rLtiTCP
iJwawo:; 07rOrT'f}, i3-EAet. The identity of this 'person' is unclear. R.A. Pack, STudies ill Liballius alld
SocieTy ullder Theodosius (Diss. Michigan 1935), 96, has suggested that this 'person' is
possibly Cmegius (PLRE I 235-236) the Praetorian Prefect of the Orient in the period 384-388, but
Nonllan 1977. op.cit. (n. 4), 194 remains skeptical.
D See R.J.A. Talbert. The Sellate of Impen'al Rome (Princeton 1984). appendix 9. 51 () Cl'. PA. 13mnt,
'Charges of Provincial Maladministration under the Early Empire', in Idem, Romall Imperial 7/temes
(Oxford 1990).53-95. with 487-506.
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governors, because many more were needed?4 Consequently, other Roman
officials - with more power than the governor and able to interfere with his
business - became a permanent presence throughout the provinces. This
inevitably caused a shift in the relationship between governors and
provincials. He was less powerful, and provincials might feel less hesitant to
criticize him, now that they could take their case to the vicar, or even to the
praetorian prefect.
Further adjustments, too, were required of governors themselves
from Diocletian's time onwards. Before, they were sent to govern provincials
who mostly were of lower status than them selves. This had changed. The
provincial elite was more and more the elite of the Empire, and often had
valuable connections in Rome or Constantinople. Typically now, the governor
came from the same class as the elite of the people he was governing, or even
from a lesser one. As always, if the masses became upset with the governor,
they might not be able to pursue their aggravation; but if wealthy upper class
provincials with good connections were frustrated, they were better placed
than ever to use their influence against the governor. In addition, to a
provincial like Libanius -who belonged to the elite of the province and had
established himself as a famous orator and patron of his city- the individual
governor was of only temporary importance. Why fear him unduly? For the
governor, the unpredictability of the length of his term in office did not help
either. It was not fixed, and, Jones, based on the fasti of Africa and Egypt,
has drawn the conclusion that on average the length of a governor's term of
office was probably well under two years. 25 Libanius also refers to the rapid
turnover of governors: "nowadays, though, it is the man who has been able
to buy office, who scurries in and keeps turning round to check whether his
successor is hard on his heels". 26 Such a relatively short term will have
created tension for the governor, because of the "complexity of his
24 C. Roueche, 'The FWlctions of the Roman Governor in Late Antiquity: Some Observations',
Antiquite Tardive 6 (1998), 35. Most likely members of the provincial elite served as governors as
well, because a larger number of governors were needed.
25 Jones 1964, op.cit. (n. 16),381-383. For Africa (in the period between 357-417) the average was
little more than a year, and for Egypt (328-373, when the prefects of Egypt were mere provincial
governors) well Wlder two years, perhaps even 18 months.
26 Libanius, Gratia 2.42: aMa. VUV 'l"eexsl ply err; "M)v aex'ljv tl rreiauS-al ~vsi"
/ksmu'l"eecpsml ae
rrseluxorrii'JY /k'lj ou rroMol;, arrexsl u~io,
tl a,S~O/kVo.
Cf. H.I. Bell, The Abinnaeus archive
(Oxford 1962). Upon presenting the imperial letter with his appointment as the new commander of the
praefectus alae at Dionysia to the cOWlt of Egypt, Abinnaeus (PLRE 11-2) fOWld that other men had
claimed his office with similar letters. Even though he was not a governor, his story illustrates the
Wlpredictability of public office.
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responsibilities,,27 If time was short, it was practically impossible to focus
on any long-term issues. However, it must be noted that short tenure was not
a new feature of the Later Roman Empire. Under the Principate, governors
of public provinces routinely had a term of only one year, and they ran into
the same difficulty with long-term problems.
The question arises, if the office of governor had been so much
devalued, why would anyone even want it, as many evidently did? One
reason was financial gain, which was accompanied by the widespread
phenomenon of corruption. 28 Governors often spent lavishly to purchase the
office, and during their term they tried to compensate for such expenditure.
Another notable motive was to acquire permanent exemption from curial
duties, one of the privileges for those who had held office. 29
Provincials and governors were part of the same system, yet there
was inevitably tension between them. In the end, though, each needed the
other. If the governor demonstrated that he was serving the interests of
provincials, they were willing to comply with him, and vice versa. If he
fulfilled his duties according to their expectations, they praised him. If not,
Libanius illustrates for us the possible reaction. The sharp closing words of
his Speech 33 sum up the provincials' ideal:
"So free your cities of such ills and send us a man of sense, who is
eager to work hard, a doer rather than a talker, and one who will
use persuasion rather than compulsion, a helper of the poor rather
than their oppressor, who will distinguish what is and what is not
possible, and recognize a time for flogging and a time for
threatening - in short, a man who is nothing at all like this plague
here".3o
UNC Chapel Hill, March 2003
Roueche 1998, op.cit. (n. 24), 34.
Cf. CTh 8.15.5, 8.15.6. Jones 1964, op.cit. (n. 16), 393-401. See R. MacMullen, Corrnption and the
Decline o/Rome (New Haven!London 1988), especially 122-170 for a discussion of corruption and the
sale of offices. Cf. Libanius, Oratio 2.42: op.oM'Ye; lJe eu'%, cO, 1jxe A'r}!/;op.evo•• xa.i TOUTO T'ii. aeX'ii. TO
7reooip.lov. ev lJe TO;. a7rlLvrolV orp$-a.Ap.o;. Ta. n:eon;eov ev uxoTel 'Y'-yv0p.eva. ToAp.iiml ("He agrees
straightaway that he is there for what he can get; and this is the prelude to his term, and what
previously used to be done under cover, is now ventured upon in full view of all and sundry").
29 Jones 1964, op.cit. (n. 16),536.
30 Libanius, Oratio. 33.43: !\7raMa.Sov lJ-i} Ta., Ua.VTOU 7roAel, TOIOlhwv xaxiiiv xa.i 7rep.rpov liv(}ea. vouv
27
28
AaM/UOVTa. xa.i 7r/;/UOVTa. p.a.MOV 7i
T; ,uv ~va.TOy,
T; as oV,
xa.i xa.1eov p.Sv 7rA'r}'Yiiiv. xa.1eov lJe eluop.evov a7reIA?j,. oAw, ou(}ev eOlxom Tcjj AOIp.cjj TOtmp.
Te f%OVTa. xa.i 7rOVWV Eml~p.'r}T7v
avu,1'xao-ollTa
xa.i 7rAeiw 7reaSovTa.
xa, {3o'Y]S,quoVTa
;reV'r}tTIV,
7i
OUX errITeitllf)lrra., xa" a,a'YYW(T0lkeyOV,
326
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III
THE REPRESENTATION AND PERCEPTION
OF ROMAN IMPERIAL POWER
INDIVIDUAL EMPERORS
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AUGUSTUS, WAR AND PEACE
By
J. W. RICH
For the theme of the representation and perception of Roman imperial power to
which this volume is devoted no individual could be more central than Augustus
and no aspect of his reign of greater importance than his role as both great
conqueror and bringer of peace. In this paper I shall discuss not only the
presentation and perception of this aspect of the first emperor, but also the
policies which lay behind the presentation.
Ideology
Augustus was proclaimed as a great victor in every contemporary medium. 1 The
preamble of the Res Gestae declares that what follows records the achievements
by which "he subjected the world to the empire of the Roman people" (orbem
terrarum imperio populi Romani subiecit). Early in the document (3.1-4.2)
Augustus tells us that "I often waged civil and external wars by land and sea
throughout the whole world" (bella terra et mari civilia extemaque toto in orbe
saepe gessi), and records among other feats his two ovations, three curule
triumphs, 21 imperatorial salutations and 55 supplicationes. A later section (2633) substantiates the preamble's claim of world conquest with a lengthy rehearsal
of both military and diplomatic successes.
1 On war and peace in Augustan ideology see especially E. S. Gruen, 'Augustus and the ideology of
war and peace', in R. Winkes (ed.), The Age of Augustus (Providence 1985), 51-72; P. Zanker, The
Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor 1988), 79 fT.; 172 fT.; 215fT.; P. A. Brunt,
Roman Imperial Themes (Oxford 1990), 96-109; 433-480; C. Nicolet, Space. Geography and Politics
in the Early Roman Empire (Ann Arbor 1991), IS-56; F. V. Hickson, 'Augustus triumphator:
manipUlation of the triumphal themes in the political program of Augustus', Latomus SO (1991),
125-138; 1. B. Campbell, War and Society in Imperial Rome 31 BC - AD 284 (London 2002). 122132. In general on the Roman cult of victory and other abstractions see 1. R. Fears, ANRW II.17.2
(1981),736-948 (esp. 804 fT., 884 fT. on Augustan developments). E. S. Ramage presents valuable
collections of material on Augustan 'propaganda' in Gaul, Spain and Africa at Klio 79 (1997), 117160; 80 (1998), 434-490; 82 (2000), 171-207. See also G. Cresci Marrone, Ecumene Augustea
(Rome 1993); A. Mehl, 'Imperium sine fme dedi - die augusteische Vorstellung von der
Grenzlosigkeit des romischen Reiches', in E. Olshausen and H. Sonnabend (eds.), Stuttgarter
Kolloquium zur historischen Geographie des Altertums 4, 1990 (Amsterdam 1994), 431-464; K.
Balbuza, 'Die Siegesideologie von Octavian Augustus', Eos 86 (1999), 267-299.
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The theme was on monumental display all over the city of Rome. In the
Senate House Augustus erected an altar and statue of Victory.2 Outside, in the
Roman Forum, prows from ships captured at Naulochus and Actium were
displayed, following Republican precedents, on specially erected columns and on
the new Rostra at the front of the temple ofDivus lulius. 3 Alongside that temple
stood Augustus' triple arch, erected, as I have recently argued, to celebrate the
Actium victory and later adapted to commemorate the Parthian settlement as
wel1. 4 A short distance away was Augustus' own new Forum, built from his
spoils, whose decorations, as Velleius tells us, included tituli of the peoples he
had conquered. 5 Elsewhere in the city were other commemorations of Augustus'
conquests, for example the obscure Porticus ad Nationes, perhaps the model for
the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias. 6 Two Egyptian obelisks were set up in 10/9 BC,
with inscriptions recording their dedication to the Sun, "Egypt having been
brought into the power of the Roman people" (Aegupto in potestatem populi
Romani redacta); one was erected on the spina of the Circus Maximus, and the
other as the gnomon of a sundial, laid out in the northern Campus Martius
between Augustus' Mausoleum and the Altar of Pax Augusta. 7 Also in the
Campus Martius stood the Porticus Vipsania, completed from Agrippa's designs
by his sister. As Pliny tells us (Naturalis historia 3.17), Agrippa planned there "to
set the world before the city for inspection" (orbem terrarum urbi spectandum
propositurus). Brodersen has recently reminded us just how fragile is the basis for
the usual view that the Porticus contained a map of the world. 8 However, even if
2 Cassius Dio 51.22.1-2; V. Ehrenberg & A. H. M. Jones, Documents illustrating the Reigns 0/
Augustus and Tiberius (Oxford 1967, 2nd ed.) [hereafter, EJ], 51; T. Holscher, Victoria
Romana (Mainz 1967),6-17; LTUR 5.150 (E. Tortorici).
3 Columns: Appian, Bella civilia 5.130; Servius, ad. Georg. 3.29; LTUR 1.308 (D. Palombi). Rostra:
Cassius Dio 51.19.2; LTUR 3.117 (P. Gros).
4 1. W. Rich, 'Augustus's Parthian honours, the temple of Mars Ultor and the arch in the Forum
Romanum', Papers o/the British School at Rome 66 (1998), 71-128.
5 Res Gestae 21.1; Velleius Paterculus 2.39.2, with Rich 1998, op.cit. (n.4), 123-124.
6 Servius, ad Aen. 8.721; R. R. R. Smith, 'Simulacra gentium: the Ethne from the Sebasteion at
Aphrodisias', Journal o/Roman Studies 78 (1988), 50-77.
7 EJ 14; Pliny, Naturalis Historia 36.70-73. Recent studies have shown that the pavement was a
meridian-instrument, not a true sundial, and have refuted E. Buchner's hypothesis that its equinoctial
line intersected with the Ara Pacis: M. Schutz, 'Zur Sonnenuhr auf dem Marsfeld', Gymnasium 97
(1990), 432-457; T. Barton, 'Augustus and Capricorn: astrological polyvalency and imperial
rhetoric', Journal o/Roman Studies 84 (1994), 33-51, at pp. 44-46.
8 K. Brodersen, Terra Cognita: Studien zur romischen Raumerfassung (Hildesheim, Zurich & New
York 1995), 268-285. For the usual view of the monument as a map, see especially Nicolet 1991,
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he is right that it merely housed an inscription, the monument must still have been
intended as an emblem of Augustan world rule.
Elsewhere in the empire Augustus the victor was celebrated by numerous
arches, and by other monuments such as the memorial for the Actium victory
erected on the site of his camp and just outside Nicopolis, the new 'Victory City',
or the trophies erected at St-Bertrand-de-Comminges and La Turbie in honour of
the successes in Spain, Gaul and the Alps 9 The goddess Victory, often shown
surmounting a globe (as probably in the Senate House statue), was one of the
commonest types on the Augustan coinage, and this and related themes often
appear in private art, for example the Boscoreale cups, where Venus is shown
placing Victory on a globe held by Augustus. 1O
When civil wars ended, OctavianlAugustus was (like Caesar earlier)
honoured as bringer of peace. 11 Thus the column erected after his victory over
Sextus Pompeius in 36 BC bore the inscription: "Peace, long disturbed, he reestablished on land and sea".12 More in the same vein followed the victories over
Antony and Cleopatra. In 29 BC, the augurium Saiutis was held and the shrine of
Janus was closed, both deemed to require universal peace.13 The closure of Janus
was an antiquarian revival of a rite whose attribution to Numa had probably been
invented at the time of the only previous historical celebration in 235 BC, and of
which Augustus' contemporaries will have been reminded by Varro's
op.cit. (n.I), 95-122; l. Engels, Augusteische Oikumenegeographie und Universalhistorie im Werk
Strabons von Amaseia (Stuttgart 1999), 359-377.
9 For overviews see W. Mierse, 'Augustan building programs in the western provinces', in K. A.
Raaflaub and M. Toher (eds.), Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and his
Principate (Berkeley, Los Angeles & Oxford 1990), 308-333; Ramage, opp. citt. (n.1); D. Kienast,
Augustus: Prinzeps und Monarch (Darmstadt 1999, 3rd ed.), 417-449. The Actimn memorial: W. M.
Murray and P. M. Petsas, Octavian's Campsite Memorial for the Actium War (Philadelphia 1989).
Trophies: G. Charles-Picard, Les trophees romains (Paris 1957), 253-311; Ramage 1997, op.cit.
(n.I),125-126.
10 Holscher, op.cit. (n.I), 6-47; A. L. Kuttner, Dynasty and Empire in the Age of Augustus: the Case
of the Boscoreale Cups (Berkeley, Los Angeles & Oxford 1995), 13-34.
11 On the Roman conception of peace and on honours for Caesar and Augustus as bringers of peace
see especially S. Weinstock, 'Pax and the "Ara Pacis''', Journal ofRoman Studies 50 (1960), 44-58,
at pp. 44-50. Weinstock's suggestion that Caesar planned to institute a cult of Pax is fanciful, and his
rejection of the identification of the surviving monmnent with the Ara Pacis Augustae is perverse,
but the article remains an invaluable collection of evidence.
12 Appian, Be/la civilia 5.130.
13 Res Gestae 13; El p. 45; Livy 1.19.3; Suetonius, Augustus 22, 31.4; Cassius Dio 51.20.4.
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researches. 14 The occurrence of the same phrase in several sources' reference to
this closing of Janus suggests that the senate's decree expressly linked it with the
establishment of peace 'on land and sea', adapting a fonnula first used of
Hellenistic rulers.15 About the same time the goddess Pax figured on the coinage
of both Italian and Eastern rnints.16
Later in the reign Augustus continued to be celebrated as bringer of
peace. The closure of Janus was decreed twice more during his reign, in 25
BC after his successes in Spain and at an uncertain later date. 17 An altar of
Augustan Peace (Pax Augusta) was decreed on Augustus' return to Rome in
13 BC and dedicated in 9 BC, surviving to become for us the most famous of
all Augustan monuments. 18 The cult is attested elsewhere too: an altar to Pax
Augusta from Narbo appears from its decoration to be of Augustan date,
while Strabo records Paxaugusta as the name of a colony.19 Other provincial
celebrations of Augustus the peace-maker include a well-known decree of the
Koinon in Asia in 9 BC, in which he is praised as "the saviour who has
brought war to an end", and the dedication of a gold statue to Augustus in
the Forum Augustum at Rome by the province of Baetica "because by his
beneficence and perpetual care the province has been pacified"20
14 Weinstock 1960, op.cit. (n.II), 48. See also R. Turcan, 'Janus it l'epoque imperiale', ANRW
IT.l7.1 (1981), 374-402; G. Forsythe, The Historian L. Calpurnius Piso and the Roman Annalistic
Tradition (Lanham 1994), 185-193; LTUR 3.92-93 (E. Tortorici).
15 A. Momigliano, 'Terra marique', Journal of Roman Studies 32 (1942), 53-64. Cicero had already
spoken of Pompey as having established universal peace by land and sea: In Catilinam 2.11 omnia
sunt externa unius virtute terra marique pacata; cf. De Imperio Cn. Pompeii 56; Pro Flacco 29; Pro
Balbo 16; ILS 8776. The inscription on the Actium memorial at Nicopolis proclaims its dedication
pace parta terra {mariquej: El 12; Murray and Petsas 1989, op.cit. (n.9), 76.
16 RIC Augustus 252-253; 476. The goddess Peace also appears on two civic coinages of the
Augustan period: RPC I. 1529 (Pella); 2062 (Nicomedia).
17 Res Gestae 13; Suetonius, Augustus 22; Cassius Dio 53.26.5; 54.36.2; Orosius 6.21.11; 22.1; R.
Syme, Roman Papers ill (Oxford 1984), 1179-1197; VI (Oxford 1991),441-450; and see below.
18 Res Gestae 12.2; El pp. 46; 49; Cassius Dio 54.25.3. K. Galinsky, Augustan Culture (Princeton
1996),141-155, is a good recent overview; for further bibliography see Kienast, op.cit. (n.9), 239240; LTUR4.70-74 (M. Torelli). Note also the statue of Pax dedicated by Augustus, along with
statues of Sal us Publica and Concordia, in 10 BC (Cassius Dio 54.35.2).
19 See Weinstock 1960, op.cit. (n.ll), 48; 54. The altar: ILS 3789. The colony: Strabo 3.2.15 (151 C).
Strabo mentions the colony in his account of Spain, but describes it as in Gau!. Not otherwise
attested, it is perhaps to be identified with Pax Iulia (the modern Beja) in Lusitania. The foundation
(or refoundation) will doubtless have taken place in 15-14 BC, when Augustus founded a number of
colonies in Gaul and Spain (Res Gestae 16.1; Cassius Dio 54.23.7).
20 El 42 (Baetican statue); 98 line 36 (Asian decree).
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Significant though this evidence is, it is clear that Peace was accorded
much less prominence in the Augustan media than Victory21 There was in any
case no contradiction between the commemoration of Augustus as victor and as
peacemaker, since in the Roman conception pacification was achieved through
victories. Thus Cicero could speak of Macedonia as having been "pacified by
many victories and triumphs" (mu/tis victoriis ... triumphisque pacata), and
claims for triumphs were commonly linked with the pacification of the
commander's province. 22 Caesar in the De bello gallico repeatedly marks his
progress by speaking of part or all of Gaul as pacata by his victories. 23 Augustus
himself in the Res Gestae asserts that tradition required the closure of Janus when
over the whole empire "peace had been won by victories" (esset parta victoriis
pax), and in his later review of his successes in war he boasts of having pacified
the sea, the Gallic and Spanish provinces, Germany and the Alps24 Similarly,
Velleius, in a brief survey of Augustus' achievements, speaks of his having
"pacified the world by victories", and goes on to sketch the pacification of the
West, and in particular of Dalmatia, the Alps and Spain. 25
Nevertheless, there was great ambivalence both in Augustus' external
achievements and in the ways in which they were perceived and presented.
Augustus and those commanding under his auspices conquered more territory
than anyone before or after in Roman history. The civil wars had closed with
the annexation of Egypt. The achievements of Augustus' sole rule included
the conquest of north-west Spain and the Alps and of a vast tract in the
Balkans extending as far as the Danube. He also claimed the conquest of
Germany as far as the Elbe, only to see it fall out of Roman control in his last
21 Rightly remarked by Gruen, op.cit. (n.I); Ramage 1997, op.cit. (n.I), 136 ff.; Ramage 1998, op.cit.
(n.I),462 ff.
22 Macedonia: Cicero, De provinciis consularibus 4. Triumphs: e.g. Livy 39.29.5; 41 12.10; 41.17.3;
Suetonius, Iulius 18.1.
23 Caesar, De bello gallico 2.35.1; 3.7.1; 28.1; 4.37.1; 6.5.1; 7.65.4.
24 Res Gestae 13; 25.1 (mare pacavi a praedonibus); 26.2-3 (Gallias et Hispanias provincias, item
Germaniam qua includit Oceanus a Gadibus ad ostium Albis j1uminis pacavi. Alpes a regione ea,
quae proxima est Hadriano mari, ad Tuscum pacificavi).
25 Velleius Paterculus 2.89.6 (bella sub imperatore gesta pacatusque victoriis terrarum orbis); 90.1
(Delmatia ... ad certam conlessionem pacata est imperii. Alpes leris incultisque nationibus celebres
perdomitae. Hispaniae nunc ipsius praesentia, nunc Agrippae ... multo varioque Marte pacatae);
91.1 (dum pacatur occidens). Note also 2.126.3, where Velleius includes among the blessings of
Tiberius' reign the universal diffusion of pax augusta (the only occurrence of the phrase in a literary
source).
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years as a result of Varus' disaster. However, his reign also marked the end
of steady Roman expansion. The empire at his death could be spoken of as
"enclosed by the Ocean and by long rivers",26 and Claudius and Trajan were
the only subsequent emperors to make major additions to the empire. In
avoiding expansion, his successors were following the advice which Augustus
had left them. Among the documents which Augustus left and which were
read out in the senate after his death was a summary of the resources of the
empire, and to this summary, written in his own hand, he had appended the
advice that the empire should be kept within its bounds. 27 Thus, by the end of
his life, Augustus had concluded that the expansion to which he had made so
notable a contribution should go no farther.
Later writers sometimes downplay Augustus' conquests, apparently
influenced by their knowledge of the sequel and in some cases by their own
prejudices against expansion. Thus Suetonius, writing under Hadrian, who had
abjured expansion, passes over the conquests very briefly, stressing instead
Augustus' restraint in his dealings with foreign peoples, and he later remarks on
Augustus' insistence that battles or wars should not be begun unless the
prospective gain exceeded the loss risked. 28 Floms, who criticizes the inertia of
Augustus' successors, makes much more of Augustus' wars, but still ends his
work with an effusion on Augustus' establishment of universal peace. 29 Cassius
Tacitus, Annales 1.9.5: mari Oceano aut amnibus longinquis saeptum imperium.
Tacitus, Annales 1.11.4: quae cuncta (se. the summary of imperial resources) sua manu
perscripserat Augustus addideratque consilium coercendi intra terminos imperii. The failure of
Suetonius, Augustus 10 1.4, to mention this advice is not an argument against its authenticity.
According to Cassius Dio 56.33.3-6 the warning against expansion formed part of a separate
document devoted to advice; this elaboration is certainly fictional and may be Dio's own work. It is
uncertain whether the summary of resources with its appended advice against expansion was read
along with the other documents at the first senate meeting, before Augustus' funeral (so Dio), or
separately at the second session on 17 September at which Augustus' deification was decreed (so
Tacitus; EJ p. 52 for the date). Tacitus' language is naturally interpreted as meaning that Augustus
had added the advice in writing, not orally, contra J. Ober, 'Tiberius and the political testament of
Augustus', Historia 31 (1982), 306-328. It is in any case unlikely that Tiberius would have
presumed to invent the advice, as Ober maintains.
28 Suetonius, Augustus 21; 25.4. At 21.2 Suetonius cites the oaths which Augustus administered to
some barbarian chieftains and his practice on hostages as evidence of how much "he lacked the
desire to increase empire or military glory by whatever means" (tantum afuit a eupiditate quoquo
modo imperium vel bellicam glon'am augendi). The passage does not allege that he lacked such
desire altogether, as supposed by, e.g., Gruen 1985, op.cit. (n.!), 67 n. 92, and Brunt 1990, op.cit.
(n.I), 465, disregarding quoquo modo.
29 Florus 2.34. Successors' inertia: Florus I. praef 8.
26
27
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Dio, who makes no secret of his opposition to expansion in his own day, regularly
depreciates Augustus' wars and perversely claims that he both preached and
practised the policy of not extending the empire throughout his reign. This
distorted view led him to interpret as a general statement against imperial
expansion a letter sent by Augustus to the senate in 20 BC, which must in fact
have had a more limited application and probably referred primarily to the
decision to leave Armenia and other territories as client kingdoms rather than
annexing them as provinces. 30 The emperor Julian, in his satire The Caesars,
makes Augustus boast that "I did not give way to boundless ambition and aim at
enlarging the empire at all costs, but assigned for it two boundaries defined as it
were by nature herself, the Danube and the Euphrates". 31
It was not only later writers who misinterpreted Augustus' intentions.
Contemporary perplexities can be traced in the evidence of the poets. Parthia was
the principal business which Augustus' predecessors had left unfinished. Crassus'
invasion of Parthia had ended in his defeat and death at Carrhae in 53 BC, and
since then the Parthians had been the Romans' greatest enemy. Caesar's planned
invasion had been pre-empted by his death, and further humiliations had followed:
the Parthians had invaded Syria in 40 BC, defeating and killing the legate L.
Decidius Saxa; Antony had invaded Parthia in 36 BC, but his rearguard under
Oppius Statianus had been annihilated, and winter had forced him to withdraw
under Parthian harassment. The Parthians still held captives and standards from
Crassus', Decidius' and Antony's armies. Other peoples too remained in defiance,
including the Britons: revolt in Gaul had prevented Caesar from carrying out the
conquest of Britain which he had essayed through his invasions in 55-54 BC, and
no subsequent commander had taken up the challenge.
In the first years of Augustus' sole rule, Virgil, Horace and Propertius
make frequent prophecies of grand conquests for Augustus which would extend
Roman rule to the ends of the earth and over Parthia in particular. Several of
Horace's poems also look forward to the subjugation of Britain. Horace's
Regulus Ode provides a concise formulation:
30 Cassius Dio 54.9.1. Other references to the supposed policy of non-expansion: 53.10.4; 56.33.5-6;
41.7. See Brunt 1990, op.cit. (n.I), 106; 462; 466-468; J. W. Rich, Cassius Dio, The Augustan
Settlement (Roman History 53-55.9) (Wanninster 1990), 17; 183.
31 Julian, Caesares 326C: Chi yap 'tate; aIlE'tpOte; Eltt9ulliate; £tKroV E1ttK'ta.cre<Xt 1taV:~
autil Otvo~eTl£
opt<X OE oma., c001t£p imo TIle; cpucr£roc; a1tOO£oeiYIl£va, "Icr'tpov Kat EUcppa.1:T]V 1to'taIlOVe; EeEIl TlV.
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caelo tonantem credidimus Iovem
regnare: praesens divus habebitur
Augustus adiectis Britannis
imperio gravibusque Persis.
In heaven his thunder taught us Jupiter
Is king. Augustus will be held a god
Amongst us, when to the empire
He adds the Britons and grim Persians [se. Parthians].32
The poets may be taken as reflecting public expectations and as writing what they
thought might please the emperor himself The Roman public, then, expected
Augustus to embark on great wars of foreign conquest like those of Pompey and
Caesar, and above all to subjugate the Parthians by force of arms. 33
The expected attacks on Parthia and Britain never took place.
Whether Augustus ever contemplated an invasion of Britain remains
uncertain. Dio's reports that he was planning an invasion in 34, 27 and 25 BC
may perhaps derive from contemporary rumours, but it is unlikely that he was
seriously considering such an enterprise in those years.34 With Parthia
Augustus consistently pursued a diplomatic solution. This bore fruit in 20
BC, when he induced the Parthian king Phraates to surrender the Roman
captives and standards in return for Roman friendship, and he continued to
rely on diplomatic methods in his dealings with Parthia throughout the rest of
his reign.
Even after the settlement of 20 BC expectations of Parthian conquest
were not wholly abandoned. Thus Propertius speaks of Parthian trophies as
32 Horatius, Cannina 3.5.1-4. For expected Parthian and British conquest see also Horatius,
Cannina 1.35.29-32; cf. Epodi 7.7-10, Cannina 1.21.15. For other prophecies of Parthian and wider
conquest see Vergilius, Georgica 3.32-33; 4.61; Aeneis 7.603-606; Horatius, Sennones 2.1.14-15;
Cannina 1.2.51-52; 1.12.53-57; 1.29.1-5; 2.9.18-24; 3.3.43-48; Propertius 2.10.13-18; 3.4.1-6.
33 For full discussion of the poets' treatment of external policies and expectations see H. D. Meyer,
Die Aussenpolitik des Augustus und die augusteische Dichtung (Cologne 1961), with the criticisms
of Brunt 1990, op.cit. (n.I), 96-109, and W. Schmitthenner, Gnomon 37 (1965),152-162. There is
no need to suppose that Horace was offering a personal critique of Augustus' inactivity, as suggested
by R. Seager, 'Neu sinas Medos equitare inultos: Horace, the Parthians and Augustan foreign policy',
Athenaeum 58 (1980),103-118. On the poets' relationship with the Augustan regime see above all P.
White, Promised Verse: Poets in the Society ofAugustan Rome (Cambridge, Mass. 1993).
34 Cassius Dio 49.38.2; 53.22.5; 53.25.2; Rich 1990, op.cit. (n.30), 156-157.
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postponed for Augustus' adopted sons Gaius and Lucius to win, and, on the
eve of Gaius' departure for the East in 1 BC, Ovid prophesied the triumph he
would celebrate over Parthia. In the event, Gaius restored good relations, as
Augustus had no doubt always intended, meeting the new king Phraataces in
person in AD 2.35
Rorace, however, takes a different line in poems written after the
settlement of 20 BC and one which is closely in accord with the picture
Augustus himself was to present in the Res Gestae. World rule and universal
peace is no longer presented as in the future, to be accomplished by
Augustus' expected wars of conquest, but as having been already achieved by
his military and diplomatic successes. The Parthian settlement was at the
heart of this claim: Augustus maintained, with little or no justification, that he
had 'compelled' the Parthians to return the Romans' standards and spoils and
to seek their friendship as 'suppliants', and they are represented on the
coinage and elsewhere as surrendering the standards on bended knee. 36
Further support was supplied by the fortuitous arrival, about the same time,
of embassies from the Scythians and Indians. 3? Rence Rorace's proud boast
in the Carmen Saeeulare:
iam mari terraque manus potentis
Medus Albanasque timet securis,
iam Scythae responsa petunt superbi
nuper et Indi.
Now the Mede [se. the Parthian] fears the forces strong by land
And sea and the Alban axes; now
The Scythians, formerly proud, and the Indians
35 Propertius 4.6.80-82; Ovidius, Ars Amatoria 1.177-228; Remedia Amoris 155-158. Gaius'
meeting: Velleius Paterculus 2.101; Cassius Dio 55.lOa.4.
36 Res Gestae 29.2: Parthos trium exercitum Romanorum spolia et signa reddere mihi supplicesque
amicitiam populi Romani petere coegi. Kneeling Parthians: Horatius, Epistulae 1.12.28; RIe
Augustus 287-289,304-305,314-315; R. M. Schneider, Bunte Barbaren (Worms 1986), 18-97. For
other sources on the settlement of 20 BC see Rich 1990, op.cit. (n.30), 180-181. For its
commemoration in art see especially Zanker 1988, op.cit. (n.I), 186-192.
37 Listed along with other embassies from far-flung peoples at Res Gestae 31. Other sources include
Strabo 15.1.4 (686C); 15.1.73 (719-720C); Suetonius, Augustus21.3; Florus 2.34.62; Orosius
6.21.19. Augustus received an Indian embassy while he was in Spain and a second in Syria in 20 BC.
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Seek responses.
In the following lines Rorace celebrates the return of Peace and Plenty along
with the old Roman virtues. 38 These diplomatic successes along with the
recent victories in Spain and the Alps are adduced as attesting universal
acceptance of Roman authority in several other of Rorace's poems of the
period, and sometimes the Parthians' submission is explicitly linked with the
closure of Janus. 39 The celebration of Augustan peace and world rule is later
taken up by Ovid, notably in the closing lines of the Metamorphoses and in
his treatments of Janus and the Ara Pacis in the Fasti. 40
The claim that Augustus had achieved world rule appears not only in
the poets, in the Res Gestae and in art, but also in a writer as sober as Strabo.
The conception of the Roman empire as effectively coterminous with the
inhabited world runs through Strabo's universal geography.41 Re recognises,
of course, that some of the regions of which he treats, such as Britain, Parthia
and India, still lay outside the empire, but he contrives to suggest that what
was outside the empire was either not worth conquering or had already
effectively submitted or both. Thus he argues that the annexation of Britain
would not be cost-effective and that the Britons' embassies to Augustus show
the island to be already virtually subject to Rome. The Dacians too he
represents as having come near to submission to the Romans, claiming that it
was only their hopes of the Romans' German enemies that prevented their
complete subjection. As for the Parthians, while he elsewhere speaks of them
as rivals of the Romans, he optimistically concludes his sketch of the stages
by which the Romans had acquired universal hegemony by adducing the
Parthians' return of their spoils, entrusting of royal princes to Augustus as
hostages and reception of one of these princes as king as evidence that they
Horatius, Cannen Saeculare 53-60.
Horatius, Epistulae 1.12.25-29; 1.18.54-57; 2.1.253-256; Cannina 4.5.25-28; 4.14.41-52; 4.15.4-9;
4.15.21-24. The same associations reappear later at Florus 2.34. Similarly, the cuirass of the
contemporary Prima Porta statue of Augustus depicts the Parthian surrender of the standards with
flanking figures representing other submissive peoples.
40 Ovidius, Metamoryhoses 15.822-839; 860; Fasti 1.277-288; 1.711-718.
41 See K. Clarke, Between Geography and History: Hellenistic Constructions of the Roman World
(Oxford 1999), 307-328; Engels 1999, op.cit. (n.8), 303-3 \3; 337-358; D. Dueck, Strabo of Amasia:
A Greek Man of Letters in Augustan Rome (London & New York 2000),96-129.
38
39
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had gone far towards accepting Roman supremacy and were on the point of
submitting themselves entirely to the Romans. 42
Such claims were, of course, grossly exaggerated. The despatch of
embassies was in itself not a mark of submission, whether from remote
peoples such as the Indians and Scythians or from the much closer Britons.
Augustus boasted in the Res Gestae that his army had "obliged the Dacians to
submit to the commands of the Roman people", but in reality all that had been
achieved against them had been the repulse of Dacian raiders and on one
occasion a punitive expedition across the Danube. 43 Augustus had indeed
erased the disgrace of past Roman defeats at Parthian hands, but at the cost
of accepting peaceful co-existence with this powerful neighbour. It is no
accident that we are given no details of the manner in which the Roman
standards and captives were returned: we may be sure that in reality no
Parthian bended the knee. Phraates' despatch of his sons to Rome served his
own domestic convenience, and Vonones, sent back by Augustus to take the
throne at Parthian request in AD 6, was ousted six years later. 44
There were, however, long-established features of the Roman outlook
which made it easier for Augustus and his loyal supporters to claim that he
had brought the world under Roman rule. The Romans, like the Greeks, had a
firmly Mediterranean-centred view of the world. This had made it possible for
them to be spoken of as world-rulers by Polybius and other Greeks since the
second century BC, and Romans themselves had made such claims from at
least the early first century. The vast conquests of Pompey and Caesar had
further strengthened the case, and both had been acclaimed as extending
Roman rule to the ends of the world. 45 Such views were facilitated not only
Britain: Strabo 4.5.3 (200-20IC), well discussed by D. C. Braund, Ruling Roman Britain (London
1996),80-89. Dacia: 7.3.13 (305C). Parthians as rivals: 11.9.2 (515C). Effective universal rule and
Parthians near submission: 6.4.2 (288C); cf. 17.3.24 (839C). There is no need to explain the
apparent inconsistencies in Strabo' s statements about the Parthians in terms of different stages of
composition: so rightly Dueck 2000, op.cit. (n.41), 113-115; contra R. Syme, Anatolica (Oxford
1995), 365-366; Brunt 1990, op.cit. (n.I), 436-437. Similar interpretations of the Parthian royal
hostages: Res Gestae 32.2; 33; Suetonius, Augustus 21.3.
43 Res Gestae 30.2: trans Danuvium ductus exercitus meus Dacorum gentes imperia populi Romani
peiferre coegit. For the expedition across the Danube see EJ 43a; the commander was probably M.
Vinicius, as argued by R. Syme, Danubian Studies (Bucharest 1971),26-39.
44 Strabo 16.1.28 (748-749C); Josephus, Antiquitates iudaicae 18.41-9; Tacitus, Annales 2.1-2.
45 On pre-Augustan claims to Roman world-rule see especially Nicolet 1991, op.cit. (n.I), 29-56,
citing the evidence.
42
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by the limitations of contemporary geographical knowledge, but also by the
ambiguities of the Roman conception of empire, which embraced not only
those directly ruled in provinces but also the Romans' other friends and allies
- kings, peoples and cities. Not since the early second century had they been
obliged to treat with another nation on truly equal terms, and the line between
friends and subjects had long been conveniently blurred. It was thus easy
enough to hope that the friendship concluded with the king of Parthia might
evolve into a client relationship like that with an Amyntas or a Herod and to
speak as though it had already done S046
Nevertheless, while the claim that Augustus had subjected the world
to the empire of the Roman people stood in a well-established Roman
tradition, Augustus was making a dramatic breach with tradition in basing this
claim as much on diplomatic successes as on military victories. The Parthian
settlement was the first time that the Romans had resolved a major dispute
with a foreign power by diplomacy rather than by force of arms, and, as we
have seen, this outcome ran counter to the public's expectations. For reasons
of policy Augustus decided to make a peaceful settlement, despite the
pressures of tradition and popular anticipation. To compensate, he was
obliged to represent the settlement as a bloodless victory, and the fervour
with which it was celebrated by the poets, in the coinage and in art reflects
the regime's eagerness to portray it as a great Roman success.
As I have argued elsewhere, the honours which Augustus accepted for his
Parthian success were, even more than on other occasions, the outcome of a
delicate negotiation between those conferring the honours (in this case, the
senate) and their recipient. By a becoming parade of modesty Augustus avoided
accepting honours which would have contrasted too sharply with the bloodless
character of his Parthian success, but he ensured all the same that it received
exceptional commemoration. The princeps insisted on maintaining his by now
established practice of entering the city quietly rather than in ovation or a curule
triumph. He declined a new arch, but agreed that additions commemorating the
settlement should be made to the Actium arch, in the form offigures ofParthians
offering up standards. He declined a temple of Mars Ultor on the Capitol to house
Cf Brunt 1990, op.cit. (n.1), 433-438. On the Roman conception and organization of their empire
see A. W. Lintott, Imperium Romanum: Politics and Administration (London & New York 1993),
16-42.
46
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the standards, but went on to build a much larger temple to that god and partly
for that purpose in his own new Forum. 47
By contrast, the commemoration of the great Augustan wars of
conquest is comparatively low-key. To some extent, this may reflect the
accidents of survival. Thus Kuttner has argued plausibly that the Boscoreale
cups celebrate Tiberius' triumph of7 BC and derive from a lost monument 48
However, it is striking how few contemporary coin types relate to the wars in
central Europe: the conquest of the Alps in 15 BC is commemorated only in a
small group of Lugdunum issues showing one or two soldiers (perhaps to be
identified as Tiberius and Drusus) offering a branch to Augustus seated on a
tribunal, while no coin issues directly relate to the great wars in Germany and
the Balkans in the following years. 49 Much larger issues produced at
Lugdunum over the same period show Apollo and Diana in an explicit and
strangely belated celebration of the victories at Actium and Naulochus. 50
The relatively low prominence accorded to the great victories in
central Europe is no doubt to a large extent due to the fact that they were
won not by Augustus himself nor by the (still infant) Gaius and Lucius whom
he intended to succeed him, but by his stepsons Tiberius and Drusus. They
were allowed to accumulate military honours, but only by a carefully staged
process, culminating in Tiberius' triumph in 7 BC51 By then, commanders
outside the imperial family had ceased to hold triumphs. Augustus himself
continued to accept military honours, taking supplicationes and imperatorial
salutations and dedicating the laurels from his fasces on his return to Rome
Rich 1998, op.cit. (n.4), with earlier bibliography. On the origins of the temple of Mars illtor and
the Forum Augustum, I am in substantial agreement with M. Spannagel, Exemplaria Principis:
Untersuchungen zu Entstehung und Ausstattung des Augustusforums (Heidelberg 1999), 15-255, on
which see my review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2002.03.21.
48 Kuttner 1995, op.cit. (n.lO).
49 Soldier(s) offering branch: RIC Augustus 162-165. The twelve year old C. Caesar's service with
the German legions in 8 BC (Cassius Dio 55.6.4) is commemorated on RIC Augustus 198-199. The
scene shown on RIC Augustus 200-201 is plausibly interpreted by Kuttner 1995, op.cit. (n.IO), 94123, as representing the offer of child hostages by Gallic chieftains. The barbarian offering a
vexillum on RIC Augustus 416 is probably a Gaul rather than a German: Augustus is not known to
have recovered standards from Germans, but claims to have done so from Gauls at Res Gestae 29.1.
50 RIC Augustus 170-173; 179-183; 190-197; 204. For a different view of the commemoration of the
successes in Germany see R. Wolters,'Germanien im Jahre 8 v. Chr.', in W. Schlilter & R. Wiegels
(eds), Rom, Germanien und die Ausgrabungen von Kalkriese (Osnabruck 1999),591-636, at pp. 606615.
51 See further 1. W. Rich, 'Drusus and the spolia opima', Classical Quarterly 49 (1999), 544-555.
47
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after a salutation. However, after the Spanish war of 26-25 BC, he no longer
campaigned in person, and he had in any case resolved to hold no more
triumphs, enhancing the glory of his triple triumph of 29 BC by preserving its
uniqueness. 52
Policies
What then were the policies which lay behind this varied record of conquest
and diplomacy with its grandiose presentation and shifting public perceptions?
Widely divergent answers to this question are offered by modern scholarship.
It was until comparatively recently generally assumed that Augustus'
external policies were defensive and aimed at the preservation of peace
throughout the empire and the establishment of secure frontiers. On this view,
Augustus undertook the great advance in central Europe simply because he
conceived it as necessary to secure the empire from external threats. 53
The grand scale of Augustus' expansion to the Danube and the Elbe is
an obvious difficulty for this thesis, and some have accordingly sought instead
to explain this advance primarily in terms of a search for a shorter frontier.
The most fully developed exposition of this view is that of Syme. For Syme
Augustus was concerned not so much with frontiers as with communications,
and it was to Illyricum that he attached most importance. The civil wars had
revealed the possibility of a split between the eastern and western halves of
the empire, and to avert this Augustus advanced to the Danube to secure the
land route from Italy to the Balkans by the Save valley. With the advance to
the Danube decided on, it seemed prudent to advance also to the Elbe, to
provide a shorter line of communications for the more efficient protection of
the empire against possible threats from beyond the frontier. 54
Syme's imaginative conception has been widely followed, but is surely
fanciful. It was only in the later empire that Illyricum and its land route
attained the strategic importance which so engaged Syme. It is unlikely that
See further Hickson 1991, op.cit. (n.I).
W. A. Oldfather & H. V. Cantor, The Defeat of Varus and the German Frontier Policy of Augustus
(Urbana 1916), 54-70, conveniently surveys older views. For a clear statement of the traditional view
see Meyer 1961, op.cit. (n.33), 1-13. See also H. E. Stier, 'Augustusfriede und romische Klassik',
ANRWII.2 (1975), 3 fT.
54 R. Syme, in CAH X (Cambridge 1934), 340-381, esp. 351-354. For Syme's later restatements of
his view see Danubian Papers (above, n.43), 13-25; History in Ovid (Oxford 1978), 51-52; Roman
Papers VI (Oxford 1991),129-141,372-397.
52
53
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Augustus would have thought that there was much risk of the empire splitting
on territorial lines, let alone that he would have conceived of an advance in
Illyricum as a security against such a danger. In view of the Romans'
ignorance about the geography of central Europe before his invasions,
Augustus could hardly have discerned the supposed advantages of the Elbe as
a frontier. Recent work has in any case effectively challenged the notion that
the Roman imperial frontiers were ever conceived as linear and 'scientific',
and it is altogether improbable that Augustus would have undertaken the
huge advance into central Europe in the pursuit of such a chimera 55
Other scholars have challenged the defensive interpretation of
Augustus' aims and have argued instead that he sought unlimited expansion
and aspired to the conquest of the whole known world. This thesis has been
most cogently stated by Brunt. 56 Brunt's arguments have persuaded so many
scholars that his view has now become orthodoxy. 57 This doctrine accords
better than the traditional defensive interpretation both with the huge scale of
Augustan expansion and with the emphasis on Augustus' victories and on his
extension of empire in the Res Gestae and other media. Augustus' advice to
his successors against expansion is not a difficulty, since on any view it
represents a departure from the policy which he had himself earlier pursued.
However, the supposition that Augustus aimed to conquer the whole world
55 Roman frontiers not linear or 'scientific': see especially B. Isaac, The Limits of Empire: The
Roman Army in the East (Oxford 1992, rev. ed.), esp. 372-418; C. R. Whittaker, Frontiers of the
Roman Empire: A Social and Economic Study (Baltimore & London, 1994), 1-97; S. Mattem, Rome
and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate (Berkeley, Los Angeles & London 1999), esp.
109-122. For critiques ofSyme's theory see Brunt 1990, op.cit. (n.I), 102; 455-456; N. 1. E. Austin
and B. Rankov, Exploratio: Military and Political Intelligence in the Roman World from the Second
Punic War to the Battle of Adrianople (London & New York 1995), 125-127.
56 P. A. Brunt, review of Meyer 1961, op.cit. (n.33), Journal of Roman Studies 53 (1963), 170-176,
reprinted in his Roman Imperial Themes (above, n.I), 96-109. Brunt amplifies and in some respects
modifies his view at Roman Imperial Themes 433-480.
57 Brunt is followed by e.g. C. M. Wells, The German Policy of Augustus (Oxford 1972), 1-13; A. R.
Birley, 'Roman frontiers and Roman frontier policy: some reflections on Roman imperialism',
Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland 3
(1974), 13-25; Ober 1982, op.cit. (n.27); P. Garnsey and R. Sailer, The Roman Empire: Economy,
Society and Culture (London, 1987), 7; Nicolet, op.cit. (n.I), 29-30; T. J. Comell, in 1. W. Rich and
D. G. J. Shipley, War and Society in the Roman World (London & New York 1993), 139-42; Mattem
1999, op.cit. (n.55), 89-91,107; Kienast 1999, op.cit. (n.9), 332 ff. Austin & Rankov 1995, op.cit.
(n.55), 127-128, doubt whether Augustus aimed at world conquest, but suppose that he sought
expansion of the empire without a clear idea of how far he would advance.
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by force of arms is uncorroborated speculation and is supported neither by
the contemporary testimony nor by Augustus' actions. It is true that the poets
in the 20's BC envisaged military conquests extending to the ends of the
earth, but, as we have seen, their expectations of British and Parthian wars
came to nothing, and their later claim that Augustus had already achieved
world rule through his diplomatic and military successes gives no support to
Brunt's thesis. Although the Romans greatly underestimated the extent of the
regions beyond the boundaries of their empire, they recognized that the
unconquered territory was very large 58 Augustus' forces launched no more
than a punitive expedition across the lower Danube against the Dacians, and
he decided not to extend hostilities beyond the Elbe, instructing his generals
(probably from 8 BC) not to pursue emigrating tribes beyond it. 59 L.
Domitius Ahenobarbus' crossing of the Elbe in lAD was not a breach of that
instruction, since he contented himself with establishing friendship with the
tribes on the farther bank and establishing an altar to Augustus. 60 Augustus
could, of course, have envisaged that further advances beyond the Elbe and
lower Danube might be made at some later date, but we have no warrant for
supposing that he entertained such notions.
The greatest weakness of Brunt's thesis is its failure to account for the
avoidance of war with Parthia. Brunt claimed that the conquest of Parthia had
merely been postponed until after that of central Europe. 61 That is most
implausible. If Augustus had intended to conquer Parthia as public opinion
had expected, he would surely have accorded it the highest priority. That war
with Parthia should be avoided if at all possible was evidently an axiom of his
policy from which he never wavered.
Both Syme's and Brunt's hypotheses share the assumption that
Augustus set his sights firmly on a single, overriding goal and pursued it
consistently at any rate down to Varus' disaster, but it is surely more likely
that his external policies evolved over the course of his long reign. There is
thus some attraction in the view of Gruen that, behind the grandiose rhetoric,
Augustus was a simple pragmatist in these matters, responding to events as
58 On the Romans' conception of the extent of the regions outside the empire see Brunt 1990, op.cit.
(n.I), 107-108; 449-450; 455-456; Nicolet 1991, op.cit. (n.I), 57-122; Mattem 1999, op.cit. (n.55),
24-80.
59 Strabo 7.1.4 (29IC).
60 Cassius Dio 55.lOa.2; Tacitus, Annales 4.44.2.
61 Brunt 1990, op.cit. (n.I), 105-107; 456; 460-464.
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they arose 62 However, this presents, in my view, too passive a picture to give
an adequate explanation of the many external initiatives of at least the first
half of Augustus' reign and in particular of the great advance into central
Europe.
An adequate account of Augustus' external policies should allow for
their evolution over time. It should set them against the background of the
traditional expectations and assumptions of Roman dealings with external
peoples. And, I would like to suggest, it should relate them more closely to
internal political imperatives than has generally been customary.63
One such imperative we have already noticed, namely the popular
expectation that he would embark on great wars of conquest. If he was not to
disappoint, Augustus had either to satisfy these expectations or offer an
acceptable substitute. Another imperative was Augustus' own dynastic
aspirations. If he was to succeed in founding a dynasty, he needed to provide both
his intended successors and other members of his family with the opportunity to
acquire glory and charisma. It was clearly with this in mind that Augustus
withdrew himself from frontline command at a relatively early age and from 15
BC entrusted the important campaigns in central Europe to Tiberius and Drusus.
Augustus must have planned that Gaius and Lucius should have at least
commensurate opportunities, but fate prevented him from achieving whatever
designs he had for them.
What has not, to my mind, attracted sufficient notice is how closely
Augustus' external policies were integrated with his solutions to the problems
of the army and of his own position in the state.
His victory over Antony left OctavianJAugustus in control of an army
of some sixty legions, in which many veterans were clamouring for their
rewards. The huge ensuing demobilization reduced the army to a force of 27
or 28 legions, with their accompanying auxiliary troops, stationed in some
seven provinces. In a radical departure from earlier practice, Augustus
62 E. S. Gruen, 'The imperial policy of Augustus', in K. A. Raaflaub and M. Toher (eds.), Between
Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and his Principate (Berkeley, Los Angeles &
London 1990), 395-416; id., 'The expansion of the empire under Augustus', in CA!! 10 (1996\ 147-
197; cr. id., 'Augustus and the ideology of war and peace' (above, n.I).
The importance of political and dynastic motives for Augustus' wars is rightly stressed by
CampbeJl2002, op.cit. (n.I), 4-9; B. M. Levick, 'Augustan imperialism and the year 19 BC', in A.
F. Basson & W. J. Dominik (eds.), Literature, Art and History: Studies on Classical Antiquity in
Honour of W. J. Henderson (Frankfurt 2003), 305-22.
63
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thereafter avoided raising new legions for specific occasions, opting instead
to meet Rome's military needs from the permanent establishment, with units
being redeployed as required, and as a result he was able to develop a planned
solution to the great problem of the rewards for discharged veterans. 64
Octavian laid the basis for his own position in the state in the great
settlement of 28 and 27 BC, by which he established his monarchy in a
republican guise, and for which he was rewarded, among other honours, with
the name Augustus. New light has been thrown on the settlement by a
recently discovered aureus, dated by its obverse legend to Octavian's sixth
consulship (28 BC). The reverse, which shows Octavian seated on a curule
chair and holding out a scroll and bears the legend LEGES ET IVRA P R
RESTITVIT {"he had restored their laws and rights to the Roman people"),
accords with his statement in the Res Gestae that the settlement took place
over his sixth and seventh consulships, and shows that Dio was guilty of
radical distortion in compressing the whole settlement into an offer to
surrender power made in a single senate meeting in 27 BC. The first stages of
the settlement, carried out in 28 BC, probably included not just the annulment
of Octavian's illegal and unjust acts, but also other measures such as the
reform of the treasury and the restoration of free elections. For the final
stage, at the senate meeting of 13 January 27 BC, were left the most crucial
matters: the armies and the provinces. 65
The
appointment
of
provincial
governors
presented
OctavianlAugustus with a particularly delicate problem. If his claim to have
transferred the republic to the control of the senate and people was to have
any substance, he could not continue to appoint the governors as before, but
he could not surrender the choice of military commanders without
jeopardizing the control of the armies on which his power ultimately
depended. The solution which he devised was one of characteristic brilliance.
He announced the transfer of the provinces in the senate, but made sure that
For convenient overviews of Augustus' military refonns see K. Raaflaub, 'The political
significance of Augustus' military rcfonns', in W. S. Hanson & L. 1. F. Keppie (eds.), Roman
Frontier Studies 1979 (Oxford 1980), 1005-1026; L. Keppie, The Making of the Roman
Army (London 1998, rev. ed.), 134-171; Kienast 1999, op.cit. (n.9), 320-332.
65 J. W. Rich & J. H. C. Williams, 'Leges et iura p. R. restituit: a new aureus of Octavian and the
settlement of 28-27 BC', Numismatic Chronicle 159 (1999), 169-213. In general on Augustus'
constitutional powers see now 1.-L. Ferrary, 'A propos des pouvoirs d'Auguste', Cahiers Glotz 12
(2001),101-154.
64
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there would be protests, and then, after a show of reluctance, consented to
resume the bulk of the military provinces, leaving the remainder to the Roman
people. This compromise permitted the resumption of sortition for the
proconsuls of the public provinces, while Augustus continued to appoint the
governors of his own provinces, who as his /egati were no longer eligible for
imperatorial salutations or triumphs. 66
A justification was, however, needed for the retention of most of the
military provinces, and Augustus supplied this by declaring that he was
keeping them for a limited period only in order to carry out a programme of
empire-wide pacification. As Dio puts it, "he retained the stronger provinces
on the grounds that they were insecure and dangerous and either had enemies
on their borders or were capable of launching a serious rebellion on their
own", and he accepted the provinces only for ten years, promising to restore
them to order within that time and to return them sooner if he completed the
task more quickly.67 The justification conformed to and built on traditional
assumptions. As we have seen, commanders had commonly claimed to have
pacified their provinces. 68 Pompey had been credited with worldwide
pacification through his campaigns against the pirates and in Asia, not only in
Cicero's speeches but also in the text of a law 69 Augustus had been
acclaimed as the bringer of peace throughout the empire by land and sea
through his ending of the civil wars. He now undertook to make this claim
good by accepting the command of the insecure provinces with the declared
objective of pacifying both them and their neighbours.
Augustus doubtless always intended that at the expiry of the ten years
it should be found that further time was needed to complete the pacification,
66 In general on the provincial settlement see Rich 1990, op.cit. (n.30), 141 fT. F. Millar, '''Senatorial
provinces": an institutionalized ghost', Ancient World 20 (1989), 93-97 (reprinted in his Rome. The
Greek World and the East I (Chapel Hill & London 2002), 314-320), rightly reminds us that those
provinces not retained by Augustus were transferred to the Roman people, not the senate, and so
should be spoken of as public, not senatorial provinces.
67 Cassius Dio 53.12.2: Ta 8J LCJXUpOTEpa Wc Kal CJQxrAqxl. Kal ElTLKlV8uva Kal ~TOL
TTOAq.llOUC
Tlva<.;TTpG<JolKOUC EXOVTa ~ Kal aUTa Ka~
EaUTa ~Eya
Tl VEWTEPlCJUl 8uvci~Ea
KaTECJXE. Ten
years: Cassius Dio 53.13.1.
68 Above, nn. 22-23.
69 Cicero: De provinciis consularibus 31, nulla gens est quae non aut ita sublata sit ut vix exstet aut
ita domita ut quiescat aut ita pacata ut victoria nostra imperioque laetetur; other passages cited at
n.15 above. Law: Lex Gabinia Calpumia de Insula DeJo, lines 19-20, imperio am[plijjicato [pjace
per orbe[m terrarum con/ectaj (M.H. Crawford, Roman Statutes I (London 1996),346).
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and so indeed it proved. Dio tells us that, with fresh shows of reluctance, he
accepted a five-year renewal in 18 BC, soon afterwards extended to ten, and
further renewals, each time for ten years, in 8 BC, AD 3 and AD 13. 70 From
Tiberius' accession in AD 14 the division of the provinces became permanent.
From now on it was accepted that the emperor should hold the provinces
which required a military garrison, and this conception is reflected in the way
in which the contemporary Strabo and later Suetonius report Augustus'
division of the provinces. 71
The familiarity of the division of the provinces as a permanent feature
of the imperial system has perhaps led us to overlook the fact that at the
outset the promise of pacification cannot have been just an idle pretext. If
Augustus had done nothing to implement his promise, he would have exposed
the settlement as an empty charade. Thus Augustus was committed,
particularly in the first part of his reign, to carrying out the programme of
pacification. This will in any case have chimed well with his other interests: it
required him to be absent from Rome for extended periods, a prudent device
to allow the new system to bed down, and it enabled him to meet the
challenge of satistying public expectations of conquest.
So, I would argue, Augustus' external policies should be interpreted
in terms of the fulfilment of the undertaking of pacification given in January
27 BC, and, particularly in the first part of the reign, the rhythm of those
policies can be seen to be related to the renewals of the provincial division. In
conclusion, I shall briefly sketch the outlines of such an interpretation.72
70 Cassius Dio 53.16.2; 54.12.4-5; 55.6.1; 12.3; 56.28.1; 39.6. Dio describes these extensions as
renewals of the 'leadership' (prostasia) or 'supremacy' (hegemonia). This may merely reflect his
interpretation of the significance of the division of the provinces, but it may alternatively indicate
that Augustus accepted an informal oversight of the res publica at the same time: see Rich 1990,
op.cit. (n.30), 139-140; Rich & Williams 1999, op.cit. (n.65), 211-212; contra, FeITary 2001, op.cit.
(n.65),I13-115.
71 Strabo 17.3.25 (840C) (Augustus took 0011 (JTpaTlWTlKijC; <j>poupUc; EXEl XPElav); Suetonius,
Augustus 47 (provincias validiores et quas annuis magistratuum impen'is regi nec facile nec tutum
erat ipse suscepit).
72 For recent overviews of Augustus' conduct of external affairs, citing sources and further
bibliography, see Gruen, opp.citt. (n.62); Kienast 1999, op.cit. (n.9), 332-377 (acutely noting the link
with the division of the provinces at pp. 333, 352, 525). See also J. Bieicken, Augustus: eine
Biographie (Berlin 2000), 565-618; W. Eck, The Age ofAugustus (Oxford 2003), 93-104.
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Implementation
The principal provinces which fell to Augustus in the division of 27 BC were
Spain, Gaul, Syria and Egypt. This made good sense in terms of the
programme of pacification: there had been recent disturbances in Gaul and
Spain, Syria bordered Parthia, and Egypt was a major new acquisition, not
yet fully brought under control. These provinces held the majority of the
legions, but between five and eight legions overall remained in three public
provinces, namely Africa, Illyricum and Macedonia. Africa was of relatively
little military importance, and Augustus could not plausibly have claimed in
27 BC that the Balkan provinces needed pacification. He himself claimed to
have pacified Illyricum by his campaigns of35-33 BC, celebrated on the first
day of the triple triumph of 29 BC. As for Macedonia, the proconsul M.
Licinius Crassus had recently achieved remarkable successes beyond the
frontiers of the province, killing an enemy commander with his own hands
and advancing to the Danube. 73
Augustus began his programme of pacification in Spain, heading there
in his first extended absence from Rome, from 27 to 24 BC. In Spain, he
embarked on the conquest of the north-west, the only part of the Iberian
peninsula to have remained outside Roman control. That this campaign was
the first stage of the promised pacification was symbolically marked by the reopening of the temple of Janus and its second closure when he finished
campaigning in 25 BC. Augustus' own campaigns did not end all resistance,
but his legates, followed by Agrippa, completed its elimination before the tenyear period was Up.74
Meanwhile in Egypt, the first three of Augustus' prefects were all
militarily active. C. Cornelius Gallus subdued Upper Egypt and both he and
the third prefect P. Petronius engaged with the Ethiopians. These activities
could be represented as part of the programme of pacifying the troubled
provinces and the regions beyond their frontiers. The expedition of the
second prefect, Aelius Gallus, into Arabia was an unprovoked quest for glory
and profit, although the proximity of southern Arabia to the Horn of Africa
and so to Egypt's southern neighbours may have provided some shred of
For Crassus' exploits and their significance see Cassius Dio 51.23-27; J. W. Rich, 'Augustus and
the spolia opima', Chiron 26 (1996), 85-127.
74 For the Spanish campaigns see Rich 1990, op.cit. (n.30), 160, with further bibliography. Janus:
Cassius Dio 53.26.5; above, n.17.
73
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justification. 75 Although Aelius Gallus enjoyed little success, Petronius
established a lasting settlement with the Ethiopians. It could thus be claimed
that the pacification of Egypt and the neighbouring regions had been
completed within the first ten-year period, and thereafter the legions stationed
in Egypt seldom saw action.
Proconsuls pursued the same quest during these years. Two proconsuls of
Africa, L. Sempronius Atratinus and L. Cornelius Balbus, campaigned beyond the
provincial frontiers, earning what proved to be the last triumphs celebrated by
commanders who were not members of the imperial family. Nothing is known of
Sempronius' campaign other than the bare fact of his triumph, but about Balbus'
we are better informed: he subjugated the Garamantes, a remote desert people,
and Pliny preserves the names of the communities and natural features of which
images were displayed in his triumph. 76 Marcus Primus, proconsul of Macedonia,
was less fortunate, being prosecuted for maiestas on his return. His offence,
however, was not, as is usually supposed, making unauthorized war beyond the
frontiers but attacking a friendly nation, the Odrysian kingdom in Thrace.17 His
reason for launching the assault remains obscure.
The Parthian question, as we have seen, was the most urgent external
issue facing Augustus, and, to meet public expectations, it was essential that the
matter should be satisfactorily resolved within his first ten-year period. He may at
first have hoped that the pretender Tiridates would succeed in ousting king
Phraates, but, when Tiridates failed, Augustus prepared for a diplomatic
settlement. The policy was announced in 23 BC, when Phraates' son, who had
been brought to Augustus by Tiridates, was handed over to his father's envoys
with the stipulation that in return he should hand back the Roman standards and
prisoners 78 The main purpose of Augustus' Eastern journey of 22-19 BC was to
secure Phraates' compliance, and this was achieved when Augustus reached Syria
in 20 BC. Augustus had evidently decided from the outset on the policy of
avoiding war with Parthia to which he adhered throughout his reign. The reason
is not hard to seek. Crassus and Antony had failed disastrously in their attempts to
75 Cf. Strabo 16.4.22 (780C), our only evidence for the motives of Aelius Gallus' expedition,
implausibly interpreted as a flanking move against Parthia by C. Marek, 'Die Expedition des Aelius
Gallus nach Arabien im Jahre 25 v. Chr.', Ch iron 23 (1993), 121-156.
76
Naturalis Historia 5.36-37.
Cassius Dio 54.3.2; Rich 1990, op.cit. (n.30), 175-176.
78 Cassius Dio 53.33.1-2. For Augustus' earlier dealings with Tiridates see Cassius Dio 51.18.2-3;
Justin 42.5.6-9.
77
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conquer Parthia, and Augustus had no grounds for confidence that he would
be more successful. If he had attempted the conquest ofParthia and failed, he
would have suffered a grave loss of prestige at home, and his supremacy
might even have been put at risk. It would have been folly for Augustus to
hazard all he had achieved on such an enterprise if an acceptable diplomatic
solution could be found. 79
Also in 20 BC, an appeal from Armenia provided Augustus with a pretext
for ousting the hostile king Artaxes in favour of his brother Tigranes. Augustus
thus succeeded in re-establishing the Roman claim, first asserted by Pompey, to
determine who should rule the Armenian kingdom. This claim was to prove the
principal irritant in subsequent Roman relations with Parthia. The strategic
position of Armenia between Roman Anatolia and the Parthian empire may
partly account for the significance which Augustus and his successors
attached to the claim, but the most important factor was probably just that
Roman prestige was committed.
Thus by the time the first ten-year period expired in 18, Augustus was
able to show very substantial progress in delivering the promised pacification.
Roman prestige had been restored in the East; north-west Spain, which had
eluded Roman control for nearly two centuries, had been brought to heel; and
Roman arms had penetrated far into Africa and Arabia. Already in 22 BC he had
made a first step towards the promised restoration of his provinces to the Roman
people, detaching Cyprus from Syria and handing it and Gallia Narbonensis
back 80 However, when the question of renewing Augustus' term was considered
in 18 and again at each of the subsequent renewals, the senators will have argued
that the remaining provinces were not yet secure enough to be returned to the
people, and on this occasion the argument was strengthened by the fact that Gaul
had so far received relatively little attention. Augustus maintained his stance that
the provincial division was only temporary by accepting the renewal of his
provinces for just five years, claiming that that would suffice.
The principal tasks which Augustus set himself for this five-year period,
and may indeed have announced when accepting it, were carried out during his
For judicious assessments of Augustus' Parthian policy see D. Timpe, 'Zur augusteischen
Partherpolitik zwischen 30 und 20 v. Chr.', Wurzburger Jahrbucher fur die Altertumswissenschaft 1
(1975), 155-169; A. N. Sherwin-White, Roman Foreign Policy in the East (London, 1984),323-341;
J. B. Campbell, 'War and diplomacy: Rome and Parthia, 31 BC - AD 235', in 1. W. Rich & D. G. 1.
Shipley (eds.), War and Society in the Roman World (London 1993),213-240.
BO Cassius Dio 53.12.7; 54.4.1.
79
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absence in Gaul and Spain in 16-13 BC, his last extended absence from Italy: he
himself re-organized the Gallic provinces, while the Alps were conquered by his
legates, principally his stepsons Tiberius and Drusus. It has often been claimed
that Augustus decided on the conquest of the Alps in preparation for the later
advance into Germany.81 However, control of the Alps was not essential for the
advance beyond the Rhine, and the conquest is better explained in its own right,
as the next stage in the Augustan programme of pacification. The imposition of
peace and order on this region which was so close to the heart of the empire and
yet had remained for so long outside the Roman people's control was fully in
accord with the objectives of that programme. The conquest of the Alps may
have been part of the plans which Augustus had formed when he announced the
pacification programme in 27 BC, and, if not, must certainly have been included
in his plans since Terentius Varro's campaign against the Salassi in 25 BC.
So by 13 BC it could be claimed that Augustus had brought peace to
all the provinces assigned to him, and this is surely what is implied by the
decreeing of the Altar of Augustan Peace on his return to Rome in that year.
The gradual restoration of provinces to the Roman people was probably
continued by the division of Hispania Ulterior and transfer of the southern
portion as the new public province of Baetica. 82 However, it would not at all
have suited Augustus for his task to be thought at an end. New frontiers of
pacification were needed and were supplied by the great expansion into
central Europe, which began in 12 BC.
Recent disturbances provided the pretexts for the advance into central
Europe. There had been recurrent fighting in the Balkans since about 18 BC83
The Sugambri and other German tribes crossed the Rhine in 16 BC, inflicting a
defeat on M. Lollius; Augustus hastened his departure from Rome, but, before he
reached Gaul, Lollius had imposed a settlement. 84 A further incursion in 12 BC
provided the immediate pretext for Drusus' invasion of Germany, but it must
have been planned well in advance: Drusus had at his disposal a fleet and a canal
E.g. K. Kraft, Gesammelte Aujsatze zur antiken Geschichte und Militargeschichte I (Dannstadt
1973), 190 fT.; Wells 1972, op.cit. (n.57), 44-46; Kienast 1999, op.cit. (n.9), 359-360. Contra, K.
Christ, 'Zur augusteischen Gennanienpolitik', Ch iron 7 (1977),149-205, at pp. 167-189.
82 Best dated c. 13 BC: Rich 1990, op.cit. (n.30), with further bibliography.
83 Cassius Dio 54.20.2-3; 24.3; 28.1.
84 Cassius Dio 54.20.4-6; Velleius Paterculus 2.97.1; Tacitus, Annales 1.10.3; Suetonius, Augustus
23.1; Obsequens 71. The invasion is to be dated to 16 BC in view of the agreement of Dio and
Velleius, rather than 17 BC with Obsequens.
81
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from the Rhine to the Usselmeer (thejossa Drusiana), both of which would have
taken a considerable time to construct, and it is likely that the redeployment to
new bases on the Rhine had been in progress for some years. 85 Thus the decision
that a major offensive would in due course be launched in central Europe is likely
to have been taken no later than 16 BC, in the aftermath of the German invasion
and Lollius' defeat.
It is disputed when Augustus first formed the design of expanding in
central Europe, but it seems to me most likely that his decision was prompted
by the German invasion of Gaul in 16 BC and the contemporary disturbances
in the Balkans. 86 The exclusion of the Balkan provinces from Augustus'
original share shows that expansion in this region had not figured in his initial
plans, and it was probably the renewed uprisings there that led to the change
in policy. German threats to the peace of Gaul are reported on several
occasions in the years before 16 BC. 87 However, the major incursion of that
year gave the issue a new urgency. Dio tells us that, having taken only a fiveyear renewal of the division of the provinces in 18 BC, Augustus soon after
accepted an additional five years.88 If he had already decided on the advance
into central Europe by 18 BC, it is hard to see why he did not take a ten-year
renewal at that point. It is a tempting conjecture that Augustus took the
further five-year extension in 16 BC before his departure for Gaul and in the
immediate aftermath of the German invasion, and that the new threats from
Germany and in the Balkans were given as the justification.
Internal political imperatives - the need to justify the continued division of
the provinces and to provide the princes of the imperial house with further
opportunities to win military glory - necessitated further warfare and expansion,
but central Europe was not the only possible direction. An alternative option was
Britain, and it may well be that, if the Germans and the Balkan peoples had not
drawn attention to themselves, it would have been there that Augustus would
have turned next. He could readily have claimed, as Caesar had done before and
Claudius was to do later, that the security of Gaul required the subjection of
85 The 12 BC incursion: Cassius Dio 54.32.1. Preparations: Cassius Dio 54.32.2-3; Strabo 7.1.3
(290C); Tacitus, Annales 2.8.1; Suetonius, Claudius 1.2.; Wells 1972, op.cit. (n.57), 93 ff.
86 For a survey of views see Christ 1977, op.cit. (n.81), 149 ff.
87 Cassius Dio 51.20.5; 51.21.6; 53.26.4; 54.11.2. It is uncertain whether Agrippa's resettlement of
the Ubii on the left bank of the Rhine (Strabo 4.3.4 (I 94C» took place in 39/8 BC or 20/19 BC: see
J.-M. Roddaz, Marcus Agrippa (Rome, 1984),384-388; Kienast 1999, op.cit. (n.9), 356-357.
88 Cassius Dio 54.12.5.
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Britain to Roman rule. He had disappointed the public over Parthia, but could
easily have satisfied their expectations of British conquest. 89
In lliyricum the original intention may have been merely to re-establish the
settlement which Augustus had achieved in his campaigns of35-33 BC. This may
explain why that region was originally allotted to Agrippa; the despatch to
Germany of Tiberius and Drusus, who had the greater need to acquire military
glory, suggests that Augustus regarded this as the more glamorous assignment.
However, Agrippa's death led to Tiberius' transfer to IIIyricum, and the Roman
aims in the Balkans probably became more extensive as the fighting dragged on.
In IIIyricum itself Tiberius encountered repeated resistance, while L. Calpurnius
Piso was summoned with reinforcements from Galatia-Pamphylia to deal with an
uprising in neighbouring Thrace. By 8 BC Roman control had been extended up
to the Danube along the whole of its lower and middle course. One consequence
was the demilitarization of the public provinces in this region. IIIyricum was
transferred to Augustus, and the legions were stationed there and in what was to
become the new imperial province of Moesia, relieving the proconsuls of
Macedonia of military command and leaving Africa as the only public province
whose proconsul commanded a legion.9o
In Germany too the Romans' plans may have evolved in the course of the
campaigns. Drusus began by advancing against the Sugambri and their allies both
by sea and by land, up the Lippe valley. The defection of the Chatti obliged him to
extend operations to the Main valley in 10 BC and in 9 BC he advanced as far as
the Elbe, but died on the way back. Tiberius in 8 BC brought the warfare to what
was proclaimed as a successful conclusion, celebrated in his triumph of 1 January
7 BC. How much had been accomplished by these campaigns has been much
disputed. Archaeology has shown that Roman military occupation in Germany
On Augustan policy towards Britain see Braund 1996, op.cit. (n.42), 76 fT. Brunt 1990, op.cit.
(n.I), 103-104, infers from Horatius, Cannina 4.41-52, that the British embassies to Augustus,
adduced by Strabo in justification of the failure to invade (above, n.42), had already arrived by the
time of the poem's composition in or soon after 15 BC. However, Horace here lists peoples against
whom military or diplomatic successes had been achieved as showing awe or veneration for
Augustus: te Cantaber non ante domabilis/ Medusque et Indus, te profugus Scythes/ miratur .... te
caede gaudentes Sygambri/compositis venerantur annis (in the case of the Sugambri the reference
must be to Lollius' settlement: Cassius Dio 54.20.6). By contrast the Britons are introduced only
obliquely, in association with Ocean (beluosus qui remotislobstrepit Oceanus Britannis). This
suggests that by 15 BC no diplomatic success had yet been achieved against the Britons and that
public opinion may still have envisaged the possibility of an invasion.
90 Cassius Dio 53.12.4; 54.34.4; Rich 1990, op.cit. (n.30), 141; 214.
89
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was confined for the most part to the right bank of the Rhine and its immediate
hinterland, and some hold that the campaigns aimed not at conquest but merely at
demonstrating Roman power. Dio's minimizing of Tiberius' achievements in 8
BC lends some support to this view. 91 Other literary evidence, however, reveals
that it is a misconception. As these sources show, all the tribes remaining in
Germany up to the Elbe performed acts of surrender (deditiones); the Sugambri,
the principal belligerents, were deported west of the Rhine; the Marcomanni and
Suebi avoided submission by migrating eastwards, and it was surely now that
Augustus ruled against pursuing the fugitives beyond the Elbe.92 This settlement
satisfied traditional Roman expectations of conquest. It was indeed far from
establishing full provincial government in the newly conquered region, but the
same had been true of the initial phases of many earlier conquests, for example
central Spain in the early second century or Caesar's GaUP3
At the start of the year 8 BC Augustus accepted a ten-year renewal of
the division of the provinces after the usual protestations of reluctance. 94
There was now no need to seek out new regions requiring pacification in
order to justity the renewal. It would take a long time for the great new
conquests to be absorbed and Roman control in these lands to be
consolidated. This in itself provided sufficient foundation for the argument
that the territories which Augustus had pacified were not yet secure enough
to be handed over to the Roman people and its proconsuls. Although ten-year
renewals and ritual protestations continued to the end of Augustus' reign, the
division of the provinces had now effectively become permanent.
One mark of this change may be the ending of the use of the Janus ritual
to mark phases of pacification. The shrine was closed for the second time, as we
have seen, in 25 BC. We do not know when it was reopened: it may well have
remained shut until Augustus went out to Gaul in 16 BC immediately following
Cassius Dio 55.6.1-4.
Cassiodorus, Chronica Minora 2.l35 (inter Albim et Rhenum Germani omnes Tiben'o Neroni
dediti, perhaps from Aufidius Bassus); Strabo 7.1.3-4 (290-1 C); Velleius Paterculus 2.97.4; 2.108.2;
Tacitus, Annales 2.26.3; 12.39.2; Suetonius, Augustus 21; Tiberius 9.2; Eutropius 7.9; Orosius
6.2l.24.
93 The view taken here (as already at Rich 1990, op.cit. (n.30), 223-224) is similar to that ofWolters
1999, op.cit. (n.50). Other views are surveyed by 1. Deininger, 'Germaniam pacare. Zur neueren
Diskussion tiber die Strategie des Augustus gegentiber Germanien', Chiron 30 (2000), 749-771.
94 Cassius Dio 55.6.1.
91
92
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the German invasion of that year 95 The third closure is equally mysterious. Dio
records a senatorial decree ordaining that the shrine be closed in 11 BC, not
implemented because of renewed hostilities in the Balkans. It may well be that
there was no third closure and that the shrine remained open from 16 BC until the
reign ofNero. 96
Augustus doubtless envisaged further military initiatives after 8 BC.
Major new campaigns would be needed to enable the princes of his family to win
laurels, above all his intended successors Gaius and Lucius. Possibly he was now
reserving Britain for them. Fate, however, decreed otherwise. The death of
Drusus and Tiberius' withdrawal to Rhodes in 6 BC left Augustus for a time with
no available commander from the imperial house. When the nineteen year old
Gaius was sent east in 1 BC, the objectives were not primarily military, despite
Ovid's expectations, but rather to show him off to the eastern provinces and to
re-establish good relations with Parthia. In the event he did engage in some
campaigning, in Arabia and, fatally, in Arrnenia. 97 However, the great wars that
Augustus must have planned for the young princes were forestalled by the deaths
ofLucius in AD 2 and Gaius in AD 4.
When Tiberius was restored to favour after Gaius' death, the initiative
was resumed: rebellion in Germany was crushed with the sweeping campaigns of
AD 4-5, and for AD 6 an advance was planned against the Marcomanni and their
ruler Maroboduus. This action, like Augustus' previous advances, was
represented as necessary for the security of territories under Roman rule, in this
case at least a very specious justification. 98 However, the Marcomanni were
The shrine can hardly have been opened when Augustus left for the East in 22 BC, as suggested by
Syme 1984, op.cit. (n.17), 1181. Although Augustus may have used threats to ensure Parthian
compliance, an armouncement of war would have been inappropriate at a time when he was seeking
to confirm the friendly relations initiated in 23 BC (above, n. 78). If the shrine had been opened in 22
BC, it would surely have been closed again after the Parthian settlement, and this closure is unlikely
to have gone unrecorded.
96 Cassius Dio 54.36.2; Rich 1990, op.cit. (n.30), 163; 216. Suetonius, Augustus 22, states that
Augustus closed the shrine thrice, but Augustus himself merely states that the senate thrice decreed
its closure (Res Gestae 13). Orosius' statement (6.22) that the shrine was closed in 2 BC (on his
reckoning the year of Christ's nativity) is a patent Christianizing fiction. Syme 1984 and 1991,
opp.citt. (n.17), argues for closure in 7 BC, re-opening in I BC.
97 On Gaius Caesar in the East see F. E. Romer, 'Gaius Caesar's military diplomacy in the East',
Transactions of the American Philological Association 109 (1979), 199-214; Syme 1978, op.cit.
(n.54), 8-11; Syme 1995, op.cit. (n.42), 317-334.
98 Velleius Patercu1us 2.109.
95
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spared: the Pannonian Revolt supervened, followed in AD 9 by Varus' disaster
and the loss of all that had been gained in Germany.
It was doubtless these disappointments of his final years which led to the
new policy of not extending the empire beyond its bounds which Augustus
enunciated in his posthumous advice. Its significance, however, remains
ambivalent. In Germany, in particular, it is not clear where Augustus wished the
bounds of empire to be set. The Rhine was the effective limit of Roman control at
the time of his death, but the presence of a substantial army on the Rhine under
the command of Germanicus suggests that he had not abandoned the hope of reestablishing Roman control up to the Elbe. That certainly was Germanicus' plan,
and it was left to Tiberius in AD 16 to order the final withdrawal to the Rhine 99
It is likely enough that until his last years Augustus envisaged that Roman
expansion would continue and that over time Roman claims to world rule would
come increasingly to correspond to the realities. However, he did not envisage
universal conquest by force of arms, for towards Parthia it was his settled
principle that the Romans should proceed by diplomacy rather than by military
might. Augustus' external policies were in any case not shaped by a global
strategic conception. They evolved over time, and were determined above all by
internal political imperatives and by his personal ambitions for himself and his
successors, with a central part being played, particularly in the first half of his sole
reign, by the programme of pacification which he presented as the justification for
the division of the provinces by which he perpetuated his power. \00
Nottingham, March 2003
99 For the view that Augustus still regarded the Elbe as the boundary see e.g. Kienast (1999), op.cit.
(n.9),373-375.
100 Earlier versions of this paper were given at the Rome conference which gave rise to this volume
and also at Aberystwyth, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Paris and Perugia. I am very grateful to the
audiences on these occasions for their comments.
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AUX MARCHES DU PALAIS:
LES ACCES AU PALATIUM DE 54
Par
YVESPERRIN
A70
Introduction
Les travaux archeologiques recents ont amene un important renouvellement
des connaissances sur le Palatium neronien et ses abords. Dans une
demarche historique fondee sur la confrontation des sources ecrites et
archeologiques, ma contribution portera sur un seul point: les acces au
Palatium entre 54 et 70. Les evenements souvent dramatiques qui prennent
place sur le Palatin et it. ses abords pendant cette periode amenent les auteurs
it. evoquer le decor dans lequel ils se deroulent. Alors que les termes ianua et
porta reviennent constamment it. propos du Palatin archalque, republicain et
augusteen, ils n'apparaissent que de maniere statistiquement negligeable
pour la periode 54 - 70. Les auteurs emploient les termes fores (thuriai)
Palatii et aditus domus auxquels ils associent des gradus. Ces termes, je vais
essayer de le montrer, renvoient it. des realites distinctes dont les donnees
archeologiques permettent d'envisager la topographie et I'architecture.
L'entreprise n'est pas aisee: en depit des progres de la connaissance
archeologique, la question recurrente des limites des domus neroniennes et
donc de leurs acres reste posee. Nos informations sont inegalement reparties
dans le temps et singulierement plus riches pour les annees 68-70 que pour le
regne de Neron lui-meme, mais ce n'est pas un handicap puisque les guerres
civiles se deroulent dans le decor neronien. Les termes fores, aditus, gradus
autour desquels je me propose d'organiser I'analyse sont neutres, les realites
qu'ils designent plurielles et susceptibles d'avoir topographiquement et
architecturalement change au cours des decennies 54-70 marquees par les
reamenagements, voire les bouleversements engendres par la creation de la
domus transitoria, de la domus tiberiana, puis I'incendie de 64 et la domus
aurea. En depit de ces Iimites, I' enrichissement des donnees permet des
considerations qui auraient ete impossibles iI y a une vingtaine d'annees sur
les modalites politiques et fonctionnelles, spatiales et architecturales de la
formation du palais imperial et ses relations avec la ville entre 54 et 70 et sur
la mise en scene du pouvoir.
Les donnees textuelles et lexicologiques.
En 54, Claude est empoisonne au Palatium, in domestico convivio, et meurt
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dans le cubiculum de sa domus. Il est mourant, mort deja peut-etre. Agrippine
en conserve le secret dans l'attente du moment le plus favorable pour faire
proclamer son fils. Elle retient Britannicus dans le cubiculum et empeche
quiconque d'approcher le vieux prince en faisant fermer les aditus par la
custodia. Le moment venu, les fores Palalii s'ouvrent, Neron rencontre les
excubitores et est salue imperator pro gradibus Palatii. I Pour la periode 5468, les occurences sont rares. Suetone evoque les cruautes commises par
Neron sur le Palatium au cours de la premiere partie du regne et enchaine en
ajoutant qu'il se conduit avec non moins de cruaute hors de sa maison et
envers les etrangers, foris et in exteros. 2 Dans le cadre de la domus aurea, les
termes foris, aditus, groom ne sont jamais utilises. En revanche la litterature
latine contemporaine multiplie les occurences du terme aula pour designer un
complexe palatial ferme par desfores, notamment le palais d' Alexandrie chez
Lucain. 3 Or, j'y reviendrai, les complexes palatiaux qu'evoquent Lucain et
Seneque (et I' Octavie) en les designant comme des aulae ne sont pas sans
rapport avec les residences neroniennes qu'ils frequentent.
La periode des guerres civiles de 68-70 fournit le plus grand nombre
d'occurences: au cours de la lutte entre Galba et Othon, chevaliers et
senateurs forcent les fores Palatii pour rencontrer Galba. Ayant appris
qu'Othon a ete proclame, celui-ci laisse a Pison le so in de haranguer la
cohors quae in Palatio stationem age bat, ce que Pison fait pro gradibus
domus. 4 A la fin du discours, les speculatores se dispersent, mais le reste de
la cohorte a un comportement ambigu. La populace envahit alors le
Palatium. Inquiets, les proches de Galba sont divises. Les uns jugent
preferable qu'il reste intra domus et en barricade les aditus. D'autres lui
conseillent de ne pas s'enfermer chez lui comme s'il etait decide a soutenir
un siege (ianuae limine tenus domum cludit).5 Pendant le conflit Othon -
Vitellius, I'assaut des vitelliens ne se brise pas contre les fores Palatii; ils
parviennent jusqu'a la salle OU Othon offie un festin aux primores de Rome. 6
C'est pro gradibus Palatii que Vitellius s'adresse a ses partisans pour leur
1 Tacite,
2
Annales 11.37 et 12.68-69 ; cf Suetone, Claude 44-45 et Neron 8.
Suetone, Neron 36.
3 J'ai compte 35 occurences du mot aula dans I'Octavie, 40 chez Lucain, 30 chez seneque. Pour les
fores de I' aula, voir Pharsale 5.440 (cf aussi 2.165; 10.11,72,112,160,422,485 etc.); Octavie 275,
624,689,698-699,780,790,851,892 etc. Cf infra n. 36.
4 Tacite, Histoires 1.27-33, 35 ; Suetone, Othon 6 ; Plutarque, Galba 31.
5 Tacite, Histoires 1.31-32.
6 Tacite, Histoires 1.82 ; Dion Cassius 64.9.
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annoncer qu'il renonce au pouvoir, ensuite pour tenter de sauver Sabinus 7
Lors de I' episode final de la lutte c~ntre
les Flaviens, il se cache dans la
cellula ianitoris aux fores desquelles il attache le chien de garde. 8 La paix
retablie, Vespasien laisse symboliquement les thuras du Palatium ouvertes.
A la veille de son triomphe, les troupes ne gagnent pas "Ies thuras du palais
d'en haut", mais le sanctuaire d'Isis. 9
Quelles leyons tirer de ce recensement? Les auteurs distinguent des
fores ou thuras Palatii associees it des gradus Palatii et des aditus domus
associes it des gradus domus. lo Les fores sont de veritables portes (au sens
vitruvien: it deux battants") qui s'ouvrent lors de l'avenement de Neron et que
forcent les senateurs sous Galba, les soldats sous Othon. Ce sont les portes non
d'une domus, mais du Palatium, de l'aire princiere du Palatin, de I 'aula .
L'equivalent grec - thurai - ne laisse aucun doute: ce sont les portes d'une aire
palatiale. 12 Bien que les textes n'associent pas explicitement gradus Palalii et
fores Palatii, tout suggere qu' iIs sont voisins. lis sont gardes par les pretoriens
de la cohorte. C'est en 54 que sont mentionnes pour la premiere fois des fores
et gradus Palatii, sous Trajan qu'ils apparaissent pour la demiere fois (plotine
se retoume apres avoir gravi les gradus pour s'adresser it la foule l \
Dans son acceptation architecturale, impregnee de references it la vie
sociale, aditus designe le seuil de la domus, I'acces au vestibule, I'acces it la
cella dans les edifices sacres, et I'admission it le franchir, autrement dit
I' acces aupres du maitre, le prince dans le cas de la residence imperiale. 14
Dans les occurences recensees, il designe les acces de domus situees sur le
Palatin. Les aditus sont gardes par la custodia et/oll les speculatores. C'est en
68 que sont mentionnes pour la premiere fois les gradus domus.
Dans les passages recenses, gradus est toujours au pluriel (pro
gradibus). Le terme designe done des gradins, mais leur nature est imprecisee:
il peut s'agir de volees d'escaiiers, de quelques marches ou d'une barriere de
Tacite, Histoires 3.74, Suetone, Vitellius 15.
Suetone, Vitellius 16; cf. Tacite, Histoires 3.84.
9 Flavius Josephe, La guerre des luifs 7.5.123.
10 Sont attestes des passages discrets du cote du Velabre, dans la domus tiberiana (Suetone, Claude 18;
Othon 6; Vitellius 16; Tacite, Histoires 1.27-33, 35; 3.71, 84; Plutarque, Galba 24). L'archeologie
confmne I'existence de corridors dans cette zone (MA Tomei, Archeologia Laziale 8 [1987], 71).
\l Vitruve, De architectura 5.6,4,7.
12 Aula retrouve le sens qui etait le sien it l'epoque hellenistique, chez Theocrite par exemple OU auM
designe le palais royal. Cf. Xenophon, Anabase 1.9.3; Aristote, Politique 5.11.6.
13 Tacite, Annales 12.69; Suetone, Neron 8 ; Dion Cassius 68.5.5.
14 Vitruve 1.2.6. cr Ciceron, De l'orateur 3.133. Poppee est admise pn!s du prince: accepto aditu. Le
chevalier Bassus achete une audience: principis aditum emercatus (Tacite, Annales 12.68-69; 13.46;
Suetone, Claude 44-45 et Neron 8).
7
8
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controle. Lorsque Pline loue Nerva pour avoir ouvert liberalement le Palatin, il
ecrit que l'arx de Domitien est desormais une aedes OU sont supprimes "les
barrieres, les echelons de controle humiliants ... apres avoir franchi mille
portes, on ne trouve pas au-delit toujours de nouveaux et redoutables
obstacles" (nullae obices, nulli contumeliarum gradus superatisque iam mille
liminibus ultra semper aliqua dura et obstantia).15
Au terme de cette breve analyse, il apparait que fores et aditus sont
deux realites distinctes et non interchangeables. Il n'est jamais question des
fores domus ou des aditus Palatii. Confirment la distinction les corps de
garde qui leur sont specifiquement affectes. Les auteurs distinguent et en
general opposent la custodia et les speculatores, des hommes de confiance
qui veillent sur les aditus et vraisemblablement les passages secrets, et la
cohorte des pretoriens qui gardent les fores du Palatium et sont peu surs.
Fondee etymologiquement - foris designe la porte qui clot non la
maison, mais l'enclos - et adverbialement - foris signifie dehors et s'oppose it
domus l6 - la distinction est couramment attestee. Lorsqu'ils assaillent le
Capitole, les vitelliens forcent d'abord les primas Capitolinae arcis fores, la
premiere ligne de defense, puis les aditus, une deuxieme ligne correspondant it
l'area capitolina 17 Lorsque Enee consulte la Sibylle, c'est ante fores que le
dieu en prend possession; c'est par l'aditus qu'il penetre dans la salle de
consultation. 18 C'est cette distinction que suggere Pline le Jeune lorsqu'illoue
Nerva d'avoir supprime la multiplicite des controles. La polyvalence des
termesfores et aditus et la pluralite des entrees qu'ils designent rendent leur
identification delicate sur le terrain, d'autant plus que les sources assimilent
souvent l'aire palatiale et des domus qui s'y trouvent comme l'illustre un
certain nombre de formules litteraires et epigrapbiques, notamment domus
palatina. 19 Neanmoins, si les deux realites se recoupent, voire s'identifient,
tous les auteurs distinguent l'aire palatiale (Palatium, aula, basileion chez
Josephe) close par desfores et les domus qui s'y trouvent avec leurs aditus.
Pline le Jeune, Pant!gyrique 47, traduction M. Durry.
Tacite emploiefores pour les entrees d'un jardin (Annales 13.58 par exemple). Pour i'etymologie,
voir Emout & Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique, s.v.foris, 246.
17 D. Filippi, 'L'arx capitolina e le primae Capitolinae arcis fores di Tacito', Bullettino della
Commissione Archeologica Comunale in Roma 49, ns 8, 73 fT.
18 Virgile, Eneide 6.97; 6.43, 98. Vitruve 4.3, 4, 11, emploiefores pour designer l'acces a la cella a
travers le pronaos.
19 Voir M. Royo, Domus Imperatoriae. TopographieJonnation et imaginaire des palais imperiaux du
Palatin. Bib!. des Ecoles Franyaises d' Athenes et de Rome 303 (Rome, 1999), 170 fT. et 237-238);
c'est aUfastigium de la domus palatina que Claude suspend sa couronne navale (Suetone, Gaude 17).
Tacite assimile aplusieurs reprises domus du prince et Palatium (Annales 12.5 et 68-69 par exemple).
15
16
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Les acces au Palatium et a ses domus de 54 a 64: la domus transitoria
(plan 1)20
Lorsque Neron arrive au pouvoir en 54, il herite de la residence imperiale telle
que ses predecesseurs 1'0nt constituee. Elle reunit au sein d'un seul ensemble
plusieurs demeures, notamment celle d' Auguste - celle des Iulii - et celle de
Claude, heritier de celles des Claudii, Tibere, Germanicus, Caligula .
Le site des residences des Claudii et de Claude en particulier est
debattu?1 En l'etat des connaissances, la proposition la plus simple est qu'il
corresponde it I'aire septentrionale du site de la domus tiberiana.
L'explication la plus plausible qu'on puisse avancer du curieux nom de
domus tiberiana qui n'apparait qu'en 69 est d'y voir le souvenir de la domus
de Tibere, voisine de celles de Germanicus et Caligula qui occupe l'angle
nord-ouest du site. 22 Les luxueuses salles qui gisent sous l'angle nord-ouest
du podium de la domus tiberiana (S du plan I) n'ont it ma connaissance
jamais ete prises en consideration dans le debat. Elles appartiennent it un
ensemble plus vaste, dont on ignore l'extension, mais dont on il est legitime
de penser qu'il atteint l' 'area palatina' it l'Est et le 'clivus Victoriae' au
nord (sont attestes des escaliers vers le clivus); de construction
tardorepublicaine, ces salles ont connu des reamenagements (le dernier peutetre lie it un incendie dont temoignent d'eventuelles traces sur certains
fragments de marbre) et le style de la decoration musivale est claudien.23 Or
nous savons que, en 41, Claude herite de la residence de son predecesseur et
que celle-ci brule. On peut done avancer que ces salles appartiennent it un
quartier de la domus des Claudii detruit en 41, puis renove par Claude et
ensuite enfoui sous le podium de la domus tiberiana. Si on accepte ces
propositions, I' ensemble residentiel claudien a une fayade tournee vers I'
'area palatina', une autre vers le 'clivus Victoriae '.
Les indications que fournissent Josephe et Tacite sur le cadre dans
20 J'utilise par commodite les terrnes area palatina, clivus palatinus et clivus Victoriae dans I'
acceptation que leur a donnee l'historiographie, qui est inexacte. Aussi les ai-je places entre
guillemets.
21 Voir Royo 1999, op cit. (n. 19),83 et 273 fT.
22 Cf. W. Eck, 'Domus: Ti. Claudius Nero', dans LrUR 2, 83 et H. Hurst, Domus Gai, dans LrUR 2,
106-108.
23 Les mOsaIques omeraient un triclinium (A.M. Tomei, Archeologia Laziale 8 (1987], 72). M. de Vos,
'Tre ambianti com mosaico parietale sotto gli Horti Famesiani sui Palatino', La mosai'que grecoromaine 4 (Paris 1984), 83-86, date la decoration entre la fin du regne de Tibere et 64. La technique
musivale et les cabochons de la voute, semblables aceux du nymphee dit de la domus transitoria, dont
je retiens la datation c1audienne (cf. V. Strocka, 'Die romische Wandmalerei von Tiberius bis Nero',
Pictores per provincias, Cahiers d'Archeologie romande 43 (1987], 29-44), incitent a retenir une
datation c1audienne.
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lequel les soldats proclament Claude en 41 et Neron en 54 semblent
conforter l' identification. Le recit que fait Josephe de la proclamation de
Claude n'est pas lineaire. Du paragraphe 104 au paragraphe 165, il evoque la
premiere sequence: Caligula est assassine dans le basileion Oil Claude se
trouve egalement, mais en un autre endroit (104-106); les assassins
s'enfuient dans l'oikia de Germanicus, proche de celle de Caligula (117).
Les Germains les recherchent, la panique regne. Telle est la situation lorsque
Claude est enleve de sa demeure (ek les oikias) par les soldats qui ont decide
de le proclamer (162-165). Josephe interrompt alors son recit. Il y revient au
paragraphe 212. Apres avoir rappele le climat de panique, il enchalne:
Claude se cache sur une terrasse Oil il est decouvert par le pretorien Gratus
qui lui apprend la decision des soldats de le proclamer. Gratus I' entraine sur
I' euruchoria du Palatin Oil les pretoriens le proclament pres d'un demosion
(217 -218). Claude est donc cache dans sa domus (ou une domus des Claudii)
qu'on ne voit pas Oil situer sinon sur l'aire septentrionale du Palalium.
L' euruchoria Oil les soldats l' entrainent correspond a l' 'area palalina',
seule aire Oil peut logiquement se regrouper un grand nombre des soldats de
la garde. 24 Le demosion pres duquel se deroule l' acclamalio est une 'salle
publique d' audience' plutot que 'la partie publique du palais' ou un tresor 25
Ce pourrait etre l'aula qui, au sud de l'area, occupe le site de l'aula regia
domitianeenne, que la recherche n'a jamais prise en compte. 26
Pas sons a la proclamation de Neron selon Tacite. Claude meurt dans
sa domus, Agrippine y retient Britannicus. Le moment venu, les fores Palalii
s'ouvrent, Neron rencontre la cohorte et est salue imperalor pres des fores
Palalii. Tacite ajoute: au moment de la proclamation, certains soldats
24 L' identification de l' 'area palatina' et de l' euruchoria est reprise par T. Wiseman, Flavius
Josephus. Death of an Emperor. Exeter Studies in History 30 (Exeter 1991). Elle est rejetee par M.
Royo 1999, op. cit. (n. 19),275-288, qui situe l' euruchoria pres de la domus d' Auguste. La principale
objection a I'identification reside dans la relation etablie par Josephe entre I' euruchoria et le lieu de la
fondation de Rome. Mais des arguments existent pour repondre a I'objection (voir T. Wiseman, 'The
Public Image of Aristocratic and Imperial Houses', dans L ·Urbs. Espace urbain et histoire. Coil. de
I'Ecole Franyaise de Rome 98 (Rome 1987), 403-404 et P. Tassini, 'Una memoria di Remo alle
pendici del Palatino', Archeologia Classica 45 (\ 993), 333-350.
25 Dans l'edition Loeb, L. Feldman traduit demosion par "treasury", qui ne peut convenir comme le
montre M. Royo 1999, op. cit.(n. 19), 275-288. Mais je ne retiens pas la traduction" partie publique
du palais" proposee par M. Royo. Le demosion qu'evoque Dion Cassius 54.27 pour un episode de la
periode augusteenne est une sal\e.
26 L'aula domitianeenne succede a deux constructions. C.F. Giuliani, 'Architettura delle residenze
imperiali', dans W.Haase & H. Temporini, Aufstieg und Niedergang der Romischen Welt II 12.1
(Berlin/New York 1982), 250 date sans argumenter les deux premieres phases de Neron et/ou de
Vespasien; il n'y a aucune raison de ne pas suivre la chronologie de I'inventeur, Boni, qui date la
premiere construction de Tibere.
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hesitent, regardent deniere eux en demandant 011 est Britannicus
(Britannicus dubitavisse quosdam ferunt, respectantis rogitantisque ubi
Britannicus esset).27 Je comprends que ces soldats en faction aux fores
regardent la fayade de la domus 011 est enferme Britannicus, autrement dit
celle 011 meurt Claude. 28
Les proclamations de Claude et de Neron se deroulent donc dans un decor 011
apparait la domus des Claudii (ou de Claude) qu'il semble logique de situer
sur I'aire septentrionale du Palatin. Tout incite It penser que cette residence a
une fayade tournee vers l' 'area palatina' et une autre vers le 'clivus
Victoriae'. C'est sur I'une d'elles (et non sur la fayade de la domus
d' Auguste) qu'il faut imaginer le fastigium et la couronne celebrant sa
conquete de la Bretagne. 29
D'OIl la garde peut-elle, en 54, apercevoir cette fayade? Soit depuis le
'clivus Victoriae', soit depuis le 'clivus palatinus'. Aucune des deux
possibilites ne peut etre exclue. Que voit-on depuis la partie haute du 'clivus
palatinus' ? A I'Est, sur le site de la Vigna Barberini, s' eleve une (ou des
domus) dont les archeologues franyais pensent qU'elle etait luxueuse mais
mediocrement construite comme s'il s'agissait d'un edifice conyu pour la
mise en scene?O Au sud s'etend I' 'area palatina', qui est la plus susceptible
d'accueillir I'attroupement des pretoriens et It travers laquelle les soldats
peuvent voir la fayade de la domus de Claude. Il semble donc plausible de
placer la proclamation de Neron pres des fores du 'clivus palatinus', sans
pouvoir exclure cependant le 'clivus Victoriae' dont I'environnement est mal
connu 31 Mais on n'est pas en mesure de preciser les modalites du passage
entre aire publique et aire imperiale. Certaines des domus voisines
appartiennent it I'empereur, d'autres it des proches (Caecina Largus) et it des
particuliers. Quant aux gradus Palatii 011 Neron est proclame, il peut s'agir
Tacite, Annales 12.69.
Il ne faut pas confondreJores Palatii et aditus domus, ce que fait C. Krause, 'Domus tiberiana', dans
LTUR2,195.
29 La couronne navale etant proche d'un couronne civique, on a propose d'identifier la domus a celle
d'Auguste. Mais la couronne civique est devenue un symbole du pouvoir de ses successeurs (P.
Zanker, Augusto e il potere delle immagini [Turin 1987], 100fT.). Les Res Gestae 34 et les Fastes de
Preneste (CIL I 2, 231) indiquent que la couronne augusteenne est suspendue super ianuam.
30 Cf. J-P. Morel & F. Villedieu, 'La Vigna Barberini a l'epoque neronienne', dans Y. Perrin & J.-M.
Croisille, eds., Rome a l'epoque neronienne, Neronia VI (Rome 1999), Latomus 2002, 74-96. Je laisse
de cote la question des Adonaea.
31 Cf. G. Morganti & M.A. Tomei, 'Ancora sulla Via Nova' ,Melanges de I' Ecole Franfaise de Rome,
Antiquite 103 (1991) 2,551-574.
27
28
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de marches laterales parallelles a la voie, de gradins amenages sur le clivus
lui-meme ou, solution la plus simple, du seuil desfores.
Entre 54 et 64, dans le cadre de la domus transitoria, Neron conserve
I'heritage claudien. Lorsqu'il promet en 54 de separer la gestion de sa
cassette et celle de l'Etat et de ne plus enfermer la justice intra domum, c'est
de la residence claudienne qu'il s'agit. 32 Si on se fie a l'Octavie, lefastigium
et la couronne navale doivent toujours etre en place en 62 puisque la
nourrice les evoque dans son monologue. 33 Les innovations ne sont
cependant pas mineures. La nourrice d'Octavie oppose la simplicite de la
domus claudienne et les splendeurs clinquantes dont Neron couvre son
aUla. 34 Le chantier de la domus tiberiana est ouvert ou poursuivi. Mais c'est
I'association en un seul ensemble foncier du Palatium, de I'Esquilin et de
I'ensellement qui les relie qui introduit la plus grande nouveaute sans
cependant tout bouleverser puisque la domus transitoria n'est associee a
aucun scandale. La domus familiale des Domitii, qu'il est plausible
d'identifier dans les vestiges fossilises sous le podium du temple de Venus et
de Rome, occupe une place centrale dans la nouvelle economie spatiale.
Stricto sensu, la domus transitoria doit etre cette domus qui assure le passage
entre les deux coUines. Aux demeures des Iulii et des Claudii - les deux
poles du pouvoir - Neron ajoute ceUe des Domitii, qui devient un troisieme
pole. Le processus est revelateur de la nature d'un regime dont les titulaires
restent attaches aleur famille. 35
La nature de la nouveUe residence, un ensemble de pares, et
I' affirmation de la nature monarchique du regime doivent etre mises en
relation avec le succes du mot aula dans la litterature contemporaine (cf.
supra). Bien que les auteurs utilisent 'aula' dans un contexte litteraire en
reference a des palais orientaux ou mythiques et que le terme appartienne a
I' arsenal des loci communes servant a denoncer le luxe dans lequel vit tout
tyran, leurs descriptions constituent plus que des 'morceaux de poesie': eUes
ont quelque chose de familier; I' aula alexandrine de Lucain presente quelque
communaute avec I' aula neronienne que l'auteur frequente. Sans le nommer,
Lucain (et Seneque) ont en tete un complexe palatial qu'ils connaissent bien 36
Tacite, Annales 13.4.
Oelavie 34-45.
34 Oetavie 624 fT.
35 Neron reste fidele a la domus familiale; plusieurs documents epigraphiques attestent les sacrifices
qu'il y ofTre a la memoire de son pere.
36 Aula evoque l'ensemble de la residence et/ou le seul Palatium. Tacite, Annales 13.2, situe la
manifestation qui se deroule en faveur d'Octavie en 62 in Palatio, l'auteur de I'Oetavie dans l'aula
32
33
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Les acces it la residence imperiale subissent donc des changements
difficiles it connaitre 37 Entre 54 et 64, domus aristocratiques privees et
proprietes imperiales continuent it voisiner, mais la definition meme de la
domus transitoria laisse supposer que Neron s'efforce d'assurer sa mainmise
sur les domus situees entre sa maison familiale et le sommet du Palatin.
Prefigurant celui de la domus aurea, l'acces it la domus transitoria associe
vraisemblablement plusieurs entrees. I1 est plausible d'imaginer une entree
generale au sommet de la pente qui monte duforum, it proximite de la domus
familiale, voire dans cette domus. Ce n'est sans doute pas seulement en
raison des contraintes du relief que seront amenages ici le vestibule et les
atria de la domus aurea, dont Suetone dit qu'elle est la domus transitoria
restituta. L'acces it la colline du Palatin est marque par des fores sur les
'clivus palatinus' (un peu plus au sud que l'arc de Domitien, it hauteur de la
domus de la Vigna Barberini?) et/ou sur le 'clivus Victoriae '(permettant un
acces direct it la domus paiatina et it l' 'area palatina' par le prolongement
du clivus). Dans un contexte encore republicain, la mise en scene du pouvoir
n'est pas spectaculaire.
64-70: domus aurea (plan IT)
L'incendie de 64 permet it Neron de reamenager l'espace en fonction des
conceptions de la Neropolis et de la domus aurea. Les sources ecrites
decrivent les voies d'acces depuis leforum vers la domus aurea (urbanisme
hippodamien, portiques, vestibule, atria, col os se) mais, uniquement
sensibles aux innovations scandaleuses et peu aux continuites, e1les
observent un silence presque complet sur le Palatin et se taisent sur le
chantier de la domus tiberiana. Un tel silence signifie que le Palatium
conserve son role et que la nouvelle et pourtant colossale domus n'a rien de
choquant. Les textes concemant les annees 68-70 s' averent
complementaires: ils negligent la mise en scene des acces elaboree entre 64
et 68, qui constituent pourtant le decor des guerres civiles, mais foumissent
de precieux renseignements sur le Palatium et la domus tiberiana. La
question desfores Palatii et des aditus domus se pose en termes inedits.
I1 existe un large consensus pour voir dans le Palatin le pole officiel
de la domus aurea en opposition complementaire avec l' edifice de
1'Esquilin, considere comme un pole prive. Les realites sont sans doute
(Octavie 780). Chez Seneque aula = palais = arx (Agamemnon 78 fT., Thyeste 697, 1078). Chez
Martial, Des spectacles 2.2 aula = la domus aurea. Cf. n. 3.
37 Cf. D. Palombi, Tra Palatino ed Esquilino Velia Cariae Fagutal (Rome 1997),33-43.
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moins simples, mais peu importe ici. Quelques evenements attestent le role
politique unique de la colline, telles les statues de Tigellin et Nerva erigees
in Palatio en remerciement de leur action dans la repression de la
conjuration de Pison. 38 Le plus significatif est le triomphe de 68 qui s'acheve
non au Capitole, mais au temple d' Apollon Palatin. Les resonances
augusteennes du lieu, recupere et subverti, permettent l'affirmation d'un
pouvoir a la fois legitime et original. Meme dans sa variante neronisante, le
Palatium demeure le lieu du pouvoir officiel. Les evenements de 68-69
marquent la reconnaissance d'un regime monarchique desormais ouvert a
tous en raison de l' extinction des familles qui 1'0nt fonde. Va de pair un
consensus pour identifier dans le Palatium le lieu du pouvoir legitime
detache des familles de ses titulaires. 39 Plutarque pade de I' hestia des
Cesars, Tacite de I'imperii arx, Dion Cassius du siege de l'arche. 11 ne s'agit
pas de metaphores. Le Palatium est le siege du pouvoir non seulement en
raison de son aura sacree et historique, mais aussi parce qu'y sont
concentrees les instances techniques de la direction de l'empire (bureaux de
la chancellerie, justice, armee, prefecture du pretoire).40 L'attitude des
Flaviens le confirme a contrario. 41
On ne developpera pas ici la question du vestibule, des atria et du
colosse pour nous en tenir a la seule problematique des fores Palatii. 11 est
neanmoins indispensable de rep lac er la question dans le cadre des
reamenagements de la pente qui mene du forum au Palatin. Les recherches
recentes ont exclu les propylees spectaculaires imagines par E. van Deman
mais confirme la nature hippodamienne du reamenagement et sa datation
Tacite, Annales 15.72.
Galba, Othon et Vitellius s'y rendent des leur proclamation et y resident. La fausse abdication de
Vitellius en 69 fournit une infonnation limpide: Vitellius sort du Palatium et songe a se refugier dans
sa domus familiale. Ses partisans s'y opposent - il ne saurait rentrer dans une domus pri vee qui ne peut
etre la residence d'un prince - et l'obligent a regagner le Palatium. Ce retour enflanune la colere de
l'adversaire: en rentrant dans une domus privee, Vitellius aurait montre qu' il etait decide a eviter ce
qui pouvait donner l'idee du rang supreme; en regagnant le Palatium, il s'installe dans l'imperii arx
(Tacite, Histoires 3.65-66).
40 Cf. Y. Perrin, 'Imperii arx: metaphore ou realite? Les fonctions de la 'domus tiberiana' neronienne',
dans P. Defosse, ed., Melanges c. Deroux Ill, Histoire et epigraphie, Droit, Latomus 270, 2003, p.
340-355. J'ai avance l'hypothese que la domus tiberiana etait la concretisation habile des promesses
fonnulees en 54 de separer la domus du prince et les affaires de I'Etat.
41 Dans un souci de rupture, a la mort de Vitellius, Domitien ne se rend pas au Palatin, mais in
patemos penatis et son pere affecte de reduire I'importance du Palatium (cf. Josephe, La guerre des
Juifs 7.5; Tacite, Histoires 3.86 et Dion Cassius 65.10.4.; 66.10.4) En realite, Vespasien considere bien
que le Palatium est le lieu du pouvoir supreme; il en reinvestit la symbolique en laissant
ostensiblement les thurias ouvertes et, en conserve, en les transfonnant, le vestibule, le colosse et la
domus tiberiana.
38
39
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neronienne et montre son extension jusqu'au stagnum. Si les voies
principales (via sacra et via nova) sont tlanquees de portiques, les 1I0ts
abritent insulae et boutiques. Sur la pente qui descend vers le forum,
I'articulation majeure du nouveau reseau viaire - via sacra est-ouest et voie
nord-sud qui court desormais sur I' ensellement Palatin - Esquilin forme un
T. A I' Est, s'etendent le podium des atria et les portiques du stagnum. La
partie superieure du T est identifiable au vestibule - a cie1 ouvert - et c'est
dans celui-ci (Suetone), sur la voie sacree (Dion Cassius), devant les atria
(Martial), donc au croisement des deux voies, que se dresse le colosse.
La creation du parc de la domus aurea, les transformations du
quartier entre forum, Esquilin et Palatin et I' achevement de la domus
tiberiana impliquent une modification des limites de la residence imperiale
dont l'extension fait scandale, et donc des changements dans la topographie
des fores Palatii. La nouvelle organisation de l'espace suggere que le
complexe de la domus aurea possede plusieurs entrees et que plusieurs
portes peuvent se succeder sur le me me itineraire, a I'instar de I'organisation
des acces a I' arx de Domitien telle que I'evoque Pline (cf. supra). Le
vestibule joue un role essentiel: architecturalement, il assure I'articulation
des deux ensembles de constructions couvrant les pentes vers le forum et le
stagnum en cachant la legere difference de leurs orientations. 42 A son niveau
s'ouvrent deux - voire trois - voies distinctes, vers le stagnum et le parc de
part et d'autre du podium des atria, vers le Palatin par le 'clivus palatinus'
(et vers I'Esquilin au nord?). Que le statut juridique du vestibule soit public
ou prive, qu'il soit 'dedans' ou 'dehors', sa fonction est d'assurer la
transition entre Rome et la residence imperiale. On peut donc rechercher les
fores Palatii soit a son entree, soit la OU on le quitte pour penetrer
veritablement dans la domus du prince.
Le lieu ou le 'clivus palatinus' debouche sur I' 'area palatina'
constitue un noeud de I'economie spatiale des amenagements. A son niveau
s'achevent le clivus desormais rectiligne et ses portiques qui s'articulent avec
le vestibule et I' ensemble qui couvre les pentes descendant vers le forum et
le stagnum. 43 Au sud s' etendent J' 'area paiatina ' au fond de Jaquelle s' eleve
une aula dont J' existence apres 64 est assuree et, au deJa, un quartier dont les
42 D'ou sans doute le plan trapezordal partiellement mis a jour; ef. M. Medri, 'Suetonius, Nero 31,1:
elementi et proposte', dans Cl. Panella, ed.,Meta Sudans (Rome 1996), 175-177.
43 Le reamenagement du clivus est nI!ronien. Cf. les contributions du Bulletrino della Commissione
Archeologica Comunale in Roma 91 (1986): MA Tomei, 413-414 et 518, R. Santangeli et R. Volpe
418-419, G. Morganti, 426; voir aussi Archeologia Laziale 8 (1987), 79.
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travaux de A. Cassatella laissent soup~ner
l'importance. 44 Le grand bloc
de ma~oneri
de datation incertaine qui se trouve dans I' alignement des
portiques pourrait etre non les substructions d'un temple (aedes Iovis
Vietoris?), mais celles d'un edifice articule avec les fores et surplombant
scenographiquement l'acces au Palatin. 45 A l'Ouest, on accede it la domus
tiberiana par une branche du cryptoportique oriental orientee est-ouest, qui
s'ouvre it sa hauteur. 46 A l'Est, I'existence de la domus de la Vigna Barberini
entre 64 et 68 est hypothetique. 47 L'existence d'une entree it cet
emplacement n'est guere douteuse. Situ er des fores neroniennes au niveau
du site occupe par I'arc de Domitien est plausible 48 Les gradus seraient
alors les marches qui donnent acces it I'edifice sur podium que certains
identifient it I 'aedes Iovis ou celles qui relient les niveaux de la voie et du
portique lateral, ou, simplement, les gradins qui marquent le seuil de la porte.
Mais si on considere que les fores constituent I'entree de I'aire
imperiale, il convient de les chercher plus bas, devant le vestibule. Il
conviendrait donc de les situer sur le tron~
le plus eleve de la voie sacree,
devant le colosse. On emettra I'hypothese que I'areus in summa saera via du
relief des Haterii n'est autre que cette porte transformee par Vespasien. 49 Les
gradus seraient alors des gradins qui marquent le seuil de I'arc . Dans ce cas
de figure, il faut imaginer un autre poste de controle au sommet de la nova
via. Les deux propositions topographiques ne sont pas exclusives: comme
I'indique Pline le Jeune pour \'epoque de Domitien, plusieursfores et postes
de garde peuvent se succeder sur la voie sacree et le 'clivus palatinus' (et sur
les voies qui descendent vers le stagnum.). 50
Sur le chemin du Palatin au forum par le 'clivus Vietoriae' et les
escaliers qui descendent vers la fontaine de Jutume ou les amenagements de
Cf. A. CassatelIa, 'Domus Aurea: eomplesso del Palatino', dans LTUR 2, 63.
Notre proposition semble rejoindre eelIe de M.A. Tomei, dans Bullettino della Commissione
Archeologica Comunale in Roma 9 I (1986), 5 I 8.
46 P. RomanelIi, 'Il eriptoportieo del Palatino', dans Les cryptoportiques dans I'architecture romaine,
ColI. de I' Eeole Franyaise de Rome (Rome 1973),207.
47 Cf supra, p. 364 n. 30.
48 Sur la ehronologie de I'are de Domitien Cr. A. Cassatella, 'Arcus Domitiani', dans LTUR 1,92.
49 Dans eet arc, F. CoareIIi, 11 Foro Romano I (Rome 1983), 232 fT. voit une representation de la porte
Mugonia reeonstruite apres 64 et M. ToreIIi, Typology and structure of roman historical Reliefs (Ann
Arbor 1982), \34 I'are de Vespasien.
50 Quid de I'are quadrifrons proche de I'are de Titus date d'apres 64 (ef. J. Aree & R. Mar,
'Monumento presso I'arco di Tito nel foro Romano', Archeologia Laziale 10 [1990], 43 fT.)? Lorsqu'il
apprend la defection d'une partie de ses troupes, Vitellius descend du Palatium pour se rendre au
forum; ses partisans lui imposent de regagner le siege du pouvoir en reprenant le chemin qu'il avait
pareouru, la Via Sacro et donc le 'clivus palatinus' (Tacite, Histoires 3.67-68, 70, 84).
44
45
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I' atrium de Caligula (dont on ignore I' etat entre 64 et 68), on attend la
presence de jores et d'un poste de garde sur le clivus, pres du sommet de
I'escalier, lil ou se trouvait I'antique poria Romanula. On peut
eventuellement en voir la trace dans les mediocres vestiges qui gisent la de
part et d' autre du clivus. 51 Tres proches des aditus domus, ces jores donnent
acces a la domus tiberiana autant qu'au Palatin: les ayant franchies, le
visiteur peut acceder soit a la domus par son aditus central (cf. ci-dessous),
soit a I' 'area palatina' par le prolongement du 'clivus Victoriae'. Lorsque
sous Galba les chevaliers et les senateurs, puis sous Othon les soldats
vitelliens forcent les jores Palatii pour rencontrer les deux princes, Tacite
donne le sentiment qu'ils penetrent directement dans la domus tiberiana. On
peut situer la scene ici. Les gradus Palalii seraient alors les scalae graecae
et/ou annulariae qui descendent vers lejorum ... ou le seuil de la porte.
Quant aux aditus et gradus domus, il ne peut s'agir que de ceux de la
domus tiberiana. sinon achevee, du moins fonctionnelle en 68 52 Si son
architecture et son repertoire decoratif sont a peu pres inconnus, les donnees
planimetriques revelent un plan umtalre preetabli rigoureusement
geometrique. La domus proprement dite s'eleve au centre du podium et est
environnee par des jardins. 53
Par son plan centre, la construction s'inscrit dans la culture de
I' architecture domestique a atrium central, mais a contre-courant de
l'evolution contemporaine de celle-ci qui developpe des plans en longueur.
Son site et sa surelevation I' inscrivent dans un espace urbain prestigieux. 54
L'ampleur de ses proportions et son plan axialise sont proches de ceux des
grands edifices publics contemporains (macellum, thermes). Le niveau noble
s'etendant sur la plate-forme du podium, des escaliers sont necessaires pour
l'atteindre et les fa~des
sont amenagees sur deux niveaux au moins.
L'organisation symetrique du podium ne designe aucune des fa~des
comme
51 E. Wadsworth, Memoirs o/the American Academy in Rome, 4 (1924), 44-45 signale des vestiges
neroniens sur le cote meridional. Sur les constructions anterieures it I' avant-corps nord-occidental
domitianeen de la domus tiberiana, cf. C. Krause, Domus Tiberiana (Zurich 1985), 89 IT., fig. 94, 112,
116,117,121 If, 131 If
52 Neron inaugure la domus aurea (Suetone, Neron 31), ce qui veut dire que ses deux pOles de
I'Esquilin et du Palatin etaient consideres comme acheves. On peut penser que la domus a ete
inauguree en 66, sommet du regne marque par la venue de Tiridate et le depart pour la Grece en
septembre. La longue absence programmee du prince incite it penser qu'it son depart le chantier du
Palatin etait it son terme.
53 C. Krause, op.cit. (n. 28), 193 .
54 Cf. I' opposition soulignee par H. Drerup, 'Bildraum und Realraum', Rheinisches Museum 1959, 173 entre
espace interieur enchasse de I'architecture privee et espace iIIimite des constructions pubJiques et imperiales.
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plus importantes que les autres; la restitution de quatre fa~des
identiques en
elevation constitue I'hypothese la plus simple. C'est celle que retient C.
Krause qui restitue un portique sur les quatre faces externes, qui nous
interessent ici.
Le reseau des corridors qui structurent le podium le decoupe en neuf
blocs rectangulaires. La tradition romaine etablissant une adequation
organique et morphologique entre la structure interne des edifices et les
rythmes fondamentaux de ses motifs architecturaux, on peut exclure que
I' organisation des fa~des
soit sans rapport avec eux. Chacun des cotes de la
residence repose sur la juxtaposition de trois massifs de substructions, ce qui
suggere que I'architecte a donne cl ses fa~des
un rythme ternaire. Le centre
de chacune des fa~des
est le lieu Oil I' on attend un aditus et des gradus.
Cette restitution correspond au schema de la scaenae frons. dont les valeurs
royales ont, depuis I'epoque hellenistique, inspire I'architecture italienne
commanditee par les imperatores. Alexandrie constitue sans doute
I'archetype, mais Vergina fournit la seule comparaison documentee. Le
palais macedonien et la domus tiberiana ont en commun leur plan centre et
leur surelevation sur une terrasse. 55 Ils jouent le meme role politique
eminent. Il y a des chances pour que la fa~de
de la batisse romaine soit du
meme type que celle du palais macedonien: celle-ci est precedee par un
portique et articule deux 'ailes' qui encadrent un module central occupe par
I'entree aulique surmontee par un fronton. 56 La domus neronienne se
substituant cl celle de Claude et abritant le coeur du pouvoir, il y a des
chances pour qU'elle en reprenne la symbolique et qu'unjastigium surmonte
la (les ?) fa~de(s).57
La fa~de
occidentale de la domus tiberiana est inconnue. Son front
meridional est precede par des salles posterieures a 64. Assez etonnante est
la presence de telles salles, quelles que soient leurs fonctions (garde,
bureaux, magasins), sur une fa~de
qui do mine le prestigieux quartier de la
domus d'Auguste, des temples de Cybele et de la Victoire. Dans tous les cas,
la mise en scene ne semble pas exploiter I'aura du lieu. La fa~de
orientale
55 Le theme de la scaenae frons est a l'ordre du jour dans les annees 60-70. Sur les palais hellenistiques
et notamment Vergina, cf. I. Nielsen, Hellenistic Palaces (Aarhus 1999), 81 ff. et ma contribution aux
Melanges c. Deroux, citee n. 40.
56 Cf. I. Nielsen, op. cit. (n. 55), et G. Brands, Halle, Propylon und Peristyl, dans Basileia. Die Palliste
der hellenistischen K6nige (Mayence 1996), 64 ff.
57 Bien que la domus tiberiana ait connu de nombreuses modifications entre Neron et Antonin, on en
verra un indice dans un passage de I' Histoire Auguste qui conceme I'installation de Marc Aurele par
Antonin dans la domus en 140: aulicofastigio renintentem omavit iSHA, Marcus 6.3).
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domine I' 'area paiatina' que traverse le visiteur qui se rend a la domus
tiberiana. C'est la qu'il faut situer le discours de Pison a la cohorte des
pretoriens. L'architectonique de la domus et les necessites fonctionnelles et
symboliques du cheminement veulent que des gradus se situent au centre de
la fa~de,
eventuellement domine par unfastigium. Visible depuis leforum
et la Velia, la fa~de
septentrionale occupe une situation privilegiee dans le
paysage urbain. On peut penser qu'elle a re~u
un traitement specifique
servant la mise en scene du pouvoir comme c'est le cas a l'epoque de
Domitien. De fait, les amenagements du Flavien ont ete precedes par
d'importants escaliers. 58 On y reconnaitra les gradus domus proches des
fores Palatii du 'clivus Victoriae' evoques plus haut.
Conclusions
La connaissance des acces au Palatin et a la domus tiberiana entre 54 et 70
conserve bien des zones d'ombre. L'etude montre la specificite du Palatin au
sein de la domus aurea. Le parc et la fabrique de l'Esquilin peuvent etre
consideres comme I'expression et le coeur de ce qu'il est convenu d'appeler
le 'neronisme'. Les amenagements de la pente qui donne acces aux deux
poles (Esquilin et Palatin) depuis leforum, le vestibule, les atria et le colosse
qui domine le paysage exaltent Neron. On retrouve certains traits de son
axiologie sur le Palatium (cenatio, triomphe de 68). Mais la domus aurea
conserve au Palatium son role unique dans la vie politique et le paysage de
I' Urbs. Meme dans sa variante neronisante, il demeure le lieu officiel du
pouvoir supreme. C'est le seul legs que cuItivent les successeurs du prince
honni des sa mort en 68.
L'oeuvre de Neron rend de±initif le redeplacement amorce des Tibere
du centre de gravite du Palatium, de I'aire augusteenne meridionale vers
I'aire septentrionale. Pour un moderne qui dechiffre le paysage, la domus
tiberiana exprime topographiquement et architecturalement la nature
personnelle du pouvoir qui do mine politiquement la Res Publica et ce qui
etait son coeur, le forum. Or aucun auteur ancien n'etablit ce rapprochement
entre topographie et politique. C'est sans doute que la sensibilite des anciens
differe de la notre, mais c'est aussi parce que la mise en scene du pouvoir
palatin n'est pas scandaleuse. La domus tiberiana est la construction d'un
homme d'Etat, non celle d'un artiste. Elle s'inscrit dans une culture politique
qui ne doit rien aux valeurs solaires et agonales qui sont censees etre au
coeur de l'experience neronienne. Quant au Palatium, il est sans doute clos
58
Krause, op.cit. (n. 28), 89 fT., 116-117, 124-125, 134.
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puisque des fores en definissent I' acces et que plusieurs postes de garde s'
echelonnent sur les voies qui menent aux lieux ou le prince gouverne. 59 y
acceder suppose qu'on a gravi la pente montant du forum, traverse le
vestibule et ressenti la puissance du prince dont le portrait colossal domine
tout. Mais la mise en scene des acces au Palatin proprement dit et de la
domus tiberiana empruntent ses motifs it un repertoire romain connu depuis
la fin de la republique et Auguste. Par leur site, les fores semblent renvoyer
aux portes archai"ques (Mugonia, Romanula et Romana sur le 'clivus
Victoriae,60) et identifier le Palatium neronien au Palatium romuleen. Cette
inscription dans I' histoire romaine et la defnition topographique,
architecturale et fonctionnelle du creur de l' empire permettent de rendre
compte du role joue par le Palatium dans I'histoire de I'empire des 68 alors
que le reste de la domus aurea est abandonne.
Lyon, aout 2002
59
AucWle SO\ll"ce ne signale I' existence d' Wle telle cloture. Des Caligula, il est possible de 'boucler' le
Palatium (Suetone, Ca/igula 14). La question de la cloture du parc de la domus aurea deme\ll"e pose.:.
60 F. Coarelli 1983, op.cit. (n. 49), 228, 231 fT. L'existence de/ores ici est probable, mais les SO\ll"ces
n'ont pas l' occasion de les mentionner.
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Planchell
Le PaIatin et la domus &urea
64-70
I
E
N~
s
2000II
0
..
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Planchell
Le PaIatin et la domus &urea
64-70
I
E
N~
s
2000II
0
..
Paul Erdkamp, O. Hekster, G. de Kleijn, Stephan T.A.M. Mols, and Lukas de Blois - 978-90-04-40163-1
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SOME OBSERVATIONS ON NERO AND THE CITY OF ROME
By
ERIC M. MOORMANN
"NERON: N'avois-je pas ma maison doree, qui devoit etre plus
grande que les plus grandes villes? Oui-da, je m'entendois en
magnificence.
CALIGULA: Si on I'eot achevee, cette maison, il auroit fallu que
les Romains fussent alles loger hors de Rome. Cette maison etoit
proportionnee au colose qui te representoit, et non pas a toi, qui
n'etois pas plus grand qu'un autre homme.
NER.: C'est que je visois au grand.
CAL.: Non; tu visois au gigantesque et au monstrueux .... "
(F. Fenelon, Dialogues des Morts [Paris 1712], no. XLIX
'Caligula et Neron')
Several emperors put their mark on the city of Rome and a few of them have
been honoured with specific studies on their connection with the urbs. So we
have Paul Zanker's seminal work on Augustus, Robin H. Darwall-Smith's
efficient study on the Flavians and Mary Boatright's excellent work on
Hadrian.l Nero has not yet had this honour and will probably never be dealt
with extensively in this way, as his interventions were rather few in
comparison to the emperors mentioned. Miriam Griffin, Jas Elsner and
Andrea Scheithauer have written some useful contributions on the topic. 2
Few specific monuments can be singled out apart from his grand
enterprises of the villa-like complexes of the Domus Transitoria and the
Domus Aurea. These two big projects changed, be it for a short time, the
centre of the large city that Rome had become from the late Republic onwards,
and which had not yet seen such a display of luxury. People were stunned at
1 P. Zanker, Augustus und die Macht der Rilder (MWlich 1987); R.H. Darwall-Smith, Emperors and
Architecture: A Study of Flavian Rome (Bruxelles 1996); M. Boatright, Hadrian and the City ofRome
(Princeton 1987). On the emperors and their public works in the city of Rome see P. Zanker, Der
Kaiser baut furs Volk (Opladen 1997). I thank Penelope Allison (Sidney) for the correction of my
English text.
2 M. T. Griffin, Nero, the End of a Dynasty (London 2000, 2nd ed.), 119-141; 1. EIsner, 'Constructing
decadence: the representation of Nero as imperial builder', in: 1. EIsner & 1. Masters, eds., Reflections
of Nero (Chapel HilllLondon 1994), 112-127; A. Scheithauer, Kaiserliche Rautatigkeit in Rom. Das
Echo in der Literatur (Stuttgart 2000), 112-126. See also 1.-M. Croisille & Y. Perrin, eds., Neroniana
VI. Rome a l'epoque neronienne, Bruxelles 2002, 11-140.
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Nero's domus, more for their large scale and their use of precious materials
than for the scandal (or not) of occupying the prime location in town.
In this contribution I propose to look briefly at building activities in
the public domain. Two topics regarding the Domus Transitoria and the
Domus Aurea will be discussed at some greater length.
Public and Sacral buildings
Most Neronian interventions concerning the layout of the city have been
made after the Great Fire of A.D. 64. Two of the few previous important
interventions were the new arrangement of the via Recta and the
construction of the pons Neronianus, giving access to the area with the new
baths Nero built near those of Marcus Agrippa. 3
After the Great Fire Nero worked hard to prevent similar calamities
in the future by propagating all sorts of practical rules for planning public
open space and open space in the house blocks, and for construction
materials and techniques, in order to diminish the risk of fire. 4 Among
various details, Tacitus lists a law for wall construction with old-fashioned
tufa blocks. An explanation for this rule might be that the still young brick
industry now had to work uniquely for the construction of the Golden House,
in which there was a great demand of building material.
It is not clear whether these regulations were applied immediately.
No Neronian house block is known from archaeological contexts. The fact
that Tacitus writes positively about these rules might strengthen the
impression of 'good deeds' for the public interest.
Public Works
If we look at the list of public monuments connected with Nero, we find a
preference for accommodation for cultural activities and sports.
The Circus Maximus is mentioned a couple of times in the sources.
Nero made seats for the equites, equal to those of the senators. This
extension required the demolition of the euripus which might have caused
some tumult from the senatorial ranks. The Great Fire started in one of the
tabernae of the Circus, but the latter was in use again as early as 66 and
J T.P. Wiseman, LTIJR I (Rome 1993),220-224 s.y. Campus Martius:, esp. 223. P. LiYerani (LTIJR
IV [Rome 1999), I11 s.y. Pons Neronianus) argues that it probably was constructed under Caligula
and got its name in the Middle Ages. M. Tomei (LTIJR Suburbium I [Rome 2001), 38 S.Y. Agrippinae
horti) maintains the traditional attribution and dating.
4 Tacitus,Annales 15.43. See EJ. Philips, 'Nero's new city', Rivista dijilologia e d'istrozione ciassica
106 (1978), 300-307.
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formed the central meeting point in 68, at Nero's return from Greece. A sort
of yellowish copper dust, chrysocolla was strewn in the arena before the
emperor would circle in his chariot. 5 So, restoration work must either have
been carried out immediately or the damage was less serious than the ancient
texts suggest.
AD. 57-58 Nero constructed a wooden amphitheatre on the Campus
Martius, lavishly decorated according to the sources, and similar to that of
Statilius Taurus. Its precise location is unknown.6
The construction of the Thermae Neronis and the adjacent
gymnasium in the Campus Martius would have involved a more substantial
enterprise. 7 For public baths, the Romans still had no complex other than
those of Agrippa, now too small for the population of Rome. Nero's baths
were used until late antiquity, being incorporated into those built by Severus
Alexander. The gymnasium, a Greek element, was only short-lived. It had
been constructed in 62, together with the Baths, burnt down in the same year
and was not rebuilt: we may speculate on the reason for this. There is no
criticism in the written sources of the Greekness of this building 8
Utilitarian complexes are twice mentioned. The grand horrea of
Vespasian on the Velia probably made use of a porticus built under Nero. If
so, it would have stood next to the entrance of the Golden House, not far
from the Arch of Titus. 9
Coins with the legend Mac Aug are traditionally interpreted as
representations of the Macellum Augusti, a huge market opened in 56-57. Its
location is unknown but mostly surmised on the Caelius, following a reference
in Dio's Roman History (61.l8). It was also called Macellum Magnum. The
foundation of the big market place corresponded with N ero' s concern about
5 Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 33.87. cr P. Ciancio Rossetto, LTUR I (Rome 1993),272-277 s.v.
Circus Maximus, esp. 274; Idem, LTUR IT (Rome 1995), 239 S.v. Euripus in Circo Maximo. On
chrysocolla R. Konig & G. Winkler, C. Plinius Secundus der Altere, Naturkunde Lateinisch-Deutsch,
xxxm. Tusculum edition (MilnchenfZtirich 1984), 155.
6 G. Ghini, Le terme Alessandrine nel Campo Marzio. Monumenti Antichi, serie miscellanea ll!.4
(Rome 1988), 125-129; D. Palombi, LTUR I (Rome 1993),36 s.v. Amphitheatrum Neronis: The main
source is the eulogy by Calpurnius Siculus, Ecloga 7.23-72. The nearby stables, located under Palazzo
Famese and Museo Barracco were restored after the fire of 64: F. Coarelli, LTUR IV (Rome 1999),
339-340 s. v. Stabula Ill! factionum.
7 G. Ghini 1988, op.cit. (n. 6), 124-125; Eadem, LTUR V (Rome 1999), 60-62 s.v. Thermae
NeronianaelAlexandrinae; Eadem, LTUR IT (Rome 1995),374 s.v. Gymnasium Neronis.
8 Such criticism would arise when Domitian built the odium and the agon on the spot of the later
Palazzo Massimo alle colonne and Piazza Navona. cr Darwall-Smith 1996, op.cit. (n. I), 221-226.
9 M. Piranomonte, LTUR ll! (Rome 1996),45-46 s.v. Horrea Piperataria.
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the public corn supply, the annona. \0 The representation - a sort of tholos in
two tiers and a portico - provided grounds for a different interpretation by
Laura Fabbrini, the scholar who has extensively researched the wing of the
Domus Aurea on the Oppius Hill in the 1980s. She saw this image as the
favade of the rotunda of this pavilion and her idea was supported by the
numismatist Giovanna Arciprete. However, I think that the old interpretation
of the Macellum remains the most valuable. II The main reason is that this part
of the Golden House was private and therefore not a suitable motiffor a coin.
A second argument is the depiction itself: the round building stands clearly in
front of the portico and does not jut out from the colonnade.
The water supply had been expanded considerably during the reign of
Claudius. Nero might have continued this work, but we know of only one
aqueduct, the Arcus Neroniani, probably a branch of the Aqua Claudia, that
had to feed among others, the Stagnum Neronis and probably also the
nymphaeum of the podium of the Temple of Claudius, to which I will return
later. 12 This is a clear example of a construction built for private profit. 13
Temples were not a hot item in the Neronian building policy, if we
can speak about a real policy at all. Nero honoured Juppiter Optimus
Maximus in his Capitoline shrine but no more is known about it. 14 He did
not carry out construction works here. The first great enterprise would have
been the restoration by Domitian, after the fire of A.D. 80.
The Temple of Pax is shown on coins, as is the effigy of the goddess
herself. No specific bonds with her are known, In all probability, Nero made
use of its representation, proffering his claim as the bringer of the peace
following the victory over the Parthians. Ianus' doors were shut after the
Parthian Wars, when Tiridates visited Rome A.D. 66. We know for sure that
the visit of this Eastern king to Rome in 66 was celebrated with enormous
10 G. Pisani Sartorio, LTUR III (Rome 1996), 204-206 s. Y. Macellum Magnum. Cr. c.H. V.
Sutherland, The Roman Imperial Coinage 1. From 31 BC to AD 69 (London 1984, 2nd ed.);
Scheithauer 2000, op.cit. (n. 2), 120.
11 L. Fabbrini, 'Domus Aurea. Il Piano Superiore del Quartiere Orientale', Memorie della Pontificia
Accademia 14 (1982), 5-24; G. Arciprete, 'Machina 0 Macellum Augusti? Considerazioni sui
dupondio neroniano', Bollettino di Archeologia 16-18 (1992), 279-285. Contra i.a. Pisani Sartorio (see
aboye, note 10) 204; E.M. Moorrnann, Bollettino di Archeologia 19-21 (1993 [=1996)), 281-282.
12 Z. Mari, LTUR I (Rome 1993), 100-101 S.Y. Arcus Neroniani. Cr. G. de Kieijn, The WaterSuppiy of
Ancient Rome (Amsterdam 2001),25 (it also had the significant name of Arcus Caelimontani).
13 De Kleijn 2001, op.cit. (n. 12),225-243 clearly demonstrates how the elite profited most from the
aqueducts. Cf. her p. 256-257 on horli. As to criticism on Nero see Frontinus, De aquaeductibus
Romae 77.1; cf. Scheithauer2000, op.cit. (n. 2),121.
14 S. De Angeli, LTUR III (Rome 1996), 148-153 s.y. Iuppiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus, aedes
(fasi tardo-repubblicane e di eta imperiale), esp. 152.
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pomp. The theatre of Pompey was, as we read in the sources, clad with gold
and covered with a starred veil. 15 The temple of Ianus was used as an
exhibition room for precious works of art like the famous dedicatory groups
of the Gauls, after Nero's death. 16 The same victory, though not very
splendid, made him depict the doors of the Temple of Ianus Geminus on
other coins as shut. 17 As to the Temple of Vesta it is reported to have been
restored by Nero after the fire of 64. 18
Nero built a new type of triumphal arch, monumentalising the old
scheme of the single fornix by the addition of columns at the corners of both
fa~des.
The sides acquired deep niches in which statues were erected. In
one of them, the coins show a figure of Mars. Its counterpart remains
unknown. Was it his traditional companion Venus? No suggestions have
been offered by the specialist on arches, Sandro De Maria, or by Fred
Kleiner, author of a thorough monograph on the monument. Nero formulated
the votation A.D. 58, but the arch was only built in 62, on the Capitol as a
proof of the victory over the Parthians. The representation of enemies may
have remained rather low-key as has been argued by Kleiner and De Maria:
the results had not been very good for the Romans at all! 19 Probably adjacent
to the Arch were Nero's Trophies, unknown to us apart from on a coin?O
Images of Roman buildings on coins of the Neronian era are not copious;
most of them are present on bronze coins struck after the Great Fire of 64. 21 The
few monuments constructed by him are the already-mentioned Macellum and the
Arch ofNero. Most coins stress the notion of Peace, like those with the Ara Pacis
Augustae and those referred to, with the Temple of Ianus and of Pax. The two
domus projects are absent altogether from the coinage.
15 P. Gros, LTUR v (Rome 1999),35-38 s.v. Theatrum Pompei, esp. 37. cr E.M. Moormann, 'Das
goldene Haus in Rom: Eine orientalische Erfmdung?', in: R Rolle, K. Schmidt & RF. Docter, eds.,
Archaologische Studien in Kontaktzonen der antiken Welt (= Festschrift fUr H.G. Niemeyer)
(Gottingen 1998), 689-701. The coins with the Temple of Ianus, however, predate this event and
express the general concern for peace.
16 F. Coarelli, LTUR IV (Rome 1999), 67-70 s. v. Pax, templum, esp. 67.
17 E. Tortorici, LTUR III (Rome 1996),92-93 s.v. Ianus Geminus, aedes.
18 RT. Scott, LTUR IV (Rome 1999), 125-128 s.v. Vesta, aedes, esp. 126.
19 F.S. Kleiner, The Arch of Nero in Rome (Rome 1985), 67-95; S. De Maria, Gli archi onorari dei
Romani (Rome 1988), 74-75 [revolutionary forms], 113-115 [reconstruction decoration], 283-284 no.
70 [description; bibliography]; F.S. Kleiner, LTUR I (Rome 1993), 101 s.v. Arcus Neronis;
Scheithauer 2000, op.cit. (n. 2),125-126 ('Voraussetzung des saeculum aureum').
20 E. Papi, LTUR V (Rome 1999), 91-92 s. v. Tropaea Neronis.
21 Sutherland 1984, op.cit. (n. 10), 13-187 (Nero). See for a purely numismatic analysis of the coins
D.W. MacDowall, The Western Coinages ofNero (New York 1979).
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We may conclude that the wooden amphitheatre, the circus and the
Baths with the adjacent Gymnasium were projects that heightened the
popularity of the emperor among the inhabitants of Rome. I do not think,
however, that Nero differed much from his predecessors or his successors in
erecting these categories of buildings. 22 They fitted well into the urban
texture and there was simply a need for these sorts of facilities. Moreover,
these projects provided an important source of employment for the crowded
city population.
Works of art
We know that Nero collected a great deal of antique statuary, among which a
masterwork like the Alexander signed by Lysippos23 and the group of the
Dying Gau!. His avid lust for art is comparable to that of Caligula and forms
a sort of 'conspicuous consumption' .24 The places where these sculptures
were exhibited are unknown. Pliny (Naturalis Histaria 34.84) states that the
Gauls stood in sellariis Damus Aureae like Boethos' Child Strangling a
Goose. We have already seen that Vespasian exhibited them in the Temple
of Pax. Filippo Coarelli recently argued that the Gauls were erected in the
octagonal room 128 of the Oppius pavilion, but I think that this is highly
improbable, if we consider the suite of rooms around it as banqueting
facilities, and that the central rotunda itself served for dances and other
forms of entertainment for the emperor and his guests. The theme seems
inappropriate in such a setting. 25
Another work of art associated with the Golden House is the Laocoon
Group. When this masterpiece was found in 1506, it was not standing in one
of the Golden House rooms, but near the Sette Sale. Nevertheless, one still
reads that it was discovered in room 131. Apart from the information on the
real find spot, we must keep in mind that the pavilion on the Oppius hill was
backfilled with debris, when Trajan's constructors started to erect the
Trajanic Baths. The few pieces of sculpture found hitherto are broken pieces,
no longer considered of great value. Hence, it is highly improbable that a
22 cr. the positive tenor of the sources: Scheithauer 2000, op.cit. (n. 2), 113-115. See also Griffin 2000,
op.cit. (n. 2), 64, 109-113.
23 E.M Moorrnann, 'Domus Aurea; Domus Tiberiana', in: Lisippo. L 'arte e lafortuna (Milano 1995),308.
24 A. Winterling, Aula Caesaris. Studien zur Institutionalisierung des romischen Kaiserhofes in der
Zeit von Augustus bis Commodus (31 v.Chr.-192 n.Chr.) (Munich 1999), 79 points at this well-known
term ofTh. Veblen from 1899.
25 F. Coarelli, Da Pergamo a Roma. I Galati nella citta degli Attalidi (Romae 1995), 14-15,37. Cf.
E.M Moormann in: M. Cima & E. La Rocca (eds.), Horti Romani: Atti del convegno internazionale.
Roma 4-6 maggio 1995 (Rome 1998),357.
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work of art like the Laocoon Group would have remained there. This does,
however, not mean that this sculpture could not have formed an element in
Nero's collection. The house of Titus reportedly held this and other works of
art originating from Nero's collections 26
A statue ofMinerva was erected in the Curia after Nero's mother was
assassinated and later it should have got a place in the (for us problematic)
Atrium Minervae. This building or portico, around an open space, has been
identified as the Chalcidicum. As a matter of fact, the statue reportedly
would be exposed in the Chalcidicum after AD. 68 and it is not difficult to
guess why it had been removed from the Curia. 27
Among the portraits of the emperor we know of two exceptional cases,
the Colossus by Zenodorus28 and a painted effigy, equally of huge dimensions,
viz. some 120 feet high, displayed in the Horti Maiani and damaged in the fire
of 64 29 Its shape is unknown and the form of the bronze giant erected in the
vestibulum of the Golden House also remains speculative.
The Domus Transitoria and the Domus Aurea
As to the two most famous projects ofNero in Rome, the Domus Transitoria
and the Domus Aurea, I want to argue that (1) the Temple of Claudius
probably has not been constructed at all during Nero's reign, and (2) the
large areas occupied by the two domus complexes had already been in
imperial possession or were gradually acquired, giving Nero the possibility
to realise his Golden House.
The Domus Transitoria is mentioned by Suetonius as a predecessor
of the Domus Aurea. 3o The term transitoria alludes at the connection
between properties on the Palatine and the Esquiline. The very nature of the
complex, and its chronology, remain unknown. Apparently Nero wanted to
establish a unity consisting of the traditional residence on the main hill of
Rome and the series of horti in the then outskirts of the town, near the old
burial grounds. Some horti on the Esquiline are known to have been the
26 Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 36.37; E. Papi, LTIJR II (Rome 1995), 199 s. v. Domus Titi
Imperatoris.
27 F. Zevi, LTIJR I (Rome 1993), 135-136 s. v. Atrium Minervae.
28 C. Lega, LTIJR I (Rome 1993), 295 s. v. Colossus: Nero. Now fundamental: M. Bergmann, Der
KoloJ3 Neros, die Domus Aurea und die Mentalittitswandel im Rom der friihen Kaiserzeit (Mainz
1994); Eadem, Die Strahlen der Herrscher. Theomorphes Herrscherbild und politische Symbolik im
Hellenismus und in der romischen Kaiserzeit (Mainz 1998), 190.
29 Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 35.51. The Horti Maiani formed part of the Horti Lamiani.
30 M. de Vos, LTIJR II (Rome 1995), 199-202 s. v. Domus Transitoria.
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property of the imperial family, from Augustus onwards. Maecenas, for
example, left his 'gardens' to his friend, when he died in 8 BC. 3!
The construction of the Golden House over an area that occupied most
of the centre of Rome caused the abolition of a series of older monuments.
The Temple of the Fortuna Virgo was included in the grounds, as was the
Turris Maecenatis. 32 Pliny tells that Nero robbed precious materials from the
Temple of the Fortuna Seiani, an old building, reportedly erected by Servius
Tullius. 33 The most conspicuous monument mentioned in connection with the
Golden House is the Temple ofDivus Claudius at the Caelius?4
The Temple of Divus Claudius
It is generally assumed that Nero interrupted the construction of the Temple of
Divus Claudius in 64 and integrated the area into the horti of his Golden House.
Nero's predecessor had been made divus by the Senate at the instigation of his
widow Agrippina on October 13, AD. 54, in contrast with Tiberius, whom was
simply refused this honour, and Caligula, who was struck by a damnatio
memoriae. In this way, Claudius acquired a touch of the divine Augustus, and
so did his adoptive son Nero, who could be called Divi filius. 35 Agrippina had
also taken the initiative of erecting a temple for her last husband on the Caelius,
opposite the Palatine hill, probably on private property.36
Almost nothing has been preserved of this huge project and the
known elements date to the Flavian era. Some arches of the platform are still
visible near and in the basilica of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. The podium
measured 200 x 160 metres. From the start of the construction of the Golden
House, the Caelius was included into its park and the northern slope of the
hill was changed into a large nymphaeum, a sort of Trevi fountain that could
31 C. Hauber, LTUR ill (Rome 1996),70-74 s.v. Horti Maecenatis; M. de Vos, LTUR III (Rome 1996),
74-75 s. v. Horti Maecenatis. "Auditorium". The Twris Maecenatis either fonned part of some building or
was a separate construction, ibidem p. 73. Contra: Y. Perrin, 'La Domus Aurea et I'ideologie neronienne',
in: Le systeme palatial en orient, en Grece et a Rome (Leiden 1987), 359-391, esp. 375-377; Idem,
'Turns Maecenatiana: une note d'histoire et de topographie', Latomus 55 (1996), 399-410.
321. Aronen, LTUR 11 (Rome 1995),279-280 s.v. Fortuna Virgo. For the tower see bibliography cited
in note 31.
33 Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 36.163. Cf L. Anselmino & MJ. Strazzulla, LTUR 11 (Rome
1995),278 s.v. Fortuna Seiani, aedes; D. Palombi, Tra Palatino ed Esquilino: Velia, Carinae, Fagutal.
Storia urbana di Ire quartieri di Roma antica (Rome 1997), 137; Scheithauer 2000, op.cit. (n. 2), 118
(no criticism in Pliny).
34 C. Buzzetti, LTUR I (Rome 1993),277-278 s.v. Claudius, Divus, Templum (Reg. ill); DarwallSmith 1996, op.cit. (n. 1),48-55.
35 Griffin 2000, op.cit. (n. 2), 96-99: title mainly used between 55 and 60.
36 Suetonius, Vespasianus 9. On the dedication by Agrippina see D. Fishwick, 'Seneca and the Temple
of Divus Claudius', Britannia 22 (1991), 137-142; Darwall-Smith 1996, op.cit. (n. 1),40.
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be seen from the pavilion on the Oppius Hill. Apart from the Oppius wing, it
forms the only substantial construction of the Golden House complex not
entirely demolished after Nero's death. The water for the nymphaeum came
from the already-mentioned Arcus Neroniani.
The general view is that Nero was responsible for the interruption of
the construction of the temple and extended his private grounds in a selfish
way. However, the ancient sources do not accuse him openly of any sort of
impiety.37 But we may ask, as a consequence of the dramatic end to the
previously warm affection between mother and son, whether the work on the
temple had started at all or had been stopped in the first stage of the
preparation of the surface. We know that their relationship was troubled as
early as 55 and that, shortly after, Agrippina was sent into some kind of exile
from public life. 38 She had to retire to Baiae, where she would be murdered
in AD. 59. These vicissitudes were dramatically described by Tacitus and
retold by Werner Eck and AA Barrett in their monographs on Agrippina. 39
From these works one gets an image of the gloomy circumstances that
caused her to retire from active political life. 40
I would like to argue that the grand project of the temple for the
Divus Claudius had barely begun at all. Agrippina had no possibility to build
it in or after 55 and probably lacked the power and money to have it carried
out by others. Moreover, Nero fostered no warm feelings for his uncle,
whom he used merely as an instrument in the succession. 41 As a matter of
fact, Miriam Griffin and Andrea Scheithauer see the interruption of the
construction as a result of 'Diffamierung' of Claudius. 42 An additional
argument for my thesis is that the temple has not been depicted on Neronian
coins. In my view, the works for the rearrangement of the hill's slopes to
Scheithauer 2000, op.cit. (n. 2), 116.
Tacitus, Annales 13.18 tells how she had to move out from the palace into the former house of Antonia
on the Palatine as early as 55. During the workshop, in the discussion following my paper, Werner Eck
suggested that Agrippina was ruled out at last at 11 February, 55, when Britannicus was murdered.
39 AA Barrett, Agrippina. Sex, Power, and Politics in the Early Empire (New HavenILondon 1996);
Idem, Agrippina. Mother of Nero (New HavenILondon 1996). Both editions have the same
impagination. The information can be found in chapter 7, 'Mother', pp. 143-180, and chapter 8, 'The
End', pp. 181-195. See also W. Eck, Agrippina die Stadtgranderin Ko/ns. Eine Frau in der
frahkaiserlichen politik (Cologne 1993), 67-76, where the same image is sketched.
40 In this context, it is not important whether Burrus and/or Seneca were involved in this alienation, as
has been stipulated several times.
41 Barrett 1996, op.cit. (n. 39), 160 thinks that Agrippina asked for too much attention for Claudius.
S.H. Rutledge, Imperial Inquisitions. Prosecutors and Informants from Tiberius to Domitian
(LondonINew York 200 I), 150-152 also stresses her instable position.
42 Griffin 2000, op.cit. (n. 2), 98; Scheithauer 2000, op.cit. (n. 2), 121. The latter also suggests that
Agrippina's dedication instead of the emperor's one showed the same lack of reverence.
37
38
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produce the walls of the podium of the temple were indeed started at an early
point. The nymphaeum was installed at the moment Nero could construct the
Golden House.
We know that Vespasian took up the old project and finished the
temple. If I am right, one might even ask whether it was not this first Flavian
emperor, who in fact started the building project. He may have included the
temple in the entire management of the area around the former Stagnum
Neronis, comprising the Palatine, the Caelius and the Oppius. An allusion to
a formerly projected temple for Claudius fitted well into that strategy,
according to which he abolished as completely as possible the memory of
Nero. Moreover, the Flavian propaganda did not refrain from accusing Nero
for stopping the construction of a temple dedicated to his honourable uncle
Claudius. Nero would have offended the pietas, essential for a good name
among Rome's elite.
The Flavians left the nymphaeum along the northern side of the hill
untouched, where it could serve as a beautiful water-works not far from the
Amphitheatrum Flavium and the Ludus Magnus, constructed under Domitian. 43
The area
An important point stressed in all considerations on the Golden House - and
less on the Domus Transitoria - is the extent of its area. Some have calculated
that it covered 50 hectares, c.c. van Essen even proposed that the surface area
was 80 hectares, more or less double the area of the modem Vatican City 44 It
has been suggested that these grounds, covering the Palatine, the Velia, the
Oppius, the Esquiline and part of the Caelius, plus the areas between these
hills, were occupied more or less ex novo by the emperor, when he started the
Golden House. The Great Fire facilitated this process, in that the emperor
could incorporate the devastated areas in-between.
On the other hand, we know from Tacitus that a number of horti became
the property of the emperor in the late Fifties and early Sixties and I would
argue that it was already Nero's intention to obtain them. 45 We must date
Nero's plans to extend his 'house' beyond the normal limits shortly after he
came to power. Let me list the horti on the Esquiline in Nero's possession: 46
Darwall-Smith 1996, op.cit. (n. 1),218-219.
See now in general: LTUR II (Rome 1995), 49-64 s.v. Domus Aurea (various authors);
bibliographical addenda in LTUR V (Rome 1999), 244.
45 De Kleijn 2001, op.cit. (n. 12),239 stresses the extended area of the horti.
46 Other gardens used by Nero are the Hortj Sallustiani (see P. Irmocenti & M.C. Leotta, LTUR III
[Rome 1996], 79-81), imperial property on the Pincio, the Horti Serviliani (see L. Chioffi, LTUR 1II
43
44
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1) Horti Lamiani, adjacent to the Horti Maecenatis; in imperial
possession from Caligula (or previously?) or, at the latest, from AD.
62 (M. Cima di Puolo, LTUR III [Roma 1996], 61-64);
2) Horti Lolliani, adjacent to Stazione Termini; imperial properties from
Claudius onwards, probably after the exile ofLollia Paulina AD. 49,
when her possessions were confiscated (Tacitus, Annales 12.22; E.
Papi, LTUR III [Roma 1996], 67);
3) Horti Maecenatis; imperial properties from 8 B.C. onwards (Cassius
Dio 55.7.5) and incorporated into the Domus Aurea (Tacitus, Annales
15.39.40; C. Hauber, LTURIll [Roma 1996], 70-74);
4) Horti Pallantiani, near the so-called Temple of Minerva Medica; the
proprietor, Nero's libertus Pallas killed 'by' Nero in AD. 62, in
order to gain possession of the grounds (Tacitus, Annales 14.65: quod
inmensam pecuniam longa senecta detineret; D. Mancioli, LTUR III
[Roma 1996], 77);
5) Horti Tauriani, taken over by Agrippina AD. 53, who urged the
proprietor T. Statilius Taurus to kill himself (Tacitus, Annales 12.59;
E. Papi, LTUR III [Roma 1996], 85);
6) Horti Torquatiani, taken over by Nero AD. 63, who urged the
proprietor D. Iunius Torquatus Silanus to kill himself (Tacitus,
Annales 15.35; D. Mancioli, LTUR III [Roma 1996], 85-86).
As to the Palatine one sees how here the emperor gradually pushed out
other proprietors, as if he were the young cuckoo in another bird' s nest 47 He
followed a line started by his predecessor Claudius, who had begun the
construction of the huge Domus Tiberiana 48
I should say that the Domus Transitoria and the Domus Aurea are the
result of a gradual process of annexation of properties throughout Rome. The
Great Fire only facilitated the last step, viz. the connection between separate
areas like the Palatine, Caelius and Oppius-Esquiline. The bought or stolen
plots were mostly horti, i.e. big garden structures with sets of pavilions
within them and various sorts of green areas. 49 The descriptions by Tacitus
[Rome 1996],84), probably in the Ager Vaticanus, and the Nemus Caesarum in Trastevere (E. Papi,
LTIJR III [Rome 1996], 340; Tomei 2001, op.cit. [n.3]). Nero's powerful freedman Epaphroditus
possessed gardens near the Porta Maggiore (D. Mancioli, LTIJR III [Rome 1996],60).
47 E. Papi, LTIJR IV (Rome 1999),28-38 s.v. Palatium (64-V sec. d.C.), esp. 28-29, 36-37 (interventions
after the Fire; destruction of houses; roads); Winterling 1999, op.cit. (n. 24),65-70, esp. 67.
48 C. Krause, LTUR II (Rome 1995), 189-197 s.v. Domus Tiberiana, esp. 190; Idem, Domus Tiberiana
I. Gli scavi, Bollettino di Archeologia 25-27 (1994 = 1998); Y. Perrin in this volume.
49 See the important volumes by M. Cima & E. La Rocca (eds.), Le tranquille dim ore degli dei. La
residenza imperiaie degli horti Lamiani (Rome 1986); Iidem (eds.), 1998, op.cit. (n.25). On
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and Suetonius of the vast park - to be imagined like the Villa Hadriana at
Tivoli - can thus be explained from the fact that many elements already
existed and had only to be integrated by Nero into his new concept. In my
view, therefore, the Golden House was not the ex novo result of only four
years work. The descriptions by Tacitus and Suetonius seem to exaggerate in
this respect. 50 The texts possibly contain personal observations of the
authors, who could have visited the parts of the Golden House that remained
in use, such as horti, and especially those on the Esquiline. One may think,
for instance, of the Horti Lamiani, originally part of Nero's Golden House
where the famous statue of Commodus as Hercules was found, as testifying
to the continuing use of the horti through the 2nd and 3rd centuries. 51
Whether Nero opened the gardens to the public like some of his
predecessors had done is unknown. As a matter of fact, the people struck by
the Great Fire were first sheltered in Nero's Gardens (Tacitus, Annales
15.39.2). And a number of Christians, being regarded as the culprits of this
disaster, was burnt in the gardens, which were made freely accessible for this
'spectacle' (Tacitus, Annales 15.44). It remains unclear, in both cases, which
gardens were meant, but the execution of the Christians is generally
considered to have been located in the Vatican area, in the Gardens of
Agrippina, not far from the circus of Gaius. The term 'spectacle' implies a
··
52
great number 0 f vIsitors.
Finally, we may turn to Flavian propaganda. In the anti-Neronian
vein of this period the notion of Roma reddita sibi fitted well. But, who, in
fact, was seriously harmed, apart from the people who had been urged to
commit suicide? It was only the elite who lamented the extravagance of the
emperor. The mob apparently easily consented to the construction of the
Golden House, as they had never before obtained access to these grand horti
on the Esquiline.
tenninology see N. Purcell, 'Dialectical gardening', Journal of Roman Archaology 14 (2001), 546556; p. 551 on the Golden House.
50 Tacitus, Annales 15.42; Suetonius, Nero 31. Cf. W.1.Th. Peters, 'Tacitus en Suetonius over het park
van Nero's domus aurea', in: Noetes Noviomagenses J.c.F. Nuehelmans ab amicis oblatae (Weesp
1985), 105-117; E.M. Moormann, ' "Vivere come un uomo". L'uso dello spazio nella Domus Aurea',
in: Cima & La Rocca 1998, op.cit. (n. 25), 345-361, esp. 359-360 with bibliography.
51 Cima & La Rocca 1986, op.cit. (n. 49), 88-95; 0.1. Hekster, Commodus. An Emperor at the
Crossroads (Amsterdam 2002),121-122.
52 See most recently Tomei 2001, op.cit. (n. 3) 37-39.
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Conclusion
Nero does not seem to have put a typically political or public stamp on the
image of the town. There is no 'Macht der Bilder' to be attributed to his
personal interventions. If he did, it was a personal move, satisfying his
personal needs to 'live like a man'.
Even the mode of wall decoration, called the Fourth Style, existed
previously and did not change radically during this period. The remains of
the Domus Aurea on the Oppius show a set of rich paintings on walls and
vaults, but these are undoubtedly of secondary importance to the marble
floor and wall revetments in the main rooms. Wall decoration was not the
means to display luxury in an emperor's palace. A novelty is the introduction
of marbling at a great scale. We see it for the first time in public buildings
like the Forum Augustum at the end of the 1st century B.C., and for the first
time in private context - as far as we know - in the nymphaeum and the
surrounding rooms pertaining to the Domus transitoria on the Palatine. The
imperial atmosphere was enhanced by the exhibition of numerous works of
art.
Amsterdam, July 2002
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OVERCOMING THE BARBARIAN. DEPICTIONS OF ROME'S
ENEMIES IN TRAJANIC MONUMENTAL ART
By
J.C.N. COULSTON'
Discourse on Roman imperialism has traditionally centred on a perspective
finnly reflecting ancient elite sources, with the actions and motives of the
Roman state being of paramount concern. Opponents to Roman ordering of
the world, the 'neighbours' outside the empire, have generally taken second
place in a hierarchy of scholarly priorities. This has been the case for a
number of readily comprehensible reasons, not least of which is the symbiosis
between Roman imperial studies and the past outlooks of researchers
working against a contemporary imperial backdrop or in a post-colonial
world still dominated by imperial 'consequences'. The priority of a Roman
cultural gradient over both 'native' societies within the boundaries of the
empire, and neighbouring groupings without, is striking and continues to be
prominent in discourses on 'Romanisation'. Reference to the 'native
background' in Roman provincial discussions before the 1990s, automatically
both reinforced and perpetuated traditionalist models of culture change.
Certainly there was 'Romanisation' whereby elements of Roman
Mediterranean culture did have an impact on a great range of core and
hinterland societies. Urban institutions and elite practices, religious
mechanisms, language and the 'contact culture' of military systems
undeniably spread - the 'benefits of civilisation' in the traditional view.
However, it has less often been seriously asked how cultural contacts and the
existence of empire reflected back on the dominant culture, how the
barbarians changed Rome whilst they were being acculturated. Moreover, a
conservative over-dependence on the ancient elite literary record to provide
both framework and outlook for the treatment of other, mainly
• The writer is very grateful to Lukas de Blois for his invitations to take part in the Impact ofEmpire
conference in Rome and to contribute to the present volume. A particular debt is owed to the
following friends and colleagues for discussions relating to various aspects of the subject in hand:
Mike Bishop, Hazel Dodge, Andrew Garrunon, Tom Harrison, Fraser Hunter, Simon James, Adriano
La Regina, Greg Woolf and various discussants at the conference. Hazel Dodge kindly read the
on it.
manuscript and made many helpful imp~ovents
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archaeologically derived, data has often relegated 'natives' to a subordinate
proto-historic or non-historic position. 1
There is a clear similarity here with modern discourses concerning
more recent imperialisms. The idea that the rulers gave and the ruled took
without cultural return has led to similar one-way perceptions. This is one of
the thrusts of Edward Said's Culture and Imperialism which attempts to
establish greater appreciation of exchange:
"The asymmetry is striking. In one instance we assume that the
better part of history in colonial territories was a function of the
imperial intervention; in the other, there is an equally obstinate
assumption that colonial undertakings were marginal and perhaps
even eccentric to the central activities of the great metropolitan
cultures. Thus, the tendency in anthropology, history and cultural
studies in Europe and the United States is to treat the whole of
world history as viewable by a kind of Western super-subject,
whose historicizing and disciplinary rigour either takes away, or,
in the post-colonial period, restores history to people and cultures
'without' history. Few full-scale critical studies have focussed on
the relationship between modern Western imperialism and its
culture, the occlusion of that deeply symbiotic relationship being
a result of the relationship itself.,,2
A special symbiosis has been created by modern imperialism being fuelled by
modern perceptions of Roman imperial power, sometimes specifically
because the same geographical regions were involved (e.g. Italian aspirations
in North Africa), sometimes because it was thought desirable to adopt
supposed Roman imperial iconographic symbols (e.g. the use of the imperial
eagle as a logo for successive Napoleonic regimes, or the fasces by 20th
I For introductions to the growing literature of this debate see M. Wood & F. Queiroga (ed.), Current
Research on the Romanization of the Western Provinces, BAR International Series 575 (Oxford
1992); J. Webster & N. Cooper (ed.), Roman Imperialism: Post-Colonial Perspectives (Leicester
1996); G. Woolf, Becoming Roman. The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul (Cambridge
1998); E. Fentress (ed.), Romanization and the City: Creation, Transformations and Failures,
Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 38 (Portsmouth 2000).
2 E. Said, Culture and Imperialism (London 1993),40.
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century fascist regimes).3 However, amongst many other major differences
between Roman and modern imperialisms was the lack of any decisive
technological gap between the Roman army and its adversaries on the
battlefield. There was no Roman 'Military Revolution' in weaponry of a 16th
to 19th century European kind, 4 no need for the equivalent of Ellis' s Social
History of the Machine Gun 5 to explore technological advantages over
Rome's barbarian neighbours. Indeed, Roman military equipment was not
only at the same 'tee-level' as the materiel of other peoples, but it was often
made up of borrowings from other peoples, the 'Roman' element being
largely the combination of arms and armour usages. 6 Such a lack of Roman
imperial technological superiority alone potentially made for profound
differences between ancient and modern perceptions of the 'barbarian' or
'native' or 'other'. Nevertheless, there is great potential for cross-fertilisation
between Roman studies and recent research on other imperialisms. 7 For
3 The eagle was employed to link military activities with Jupiter Capitolinus, the patron god of the
Roman state, as with legionary aquilae, and the eagle-wings withfulmina blazons on shields carried
by I st to 2nd century AD citizen troops. The eagle was not generally employed separately as a state
'logo' in the manner of Habsburg imperial, German fascist, Mexican or U.S.A. eagles. The fasces
represented individual magistrates and the emperor, and were depicted on the funerary monuments
of such officials, but not to represent the state per se (see T. Schiifer, Imperii Insignia: sella curulis
und fasces. Zur Reprasentation romischer Magistrate (Mainz 1989)).
4 See G. Parker, The Military Revolution. Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500-1800
(Cambridge 1988), chapter 4. The confidence imparted by technologically superior weaponry could
become arrogant over-confidence, and consequent defeats of colonial armies by 'natives' were
commensurately more shocking, as in the Retreat from Kabul (1842), Little Big Horn (1876),
lsandlwana (1879), Adowa (1896) etc. See G. Fincham, 'Writing colonial conflict, acknowledging
colonial weakness', in G. Fincham, G. Harrison, R. Holland & L. Revell (eds.), TRAC 2000.
Proceedings of the Tenth Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (Oxford 2001), 25-34.
5 J. Ellis, The Social History of the Machine Gun (London 1993),79-109.
6 Indeed Roman metallurgical technology was sometimes inferior to the capabilities of adversaries.
The one obvious area of Roman superiority over all adversaries during the principate was artillery
developments. See M.C. Bishop & J.C.N. Coulston, Roman Military Equipmentfrom the Punic Wars
to the Fall ofRome (London 1993),81; 194-195; 202-205.
7 For multi-period studies see P.DA Gamsey & C.R. Whittaker (eds.), Imperialism in the Ancient
World (Cambridge 1978); JA Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies (Cambridge 1988); S.E.
Alcock, T.N. D'Altroy, K.D. Morrison & C.M. Sinopoli (eds.), Empires. Perspectives from
Archaeology and History (Cambridge 2001). For discussions of the interractions between Roman
and British imperialisms see P. Freeman, 'British imperialism and the Roman empire', in Webster &
Cooper 1996, op.cit. (n.I), 19-34; R. Hingley, 'The 'legacy' of Rome: the rise, decline, and fall of the
theory of Romanization', in Webster & Cooper 1996, op.cit. (n.I), 35-48; R. Hingley, Roman
Officers and English Gentlemen: the Imperial Origins of Roman Archaeology (New York 2000). It
has long been the practice to combine multi-period studies of military history within the same
volume, e.g. J. Keegan, The Face ofBattle (London 1978); J. Hackett, Warfare in the Ancient World
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instance, Kennedy's clear demonstration that an empire is in 'decline' once it
starts to devote significant resources to defence rather than to expansion, has
clear implications for the study of Roman frontier defences, especially if the
principate of Trajan is regarded as the high-water mark of Roman military
expansion and, indeed, over-extension. 8
What follows is an examination of metropolitan Roman attitudes
towards the 'barbarian' as expressed through the sculptures on Trajanic
display monuments. The latter were created at the apogee of imperial strength
in a triumphalist and confident style. Moreover, they are not merely singled
out by accidents of survival and preservation, but they represent a
combination of both traditional imperial rhetoric and the injection of hitherto
unprecedented levels of verisimilitude into presentation of the barbarian
enemy. The latter had been contacted in peace and war in the Danubian
region for over a century. In one way or another, as ambassadors, exiles,
prisoners of war, or as slaves, they had become familiar to Rome's 6lites and
to her urban masses. Yet, under Trajan, these barbarians leapt for the first
time into sharp focus in terms of dress, hairstyle and military equipment.
Modern commentators may therefore attempt ethnographic identifications,
but what makes this exercise so much more interesting and informative is the
concern first with Roman ethnographic perceptions, and only second with the
actualities of Danubian cultural formations. Moreover, this enquiry can be
enhanced and informed by comparisons with the methods by which other
imperial polities perceived and presented their own enemies in display art.
(London 1989); E. Carlton, War and Ideology (London 1990); P. Griffiths, Forward Into Battle.
Fighting Tactics from Waterloo to the Near Future (Swindon 1990); AB. Lloyd (ed.), Battle in
Antiquity (London 1996); 1. Cannan (ed.), Material Harm. Archaeological Studies of War and
Violence (Glasgow 1997); J. Cannen & A Harding (eds.), Ancient Warfare. Archaeological
Perspectives (Stroud 1999); P. Bentley Kern, Ancient Siege Warfare (London 1999); YD. Hanson,
Why the West Has Won. Nine Landmark Battles in the Brutal History of Western Victory (London
2001); P.M.W. Freeman & A Pollard (eds.), Fields of Conflict. Progress and Prospect in Battlefield
Archaeology, British Archaeological Reports International Series 958 (Oxford 2001).
8 P. Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Economic Change and Military Conflict from
1500 to 2000 (London 1988), xvii; 298; 408. Cf. E.N. Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman
Empire (Baltimore 1976), chapter 2. For Roman expansion and military exploration see C. Nicolet,
Space, Geography and Politics in the Early Roman Empire (Ann Arbor 1991), 85-94.
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Ancient 'barbarian' iconography
In the field of Roman state iconography no period is better represented than
the 2nd century AD.9 The sculptures of largely intact monuments such as
Trajan's Column, \0 the Great Trajanic Frieze,lI and the Column of Marcus
Aurelius 12 provide literally thousands of representations of barbarians
'interacting' with the Roman emperors and their forces. Scenes of Roman
victory and barbarian defeat, followed by submission and captivity commonly
lauded the achievements of emperor and army in war. These have the
character of having been executed at the centre of the empire, the core rather
than the periphery, by sculptors with little or no direct experience of frontier
'reality'. Thus they may more closely represent elite imperialist perceptions at
'home' of distant enemies - the 'metropolitan' view in Said's terms.
Moreover, there are contemporaneous works on the frontiers, such as the
Tropaeum Traiani (Adamclissi, Romania)13 and private gravestone art, 14
9 In general see P.G. Hamberg, Studies in Roman Imperial Art with Special Reference to the State
Reliefs of the 2nd Century (K0benhavn 1945); D.E. Strong, Roman Imperial Sculpture (London
1961); D.E. Strong, Roman Art (London 1980), 128-132; 141-159; N. Hannestad, Roman Art and
Imperial Policy (Aarhus 1986); D.E.E. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture (New Haven 1992), 183-194; 212235; G.M. Koeppel, 'Die historischen Reliefs der romischen Kaiserzeit, rn, stadtromische
Denkmaler unbekannter BauzugehOrigkeit aus trajanischer Zeit', Bonner Jahrbiicher 185 (1985),
143-213; G.M. Koeppel, 'Die historischen Reliefs der romischen Kaiserzeit, IV, stadtromische
Denkmaler unbekannter Bauzugehorigkeit aus hadrianischer bis konstantinischer Zeit', Bonner
Jahrbiicher 186 (1986), 1-90; Bishop & Coulston 1993, op.cit. (n.6), 19-24.
10 Fully reproduced in W. Froehner, La Colonne Trajane (Paris 1872-1874); C. Cichorius, Die
Reliefs der Traianssaule (Berlin 1896-1900); K. Lehmann-Hartleben, Die Trajanssaule. Ein
romisches Kunstwerk zu Beginn der Sptitantike (Berlin 1926); F.B. Florescu, Die Trajanssaule
(Bucaresti & Bonn 1969); F. Lepper & S. Frere, Trajan's Column (Gloucester 1988); S Settis (ed.),
La Colonna Traiana (Torino 1988); G.M. Koeppel, 'Die historischen Reliefs der romischen
Kaiserzeit, Vill. Der Fries der Trajanssaule in Rom, Teil I: Der Erste Dakische Krieg, Szenen 1LXXVill', BonnerJahrbiicher 191 (1991),135-198; G.M. Koeppel, 'Die historischen Reliefs der
romischen Kaiserzeit, IX. Der Fries der Trajanssaule in Rom, Teil 2: Der Zweite Dakische Krieg,
Szenen LXXIX-CL V', Bonner Jahrbiicher 192 (1992), 61-122; F. Coarelli, The Column of Trajan
(Roma 2000). Cichorius is the best of these, Lepper and Frere the worst. Settis is in colour
photography carried out before cleaning in the 1990s. See lC.N. Coulston, 'Three new books on
Trajan's Column', Journal of Roman Archaeology 3 (1990), 290-309. The Trajan's Column scene
numbering system employed throughout the present study is that defined by Cichorius 1896-1900.
11 AM. Leander Touati, The Great Trajanic Frieze. The Study of a Monument and of the
Mechanisms ofMessage Transmission in Roman Art (Stockholm 1987).
12 Fully reproduced in E. Petersen, A. von Domaszewski & G. Calderini, Die Marcus-Saule auf
Piazza Colonna in Rom (Monaco 1896); C. Caprino, La Colonna di Marco Aurelio (Roma 1955).
The Marcus Column scene numbering system employed throughout the present study is that defined
by Petersen et a!. 1896.
13 F.B. Florescu, Die Siegesdenkmal von Adamklissi: Tropaeum Traiani (Bucaresti 1965, 3rd ed.).
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often executed by soldiers drawing upon their own direct experience of nonRoman cultures, which may be used as a 'control' for metropolitan
iconography. In Rome this was art for a public audience with content
presumably, in some sense (although the mechanisms of commission and
supervision are completely unknown), approved of by the regime and the elite
of Roman society.15 The latter's outlook may of course be revealed by
comparative studies of contemporary elite literature, such as Tacitus'
Agricola and Germania, and the writings of PI inius Minor. 16
Much which characterises the extraordinarily well preserved Trajan's
Column was innovative and unprecedented, but of course triumphalist art was
not invented in the early 2nd century AD. Various regimes back into the
Bronze Age chose to commemorate and advertise military achievements,
dedicating careful thought to the problems of depiction. The features which
act as a unifYing element for such works, including those of the 2nd century
AD, are: the common range of subject matter (marches, reviews, battles,
sieges, submissions etc.); the necessity for intelligible conventions and clear
depiction, thus the development of iconographic conventions and ethnocultural stereotypes; and the usual context of execution on a vertical wall.
The last point is crucial, whether it involved a temple pylon, the walls of a
palace, a tomb, or a dedicated monument such as a triumphal arch or column.
The central problem was the translation of key actions such as battles and
14 Collected in A. Hofrnarm, Romische Militargrabsteine der Donaulander (Wien 1905); E.
Esperandieu, Recueil general des bas-reliefs, statues et bustes de la Gaule romaine (Paris 19071966); E. Esperandieu, Recueil genlJral des bas-reliefs, statues et bustes de la Germanie romaine
(Paris 1931); A. Schober, Die romische Grabsteine von Non'cum und Pannonien (Wien 1923); H.
UbI, Waffen und Uniform des romischen Heeres der Pn'nzipatsepoche nach den Grabreliefs
Noricums und Pannoniens (Wien 1969, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis); E. Pfllhl & H. Mobius, Die
ostgriechischen Grabreliefs (Mainz 1977); N. Benseddik, Les troupes auxiliaires de I'armee
romaine en Mauretanie Cesarienne sous le Haut-Empire (Algiers 1979); M. Schleiennacher,
Romische Reitergrabsteine. Die kaiserzeitlichen Reliefs der triumphierender Reiters (Bonn 1984); c.
Franzoni, Habitus atque habitudo militis. Monumenti funerari di militari nella Cisalpina romana
(Roma 1987); R.Tufi, Militari romani sui Reno (Roma 1988); plus volumes in the Corpus Signorum
Imperii Romani for Britain, Gennany, Austria, Poland and Hungary.
15 For Trajan's principate see R. Scheiper, Bildpropaganda der romischen Kaiser unter besonderer
Beriicksichtigung der Traianssaule in Rom und korrespondierender Miinzen (Bonn 1982).
16 cr Livius 21.4.5-10; Velleius Paterculus 2.104.3-4; Tacitus, Agricola 20; 22; 33-38; Germania
18-22; Historiae 2.5; Josephus, Bellum Iudaicum 7.142-147; Plinius Minor, Panegyricus 13; 15; 19;
Epistulae 8.4 (fitting subjects for a Dacian war history); Plutarch, Cato 1.6-7; Fronto, Ad Lucium
Verum imp. 9-15; Dio Cassius 68.8; 68.8.14; 68.8.23; 69.9; SHA, Hadrianus 10.2-11.1.
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sieges which took place on an essentially flat or undulating plain with breadth
and depth, onto a vertical, two-dimensional wall.
Common conventions included the employment of a 'stacked' or
'bird's-eye view' perspective over scenery and human figures arranged in
lines, 'flocks' or confused masses. I? Because actions had to be visually
intelligible, it was often necessary for human figures to be comparatively
larger than life, dominating scenery, such as trees, walls and siege machines.
A king or emperor was often rendered in even larger scale to denote status
and to clarify his actions. Commonly the forces of said ruler were represented
in ordered bodies or lines, whilst those of the 'barbarian' were disordered and
confused. Thus the viewer was invited to infer irregularity, military inferiority
and indiscipline for the adversary, leading to inevitable defeat. The careful
depiction of specific cultural features such as clothing, weaponry and hairstyle
also became a topos of enemy identification.
A number of pre-Roman examples may serve to illustrate these
features and also to place the 2nd century AD material in a developmental
context. In Pharaonic Egyptian art the king was depicted on large scale wall
sculptures battling a series of cardinal enemies who were clearly identified not
just in the inscriptions but visually by their skin-tones, hairstyles and dress.
Notably Seti I (1294-1279 BC) and Ramesses 11 (1279-1213 BC) were
shown destroying Libyans to the west; Nubians to the south; Bedouin,
Canaanites, Syrians and Hittites to the east. 18 In the time of Ramesses III
See Lelunann-Hartleben 1926, op.cit. (n.IO), 88-108; 141-144; Hamberg 1945, op.cit. (n. 9), 108119; 162-172. For previous comparisons made between Egyptian, Assyrian and Roman documentary
reliefs see A La Regina, 'Ferocia barbarica. La reppresentazione dei vinti tra Medio Oriente e
Roma', Jahrbuch des deutschen archaologischen lnstituts 109 (1994), 8-26; Fig. 5-22; C.M.
Gilliver, The Roman Art of War (London 1999), 67; 131; Fig. 27-28; 49. This is to suggest similar
solutions applied to similar iconographic problems, rather than a direct continuity of influence from
the second millenium BC down to the 2nd century AD, although see H.P. Laubscher, 'Zur
Bildtradition in ptolemaisch-romischer Zeit', Jahrbuch des deutschen archaologischen lnstituts III
(1996),225-248.
18 G. Robins, The Art of Ancient Egypt (London 1997), Fig. 55; 95; 155; 160; 209-210; R. Schulz &
M. SeideJ (eds.), Egypt. The World of the Pharaohs (Koln 1998),34; 40; 124; 163; 165; 169; 190;
322; 369. The bound, standing barbarians on polychrome glazed tiles from Medinet Habu are a
particularly evocative set of depictions, rather similar to the barbarians tied to palm trees on the
Adamc1issi crenellations discussed below (Robins 1997, Fig. 4; Schulz & Seidel 1998, 396).
Commonly the motif of the pharaoh hunting large and dangerous animals was also used as an image
of his maintenance of order (ibid., 199 (Seti I); D. Wildung, Egypt from Prehistory to the Romans
(Koln 1997), 144 (Ramesses Ill)). The Roman emperor combating natural forces may similarly be
seen in the Hadrianic hunting tondi of the Arch of Constantine in Rome (G. Calcani, 'I tondi
dell'arco: Adriano e Costantino', in Adriano. Architettura e Progetto (Milano 2000), 137-147). For
17
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(1183-1152 BC), the Sea Peoples who attacked from the north and west
appear on walls at Medinet Habu being bloodily crushed in land migrations
and sea battles. 19 These Egyptian artworks were perhaps seen only by a
narrow priestly elite within monumental complexes, but the act of depiction
itself had power and thus contributed to a quintessential royal function. Even
the militarily inexperienced young pharaoh Tutankhamun was depicted on his
funerary furniture riding down barbarian hosts in his chariot. 20 Thus Egypt
was maintained by the pharaoh's military prowess and his relationship with
the gods, a centre of order surrounded by barbarian chaos 21
The sculptures which decorated the walls of 9th - 7th century BC
Assyrian palaces at Nimrud, Nineveh and Khorsabad (Iraq) are another
instructive area of monumental art, perhaps one designed to have been seen by a
wider audience of courtiers and foreign diplomats. 22 Elarnite, Chaldaean,
Samaritan, Bedouin and Egyptian foes are identified by cuneiform inscriptions,
but also by dress, hairstyle and equipment 23 In particular, conventions were
developed to render intelligible significant activities during siege-warfare, and to
clearly signal enemy defeat and submission. Similarly, in the Achaemenid palace
sculptures of Persepolis in Iran, great lines of tribute-bearers are identifiable by
hunting and modern imperialism see J.M. MacKenzie, The Empire of Nature. Hunting, Conservation
and British Imperialism (Manchester 1988).
19 N.K. Sanders, The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the Eastern Mediterranean, 1250-1150 BC (London
1978), Fig. I; 66-69; 76-84; 86-93.
20 Robins 1997, op.cit Cn.18), Fig. 189; Schulz & Seidel 1998, op.cit. Cn.18), 240.
21 For Pharaonic relations with foreigners in general see B. Kemp, 'Imperialism and empire in New
Kingdom Egypt', in Garnsey & Whittaker 1978, op.cit. (n.7), 7-57; 'The Egyptians of the New
Kingdom. The enemy as 'non-people", in Carlton 1990, op.cit. (n.7), 34-44; I. Shaw, 'Egypt and the
outside world', in I. Shaw (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford 2000),314-329. For
general studies of the battle reliefs see I. Shaw, 'Battle in ancient Egypt: the triumph of Horus or the
cutting edge of the temple economy?', in Lloyd 1996, op.cit. (n.7), 239-269. See now S.c. Heinz, Die
Feldzugdarstellungen des Neuen Reiches: eine Bildanalyse (Wien 2001).
22 J.M. Russell, Sennacherib's Palace Without Rival at Nineveh (Chicago 1991), 8: "A survey of
Assyrian records .... suggests that the potential audience for the neo-Assyrian palace inscriptions
included the king and his family, courtiers, Assyrian citizens, foreigners, future kings, and gods". In
general see ibid., 223-240; 251-252; J.E. Curtis & J.E. Reade, Art and Empire (London 1995), 3942; 92-93; J. Reade, Assyrian Sculpture (London 1998).
23 Notably R.D. Barnett, Assyrian Palace Reliefs and their Influence on the Sculptures of Babylonia
and Persia (London 1960), PI. 15-16; 33-34; 38; 44-49; 108-128; RD. Barnett & M. Falkner, The
Sculptures of Tiglath-Pileser 1II (745-727 BC) (London 1962), PI. VU; XIV; XXIV; LXX; XCVI;
CXVU; R.D. Barnett, Sculptures from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (668-627 BC)
(London 1976), PI. XVU-V; XVIII-XXV; XXVIII-XXX; XXXII-VI; LX-XI; LXVI-XIX; Russell 1991,
op.cit (n.22), Fig. 68-69; 71; 80; 83-84; 89-91; Ill; 113; Curtis & Reade 1995, op.cit (n.22), No. 4;
13; 20-22; 24-25; Reade 1998, op.cit (n.22), Fig. 43; 63; 66-68; 90; 96; 98-107.
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their headgear, dress, hairstyle and weapons, and by the nature of their gifts for
the King of KingS. 24 On the other hand, the nine defeated kings who exhibit a
range of attires on the Bisitun (Iran) cliff relief of Darius I (c. 520-519 BC) were
open to a much wider public scrutiny?5
The art and literature of the Greek world also clearly identified
'barbarians' in ways which have been explored by various modern studies 26
Greek concern to clearly represent the non-Greek 'other' also manifested itself in
visual topoi. Persians, Thracians, Skythians and Afiicans were distinguished by
their ethnic features, dress and weapons. 'Civilised' Greeks went heroically naked
whilst barbarians were dressed, the complete opposite of the 17th -20th century
colonial-imperialist perception of regular troops in uniforms combating 'naked
savages'. Alternatively, Greeks wore characteristic hoplite panoply which
imparted an armoured uniformity and, especially with the large hoplite shield,
a visual distinction. However, at the same time the wearing of short-sleeved,
high-skirted tunics inferred heroic nudity by the exposure of limbs. 27 A
general exception to clothed barbarians was the appearance of naked 'Gauls'
in Hellenistic art. This is despite the known use of mail armour and helmets
by northern peoples, as evidenced by items present, for example, on the
Athena Polias precinct colonnade panels from Pergamon (Turkey)28 The
latter belonged to a genre presenting trophy spolia or congeries armorum
which is later much developed under the Roman emperors (discussed below).
The communication of these conventions of Greek and barbarian depiction
was much more socially inclusive than in the arts of earlier periods previously
24 AD. Pope, A Survey of Persian Artfrom Prehistoric Times to the Present (Oxford 1938), PI. 84;
91-94; 96-98; J. Curtis, Ancient Persia (London 2000), Fig. 50-59. Closely parallelled in prose by
Herodotos 7.61-95.
25 J. WeisehOfer, Ancient Persia from 550 BC to 650 AD (London 1996), PI. I; Curtis 2000, op.cit.
(n.24), Fig. 42.
26 For example E. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian. Greek Self-Definition Through Tragedy (Oxford
1989); F. Lissarrague, L 'autre guerrier. Archers, peltastes, cavaliers dans l'imagerie attique (Paris
1990),67-149; F. Hartog, The Mirror of Herodotus. The Representation of the Other in the Writing
ofHistory (Berkeley 1998).
27 Clothed barbarians: P. Ducrey, Guerre et guerriers dans la Grece antique (Paris 1985), Fig. 50;
63; 70; 73; 80; 93; 144; 153-154; 166; 179; A Scholl, 'Der 'Perser' und die 'skythischen
BogenschOtzen' aus dem Kerameikos', Jahrbuch des deutschen archaologischen Instituts III
(1996),79-112. Heroic (semi-)nudity: Ducrey 1985, Fig. 2; 28; 33; 40; 84-87; 95; 142; 145; 166;
190. For the careful distinction of hoplites from other fonns of troops by their equipment see
Lissarrague 1990, op.cit. (n.26).
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discussed. Sculptures, frescoes and floor mosaics29 executed primarily for
elite viewing were joined in the Classical and Hellenistic periods by massive
numbers of lower value painted ceramics and terracottas. 30
Pre-Trajanic Roman representations of barbarians generally
emphasised western adversaries. The indigenous depiction of Spanish
warriors with well observed equipment in sculpture, on ceramics, and on
coins continued into the later Roman Republican period but did not spread
much outside Iberia. 31 There is some evidence in the form ofterracottas from
Canosa (Italy)32 and other, metal figurines 33 that a convention of short tunic,
small round shield, and corkscrew hair and beard was employed for
Numidians. In contrast, and building on Hellenistic conventions, Gauls were
depicted naked, but shield-forms, helmets, horns and military standards also
played a key part in identification. 34 Germans were represented wearing
trousers and cloak, but not tuniC. 35 Trophies and congeries armorum
artworks emphasised the Gallic artefacts but through the 1st century BC to
the 1st century AD the latter were joined by Hellenising elements, such as
28 Ducrey 1985, op.cit. (n.27), Fig. 151-152; 182; R.R.R. Smith, Hellenistic Sculpture (London 1991,
Fig. 118-132; E. Polito, I Galati Vinti. 11 trionfo sui barbari da Pergamo aRoma (Milano 1999). For
'Celtic' armour see P. Connolly, Greece and Rome at War (London 1981), 120-125.
29 E.g. N. Jidejian, Sidon (Beirut 1971), PI. 32-57; M.B. Hatzopoulos & L.D. Loukopoulos (eds.),
Philip ofMacedon (Athens 1980), Fig. 49; A. Cohen, The Alexander Mosaic. Stories of Victory and
Defeat (Cambridge 1997), Fig. 5-7; 20; 32-35; 66; Smith 2000, op.cit. (n.28), Fig. 226.
30 See Ducrey 1985, op.cit. (n.27), Fig. 50; 62-63; 70; 72; 75; 80; 150; 166; Lissarrague 1990, op.cit.
(n.26), Fig. 18; 22; 27; 29-35; 72-74; F. Lissarrague, 'The Athenian image of the foreigner', in T.
Harrison (ed.), Greeks and Barbarians (London 2002), 101-124. See also Hall 1989, op.cit. (n.26),
84-86 for the use of ethnic dress as theatrical stage costume.
31 Discussed in detail with the artefactual record by F. Quesada Sanz, El armament iberico. Estudio
tipol6gico, geografico, funcional, social y simbOlico de las armas en la cultura iberica (siglos VI-I
a. C.) (Montagnac 1997).
32 M.L Rostovtzeff, 'Numidian horsemen on Canosa vases', American Journal of Archaeology 32
(1942),263-267; ConnoUy 1981, op.cit. (n.28), 148. Cf. Trajan's Column Scene LXIV and Dio
Cassius 68.32.4.
33 N. Franken, 'Elefantreiter. Zum Typus der Barbarenstatuette aus GroBsachsenheim', Jahrbuch des
deutschen archaologischen Instituts 114 (1999), 125-156.
34 P. Bienkowski, Les celtes dans les artes mineurs Grecs-Romaines avec des recherches iconographiques
sur quelques autres peuples barbares (Cracow 1928); LM. Ferris, Enemies of Rome. Barbarians Through
Roman Eyes (Stroud 2000), Fig. 4; 6; 10; 16-18. For modem receptions of these images see T. Champion,
'The power of the picture. The image of the ancient Gaul', in B.L. Molyneaux (ed.), The Cultural Life of
Images. Visual Representation in Archaeology (London 1997),213-229.
35 G. Girke, Die Tracht der Germanen in der vor- und friihgeschichtlichen Zeit (Leipzig 1922); K.
Schumacher, Germanendarstellungen I, Darstellungen aus dem Altertum (Mainz 1935); Ferris 2000,
op.cit. (n.34), Fig. 52; 54; 65; 69; 75; 77; 84.
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muscled cuirasses, Attic helmets, rostra and even artillery-pieces 36 This mix
reached its apogee under Domitian with such works as the 'Armilustrum'
panels from Rome (now in Firenze)37 and the 'Trofei di Mario', also from
Rome and now on the Campidoglio (Plates VI, fig. 1)38 The great Domitianic
altar erected at Ephesos (Turkey) bears the same Hellenising pastiche but
with one solitary sword the 'wavy' blade of which may represent a naive
attempt to depict a Dacianfalx (see below).39
Trajanic realism
The Trajanic period monuments already mentioned, together with other less
complete statues and reliefs of barbarians, represent an extraordinary injection
of new iconographic detail. 'New', hitherto unfigured enemies appear. Most
notably the congeries armorum on the pedestal of Trajan's Column were
purged of Hellenising intrusions, being an accurate, still-life study in stone of
barbarian equipment (PI. VI, fig. 2_3)40
The vast majority of enemies on Trajan's Column are identifiable from
the context of Trajan's northern wars as Dacians from the Carpathian region
(modem Romania). They wear long trousers, long-sleeved tunics with siQesplit skirts, rectangular cloaks and, sometimes, soft 'Phrygian' caps (PI. VI,
fig. 8, 11, 13, 14).41 Similar figures on a colossal scale decorated the forum
36 E. Polito, Fulgentibus Annis. Introduzione allo studio dei Jregi d 'anni antichi (Roma 1998), Fig.
61-62; 75; 78-81; 99-101; 108-111; 114-118; 121-122; 126; 142; 147; 153; 159.
37 J.W. Crous, 'Florentiner Waffenpfeiler und Annilustrwn', Mitteilungen des Deutschen
archaologischen Instituts, Romische Abteilung 48 (1933), 1-119; Polito 1998, op.cit. (n.36), 204,
Fig 146; A. Tempesta, 'I rilievi con anni Cesi: ipotesi di ricomposizione ed interpretazione',
Bullettino Comunale 94 (1991-1992), Fig. 19; 20.
38 S. Reinach, Repertoire de RelieJs Grecs et Romains I, Les Ensembles (Paris 1909), 289-290; E.
Nash, Pictorial Dictionary oJ Ancient Rome (London 1962), IT, Fig. 839-840; Ferris 2000, op.cit.
(n.34), Fig. 74. The dating of these works (the Firenze panels and the Campidoglio trophies) is
almost purely stylistic, as is the attribution of other congen'es panels on the Campidoglio (Tempesta
1991-1992, op.cit. (n.37), Fig. 1-2).
39 If indeed this is not the upper limb of a bow. See E. Lessing & W. Oberleitner, Ephesos. Weltstadt
der Antike (Wien-Heidelberg 1978), PI. 87; Polito 1998, op.cit. (n.36), 214.
40 O. Gamber, 'Dakische und sannatische Waffen auf der Traianssaule', Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen
Sammlung Wien 60 (1964), 7-34; Polito 1998, op.cit. (n.36), 192-196, Fig. 128-129.
41 Florescu 1965, op.cit (n.l3), 587-632; Florescu 1969, op.cit (n.IO), 112-117; J. Pinkerneil,
Studien zu den Trajanischen Dakerdarstellungen (Freiburg 1983), 80-91. Dio Cassius 68.9.1 noted
that aristocratic Dacians were marked by the wearing of caps but, if true, this was not adequately
communicated to the Column sculptors. Apart from on Decebalus, caps are shown worn randomly in
crowd scenes without regard to wearer's function or status.
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complex in which the Column was situated (PI. VI, fig. 4)42 Others are seen
on the Great Trajanic Frieze, often with longer skirts.43 Such figures appear
bound to trees on the crenellations and on some metopes of the Tropaeum
Traiani at Adamclissi (PI. VI, fig. 18).44 On the Column the Dacians cany wolfheaded wind-sock standards ('dracones'; PI. VI, fig. 2, 8).45
A second type on the Column wears trousers and cloak but, lacking a
tunic, is bare-chested and bare-armed. 46 The hair is twisted up into a knot on
the side of the head (PI. VI, fig. 16). These men correspond closely with the
Tropaeum Traiani metope figures and other crenellation prisoners,47 with the
already discussed Germanic barbarian figural type, and with what is known
from Tacitus and other iconography of the 'Suebian' German hair-knot
(nodus)48 There is even one example of a preserved actual knot on a skull
from Osterby in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany).49 A third type of barbarian,
figured in only one Trajan's Column scene (C), wears an ankle-length skirted
garment which is also seen on the Adamclissi crenellations (PI. VI, fig. 12,
42 P. Zanker, 'Trajansforum (Sitzung am 13. Mai 1969)" Archaologischer Anzeiger (1970), 510-512,
Fig. 11-18; Pinkerneil 1983, op.cit. (n.4I), 124-234; 287-247; R.M. Schneider, Bunte Barbaren.
Orientalenstatuen ausfarbigen Marmor in der r6mischen Reprasentationskunst (Wonns 1986), 162165; 1. Ungaro, 'I Daci', Bullettino Comunale 95 (1993), 145-162; J. Packer, The Forum of Trajan
in Rome. A Study of the Monuments (Berke1ey 1997), 99; 437-438; Cat. 184-188; J. Packer, The
Forum o/Trajan in Rome. A Study of the Monuments in Brie/(Berkeley 2001), Fig. 61; 143; G.A.
Popescu (ed.), Traiano ai confini deU'impero (Milano 1998), Cat. No. 331-332; M. de Nuccio & 1.
Ungaro (eds.), I Marmi Colorati della Roma Imperiale (Venezia 2002),94-95; 99-100; 128-133; Cat.
no. 31-40. For Dacian depictions in general see also G. von Billow, 'TIrrakerdarstellungen in der
romischer Kunsl', Klio 62 (1980), 145-153; Pinkerneil 1983, op.cit. (n.4I), 74-77; 80-96; Ferris
2000, op.cit. (n.34), 61-81.
43 Leander Touati 1987, op.cit (n.]\), PI. 2-4; 7-8; 13-14.
44 Florescu 1965, op.cit (n.13), Crenellations V-VIll; XIII-V; XVIll-IX; XXII; XXIV.
45 Scenes XXIV-V; XXXI, XXXVIll, LIX, LXIV, LXVI, LXXV, CXXII. See J.C.N. Coulston, 'The
'draco' standard', Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies 2 (1991), 101-114. These also
appear on the Column's pedestal reliefs along with 'Celtic' boar's head trumpets (carnyces), for
which now see F. Hunter, 'The carnyx in Iron Age Europe', Antiquaries Journal 81 (2001),77-108.
46 Scenes XXVII; XXXVIll; C.
47 Florescu 1965, op.cit (n.13), Crenellations I; XII; XVII; XXI; XXIII; XXV.
48 Tacitus, Germania 38; Martialis, Liber de spectaculis 3; H. Fischer, 'Oer gennanische Nodus und
verwantes', ZeitschriJt far deutsche Altertum und deutsche Literatur 53 (1912), 183-197; Girke
1922, op.cit (n.35), 3-5, PI. 31; 38.a, c; Schumacher 1935, op.cit (n.35), No. 87-88; lOO; 103-104;
137-138; 142-143; Schleiennacher 1984, op.cit (n.14), No. 20; 22.
49 P. V. Glob, The Bog People (London 1977), 117-118; PI. 41.
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19).50 The garments, split up the front and worn with calf-length riding boots
most probably represent long horsemen's kaftans 51
The last Column barbarian enemy type is shown shooting a bow from
horseback, with both rider and horse entirely encased in scale armour (Scenes
XXXI, XXXVII; PI. VI, fig. 9). These figures are the only armoured
barbarians in the whole of Roman art. Asiatic steppe nomad Sarmatians are
the only northern barbarians which are regularly described as heavily
armoured in Roman literary sources. 52 The kaftan was a characteristic item of
asiatic dress so it is quite likely that the kaftan-wearers on the Column belong
to the same group as the armoured cavalry, being shown unarmoured in a
non-belligerent, diplomatic context.
On the Column and elsewhere in Trajanic art, notably on coins, Dacians
are figured with a characteristic weapon shared by no other people. This is a
single or double-handed sword with a wickedly curved blade. Detailed depictions
and archaeological finds demonstrate another key characteristic: the blade was
single-edged with the sharp edge on the inside of the curve (the opposite of
almost all other curved bladed weapons in history, e.g. Thracian sicae and
more modern sabres). Roman literature refers to this type of sword as the
falx, i.e. 'sickle' or 'scythe', the one term most appropriate for the singlehanded version, the other for the truly murderous two-handed weapon. 53 On
the helical frieze of Trajan's Column only the shorter falx is shown,
sometimes with a short grip and guard, sometimes with a long haft (PI. VI,
Florescu 1965, op.cit (n.13), Crenellations IT; IV; X-XI; XVI; XXVI. Cf. Fig. 185.
A. PaIoczi-Horvath, 'Le costwne Coman au moyen age', Acta Archaeologica Academiae
Scientiarum Hungaricae 32 (1980), 403-417; E.R. Knauer, 'Ex oriente vestimenta trachtsgeschichtliche Beobachtungen zu Armelmantel und Armeljacke' ,Aufstieg und Niedergang der
romischen Welt IT, Principat 12.3 (Berlin 1985), 578-741; C. Balint, Die Archaologie der Steppe
(Wien 1988), Fig.7.2.
52 Tacitus, Historiae 1.79; Pausanios 1.21.5-<i; Ammianus Marcellinus 17.12.2. For a full discussion of
these figures and Sannatian cavalry in general see lC.N. Coulston, 'Tacitus, Historiae 1.79 and the impact
ofSannatian warfare on the Roman empire', in C. von Carnapp-Bornhein (ed.), Kontakt - Kooperotion Konjlikt: Germanen und Smmaten zwischen dem 1. und 4. Jahrh. n. Chr. (Newniinster 2003), 415-433.
53 Coins: H. Mattingly, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, III, Nerva to Hadrian
(London 1936, henceforth BMC III), PI. 12.15, 15.6-9, 15.14-15,28.6-7,34.1, 35.9, 37.3-6; G.G.
Belloni, Le Monete di Traiano. Catalogo del Civico Gabinetto Numismatico, Museo Archeologico di
Milano (Milano 1973), No. 50-52, 99-101, 104-107, 270-279, 246-250, 400. Literature: Valerius
Flaccus, Achilleid 2.132. Just how potentially destructive this weapon may have been has been
demonstrated by D. Sim, 'The making and testing of a falx also known as the Dacian battle scythe',
Journal ofRoman Military Equipment Studies 11 (2000),37-41.
50
51
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fig. 11).54 On the Column's pedestal reliefs the full-size weapon is repeatedly
depicted (PI. VI, fig. 3),55 as they are on the Adamclissi metopes (PI. VI, fig.
16, 17).56 Both forms appear in the Transdanubian archaeological record, so
clearly there were two types in reality. 57 The Column sculptors were certainly
working from actual artefacts, but the long-hafted, one-handed frieze falces
were probably artificially scaled down in size to present them for one-handed
use specifically because the pose of a double-handed wielder would have been
alien to the rather conservative genre of combat scenes (barbaromachia).58
The pedestal reliefs depict piled, captured barbarian equipment in
profusion (PI. VI, fig. 2, 3). In addition to the large falces, the degree of
archaeologically verifiable detail is very high so actual spolia were being
employed as models for this still-life study in stone. This is a clear link with
the public events of Trajan's principate, namely lavish triumphal processions
and celebratory games in the capital which form a close link between frontier
and centre through the medium of barbarian prisoners and booty (see below).
The attention to ethnic dress has been noted already. The veristic
concern with weaponry is also characteristic of imperial receptions of the
'other' in both earlier and later periods. In more modem contexts there has
been an emphasis on the frightening effect of wounds inflicted by Scottish
Highland broadswords in the Jacobite wars, 'Khyber knives' in the Mghan
Wars, and assegais (iklwa) in the Zulu Wars. 59 In a sense this concern served
Scenes LXXII; LXXV; XCV; CXV-VI; CXLIV-V; CLL See also the falx-blades appearing on
trophies in scene LXXVIII. Two double-handed falces are depicted on an honorific pedestal from
Amastris (Turkey): A Bilttner, 'Untersuchungen ilber Ursprung und Entwicklung von
Auszeichnungen in romischen Heer', Bonner Jahrbilcher 157 (1957), PI. 11.2.
55 Cichorius 1896-1900, op.cit (n.1 0), PI. II-Ill; Settis 1988, op.cit (n.1 0), Fig. 20-23. Cr. Polito 1998,
op.cit (n.36), Fig. 134; 143.
56 Florescu 1965, op.cit (n.13), 634, Fig. 184; 195; 197-202; 204; 218; 221. A single-handedfalx is
depicted on the Adamclissi weapons frieze (PI. X.C-D).
57 Short: M. Parducz, Denkmiiler der Sarmatenzeit Ungams II (Budapest 1944), PI. 25.6; C.S.
Nicolaescu-Plopsor, 'Antiquites celtiques en Oltenie', Dacia 11-12 (1945-1947), PI. 1.6; Ill.5; IV.7;
IV.lI; Y.11; S. von Schnurhein, 'Ein hiilzerne Sica aus dem Romerlager Oberaden', Germania 57
(1979), 122-128; Fig. 9; 1. Miclea & R. Florescu, Geto-Dacii (Bucaresti 1980), PI. 199; Popescu
1998, op.cit (n.42), Cat. no.285; Long: V. Piirvan, 0 Protoistorie a Daciei (Bucaresti 1926), Fig.
342. Cf. 1. Glodariu & E. Iaroslavschi, Civilizatia Fierului la Daci (Cluj-Napoca 1979) Fig. 71.1.
58 Only occasionally do combat figures on the Column depart from accepted canons of pose, as when
they throw stones during sieges (CXIll; CXV; CXXXIV), and these instances are more closely
related to the poses seen in construction scenes (cf. LXVII; LXXVII; XCVI; CXVI).
59 G.C. Stone, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor (New York
1934),77; Fig. 97; 354; 355; Fig. 446; AU.B. Norman, 'Scottish swords of the '45', in Cul/aden.
The Swords and the Sorrows (Edinburgh 1996), 22-53; TA Heathcote, The Afghan Wars, 183954
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to make 'native' enemies seem more formidable and savage, thus their
overthrow both more admirable and justified.
The general presentation of barbarians on Trajan's Column is as a
determined and worthy adversary for Trajan and his army. The achievements
of Roman citizen troops are particularly lauded in the areas of building
construction, field-craft and siege warfare, quintessentially 'Roman'
qualities. 60 Most of the fighting in the open field is conducted (always with
inexorable success) by non-citizen auxiliary troops. Thus the Roman ideal of
victory achieved without the loss of Roman blood is advertised throughout
and may be closely paralleled in the contemporaneous writings of Tacitus. 61
The barbarians do wound Roman soldiers, albeit only on one single
occasion, and whilst their confusion, indiscipline and fieldcraft incompetence
is emphasised throughout (PI. VI, fig. 8), they do keep coming back for more
and do attempt 'low-tee' assaults on Roman fortifications. 62 In one instance
wagons appear with a barbarian force (XXXVIII) and it is very likely that this
was a deliberate visual-rhetorical device intended to presage disaster. In
Roman literature wagons spelt butchery for barbarians who parked their
vehicles behind their own army, and then could not escape Roman pursuit
through them when they had lost the battle. The Helvetii fought by Caesar
and the Britons led by Boudica63 suffered in this way; so too did the
Bastarnae defeated by Crassus on the Lower Danube in 29 BC; and
Transdanubian men, women and infants are slaughtered around wagons on
the Adamclissi metopes (PI. VI, fig. 17).64 Wheeled transport figured in
1919 (London 1980), 51; I. Knight, The Anatomy of the Zulu Army from Shaka to Cetshwayo, 18181879 (London 1995), 109-113; C. Spring, African Arms and Armour (London 1993), 127; Fig. 121.
60 J.C.N. Coulston, 'The architecture and construction scenes on Trajan's Column', in M. Henig
(ed.), Architecture and Architectural Sculpture in the Roman Empire (Oxford 1990), 39-50; J.C.N.
Coulston, 'Travel and transport on the Column of Trajan' , in C. Adarns & R. Laurence (eds.), Travel
and Geography in the Roman Empire (London 2001), 126-130.
61 Tacitus, Agricola 35. See J.C.N. Coulston, 'The value of Trajan's Column as a source for military
equipment', in C. van Driel-Murray (ed.), Roman Military Equipment: the Sources of Evidence.
Proceedings of the Fifth Roman Military Equipment Conference (Oxford 1989), 32.
62 Incompetent river-crossing XXXI. Fort assaults XXXII; XCIV-VI; CXXXIV. Wounded Roman
soldiers XL. The latter scene served to demonstrate both civilised Roman medical capabilities and
the emperor's concern for the well-being of his soldiers (cr Dio Cassius 68.8.2), rather than to
emphasise barbarian prowess. See R. Jackson, Doctors and Diseases in the Roman Empire (London
1988), 126-137; PA Baker, 'Medicine, culture and military identity', in Fincham et al. 2001, op.cit
(nA), 48-68.
63 Caesar, De bello Gallico 1.24; 26; Tacitus, Annales 14.37; Dio Cassius 62.12.5.
64 Dio Cassius 51.24A; Florescu 1965, op.cit (n.13), Fig. 218-221.
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Egyptian sculpture, notably when a land-migration of Sea Peoples is crushed
in sculptures on the walls of Medinet Habu. 65 Dead horses, overturned
vehicles and stray wheels also served to denote destruction of adversaries in
Assyrian works.66 Faced with such disastrous defeat, the Dacians in one great
set-piece scene on Trajan's Column seem to commit suicide en masse by
drinking poison to cheat humiliating capture (CXX-XXI; PI. VI, fig. 13)67
Ultimately, the barbarian king, Decebalus, cuts his own throat rather than
become the star attraction of a Trajanic triumphal procession in Rome
(CXLV; PI. VI, fig. 14).68 'Suicide before dishonour' was a noble course in
accord with a stoic Roman ethos, elevating the practitioners to a high level of
regard. Conversely, it could be interpreted as a desperately savage escape,
denoting cowardice and lack of character. 69
Otherwise the behaviour of barbarians is not depicted as particularly
'barbaric'. On the contrary, to modem eyes, especially those of 'imperialist'
apologists, there are some uncomfortably barbaric Roman practices. On
occasion barbarians are decapitated by soldiers in the heat of battle (CXIII).
Once an auxiliary fights whilst the hair of a severed Dacian head is clamped
between his teeth (XXIV; PI. VI, fig. 6).70 In other scenes on the Column
frieze non-citizen soldiers present severed barbarian heads directly to Trajan
(XXIV, LXXII; PI. VI, fig. 5). This has been explained away by modem
Sanders 1978, op.cit (n.19), Fig. 76-78.
Barrett 1960, op.cit (n.23), PI. 119; 121; 129; Reade 1998, op.cit (n.22), Fig. 96.
67 Although this scene has also been interpreted as one depicting water being rationed out and the
effects of thirst. See Froelmer 1872-1874, op.cit (n.IO), 22; Cichorius 1896-1900, op.cit (n.IO), rn,
262; E. Petersen, Trajans dakische Kriege (Leipzig 1899-1903), IT, 100; Lehrnann-Hartleben 1926,
op.cit (n.1 0), 117; W. Gauer, Untersuchungen zur Trajansst'iule (Koln 1977), 38; Lepper & Frere
1988, op.cit (n.IO), 168-169; Settis 1988, op.cit (n.IO), 176-186; 486; La Regina 1994, op.cit (n.17),
27. Dacians are definitely seen to be killing each other with swords in scene CXL, and parallels may
be drawn with Chaldaeans stabbing each other on an Assyrian relief from Nineveh (Barnett 1976,
op.cit (n.23), PI. XXXIV), and with the statue of a Galatian driving a sword into his own breast from
Rome (Polito 1999, op.cit (n.28), 61-63). For barbarian suicide see N.F. Parise, 'Galati suicidi.
Onore e morte presso i Celti', Origini 15 (1990-1991), 369-374 (this article has not been seen by the
present writer).
68 Plinius Minor, Epistulae 8.4.2; Dio Cassius 68.14.3. See M.P. Speidel, 'The captor of Decebalus,
a new inscription from Philippi', Journal ofRoman Studies 60 (1970), 142-153.
69 cr Appianos, 6.97, 8.131; Josephos, Bellum Iudaicum 7.389-398; Dio Cassius 65.6.3;
Symmachus, Epistulae 2.46. On Roman suicide see P. Plass, The Game of Death in Ancient Rome.
Arena Sport and Political Suicide (Madison 1995).
70 A practice only parallelled to the writer's knowledge in Japanese art. cr a print reproduced in 1.
Newman, Bushido. The Way of the Warrior. A New Perspective on the Japanese Military Tradition
(Wigston 1989), 160.
65
66
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commentators as a 'non-Roman' practice greeted with a pained expression
from the emperor. 71
One is vividly reminded by an incident related by Field-Marshall
Viscount Slim which took place during the Burma campaign of the Second
World War. The British and Empire forces had been swept out of Burma by
the Japanese, but then had started to regroup and retrain, and had
commenced aggressive patrolling back into contact with the enemy:
Our men brought back a Japanese rifle, an officer's shoulderstraps, a steel helmet. Sometimes they brought back even more
convincing exhibits as did the Gurkhas who presented themselves
before their general, proudly opened a large basket, lifted from it
three gory Japanese heads, and laid them on his table. Then they
politely offered him for dinner the freshly caught fish which filled
the rest of the basket. 72
Mutilation of the fallen was a practice common to many cultures for the
purposes of ritual, retribution, or just for enumerating the enemy dead 73 The
piles of amputated hands or severed, uncircumcised penises in Egyptian
artworks,74 and the severed heads and impaled bodies in Assyrian reliefs are
71 This is discussed at length by AK. Goldsworthy, The Roman Anny at War. 100 BC - AD 200
(Oxford 1996), 271-273, with emphasis on head-taking being an auxiliary rather than a citizensoldier practice. See also J. Webster, 'Ethnographic barbarity: colonial discourse and 'Celtic warrior
societies", in Webster & Cooper 1996, op.cit (n.I), 117-118.
72 W.J. Slim, Defeat into Victory (London 1999), 188.
73 For example, Zulu warriors opened up the stomach cavity of a dead enemy as part of expiation for
the act of killing, to release the dead warrior's spirit, and to avoid ritual contamination. Some degree
of mutilation is almost inevitable when bladed weapons are used face-to-face in war, not least
because mUltiple stabbing or frenzied hacking in the heat of combat would continue until an enemy
was obviously dead. Dropping an enemy with a bullet at a distance might be seen as more clinical.
Zulu warriors coming up behind those first in combat would stab the wounded/dead in order to
ritually share in the killing, as in a lion-hunt, and thus British observers were shocked by the
mUltiple assagai-wounds (Knight 1995, op.cit (n.59), 224-226).
74 Sanders 1978, op.cit (n.19), Fig. 11; Robins 1997, op.cit (n.l8), Fig. 25; Schulz & Seidel 1998,
op.cit (n.18), 29; 368. In a world where only the Egyptians were circumcised, the use of severed
enemy penises for counting the dead was particularly effective from the scribes' point of view if they
did not trust the soldiers' claims. Severed hands taken from Egyptian civilians, women and dead
colleagues could have allowed Egyptian troops to inflate their achievement and increase the
'bodycount'. The latter tendency has been seen during modern wars, notably in Vietnam.
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sanguinary and graphic versions of such traits in pictorial commemoration. 75
The recumbent but intact bodies below the feet of Achaemenid kings are a
more symbolic rendition of defeated leadership. 76
In the Roman context the state took the heads of traitors and
displayed them in public, particularly in the Forum Romanum. 77 In another
scene on Trajan's Column citizen troops work with barbarian heads impaled
on poles in the background (LVI; PI. VI, fig. 10). Citizen troops on the Great
Trajanic Frieze again present heads to Trajan (PI. VI, fig. 15).78 After
Decebalus committed suicide (CXL V) his head was struck off, displayed to
the army (CXL VII), and sent to Rome for display and disposal 79 This was a
very potent public proof of victory, second only to leading an enemy leader,
be he Hellenistic king or barbarian chieftain, through the streets of Rome
during the victor's triumph, then executing him below the capitol as a form of
human sacrifice. How very different from the fate of the Zulu King
Cetshwayo, sent as a prisoner to London in 1882 to take luncheon with
·
. 80
Queen V lctona.
Polybios wrote a chilling account of the disciplined ferocity of the
Roman soldiers who sacked Carthago Nova in 209 BC. Killing everything,
75 Barnett & Falkner 1960, op.cit (n.23), PI. XIV; XVll; XXXIV; XXXVIlI-XL; XLIV; XLIX; LVIlIIX; LXXVIlI; Barnett 1960, op.cit (n.23), PI. 38; 40; 119; 128; 130-131; Barnett 1976, op.cit (n.23),
PI. XXII; XXIV-V; LXVll; Russell 1991, op.cit (n.22), Fig. 67-69; 72; 77; Curtis & Reade 1995,
op.cit (n.22), No. 11; 22; Reade 1998, op.cit (n.22), Fig. 75.
76 Curtis 2000, op.cit (n.24), Fig. 42; 88; 90. See also Barnett & Falkner 1962, op.cit (n.23), PI.
XCV-VI.
77 The fate ofCicero's head and hands placed on the Rostra is a case in point (Plutarch, Cicero 48.449.1) but there were other infamous occasions under the principate: Dio Cassius 63.6.4-5 (Galba,
Piso etc.); 64.21.2 (Vitellius); Tacitus, Historiae 3.74 (Sabinus). Galba was decapitated specifically
by a soldier (Suetonius, Galba 20.2). The heads of Domitian's victims were displayed in the Forum
(Dio Cassius 67.11.3).
78 Leander Touati 1987, op. cit .(n.II), PI. 3-4; 13-14; 32.1-4. For identification of all the troops on
the great Trajanic Frieze as praetoriani see J.C.N. Coulston, "Anned and belted men': the soldiery
in imperial Rome', in J. Coulston & H. Dodge (eds.), Ancient Rome: the Archaeology of the Eternal
City (Oxford, 2000), 92; 98-99. This identification, based in part on the presence of scorpion blazons
on helmets and shields, has now been independently applied to other sculptures by another
commentator (H.I. Flower, 'A tale of two monuments: Domitian, Trajan, and some praetorians at
Puteoli (AE 1973, 137)', American Journal ofArchaeology 105 (2001),636). For other decapitations
by troops see Livy 24.15; Caesar, De bello Hispaniensi 32. For a severed head being brandished by a
Roman cavalryman on an Adarnclissi metope see Florescu 1965, op.cit (n.13), Fig. 183.
79 Dio Cassius 68.14.3; Fasti Ostienses AD 106; A. Fraschetti, 'Traiano neifasti Ostienses', in G.
Gonzalez, Trajano. Emperador de Roma (Roma 2000), 151.
80 Execution: Josephus, Bellum Iudaicum 7.153-154. For Cetshwayo see D.R. Morris, The Washing
of the Spears (London 1968), 601.
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including dogs, they stopped to the order of a trumpet call. This was inhuman
in a way quite different from the predictably unrestrained behaviour of
northern barbarians. 81 This was bad enough, but when a regular army, se1fconsciously representing 'civilisation', warred with 'primitives' or
'barbarians', then torture and mutilation practices might be delivered as
retribution by both sides. The 'civilised' party could justify any actions as
revenge and as fitting treatment of 'savages'. This seems to have been the
situation with scalping in 17th and 18th century America. It could be justified
as a native practice fittingly adopted as a response to Amerindian (and
Canadian white enemy) practices. 82 Similarly, the 19th century conflicts
between native tribes and the U.S. Cavalry saw appalling activities carried out
by all parties, including not only scalping but also the mounting of severed
heads on polls for display and intimidation. 83 In Scene XXV on Trajan's
Polybios 10.15.4-8, especially noting butchery which even included cutting dogs in half. As an
image of pU1pOseful ferocity this is very vivid, but when massacres do occur there may be an almost
alavistically savage concern to kill aI/life associated with the vanquished. Amerindians are reported
to have killed everything on 19th century settler farms, including dogs, cats, chicken and ducks (T.
Goodrich, Scalp Dance. Indian Warfare on the High Plains, 1865-1879 (Mechanicsburg 1997), 302).
At My Lai (Vietnam) in 1968 V.S. troops killed old men, women and babies, but also water
buffaloes, pigs and chickens, stuffing their carcasses down wells to poison the water (N. Sheehan, A
Bright Shining Lie. John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (London 1990), 689-690). The socalled 'war cemetery' in the native oppidum at Maiden Castle (Dorset) may no longer be interpreted
as an archaeological record of the Roman army's fury visited on defenders. Contrast R.E.M.
Wheeler, Maiden Castle, Dorset (London 1943), 61-65 with N.M. Sharples, Maiden Castle.
Excavations and Field Survey, 1985-1986 (London 1991), 119-125. See also J.C.N. Coulston, 'The
archaeology of Roman conflict', in Freeman & Pollard 2001, op.cit (n.7), 36.
82 The taking of scalps was practiced both by native Americans and by white settlers (even
sometimes by settler women), but by offering inflated bounties for scalps settler authorities
encouraging both the practice by all parties and the preying by whites on 'friendly' native groups
(I.K. Steele, Warpaths. Invasions of North America (Oxford 1994), 131; 146-147; 162; 228; A.
Starkey, European and Native American Warfare, 1675-1815 (London 1998), 12-13; 30-31). Major
General James Wolfe addressed scalping with regard to British Crown forces in a general order:
"The Genl. strictly forbids the inhuman practice of scalping, except when the enemy are Indians, or
Canads. dressed as Indians" (quoted in F. Anderson, Crucible of War. The Seven Years War and the
Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 (London 2000), 788-789). The question of who
first practiced scalping has been effectively resolved by finds at the 14th century Crow Creek
Massacre site (South Dakola, U.SA). Here almost 90% of 486 individuals in a mass grave exhibited
cranial scalping cuts (L.J. Zimmerman, 'The Crow Creek Massacre: archaeology and prehistoric
plains warfare in contemporary contexts', in Carman, 1997, op.cit (n.7), 75-94).
83 Goodrich, 1997, op.cit (n.8\), 4; 9-10; 13-14; 18; 29-30; 66; 72-74; 147-148; 190; 260-26\. RA
Fox, Archaeology, History, and Custer's Last Battle. The Little Big Horn Reexamined (Norman
1993), 221: "Archaeological results, in instances where sufficient human remains existed (at the
Little Big Horn site), testifY to decapilation and dismemberment. Acts of mutilation were, in part, a
81
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Column a Dacian fortification is decorated with impaled skulls. Presumably
these were Roman, so both sides were decapitating for effect, and the early
occurrence of the scene perhaps further served to suggest that the Roman
invasion of Dacia was justified by previous barbarian 'crimes'. 84
Concentration on the atrocities of adversaries, attention to their
characteristic weaponry (e.g. 'war-clubs', 'tomahawks' etc., see above), and
use of a related language of abuse (,hell-hounds', 'savages', 'fiends' etc.),
served in many historical contexts to further demonise a 'primitive' enemy.
This could have the unfortunate effect of inculcating a particular dread of
capture and torture in 'civilised' forces. This was the case with the Aztec
sacrifice and mutilation of conquistador prisoners. 85 Likewise, the
expectations of white settlers and soldiers were bleak with regard to their
treatment as captives by Amerindian enemies. Native women were accounted
as particularly savage, thus counterbalancing the' outraging' of white women
with the sexual mutilation of white men. 86 A 'save the last bullet for yourself
result of anger and were a practice not restricted to one or other group (native or white). But the
Indian way also required mutilation for cultural and spiritual reasons. Maimed enemies could not
confront you in the hereafter. Also, certain marks on a body showed the ethnic identity of the one
who had killed an enemy".
84 La Regina 1994, op.cit (n.17), 31-34 specifically links the justification of head-taking of XXIV with the
Roman heads in XXV, citing Florns 1.39.7. A poetic parallel to Roman remains in barbaricum is the
reference to Cornelius Fuscus' entrails being a feast for Dacian vultures (Juvenal, Satirae 4.111-112).
According to Frontinus, Stratagemata 2.9.4 the Gennan leader Anninius displayed Roman heads on poles
outside a camp to intimidate the Roman occupants. Similar Roman use of heads for morale purposes is
recorded (ibid. 2.9.2-5; Dio Cassius 51.25.4). Two Adamclissi metopes depict severed barbarian heads
alongside corpses (Florescu 1965, op.cit (n.13), Fig. 212-213).
85 R. Hassig, Mexico and the Spanish Conquest (London 1994), 135-136: "Ten of the Spanish
captives were taken to the Great Temple and sacrificed. Their severed heads were then sent to the
battlefront and thrown at the Spaniards, which must have demoralized them. After the Spaniards
withdrew to their camps for the night, they could hear the drums from the Great Temple and see the
other captured Spaniards being made to dance in front of the image of the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli
before their hearts were cut out. Aside from religious significance, the Spaniards were sacrificed for
psychological impact, both on Cortes' forces and on the Aztecs' allies. The sacrificed Spaniards were
flayed and their faces - beards attached - were tanned and sent to allied towns as tokens of Aztec
success, as proof of Spanish mortality, and in order to solicit assistance and to warn against betraying
the alliance".
86 Goodrich 1997, op.cit (n.81), 3; 43; 115-130; 133; 155-158; 300-303. It is important to mention in
this connection Trajan's Column Scene XLV. This depicts naked and bound men being tortured by
women with torches. The victims have been identified both as Romans and as Dacians (Froehner
1872-1874, op.cit (n.IO), 13; Cichorius 1896-1900, op.cit (n.l0), IT, 217; Petersen 1899-1903, op.cit
(n.67), I, 48; Lehmann-Hartleben 1926, op.cit (n.l0), 118-119; R. Paribeni, Optimus Princeps.
Saggio sulla storia e sui tempi del/'imperatore Traiano (Messina 1926-1927), I, 100; Gauer 1977,
op.cit (n.67), 28, n.144; R. Vulpe, 'Prigionieri romani suppleziati da donne dacie sui rilievo della
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mentality may have marked Roman behaviour on various occasions. 87 In
particular, in AD 9 Roman soldiers killed each other or fell on their own
swords to escape the tortures and human sacrifice practiced on prisoners by
the Germans. 88 In reality there would have been a very fine line between
suicide to avoid the dishonour of capture, and to escape both the pain and the
dishonour of 'breaking' under torture. Yet it is important to hold firmly onto
the realisation that Roman literature and iconography presented a barbarian
image which was both expected and shared by Roman metropolitan society.
Just as in more recent periods, presentation of the barbarian 'other' as
inherently bellicose and prone to savage acts suited an audience in the capital,
detached from daily realities on and beyond the frontiers. The danger lies in
modem commentators believing that the image was also the reality.89
There is no doubt that Trajan's Column was a landmark project in its
own right, and that its innovative elements of design and iconography had a
profound influence on subsequent monuments. Echoes of its pedestal reliefs
appear until the end of the 2nd century, although with increasing stylisation
and intrusion of 'classical', Hellenising equipment items amongst the evermore bland barbarian pieces. For example, one heavily restored relief in the
Townley Collection of the British Museum was clearly modeled on Trajan's
Colonna Traiana', Rivista Storica dell'antichitil 3 (1979), 109-125; Hannestad 1986, op.cit (n.9),
162; Lepper & Frere 1988, op.cit (n.IO), 90; Settis 1988, op.cit (n.IO), 175; Goldsworthy 1996,
op.cit (n.71), 262, n.49). It is unlikely in the extreme that, in the Column's panegyric of emperor and
army, Romans would have been depicted as left by Trajan to die horribly in captivity by barbarian
hands. This scene is more likely concerned with salutary punishment dealt out to barbarians by
provincials, in stark contrast to the preceding scene of Trajan rewarding his soldiers (XLIV). See
Coulston 1990, op.cit (n.lO), 296-297.
87 Caesar, De bello Gallico 5.37; Tacitus, Annales 4.73; Josephus, Bellum Iudaicum 6.186-187. See
Goldsworthy 1996, op.cit (n.71), 262-263. For 'save the last bullet' and D.S. Cavalry officers
shooting each other to avoid capture see Goodrich 1997, op.cit (n.81), 30; 43. For the disgrace of a
Roman soldier who allowed himself to be captured see Josephos, Bellum Iudaicum 6.359-362.
88 Ovidius, Tristia 4.2.35-36; Floms 2.30.37-39; Tacitus, Annales 1.61; Dio Cassius 56.18.22.1. See
Coulston 2001, op.cit. (n.81), 28-31. It may be, of course, that suicide in these circumstances had
become a literary topos, and that most, if not all, of the details in non-contemporary historical
narratives are metahistorical.
89 'Barbarian' behaviour such as that mentioned by Floms 1.39.2; Tacitus, Annales 14.33; Agricola
16.1; Dio Cassius 62.7.1-3 (Cf. Said 1993, op.cit (n.2), 177). The traditional views of 'the Celts' are
now being radically re-evaluated in the light of post-colonial discourse. Contrast MJ. Green (ed.),
The Celtic World (London 1995), ch. 3-4 with Webster 1996, op.cit (n.71), 111-123; K. Randsborg,
'Into the Iron Age: a discourse on war and society', in Carmen & Harding 1999, op.cit (n.7), 191202; S. lames, The Atlantic Celts. Ancient People or Modern Invention? (London 1999); G. Carr &
S. Stoddart (eds.), Celts from Antiquity (Cambridge 2002).
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Column spolia, but an Attic helmet and a muscled cuirass have crept in as
classici sing elements. 90 An Antonine pedestal, now at Frascati, likewise
follows the Column but with additional intrusions. 91
For many aspects of the study of Trajan's Column it is often very
instructive to compare and contrast it with the other great 2nd century figural
monument to survive in Rome, the Column of Marcus Aurelius, which was both
an emulation of, and an improvement on, Trajan's Column. Comparison back and
forth between the two spiral fiiezes is very instructive on layout, composition and
sculpting. There are different Danubian barbarian enemies on the Marcus Column
where the bare-chested Germanic type is combined in larger numbers than on
Trajan's Column with a new German type which wears a long-sleeved tunic. The
latter is rather like the Trajanic Dacian type but seldom wears a cap. Despite the
fact that Marcus' wars were against Sarmatians as well as German Marcomanni
and Quadi, no armoured barbarian cavalry or wearers of kaftans are present.
Overall, the characterisation of barbarians, in line with the general paucity of
detail on the Marcus Column, is far more bland than on earlier monuments. There
are no barbarian military standards, for example.
What is most striking is the contrast with Trajan's Column in the
general treatment of the barbarians on the Marcus Column. Villages are burnt
much more frequently, people are literally dragged off into slavery, and
women are directly abused. Some are pulled by the hair (XX) and in at least
one scene (XCVII) women are being stabbed to death. Indeed, the slaughter
of barbarians is not simply widespread but depicted with a violence and detail
bordering on relish! Prisoners are speared and literally trodden underfoot
(LXVIII)92 Others are forced to decapitate their bound brethren whilst
Roman guards look on implacably93
90 AH. Smith, A Catalogue oJ the Sculpture oJ the Department oJ Greek and Roman Antiquities.
British Museum (London 1904), Fig. 69; S. Reinach, Repertoire des reliefs grecs et romains IT.
AJrique. hes Britanniques (Paris 1912),497, Fig. 1; Tempesta 1991-1992, op.cit (n. 37),312-316;
Fig. 4-5.
91 Polito 1997, op.cit (n.36), Fig. 144. For other reliefs which include Jalces. banded armour and
other features exhibited on the pedestal of Trajan's Column see Tempesta 1991-1992, op.cit (n.37),
Fig. 18; 23; Polito 1997, op.cit (n.36), Fig. 127; 134; 143.
92 Women are comparatively well treated on Trajan's Column, and Scene XXX has even been
interpreted as depicting Trajan showing ciementia to Decebalus' sister, with refence to Dio Cassius
69.9.4 (R. Vulpe, 'Capturarea surorii lui Decebal', Sargetia 4 (1966), 75-96). Perhaps a further
citation was being made to the good treatment afforded to Darius ill's mother and other women by
Alexander the Great (Arrianos, Anabasis 2.11.9; 12.3-8. Cf Dio Cassius 68.15.1; 68.26.4; 68.29.1;
68.30.1). For women on Trajan's Column see N. Boymel- Kampen, 'Looking at gender: the Column
of Trajan and Roman historical relief, in D.C. Stanton & AI. Stewart (eds.), Feminisms in the
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Thus an ongoing process of barbarian genericisation may be traced
into the later 1st century AD, until a massive influx of new and veristic
barbarian types and details occurred under Trajan. These new details of dress
and equipment tailed away in the course of the 2nd century, and for the rest
of the Roman period essentially two bland types existed to represent all
barbarians, both eastern and western. These were the bare-chested German,
and the fully clothed men who served as Dacians, Danubian Germans, and
even as Parthians (as on the Arches of Septimius Severus).94 Even without a
detailed analysis of post 2nd century barbarian representations, it is clear that
Academy (Ann Arbor 1995),46-73. Marcus Column destruction of villages: VII; XVIII; XX; XLm;
XLVI; XCVIII; Cll; CN. Villages or individual buildings are rarely burnt by Roman troops on
Trajan's Column (XXV; XXIX; LIX; CLm), sometimes by Dacians as they retreat (CXIX). The army
is presented as an agent of construction rather than destruction. For comparable scenes in Assyrian
sculpture see Bamett 1960, op.cit (n.23), PI. 114; 132; Bamett 1976, op.cit. (n.23), PI. xxxm. In
reality ancient warfare generally involved destruction visited on an entire enemy population, and the
lands of hostile tribes would have been ravaged by the Roman army, in part for campaign supplies, in
part as retribution (Goldsworthy 1996, op.cit (n. 71), 290-291; P. Erdkamp, Hunger and the Sword.
Waifare and Food Supply in the Roman Republican Wars (264-30 BC) (Amsterdam 1998), 122-140;
J.P. Roth, The Logistics of the Roman Army at War (264 BC-AD 235) (Leiden 1999), 130-134;
Gilliver 1999, op.cit (n.17), 60-61; Coulston 2001, op.cit (n.60), 118-119). This is of course true of
modem warfare where atrocities act as an instrument of policy, or result from a lapse in regular army
discipline, with or without the compliance of officers. Notable examples would be the massacres at
Sand Creek (1864) and Wounded Knee (1890) of Amerindian villagers by cavalry troops (Goodrich
1981, op.cit (n.81), 3-4; 48; 52; R.H. Dillon, North American Indian Wars (Greenwich 1983), 144;
250; D. Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. An Indian History of the American West (London
1991),87-94; 439-445; Freeman & Pollard 2001, op.cit (n.7), 194-198). In these cases there was an
eastern public opinion to be outraged, whereas in Rome such actions would have been thought
justified. It is interesting that the two 'Western' films which drew on the Sand Creek Massacre for
material (Soldier Blue, U.SA, 1970; Little Big Man, U.SA, 1970) appeared soon after the 1968 My
Lai Massacre (Vietnam) which likewise appalled public opinion. Edward Said appositely highlights
the part played by presentation of the 'other' to a home audience: "One must remember, too, that
when one belongs to the more powerful side in the imperial and colonial encounter, it is quite
possible to overlook, forget, or ignore the unpleasant aspects of what went on 'out there'. The
cultural machinery - of spectacles like Aida, of the genuinely interesting books written by travellers,
novelists, and scholars, of fascinating photographs and exotic paintings - has had an aesthetic as well
as informative effect on European audiences. Things stay remarkably unchanged when such
distancing and aestheticising practices are employed, for they split and then anaesthetise the
metropolitan consciousness" (Said 1993, op.cit (n.2), 157). Cf. R.T. Steam, 'War correspondents and
colonial war', in J.M. MacKenzie (ed.), Popular Imperialism and the Military, 1850-1950
(Manchester 1992), 139-161.
93 Scene LXI.
94 R. Brilliant, The Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum, Memoirs of the American
Academy in Rome 29 (Roma 1967), PI. 49-59; 78a-b; 79; 82a; 83a; 95.
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the Trajanic period saw extraordinary iconographic developments centred on
the Forum of Trajan complex and related metropolitan monuments.
It is possible to identify the barbarians in Trajanic sculpture because of
the close attention paid to dress, weaponry and equipment. Indeed, a
combination of Trajan's Column and other monuments in Rome, with
iconography from the frontiers of the empire, with archaeological evidence
for the cultures of the Danubian region, and with Roman historical,
geographical and ethnographic writings, allows the enquiry to explore very
specific identifications.
The bulk of the barbarians depicted in Rome were surely Decebalus'
Dacians living within his Carpathian kingdom (PI. VI, fig. 8, 13). The
Germans on Trajan's Column have been identified as Buri (PI. VI, fig. 7,
12).95 Those on the Adamclissi sculptures were most likely Bastarnae who
were the Germans located opposite Moesia and closest to that monument (PI.
VI, fig. 16).% Armoured cavalry and kaftan-wearers were Sarmatian steppe
nomads: perhaps those meeting Trajan peacefully were from the western
Sarmatian Iazyges who seem to have been pro-Roman, or at least quiescent
during Trajan's principate (PI. VI, fig. 12);97 those in armour on the Column
or presented as bound prisoners at Adamclissi were more likely eastern
Sarmatian Roxolani (PI. VI, fig. 9, 19)98 One Adamclissi type of barbarian
remains to be identified: the men wearing trousers alone, wielding the doublehanded falx, and travelling with wagons (PI. VI, fig. 16, 17). Relevant here is
the funerary inscription which records the activities of a Neronian governor of
Moesia Inferior, Ti. Plautius Silvanus (Ponte Lucano, Italy).99 This text took
great care to identify the different peoples Silvanus dealt with (Bastarnae,
Daci, Rhoxolani, Sarmatae, Scythi) but simply referred to people translocated
95 Tacitus, Germania 43; Dio Cassius 68.8.1; 72.18; 73.2.4; SHA, Marcus 22. See R. Vulpe, 'Les
Bures allies de Decebale dans la premiere guerre dacique de Trajan', Studii Classice 5 (1963), 223247; R. Vulpe, 'Dion Cassius et la campagne de Trajan en Mesie Inferieure', Studii Classice 6
(1969), 205-232.
96 Tacitus, Germania 46; SHA, Marcus 22; Dio Cassius 51.23.2-3; 26.5; ILS 986.
97 Dio Cassius 68.10.3.
98 For the Sarrnatian peoples and their relations with Rome and her neighbours see T. Sulimirski,
The Sarmatians (London 1970); 1.1. Wilkes, 'Romans, Dacians and Sarrnatians in the First and Early
Second Centuries', in B. Hartley & 1. Wacher (eds.), Rome and Her Northern Provinces (Gloucester
1983), 269-270; 273-274; U. Miiller, Der Einfluss der Sarmaten auf die Germanen (Bern 1998); M.
Mielczarek, The Army of the Bosporan Kingdom (Lodz 1999), 28; 82-83; 86-98; Coulston
forthcoming, op.cit (n.52).
99 ILS 986; P. Conole & R.D. Milns, 'Neronian frontier policy in the Balkans: the career of Ti.
Plautus Silvanus', Historia 32 (1983), 183-200; Wilkes 1983, op.cit (n.98), 259-260; 268.
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to the Roman province as 'transdanuviani'. Perhaps this epithet was applied
to migrant occupants of the plains south and east of the Carpathians, people
not recognised by Roman commentators as having been specifically linked by
culture or political subservience to the other named groupings. Thus Trajan's
Column represents the main Dacian enemy under Decebalus, with some
Sarmatians and Germans appearing as less prominent adversaries of Rome, or
as emissaries. On the other hand, the Adamclissi tropaeum depicts local
enemies, non-Decebalan Dacians, Sarmatian Roxolani, Germanic Bastamae
and Transdanubian migrants. In all this discussion of 'identities' it is fully
realised that the ethnonyms found in the ancient sources were the labels
employed by the Romans to simplifY and rationalise the complex mosaic of
diplomacy, ethnicity and culture in the Danubian region. lOO
The trajanic context
Trajan's Column was an integral part of the Forum Traiani complex.101 Past
attempts to show that it was a secondary element, that it originally occupied a
different position, or that the helical frieze was a post-Trajanic addition have
100 Sometimes the use and authority for such labels was overtly discussed, as in the case of'Dacians'
(Dio Cassius 67.6.2). Sometimes Graeco-Roman writers were aware of the culture change of various
groups over time, as with the Bastarnae (Livy 40.57; Dio Cassius 51.23; Strabo, Geographia 7.3.15;
7.3.17; Tacitus, Germania 46). See E. Demougeot, 'L'image officielle du barbare dans l'Empire
romain d'Auguste a Theodose', Ktema 9 (1984),123-143; K.J. Matthews, 'BritannuslBritto: Roman
ethnographies, native identities, labels, and folk devils', in A. Leslie (ed.), Theoretical Roman
Archaeology and Architecture (Glasgow 1999), 14-32; P.S. Wells, Beyond Celts, Germans and
Scythians (London 2001).
101 For the extensive literature on this apogee of display in Roman monumental architecture see G.
LugJi, Fontes ad topographiam veteris urbis Romae pertinentes XVI (Roma 1965), 43-78; Zanker
1970, op.cit (n.42); M.E. Blake, Roman Construction in Italy from Nerva through the Antonines
(Philadelphia 1973), 12-18; C.M. Amici, Foro di Traiano: Basilica Vlpia e Biblioteche (Roma
1982); Scheiper 1982, op.cit (n.15), 134-154; l.C. Anderson, The Historical Topography of the
Imperial Fora (Bruxelles 1984), 141-177; M.T. Boatwright, Hadn'an and the City of Rome
(Princeton 1987), 74-98; S. Stucchi, 'Tantis viribus. L'area della colonna nella concezione generale
del Foro di Traiano', Archeologia Classica 41 (1989), 237-292; E.M. Steinby (ed.), Lexicon
Topographicum Vrbis Romae (Roma 1993-1999), s.v. 'Forum Traiani'; Packer 1997, op.cit (n.42);
Packer 2001, op.cit (n.42); Bullettino Comunale 95 (1993), 129-198; 97 (1996), 47-88; M. Wilson
Jones, Principles of Roman Architecture (New Haven 2000), 160-174; S. Baiani & M. Ghilardi
(ed.), Crypta Balbi - Fori Imperiali. Archeologia urbana aRoma interventi di restauro nell'anno del
Grande Giubileo (Roma 2000), 72-78; GonzaIez 2000, op.cit (n.79), 141-154, 227-285; R.
Meneghini, 'll foro di Traiano. Recostruzione architettonica e analisi strutturale', Mitteilungen des
deutschen archtiologischen Instituts. R6mische Abteilung 108 (2001),245-268.
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failed to convince. 102 As a structure the Column allowed visitors to climb the
185 steps of the internal staircase to emerge on the balcony and to view the
whole fantastic creation of libraries, basilica and forum piazza.103 Modern
architectural reconstructions of the basilica which place the roof ridge at a
lower height are surely correct to allow for an uninterrupted view southeastwards. 104 Linked with the enigmatic inscription on the pedestal which
refers to the mons removed during work, the engineering achievement was
best appreciated by a view across to the cliffs of brick-faced concrete reared
against the Quirinal for the Markets of Trajan. 105
The pedestal reliefs match in content and composition panels
depicting congeries armorum which most likely decorated the forum fayade
of the Basilica Ulpia. 106 The Dacians on the helical frieze matched the bound
Dacian statues which served as 'Caryatids' around the forum colonnades. The
evolving composition of the frieze suggests that it was executed before the
pedestal decoration. Its 'narrative' of the Dacian Wars was central in explaining
how the treasure which paid for the whole complex, ex manubiis, was acquired
through Trajan's Danubian victories.107 Perhaps more importantly, it acted as a
visual panegyric in praise of Trajan's generalship and of the skills and
102 Anderson 1984, op.cit (n.IOI), 154-159; A. Claridge, 'Hadrian's Column of Trajan', Journal of
Roman Archaeology 6 (1993), 5-21.
103 This view was presumably enjoyed in 357 when Constantius IT came to the city and it lies behind
the words of Anunianus Marcellinus 16.10.14 (Packer 1997, op.cit (n.42), 8; Wilson Jones 2000,
op.cit (n.IOI), 162-165; P.J.E. Jones, 'The politics of perpetuation: Trajan's Column and the art of
conunemoration', American Journal of Archaeology 101 (1997), 60-65). This facility has
traditionally been made available to tourists at a price and the revenues produced by both Trajan's
Column and the Column of Marcus Aurelius were a strong factor dictating the largely intact survival
of both monuments.
104 For a high ridge reconstruction see Amici 1982, op.cit (n.IOI), Fig. 72-73, 148; Packer 1997,
op.cit (n.42), Fig. 92-93; 96-100; 103-106; 111-113; 121; 126-128. For a lower reconstruction see
Packer 1997, op.cit (n.42), 217-244, Frontispiece, Fig. 54; Packer 2001, op.cit (n.42), 198.
105 CIL VI, 960; Hamberg 1945, op.cit (n.9), 121-24; Settis 1988, op.cit (n.IO), 49-56; B.M.
Tummarello, 'Foro Traiano. Preesistell2e - il problema del mons', Archeologia Classica 41 (1989),
121-124; Packer 1997, op.cit (n.42), 117; Wilson Jones 2000, op.cit (n.IOI), 164-165.
106 L. Ungaro & L. Messa, 'Panelli con rilievi d'armi dal Foro di Traiano: nota preliminare',
Archeologia CIassica 41 (1989),215-36; Packer 1997, op.cit (n.42), 225, Cat 94; Fig. 143; 152;
Packer 2001, op.cit (n.42), Fig. 152; 159; Polito 1998, op.cit (n.36), Fig. 130-133. For a suggestion
that the base of the Equus Traiani bore similar reliefs see Meneghini 2001, op.cit (n.IOI), Fig. 5.
107 Dio Cassius 68.14.4-5; Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 13.25.1-2; 28-30. Cr. Column scene
CXXXVlII. Zanker 1970, op.cit (n.42), 506, 520-521; Packer 1997, op.cit (n.42), 220-221. See J.
Makkay, 'The treasures of Decebalus', Specimina Nova Universitatis Quinqueecclesiensis 10
(1994), 151-215; J. Makkay, 'The treasures of Decebalus', Oxford Journal of Archaeology 14
(1995),333-343.
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discipline displayed by the army under his gifted hand. Symbiosis of emperor
and soldiers as comilitones was further reinforced by The Great Trajanic
Frieze, which in all likelihood also formed an important part of the complex's
political ornamentation. l08 It specifically advertised the concord between
emperor and Praetorian Guard. l09 Combination of a notice by Aulus Gellius
and the disiecta membra of the forum colonnades suggests that the latter
were topped by pedestals bearing legionary inscriptions. These pedestals had
simulacra of military signa set into their tops, so that each column was
surmounted by a bound Dacian, below a legionary title, below legionary
standards. The latter were fashioned of gilded bronze and they would
naturally have echoed the signa which were presumably picked out in gilding
on the shaft of the Column and on the Great Trajanic Frieze. 11O The
fragmentary inscriptions name the legio II Augusta, and possibly legiones
XIII Gemina, XV Apollinaris and XX Valeria Victrix, plus the cohors X['/
urb(ana}. Legiones II and XX were in Britain during the Dacian Wars and
they may not have supplied vexillationes directly to the Danubian theatre. I11
If they did not, then it is possible that all the legiones of the empire were
included in the inscriptions, and that the Forum was a monument honouring
the whole Roman citizen army. It might have seemed invidious to omit units,
!O8 Plinius, Panegyricus 13.3; Suetonius, Galba 20.1; Tacitus, Agricola 33.2; J.B. Campbel\, The
Emperor and the Roman Anny, 31 BC - AD 235 (Oxford 1984), 32-59. Great Trajanic Frieze:
Leander Touati 1987, op.cit (n.II), 88-91; Stucchi 1989, op.cit (n.IOI), 264-283, Fig. 29; Packer
2001, op.cit (n.42), 198; Fig. 165. In general see J.C.N. Coulston, 'Emperor and army on Trajan's
Column: a study in composition and propaganda', in AM. Liberati (ed.), Traiano Optimus Princeps
(Roma-Bucaresti forthcoming).
109 As argued in detail by the writer elsewhere (Coulston 2000, op.cit (n.78), 98-99).
110 Coulston 1989, op.cit (n.61), 34; Coulston 2000, op.cit (n.78), 92, n. 114. For standards on Trajanic
coins see BMC Ill, Trojan, No. 456-460, PI. 17.3-4; No. 679, PI. 22.12; No. 699, PI. 23.21; No. 708, PI.
24.15; No. 946a-947, PI. 37.2; Belloni 1973, op.cit (n.53), No. 122-123; 395-399; Packer 1997, op.cit
(n.42), IT, PI. 70.2. Packer reconstructs the standards around the Forum as life-size models (220; 439; Fig.
61; 150; 152), thus dwarved by the scale of the buildings and other decoration. However, sockets in the tops
of pedestal blocks measure 0.090.{).093 ID. in diameter (Packer 1997, op.cit (n.42), Fig. PI. 1l3.1),
approximately twice the size to be expected of a real signum spear-shaft, so there is perhaps room for
scaling the parapet standards upwards in size and visibility.
111 Inscriptions: CIL VI, 2943; 32902.a-c; Zanker 1970, op.cit (n.42), 521; Fig. 36; 38-39; Amici
1982, op.cit (n.I04), Fig. 39; Stucchi 1989, op.cit (n.IOI), 237-253; Packer 1997, op.cit (n.42), 426,
Cat. 163; 165; 179. For legiones which served in the Dacian Wars see K. Strobel, Untersuchungen zu
den Dakerkriegen Traians. Studien zur Geschichte der mittleren und unteren Donauraumes in der
hohen Kaiserzeit (Bonn 1984), 85-102. Unfortunately Strobel (ibid., 100-10 I; 104) assumed that if
the titles are inscribed on the Forum then the legiones and cohors in question did participate in the
Dacian Wars. There is clearly some danger of circular argument here.
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especially those in the Rheinland which had supported Trajan's imperial
aspirations during Nerva's principate.
Much of this Trajanic monumental complex can be understood in
terms of glorification of emperor and army. However, it is also important that
the last Flavian emperor's political and monumental legacy in Rome be fully
taken into account. On the face of it this is made difficult by the senatorial
damnatio memoriae served on Domitian which swept away his statues,
triumphal arches and other propaganda monuments. 1l2 Nevertheless, his more
substantial buildings, such as the Domus Flavia and the Forum Transitorium,
remained intact, if in the latter case 'rubber-stamped' by Nerva. 1l3 It is
unclear what, if anything of Trajan's Forum was owed to Domitianic
planning, but prominent Domitianic buildings will have undoubtedly exerted a
strong, competitive influence on both the Trajanic regime and Trajanic
architects, especially Apollodorus of Damascus. 114
Several monumental interrelationships may be explored to illustrate the
last assertion. The first refers to the Equus Traianus, the immense equestrian
statue of Trajan which stood in his forum piazza. This may be considered as one
of several references back to the Forum of Augustus, in this case to the chariot
statue group in the latter's piazza. Both fora also had in common the use of
decorative 'Caryatids', and their massive side exedrae, multiply niched for
statuary and sheathed in polychrome marbles.115 However, the choice of an
112 Suetonius, Domitianus 13.2, 23.1; Dio Cassius 68.1.1; Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus 11. See
G.M. Koeppel, 'Die historischen Reliefs der romischen Kaiserzeit, IT, stadtromische Denkmiiler
unbekannter BauzugehOrigkeit aus flavischer Zeit', Banner lahrbucher 184 (1984), Cat. no. 7-8;
R.H. Darwell-Smith, Emperors and Architecture: A Study of Flavian Rome (Bruxelles 1996), 114115; 172-177; 238-241; Steinby 1993-1999, op.cit (n.IOI), s.v. 'Arcus Domitiani (Fortuna Redux)',
'Arcus Domitiani (Clivus Palatinus),.
113 Darwell-Smith 1996, op.cit (n.1I2), 115-124; Steinby 1993-1999, op.cit (n.IOI), s.v. 'Domus
Augustana, Augustiana'; 'Forum Nervae'.
114 Dio Cassius 69.4.1. For a discussion of Domitianic and Trajanic architects see W.L. MacDonald,
The Architecture of the Roman Empire I. An Introductory Study (New Haven 1965), 127-137. For a
potential Domitianic contribution to the Forum Traiani see Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus 13;
Darwell-Smith 1996, op.cit (n.112), 241-243.
115 Steinby 1993-1999, op.cit (n.IOI), s.v. 'Forum Augustum'; Baiani & Ghilardi 2000, op.cit
(n.IOI), 71-72. Zanker 1970, op.cit (n.42), 506 makes the Forum Augustum link, but Packer 1997,
op.cit (n.42), 261 draws considerably less convincing parallels with the Templum Pacis, based on his
belief that the Templum Traiani was a feature of the Trajan's Forum original design. The latter is not
a safe assumption (R. Meneghini, 'Templum Divi Traiano', Bullettino Comunale 97 (1996), 47-88;
Meneghini 2001, op.cit (n.IOI), 246-248). For polychrome marble comparisons see M.E. Blake,
Roman Construction in Italy from the Prehistoric Period to Augustus (Washington 1947), 56; 58;
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equestrian rather than a chariot composItion for Trajan's Forum would
indubitably have drawn the public mind back to the last great equestrian
monument erected in the city, the huge Equus Domitianus. This statue would
have been tom down after Domitian's death, but it was not forgotten due to its
central position in the Forum Romanum, its impact on the Forum paving, its entry
into literature, and its presumably still-circulating image on commemorative
coinS. 116 Thus there was a very vivid image for Trajan to outdo, and in a sense to
exorcise, with an even finer equus of his own. That he succeeded is evidenced by
his own coin representations and the impact the statue was still having on visitors
in the 4th century. I17 Recent excavation of the Forum Traiani piazza paving has
revealed the robbed equus pedestal, 4 by 7 m. in dimensions, and 25 m. further
towards the south-east than had been previously assumed. liS The standard
modem reconstruction plan of the Forum, largely the product of fascist period
work, had naturally positioned the Equus Traiani on the crossing point of two
axes, the one longitudinal to the complex, north-west to south-east, the other
laterally north-east to south-west across the mid point of the two hemicycles. In
this position it was logical for the statue to face south-eastwards. Now it is more
likely that the statue faced north-westwards towards the basilica. The reason for
the asymmetric position was almost certainly to allow intervisibility between the
gilded Trajan on his horse and the gilded Trajan on his Column, both statues
having the common iconographic feature of carrying a spear, and thus the ridge of
the Basilica Ulpia should have been low enough to allow this. 119
Blake 1973, op.cit (n.IOI), 15-17; Packer 1997, op.cit (n.42), 169-172; De Nuccio & Ungaro 2002,
op.cit (n.42), 109-121; 125-127; 138-145; Cat. no. 155-170; 300-329.
116 Darwell-Smith 1996, op.cit (n.112), 227-233; Fig. 29; Steinby 1993-1999, op.cit (n.IOI), s.v.
'Equus Domitianus'. See Statius, Si/vae 1.1.22-51. There is some confusion about its dimensions and
two proposals for its exact original location in the Forum Romanum: either on a robbed pedestal with
maximum dimensions of 11.72 by 6.2 m.; or on a pedestal, the site of which was paved over in the
Severan period with 12.20 by 7.8 m. of flagging. The latter is more centrally placed on the long axis
of the Forum, both are towards the south-east end, next to each other. The question of whether the
pedestal was left standing and was re-used after Domitian's death is unresolved.
117 BMC Ill, Trajan, No. 445, P1.l6.18; No. 969-70, PI. 38.2; Belloni 1973, op.cit (n.53), No. 117;
418; Anunianus Marcellinus 16.10.15-6. See Zanker 1970, op.cit (n.42), 508-510; Steinby 19931999, op.cit (n.IOI), IT, s.v. 'Forum Traiani', 351, Fig. 175; M. Jordan-Ruwe, Das Siiulenmonument.
Zur Geschichte der erholnten Aufstellung antiker Portriitstatuen (Bonn 1995), 82-83; Packer 1997,
op.cit (n.42), 8; 95-96; Meneghini 2001, op.cit (n.IOI), 253-254; Fig. 5.
118 Baiani & Ghilardi 2000, op.cit (n.IOI), 73-74; Fig. 62-{)4; 66; 68; Meneghini 2001, op.cit (n.IOI), 253;
Fig. 2; 4(E); 9; 18. Actually on a cross-axis level with the south-eastjunctions of the hemicyc1es.
119 This further reinforces the importance of the Column as a viewing platform. Most examples of the
Equus coins are worn at the upper end of the spear, but the lower has a large head. It is likely that
this is a double-headed spear, as seen on Trajan's Column (Scenes XXV; XXVII carved in stone,
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Another monumental inter-relationship concerns the dedication 'ex
manubiis' recorded by Aulus Gellius on the Forum Traiani. It has recently
been demonstrated by Alfoldi that the original dedicatory inscriptions on the
Amphitheatrum Flavium included the same formula. 120 As previously
suspected, the treasures from Jerusalem and the crushing of the Jewish Revolt
were ploughed into the metropolis' most impressive public entertainment
facility. The location and public nature of the building erected by Vespasian
and Titus had in their time scored propaganda victories over Nero and his
Domus Aurea. The Thermae Titi were constructed close by and inaugurated at
the same time as the amphitheatre. 121 Domitian did his best through the arch he
raised to his brother Titus to associate himself with the dynasty's Jewish
victories. 122 He may also have substantially refurbished the amphitheatre,
many more lost bronze inserts), employed as a symbol of power (A. Alfoldi, 'Hasta - summa imperii.
The spear as embodiment of sovereignty in Rome', American Journal of Archaeology 63 (1959), 127). For the Column statue see BMC Ill, PI. 16.19-20; 17.1-2; 19.11-2; 39.4-5; 40.2; 41.6; 42.3;
Belloni 1973, op.cit (n.53), No. 118-120; 153; 332; 420-423. It has further been suggested that
Trajan's lavish provision of libraries, both in his baths and in the Forum Traiani complex (the pair
flanking the Column) was a deliberate comment on Dornitian's expulsion of philosophers from
Rome. See Dio Cassius 68.16.3; Amici 1982, op.cit (n.IOI), 47-69; Settis 1988, op.cit (n.IO), 60-75;
Packer 1997, op.cit (n.42), 120-130; Packer 2001, op.cit (n.42), 77-82; Meneghini 2001, op.cit
(n.IOI), 248-251; 265-268; L. Casson, Libraries in the Ancient World (New Haven 2001), 84-88;
Steinby 1993-1999, op.cit (n.101), V, 68 (baths). Moreover, the one apsidal end of the Basilica
Ulpia which is on a surviving fragment of the Severan Forma Urbis Romae carries the inscription
'Libertatis' (Blake 1973, op.cit (n.IOI), 15; Settis 1988, op.cit (n.IO), 25; Steinby 1993-1999, op.cit
(n.IOI), IT, Fig. 170; Packer 1997, op.cit (n.42), 5; 8; Fig. 130) which surely amplified contrasts
between the 'tyranny' of Domitian and the humane rule of Trajan (Plinius Minor. Panegyricus 67.8;
Epistulae 10.97; Dio Cassius 68.6.3-4; 68.7.1-3; 68.16.1; Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus 13;
Eutropius, Breviarium 8.4). In the discussion of imperial decision-making, always one which will
involve a measure of speculative deduction, such interrelationships between monuments must be
seen as contributory considerations, not necessarily (or even, ever) as the only factor involved.
Recent studies of imperial building policy tread a very fme line between 'coincidental' and
'positivist' approaches to the meanings of urban projects in Rome (Cf. Boatwright 1987, op.cit
(n.IOI); P. Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor 1988); D. Favro, The
Urban Image ofAugustan Rome (Cambridge 1996); Darwell-Smith 1996, op.cit (n.112».
120 G. Alfoldi, 'Eine Bauinschrift aus dem Colosseum', ZeitschriJt fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik
109 (1995), 195-226; K.M. Coleman. '''The contagion of the throng": absorbing violence in the
Roman world', European Review 5 (1997), 402-405; Fig. I.
121 Steinby 1993-1999, op.cit (n.1 01), s. v. 'Thermae Titiffitianae'. Also combating Nero's reputation
as a provider of baths (Martialis 7.34).
122 Darwell-Smith 1996, op.cit (n.112), 166-72; Steinby 1993-1999, op.cit (n.IOI), s.v. 'Arcus Titi
(Via Sacra)' .
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although quite what he did to it still divides scholarly opinion. 123 Ancillary
facilities were rebuilt or provided anew in the area around the amphitheatre,
particularly the various ludi. 124 Domitian would have held his triumphal
games in the amphitheatre, and Dacians, Germans and Sarmatians would have
been displayed there. 125
Trajan was quite able to upstage this Flavian beneficence. His
triumphal games held in the amphitheatre broke all records for numbers of
gladiators and animals involved. 126 Presumably the number and range of
barbarians on display was also unprecedented. The Thermae Traianae were
constructed on the Oppian Hill on a gigantic scale and richly appointed,
overlying the Domus Aurea wing, but also dominating the locale and
completely dwarfing the rather cramped Thermae Titi directly below.127 He
could not build another amphitheatre because not even Rome had room for
two 'colossea', but he did massively enlarge the seating capacity of the
Circus Maximus, an even grander venue. 128 Its euripus was decorated
thereafter with military standards in the manner of the Forum Traiani, a clear
visual link between Trajanic projects. 129 The circus had been associated with
the Flavians by the Arch of Vespasian and Titus and other Domitianic work.
Furthermore, Trajan could still upstage the amphitheatre's manner of Flavian
dedication. The manubiae which paid for the Forum Traiani were the result
of a successful war which led to traditional triumphs, booty, annexation of
territory and patronage for the city of Rome. The Jewish War had been a
savage, internal policing operation which had started with ignominious
123
Darwell-Smith 1996, op.cit (n.1l2), 215-216; Steinby 1993-1999, op.cit (n.IOI), I, S.v.
'Arnphithealrum', 31; K.M. Coleman, 'Launching into history: aquatic displays in the early empire',
Journal a/Roman Studies 83 (1993), 58-60.
124 Darwell-Smith 1996, op.cit (n.1l2), 218-221; Steinby 1993-1999, op.cit (n.101), s.v. 'Ludus
Dacicus', 'Ludus Gallicus', 'Ludus Magnus', 'Ludus Matutinus'. It is unsure when the Ludus
Dacicus acquired its name, whether in association with the wars of Domitian or those of Trajan.
125 Dio Cassius 67.8; Suetonius, Domitianus 6.1; Eutropius, Breviarium 7.23. Martialis, Liber de
spectaculis 3 mentions Sugambri and Sarmatae as 'spectators' of the Flavian amphitheatre, perhaps
meant involuntarily?
126 Plinius Minor, Epistulae 8.4.2; Dio Cassius 68.10.2; 68.15.1.
127 Steinby 1993-1999, op.cit (n.1 0 I), s. v. 'Thermae Traiani'.
128 Plinius, Panegyricus 51.3-5; Pausanios 5.12.6; Dio Cassius 68.7.2; CIL 6.955; J.H. Humphrey,
Roman Circuses. Arenas/or Chariot Racing (London 1986), 102-106; 281; Fig. 119 (Fig. 120 shows
a trophy on the euripus, further strengthening the links between military and sporting victory). Cf.
BMC Ill, Trajan, No. 853-56, PI. 32.2-4: Belloni 1973, op.cit (n.53), No.360 for Trajanic coins
depicting the Circus Maximus.
129 C.Landes (ed.), Le cirque et les courses de chars Rome - Byzance (Lattes 1990), PI. IT.
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Roman defeat and ended in the destruction of one of the empire's great cities
with its magnificent temple. 130 Much was made of it by the Flavians because it
was a war against non-Romans, waged successfully during and after Roman
civil war. In complete contrast, Decebalus was a barbarian, and, above all, a
foreign king. He also had the distinction of being the only named barbarian
leader represented in Roman art. 13l
The injection of veristic detail into Trajanic monumental art may also
be considered in the light of Flavian precedents, but it was not a reflection of
any intrinsic novelty value of the Dacians. On the contrary, they were not new
to Roman warfare or public perceptions. Roman armies had campaigned in
the Danubian theatre and Dacians had been raiding across the Danube since
the time of Augustus. Sarmatian groups drove opportunistically into Moesia
during the Roman civil war of AD 68-69. Most significantly, Domitian had
fought a recent series of Danubian wars. \32 There were several ways in which
such conflict with Dacians and other Danubian barbarians could have been
presented to the public audience in Rome. The most immediate was the
display of barbarian prisoners walking dejectedly in triumphal processions,
wearing their characteristic clothing and hairstyles. Trophies with prisoners
bound to them were arranged on fercula, and captured military equipment
were also borne along, perhaps piled in such a way as to clash bellicosely as
they moved. 133 This was often supplemented by the carriage of painted panels
in the procession depicting significant stages of the war concerned, such as
landscapes, sieges, battles and enemy submissions. This form of art had a very
long pedigree and was specifically mentioned by Josephos in the context of
the Jewish triumph of Vespasian and TituS.134 Most scholars agree that this
1JO Supposedly unintended, as witnessed by Titus' vain attempts to extinguish the fire (Josephos,
Bellum Iudaicum 6.249-266).
13l Settis 1988, op.cit (n.IO), 226-228; Fig. 62; Ferris 2000, op.cit (n.34), 80-81.
132 Dio Cassius 67.6; 67.7.2-5; 67.10.1-3; Juvenal, Satiroe 4.111-112; Eutropius, Breviarium 7.23; C.
Patsch, Der Kampf um den Donauroum unter Domitian und Trojan (Wien 1937), 3-47; Wilkes 1983, op.cit
(n.98), 268-270; BW. Jones, The Emperor Domitian (London 1992), 135-139; 141-143; 150-155.
133 E. Kilnzl, Der romische Triumph. Siegesfeiern im antiken Rom (Miinchen 1988),74-78; 110-113;
Fig. 43-48. The detail of clashing arms comes from Plutarch's description of the triumph of Aemilius
Paullus in Plutarch, Aemilius Paulus 32.5-7. Cf. Ovidius, Ex Ponto 2.1.40; Plinius Minor,
Panegyricus 17.1; 17.3). It is not at all unlikely that the author was embroidering the passage with
familiar details from triumphs held in his own time, the 2nd century AD. Indeed, the description is
not inappropriate for the material depicted on the pedestal reliefs of Trajan's Column.
134 Josephos, Bellum Iudaicum 7.139-147. See also Livius 41.28.8-10; Appianos, 2.101; 12.117;
Ovidius, Ex Ponto 2.1.37-39; Tristia 4.2.37-38; Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 35.135; Tacitus,
Annales 2AI.
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painted form of display lay behind and greatly influenced the more permanent
scenes executed in stone sculpture on triumphal monuments, and that it was
also important for the evolution of the scene genres (sacrifice, march, battle,
negotiation, siege, submission etc.) which make up the helical frieze of Trajan's
Column. 135 Such displays would have marked Domitian's Danubian triumphs and
would have combined with, and been extended into, amphitheatrical games.
However, it seems that the barbarian congeries armorom, and the barbarians
themselves, had a negligible effect on Domitianic sculpture.
If the hostile elite literary tradition is to be believed, Domitian's wars
were partly disastrous, involving loss of significant forces and leading
personalities (e.g. Cornelius Fuscus), and they ended in a humiliating peace
treaty which left the barbarian protagonist, Saddam-like, in place as a future
threat. His triumphs were mocked as shams. 136 Trajan effectively attended to
unfinished business and carried Daco-Roman relations to a final conclusion.
Roman prisoners and military equipment were recaptured; great rivers were
bridged; victories were won to expunge Domitianic reverses; losses were
avenged; fortresses were stormed; a new province was acquired with its
precious metals (Trajan's Column Scene CXXXVIII); and the barbarian king
was hunted to extinction (CXL V, CXL VII). 137 If the chief protagonist was
not himself paraded through Rome in chains, his head was brought to the city
and thrown down the Scalae Gemoniae. 138
Thus, as in so many other things, the Trajanic regime was concerned
to advertise its differences from Domitianic policies 139 and to separate itself
135
Lehmann-Hartleben 1926, op.cit (n.IO), 2; 101-102; Hamberg 1945, op.cit (n.9), 125-129; R.C.
Beacham, The Roman Theatre and its Audience (London 1991), 181; Settis 1988, op.cit (n.IO), 94-
100; Kilnzl 1988, op.cit (n.133), 110; 114-118; 162. For the most detailed discussion of genre scenes
see Lehmann-Hartleben 1926, op.cit (n.IO), 11-108.
136 Plinius Minor, Panegyricus 16.3; Dio Cassius 67.8-9 stated that the public felt that his honouring
the fallen in Dacia made his triwnph a funeral. Tacitus, Agricola 39 accused Domitian of purchasing
slaves and, a significant detail for the present enquiry, modelling their clothes and hair to deceive
viewers of his German triwnph. On the ambivalence of triwnpha1 displays see Plass 1995, op.cit
(n.69),148-154.
137 For the realities see Patsch 1937, op.cit (n.132), 62-86; 93-134; Wilkes 1983, op.cit (n.98), 270274; Strobel 1984, op.cit (n.III).
138 Steinby 1993-1999, op.cit (n.IOI), s.v. 'Scalae Gemoniae'. Was this act also intended to reinforce
Trajan's just rule during which Roman corpses and severed heads were not thrown down the steps?
Cr. n.77, above.
139 All the more crucial because Trajan's policies were in reality almost indistinguishable from those
of his predecessor! See K.A. Waters, 'Traianus Domitiani continuator', American Journal of
Philology 90 (1969), 385-405.
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by emphasising Domitianic failures. Masses of prisoners for the triumphal
processions and the amphitheatrical games underlined the justice of Trajan's
triumphal claims after each war. Indeed, the despairing Decebalus' suicide
was most likely presented in the arena as a form of historical tableau, to judge
from terra sigil/ata motifs depicting the named king stabbing himself whilst
flanked by venatio animals. 140 One design also figures a Parthian flanked by
lions, thus combining and epitomising the Dacian and Parthian victory
celebrations. Description of the Dacian Wars in Trajan's own commentarii 141
140 Settis 1988, op.cit (n.IO), Fig. 62-63. Perhaps an actor was carried through the triumphal
procession on a ferculum, periodically miming the cutting of his own throat (Cf. Plinius Minor,
Epistulae 8.4.2; Dio Cassius 68.14.3). A parallel might be drawn with the popular amphitheatrical
restaging over decades of the execution of the criminal Laureolus (Suetonius, Gaius 57.4; Martialis,
Liber de spectaculis 7; Juvenalis, Satirae 8.187). Live, captured commanders of cities were
combined with painted scenes in Titus' triumph (Josephos, Bellum Iudaicum 7.147. Cf. Plinius
Minor, Panegyricus 17.2). A Constantinian relief from Cherche1 (Algeria) appears to depict a
triumphalferculum bearing the model of a bridge (the Pons Mulvius? Kilnzl 1988, op.cit (n.l33), 7879; Fig. 47). This raises the possiblity that Trajan's great Danube bridge, an engineering wonder of
its age, was similarly represented to the viewing public (Cf. Trajan's Colwnn Scene XCIX; Coulston
1990, op.cit (n.60), 49; Coulston 2001, op.cit (n.60), 124). There is also the likelihood that tableaux
were staged in Rome's theatres, and these might have been another mechanism for familiarising the
public with the highlights of the Dacian Wars. From the time of Pompeius Magnus theatres were
linked with triumphs and triumphal processions, and were used for venationes (Beacham 1991,
op.cit (n.l35), 162-163; 180). Parallels might be drawn with the Victorian theatre which presented
wars as a series of vignettes or generic scenes very similar to those on Trajan's Colwnn. For
example, for the 1885 Relief of Khartoum "spectacular scenes included the departure of troops from
Portsmouth, a street bazaar in Cairo, a bivouac in the desert, a battle scene, even cataracts, rocks and
boats on the Nile. The fmal scene took place in Khartoum itself' (J.M. MacKenzie, Propaganda and
Empire. The Manipulation of Public Opinion, 1880-1960 (Manchester 1984), 51). The theatre (and
the many other available media) also provided the public with the visually identifiable 'barbarian'
types: Zulus, Fuzzy-Wuzzies, Boers, Afghans, Russians, Chinese and Japanese (ibid., 49-50). See
also J.S. Bratton, R.A. Cave, B. Gregory, H.J. Holder & M. Pickering, Acts of Supremacy. The
British Empire and the Stage, 1790-1930 (Manchester 1991). See also Appianos 12.117 for native
costume in the theatre, and Hall 1989, op.cit (n.26), 84-86 for the use of ethnic dress as stage
costume in the Athenian theatre. Depiction of a range of non-Roman troops on Trajan's Colwnn as
part of Trajan's army can be parallelled on Pharaonic and Assyrian reliefs. They denoted
geographical power and discipline under the pharaohlking/emperor's strong hand. The archers and
slingers were artificialy fabricated figure types, created especially for the Colwnn project (Coulston
1989, op.cit (n.61), 34), but the Moors were likely based on exotic troops in Trajan's triumphs (Cf.
Dio Cassius 68.32.4) and/or prisoners from recent North African wars (Tacitus, Historiae 4.50;
Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 5.38; Dio Cassius 67.4.6). A range of native or colonial 'Soldiers
of the Queen' was similarly exhibited in the Victorian theatre and in the great military reviews of the
19th-20th century in Britain (MacKenzie 1984,72).
141 Priscianus, Institutiones Grammaticae 6.13; R. Brilliant, Visual Narratives. Storytelling in
Etruscan and Roman Art (Ithaca 1984), 101-102; Lepper & Frere 1988, op.cit (n.l0), 26; 226-229;
Settis 1988, op.cit (n.l0), 73-75.
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and their depiction in unprecedented detail on the helical frieze of Trajan's
Column presented the events and achievements to the public in more lasting
forms. The new verism in the depiction of barbarians, particularly with its
emphasis of exotic dress and weaponry, served to fix in public consciousness
the reality of Trajanic victories. The collection of large quantities of material
after a battle was really only practical for a victor holding the field.
Equipment was thus depicted in huge quantities on the Column pedestal and
elsewhere in the Forum complex, and reproduced in more abbreviated form
on numerous coin issues. 142 Thus, the barbarian enemy was not just physically
brought to Rome, he was 'reinvented' as new, vivid and real. Undoubted
Domitianic successes were to be forgotten, just as the hated emperor's arches
and statues had been excised from the city-scape. Trajan's victories were
tangible and unequivocally glorious. The barbarian was exposed in the
amphitheatre arena in person, and in the Forum Traiani in simulacrum. The
latter context allowed him to bear witness forevermore to the achievements
of the optimus princeps.
The depiction of barbarians in Trajanic art was founded on traditions
stretching back to the Bronze Age. It owed much to Graeco-Roman
understanding and perception of the barbarian 'other', passed through
Graeco-Persian relations in the Archaic period, to feed forward still into the
modern era of post-colonial perspectives. 143 The very depiction of barbarians
was an act of power over the subject, reducing them to exotic bystanders of
Roman triumph. Stereotypes of dress, hair, weaponry, other equipment, and
behaviour had built up and solidified around the concept of 'Gauls' and
'Germans' by the late 1st century BC. The Dacians were comparatively
recent on the Roman metropolitan scene; they were more heavily dressed
than other types of barbarians, and exhibited both old features, such a
carnyces, and exotically new items, such as falces and 'dracones'. Otherwise
they were presented in a almost indulgent manner at a time when Rome was
at the height of her power144 (in complete contrast to how later barbarians
142 BMC rn, PI. 15.6-9; 15.14-15; 20.6-7; 24.6; 24.8; 24.10; 28.6-8; 30.2; 34.1; 34.11-12; 36.3; 37.36: Belloni 1973, op.cit (n.53), No. 45; 53; 99-101; 104-107; 164-165; 186; 270-279; 313-315; 346350; 400-40 l.
143 Notably examined by E. Said, Orientalism (London 1978).
144 Paternalism and clemency are features of Trajan's treatment of the Dacians, especially their
women, and such benevolence may be seen as a mark of imperial confidence. Cf. Said 1993, op.cit
(n.2), xviii-ix: "(No American has been immune from) the rhetoric of the 'New World Order'
promulgated by the American government since the end of the Cold War - with its redolent selfcongratulation, its unconcealed triumphalism, its grave proclamations of responsibility .... since the
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were treated on the Marcus Column 145). They were negotiated with, beaten
down in war, and forced to conform with the Roman world order, but also
shown some respect for their dignitas, and some dementia for those who
submitted in good faith. Their gold contributed to the adornment of Rome,
whilst a river of their blood washed away the parvenu illegitimacy of the
Trajanic regime.
St Andrews and Dublin, December 2002
rhetoric of power all too easily produces an illusion of benevolence when deployed in the imperial
setting. Yet it is a rhetoric whose damning characteristic is that it has been used before not just once
(by Spain and Portugal) but with deafening repetitive frequency in the modem period, by the British,
the French, the Belgians, the Japanese, the Russians, and now by Americans".
145 The differences between the two columns can readily be explained. Trajan's Dacian Wars were
offensive campaigns launched into barbaricum against an identified enemy leader, resulting in cJearcut victory, submissions of long-known and newly contacted peoples, territorial annexations and
treasure to pay for the Forum complex. Marcus' Danubian Wars were expensive, confused, bloody
and ended in no annexations. Crucially they involved barbarian invasion of Italy - the first such
incursion in 270 years. Thus Trajan's campaigns were a triumphal progress whilst Marcus' wars
were a terrible shock to Roman perceptions of security. On the first Column the barbarians are
slaughtered but treated honourably; on the second they are extenninated. See H.W. Bohme,
'Archiiologische Zeugnisse zur Geschichte der Markomannenkriege (166-180 n. Chr.)" Jahrbuch des
Romisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum 22 (1975), 153-217; A. Birley, Marcus Aurelius (London
1987), 159-183; 208-209; H. Friesiger, J. Tejral & A. Stuppner (eds.), Markomannenkriege.
Ursachen und Wirkungen (Bmo 1994); Ferris 2000, op.cit (n.34), 86-118.
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HADRIAN'S TRAVELS
By
A.R. BIRLEY
Hadrian's predecessors travelled outside Italy mostly for military reasons.
Thus Augustus, in Spain 27-24 BC, in the east 22-19 BC, in Gaul and Spain
16-13 BC and again in Gaul 11-10 and 8 BC, even if after the first journey
his participation in the campaigns was indirect. Caligula's brief visit to
Sicily in AD 38 was an exception, but his journey to Germany and the
Channel coast in 39-40 was certainly military in purpose, as was Claudius'
British expedition, 43-44. Nero's 'cultural' expedition to Greece in 66-67 is
the major exception. Domitian left Italy exclusively for military purposes, in
83,85-86,89 and 92-93, likewise Trajan, first his tour of Rhine and Danube
in 98-99, then his two Dacian wars, 101-102 and 105-106, and his Parthian
war, 113-117.1 One must exclude journeys from the provinces to Rome by
emperors after their proclamation: Galba in 68, Vitellius in 69, Vespasian in
70-but Trajan's circuitous and long drawn out route from Cologne to Rome
in 98-99 is slightly different: he evidently felt confident enough not to go
straight to the capital, instead inspecting the northern military provinces.
Hadrian's return to Rome after his accession took eleven months,
much longer than it might have, had the situation been peaceful: the military
crisis necessitated his presence in the Danube-Balkan region. The first great
provincial tour, beginning in 121, could be seen as aimed at Britain, where a
revolt had been in progress; and the western part ended with an action in
Mauretania, for which the senate decreed supplicationes. Further, in 123 the
move from Spain or Mauretania to Syria was occasioned by the sudden
threat of war with Parthia, to judge from a drastically abbreviated passage in
the Historia Augusta (12.8-13.1). But the diplomatic resolution of this crisis,
backed by a show of force, was marked by the closing of Janus, it may be
conjectured: hence, at least until 132, his further journeys were not
necessitated by military considerations. 2 Hadrian stayed in the east until 125,
in 128 leaving Italy again, for Africa, followed, after a brief stay in Rome,
by the second eastern tour, concluded at earliest in 132.
1 For details see H. Halfmann, ltinera principum. Geschichte und Typologie der Kaiserreisen im
Romischen Reich (Stuttgart 1986), 157 IT. (Augustus); 166 IT. (Caligula); 172 f (Claudius); 173 IT.
(Nero); 181 IT. (Domitian); 184 IT. (Trajan). This work is fimdamental for imperial journeys.
2 Coins at this time show Janus: British Museum Catalogue of Coins in the Roman Empire III (London
1936) 254; 437. Not recorded in the meagre literary sources.
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The evidence for his prolonged absences, and, in broad terms, the
areas visited, is clear enough. In the main sources, Dio and the Historia
Augusta, Hadrian is portrayed as the 'Reisekaiser' par excellence, with some
suggestions as to his motives. Help is given by the commemorative coin
issues, which show his adventus in many cases, or his addresses to
provincial armies, and by a mass of documentary evidence. The devil is in
the detail. The first to tackle this was a French cleric, in 1842. He gave
particular attention to the coinage, but confessed that he could not attempt a
"classement chronologique de ces voyages". 3 Gregorovius' attractive
volume, a few years later, was a cultural history of Hadrian's time for the
general reader rather than an academic work. 4 Serious analysis of the
epigraphic evidence began with DOrr in 1881. 5 Four dissertations followed
between 1890 and 1907, the later ones influenced by the new approach to
the Historia Augusta initiated by Dessau in 1889; the best was the last, by
Weber, in some respects still not replaced. 6 Nothing significant was added in
the monograph of 1923 by Henderson, who, it is strange, completely ignored
Weber,7 but the study of the coinage by Strack soon provided some welcome
precision. 8 It was over fifty years before Halfmann, in a general work on all
imperial journeys, corrected a number of items in Weber's dissertation in the
light of new evidence. 9 Some uncertainties remain, e.g. whether Hadrian
stopped anywhere between Spain and Syria in 123 and over the date of his
return from his last journey and, closely connected, whether or not he was
present at the front during the Jewish War. 1O
J.-G.-H. Greppo, Memoire sur les w!)'ages de l'Empereur Hadrien (paris 1842),46.
F. Gregorovius, Der Kaiser Hadrian. Gemiilde der romisch-hellenischen Welt zu seiner Zeit (Stuttgart
1851, 3rd ed. 1884; English translation 1898).
5 J. DOrr, Die Reisen des Kaisers Hadrian (Vienna 1881).
6 H. Dessau, 'Uber Zeit lUld PersOnlichkeit der Scriptores Historiae Augustae', Hermes 24 (1889), 337392; J. Plew, Quellenuntersuchungen zur Geschichte des Kaisers Hadrian (Strassburg 1890); O.Th.
Schulz, Leben des Kaisers Hadrian (Leipzig 1904); E. Kornemarm, Kaiser Hadrian und der letzte grosse
Historiker Roms (Leipzig 1905); W. Weber, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Kaisers Hadrianus
3
4
(Leipzig 1907).
7 BW. Henderson, The Life and Principate o/the Emperor Hadrian AD 76-138 (London 1923).
8 P.L. Strack, Untersuchungen zur romischen Reichspragung des 2. Jhdts. IT. Die Reichsprtigung zur Zeit
des Hadrian (Stuttgart 1933).
9 Halfmann 1968, op.cit. (n.I), 188-210 (fwiherreferences to Hadrian elsewhere in the work).
10 Against Halfrnann 1%8, op.cit. (n.I), 209 f, denying that Dio 69.14.3 implies Hadrian's presence at
the front: R. Syme, 'Journeys of Hadrian', Zeitschriji fUr Papyrologie und Epigraphik 73 (1988), 159170, at 165 ff. = id., Roman Papers VI (Oxford 1991) 346-357, at 353 ff.; T.D. Barnes, 'Emperors on the
move', Joumal o/Roman Archaeology 2 (1989), 247-261, at 254; V. Rosenberger, Bella et expeditiones.
Die antike Terminologie der Kriege Roms (Stuttgart 1992), 97 ff.; AR. Birley, Hadrian the restless
emperor (London 1997),272 f; 352 n. 38. The argument depends on the term expeditio in inscriptions of
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The HA, Hadrianus, our fullest source, offers the following details
on Hadrian's travels:
117-118 5.10 Antiochiam regressus praepositoque Syriae Catilio Severo per
Illyricum Romam venit. 6.6 audito dein tumultu Sarmatarum et
Roxalanorum praemissis exercitibus Moesiam petit. 7.3 Romam venit ...
119 9.6 summotis his a praefectura, quibus debebat imperium, Campaniam
petit. ..
121: 10.1 post haec profectus in Gallias ... 10.2 inde in Germaniam transiit ...
122 1l.2 ergo conversis regio more militibus Brittaniam petit... 12.1
conpositis in Brittania rebus transgressus in Galliam ...
123 12.3 post haec Hispanias petit et Tarracone hiemavit ... 12.7 motus
Maurorum compressit et a senatu supplicationes emeruit. 12.8 bellum
Parthorum per idem tempus in motu tantum fuit, idque Hadriani conloquio
repressum est. [Nothing is said about Hadrian's journey from Spain to Syria]
124 13.1 post haec per Asiam et insulas ad Achaiam navigavit ...
125 13.3 post in Siciliam navigavit... 13.4 inde Romam venit atque
[jumping over an interval of three years]
128 ex ea in Africam transiit. .. 13.6 denique cum post Africam Romam
redisset, statim ad orientem profectus per Athenas iter fecit. ..
129 per Asiam iter faciens templa sui nominis consecravit. 13.7 deinde a
Capadocibus servitia castris profutura suscepit. 13.8 toparchas et reges ad
amicitiam invitavit... 13.9 cumque ad eum quidam reges venissent... 13.10 et
circumiens quidem provincias procuratores et praesides pro factis supplicio
adfecit. ..
130 14.1 Antiochenses inter haec ita odio habuit... 14.2 moverunt ea
tempestate et Iudaei bell urn, quod vetabantur mutilare genitalia [apparently
misplaced].14.3 sed in monte Casio, cum videndi solis ortus gratia nocte
ascendisset ... 14.4 peragrata Arabia Pelusium venit ... 14.5 Antinoum suum,
dum per Nilum navigat, perdidit... At this point the Histaria Augusta
abandons its (drastically compressed) chronological narrative until 23.1,
which begins the account of the succession crisis of 136-138.
At a few points between 14.5 and 23.1 the travels are mentioned
again:
16.3 Floro poetae scribenti ad se:
ego nolo C<a>esar esse,
participants in the Jewish War (as in other imperial campaigns) meaning that the emperor had been
present in person, so Rosenberger 133-140. For support of Halfinann' s view: G. Alfu1dy, commentary on
elL VI 40524 (= 974).
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Rescripsit
ambulare per Brittanos
<Iatitare per --->
Scythicas pati <p>ruinas
ego nolo Florus esse,
ambulare per tabernas,
latitare per popinas
culices pati rotundos. 11
19.3 Athenis mille ferarum venationem in stadio exhibuit.
20.2 apud A1exandriam in musio muItas quaestiones professoribus proposuit
et propositas ipse dissolvit.
20.13 oppidum Hadrianotheras in quodam loco, quod iIIic et feliciter esset
venatus et ursam occidisset aliquando, constituit.
22.11 eau sas Romae atque in provinciis frequenter audivit adhibitis in
consilio suo consulibus atque praetoribus et optimis senatoribus.
22.14 quando in Africam venit, ad adventum eius post quinquennium pluit,
atque ideo ab Africanis dilectus est.
What survives ofDio, mainly in Xiphilinus' epitome, is less detailed.
First, in 69.5.2-3, a general statement: "He subjected the legions to very
strict discipline ... and assisted the allied and provincial cities very
generously. Indeed, he saw many of them-more than any other emperor".
A little later, the remark that "both at Rome and abroad he always kept the
noblest men about him" (69.7.3) is a reminder that a comitatus was with him
on his travels. These passages come in what Dio calls, in 69.8.1 \ "a kind of
preface", followed by a sadly abbreviated narrative of events (69.8.1 2 ff).
The account of his travels occupies 69.9.1-12.3, with one later reference, to
his presiding at the Athenian Dionysia (69.16.1). The main stress is on the
restoration of discipline (9.1-6, quoted below), recalling HA, Hadrianus
10.2-11.2, with a few further details, such as his not visiting his patria
(Italica) (69.10.1), his founding of Hadrianutherae after his hunt (69.10.2),
his admission to the Mysteries (69.10.3 2), his passage from Judaea into
11 W.D. Lebek, 'Florns IUld Hadrian: Ego nolo Caesar esse', WienerStudien 114 (2001), 419-442, at 438
restores Florns' poem differently:
Ego nolo Caesar esse,
ambu<lare per Batauos>
<equit>are per Britannos,
Scytbicas pati <p>ruinas
He interprets Scythicas simply as 'very cold', as 'Siberian' is used today, not as referring to Hadrian's
presence in 'Scythia', i.e. arolUld the Danube delta, in 118.
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Egypt and the death of Antinous (69.11.1 fT.) his refoundation of Jerusalem
and the ensuing Jewish revolt (69.12.1-14.3). Combining all sources,
Hadrian's movements may be tabulated as follows: 12
117 Antioch - Cilicia - Antioch (HA, Hadrianus 5.9-10); Antioch - Tarsus
(12 October) - Mopsucrene (13 October) - Panhormus (14 October) - Aquae
Calidae (15 October) - Tynna (16 October) - Tyana (17 October) - Andabalis
(18 October)13 - Ancyra - Juliopolis (11 November)14 - winter at Nicomedia?
and/or Byzantium?
118 Thrace - Moesia Inferior (HA, Hadrianus 6.6-8) - Dacia - Moesia
Superior -Pannonia 15 - Italy - Rome (9 July). 16
119 Rome - Campania (HA, Hadrianus 9.6) - Rome.
120 Rome.
121 Rome - Gaul (HA, Hadrianus 10.1)17 - Germania Superior (HA,
Hadrianus 10.2 fT.) - Raetia - Noricum - Raetia 18 - Germania Superior.
122 Germania Inferior - Britain (HA, Hadrianus 11.2; 12.1)19 - Gaul (HA,
Hadrianus 12.1).
123 Gaul (Nemausus, Apta)20 - Spain (Tarraco) (HA, Hadrianus 12.3-5) Legio 21 - Mauretania Tingitana? (HA, Hadrianus 12.7) - ?Africa -
12 The items cited here are mostly those with explicit evidence for Hadrian's presence, especially \\hen
dated. Reference to the coins registering Hadrian's adventus and addresses to various exercitus are only
mentioned \\here they provide the sole evidence.
13 The itinerary for 12-18 October AD 117 is based on von Domaszewski's conjecture ap. Weber 1907,
op.cit. (n.6), 57 f that the list of places with dates in CIL VI 5076 represents Hadrian's route.
14 IGR IV 349 = E.M. Smallwood, Documents illustrating the Principates of Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian
(Cambridge 1966), no. 61.
15 Philostratus, Vitae sophistarum 2.14; Dio 69.9.6; ILS 2558 = Smallwood 1966, op.cit. (n.14), no. 336,
interpreted by M.P. Speidel, 'Swimming the Danube under Hadrian's eyes. A feat of the emperor's
Batavi horse guards', Ancient Society 22 (1991), 277-282. Cf generally HA, Hadrianus 5.10: per
Il/yricum Romam venit.
16 The Acta Arvalium (Smallwood 1966, op.cit. (n.14), 21 f) date his arrival after 30 May 118, see Weber
1907, op.cit. (n.6), 81 f (restoring VI I[dus luliasJ).
17 His departure was in 121: he was called proconsul in that year, Weber 1907, op.cit. (n.6), 99,
presumably after he renewed the Parilia festival on 21 April: Strack 1933, op.cit. (n.8), 102 ff.
18 The only evidence for Hadrian's visits to Raetia and Noricum is the coins showing him addressing
their armies and, for Noricwn, his adventus: Strack 1933, op.cit. (n.8), 139 ff.
19 Other evidence for Hadrian in Britain: Birley 1997, op.cit. (n.IO), 123 ff. and Appendix, below.
20 Nemausus: he began a basilica there in memory of Plotina: HA, Hadrianus 12.2; Dio 69.1O.2-3a. She
was still alive in 123, ClL XV 691 ff.: H. Temporini, Die Frauen am Hofe Traians. Ein Beitrag zur
Stellung der Augustae im Prinzipat (Berlin 1978), II ff.; M.-Th. Raepsaet-Charlier, Prosopagraphie des
femmes de l'ordre senatorial (fer-lIe siecles) (Louvain 1984), no. 631. Apta: CIL XII 1122 = Smallwood
1966, op.cit. (n.14), no. 520, not dated, but cf HA, Hadrianus 20.12.
21 His presence at the legionary base seems guaranteed by the exercitus Hispanicus coins: British
Museum Catalogue Ill, op.cit. (n.2), 501.
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?Cyrenaica - ?Crete - ?Cyprus22 - Syria (Antioch) - Euphrates (HA,
Hadrianus 13.1) - Cappadocia (Neocaesarea - Trapezus) - PontuslBithynia
(Nicomedia?)23 - Thrace.
124 Asia24 : conjectured route: Cyzicus - Ilium (Philostratus, Heroicus 288) Hadrianutherae (HA, Hadrianus 20.13; Dio 69.10.2) - Pergamum?25 Thyatira - Saittae26 - Sardis27 - Smyrna28 - Erythrae 29 - Ephesus (29.08.)30 Rhodes 3l - Athens and Eleusis (HA, Hadrianus 13.1) - Peloponnese: 32
Megara - Epidaurus - Troezen - Hermione - Argos? (Dec. 124?).
125 Mantinea - Tegea - Sparta - Corinth - Athens (Dionysia in March: HA,
Hadrianus 13.1; Dio 69.16.1) - Thespiae - Coronea - Abae - Hyampolis Delphi - Dyrrachium (20 May?)33 - Sicily (Etna) (HA, Hadrianus 13.3) Rome - Tibur (between 14 August and 12 September)34 - Rome.
22 It is often denied, e.g. by Halfmann 1986, op.cit. (n.I), 197, that he landed anywhere between Spain
and Syria in 123, let alone that he conducted operations in Mauretania, or stopped in North Africa, Crete
and Cyprus on his way to the east. For Cyrene, see J.H. Oliver, Greek Constitutions of Early Roman
Emperors from Inscriptions and Papyri (Philadelphia 1989), no. 122. For Crete Strack 1933, op.cit. (n.8)
77. See further Birley 1997, op.cit. (n.IO), 151 ff.
23 Neocaesarea was named in Phlegon's Olympiads, see Weber 1907, op.cit. (n.6), 265, inferring a visit,
dated by Halfinann 1986, op.cit. (n.!), 198, to AD 123, rather than 131, as Weber. Trapezus: Arrian,
Periplus I. Nicomedia: Chronicon Paschale I 475, c( Halfmann 1986, op.cit. (n.I), 198 (
24 The reconstruction of the route for the first two thirds of this year, beginning in Thrace and going from
there into Asia, including Ionia, Lydia and Phrygia, depends on the improved Arabic text supplied by
G.w. Bowersock, Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire (Oxford 1969), 120 ff., of Polemo's
Physiognomica, ed. G. Hoffmann (Leipzig 1893), 138 ff. It is not necessary, however, to infer that
Hadrian travelled from Spain to Syria 'by way of the Balkans'; and most of the journey described by
Polemo may be assigned not to AD 123, as Bowersock supposes, but to 124. Further details: Halfmann
1986,op.cit.(n.I), 191; 199; Birley 1997, op.cit. (n.\O), 162ff.
25 IGR IV 351, Pergamwn, calling Hadrian a god 'most manifest', implies his presence.
26 P. Weiss, 'Hadrian in Lydien', Chiron 25 (1995), 213-224, a city coin registering Hadrian's adventus.
27 Guaranteed by Bowersock's emendation 1969, op.cit. (n.24), 122, of Polemo, Physiognomica, not
discussed by Halfmann 1986, op.cit. (n.I).
28 A stay at Smyrna is virtually certain: Halfmann 1986, op.cit. (n.I), 200.
29IGR IV 1542, Erythrae: a 'Great Hadrianic landing festival'.
30 M. Worrle, Stodt und Fest im kaiserzeitlichen Kleinasien (Munich 1988) includes Hadrian's reply to
Oenoanda, written at Ephesus on that day.
31 HA, Hadrianus 13.1; Polemo, Physiognomica 138, as emended by Bowersock 1969, op.cit. (n.24), 120
ff.; Malalas, Chronographia 279; Inschriften griechischer Stiidte aus Kleinasien, Ephesos nos. 14871488, interpreted by T. Drew-Bear, F. Richard, 'Hadrien et Erastos, nauclere d'Ephese', in: Y. Le Bohec
(ed.), L 'Afrique, la Gaule, la Religion a l'epoque romaine. Melanges a la memoire de M. Le Glay IT
(Brussels 1994),742-751.
32 For the places visited in Greece the best evidence is in Pausanias, augmented by some inscriptions:
Halfmann 1986, op.cit. (n.I), 191 (; 202 ( ; Birley 1997, op.cit. (n.1 0), 175 ff.
33 A letter to Heraclea Lyncestis from an emperor, name not preserved, written at Dyrrachium on 20
May, year not preserved, is plausibly assigned to Hadrian in 125: Oliver 1989, op.cit. (n.22), no. 56; c(
Halfmann 1986, op.cit. (nl), 203; Birley 1997, op.cit. (n.IO), 189.
34 He wrote to Delphi from Tibur between these dates: Oliver 1989, op.cit. (n.22), no. 74 bis.
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126 Rome (11 February, 1 March).35
127 Rome - (from 3 March) Italia circum[padanaJ - Rome (1 August)?6
128 Rome - Sicily - Africa (HA, Hadrianus l3.4 f.)37·_ Numidia: Lambaesis
(1 July) - Zarai (7 July) - unknown castellum (12/l3 July)38 - Mauretania Rome (HA, Hadrianus l3.6) - Athens (September)39 - Sparta40 - Athens.
129 Athens - Eleusis - Ephesus 41 - Miletus 42 - Lycia (Patarat3 - Maeander
valley - Tralles - Laodicea on the Lycus (29 June)44 - Apamea/Phrygia (23
July)45 - Melissa46 - Cappadocia (HA, Hadrianus 13.6-7) - Antioch (Malalas,
Chronographia 278).
130 Antioch - Mt. Casius (HA, Hadrianus 14.3) - Palmyra47 - Gerasa48 Judaea (Jerusalem) - Gaza (July)49 - Pelusium (Appian, Syriaca 50; HA,
Hadrianus 14.4; Dio 69.1l.1; Anthologia Palatina 9.402) - Alexandria
(before August 29)50 - Libyan Desert (September)51 - Heliopolis He wrote three times in 126 from Rome to Stratonicea in Lydia, first on 11 February, again, date not
preserved, fmally on 1 March: Oliver 1989, op.cit. (n.22), nos. 79-81.
36 L. Vidman, Fasti Ostienses (Prague 1982, 2nd ed.), 49, restored by R. Syme, 'Transpadana ltalia',
Athenaeum 63 (1985),28-36 = id., Roman Papers V (Oxford 1988),431 ff., at 28 = 432.
37 AE 1957.135 = Smallwood 1966, op.cit. (n.14), no. 195, a comes divi Hadn'ani per Siciliam Africam
Mauretaniam.
38 CIL VIII 2532; 18042 = ILS 9133-4 = Smallwood 1966, op.cit. (n.14), no. 328.
39 HA, Hadrianus 13.6; IG IIIIIl 2 2040, Athens. W. Eck, D. MacDonald & A. Pangerl, 'Neue Diplome
fUr das Heer der Provinz Syrien', Chiron 32 (2002),427-448, at 435IT., list all Hadrianic diplomas and
note that CIL XVI 74-75, datable to the first months of 129, do not show him with the title pracos., from
which it seems to be inferred that he had not left Italy for Greece in 128. But the inscription from Athens
cited above says that his arrival there was 'within the fourth year' from his previous stay. Cf. also
Hieronymus, Chronica (vers. arm., Karst), p. 220, according to which he spent the winter 128-129 at
Athens.
40 IG VI, 486; Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum XI 492: Hadrian's 'second stay' at Sparta.
41 Inschriften griechischer SUidte aus Kleinasien, Ephesos 1487-1488, discussed by Drew-Bear and
Richard 1994, op.cit. (n.3I): he sailed direct from Eleusis to Ephesus.
42 A. Rehm, ed., Didyma 1l. Die Inschriften (Berlin 1958), nos. 254; 356.
43 IGR 1lI 668, interpreted by G.W. Bowersock, 'Hadrian and metropolis', Bonner Historia-AugustaColloquium 1982/3 (Bonn 1985), 75-88, at 82 ff.; see also Halfinann 1986, op.cit. (n.I), 205 and Worrle
1988, op.cit. (n.30), 40 ff.
44 Tralles: Halfinann 1986, op.cit. (n.l), 204. Laodicea: IGR IV 1033 = Smallwood 1966, op.cit. (n.14),
no. 73 = Oliver 1989, op.cit. (n.22), no. 68, restoring the month as June in the light of the inscription cited
n. 45, below.
45 Revealed by an unpublished inscription cited by C.P. Jones in a review, Phoenix 37 (1983), 74.
46 Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 13.574 f. For the location of this Melissa: L. Robert, A trovers I 'Asie
Mineure (Paris 1980),257 ff.
47 IGR 1lI 1054 = Smallwood 1966, op.cit. (n.14), no. 77; Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum 1l3959.
48 AE 1915.42 = Smallwood 1966, op.cit. (n.14), no. 332; C.B. Welles, in: C.H. Kraeling, Gerasa. City of
the Decapolis (New Haven 1938), nos. 58, 143-5.
49 Judaea: Halfmann 1986, op.cit. (n.I), 207. Gaza: Chronicon Paschale I 474; M. Rosenberger, CityCoins ofPalestine Il (Jerusalem 1975), 54 IT.
50 1. Vogt, Die alexandn'nischen Miinzen (Stuttgart 1924), I 102 f.; 1l 53.
35
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Memphis 52 - Oxyrhyncus - Hermopolis - Antinoupolis (30 Octoberi 3 ?Ptolemais - Thebes (Colossus) (18-21 November)54 - Oxyrhyncus (29-30
November) - Tebtunis (1 Decemberi 5 - Alexandria.
131 Alexandria - ? Antinoupolis (March! April)56 - Alexandria - Syria (Dio
69.12.2) - Cilicia - Pamphylia (Phaselis)57 - ?Ephesus - ?Mysia (Hadriani,
Hadriania)58 - Athens.
132/133(?)1134(?) Athens 59 - Judaea60 - Athens - Macedonia - ?Thrace ?Moesia Superior -?Dalmatia - Pannonia61 - Italy - Rome (at latest 5 May
134)62
Ancient comments may be cited, in chronological order. First, HA.
Hadrianus 16.3, Florus' poem, quoted above. Next, implied criticism about
five years after Hadrian's death, by Aelius Aristides, To Rome (Orationes
26K) 33:
The Great Archon and the Prytanis over everything [i.e.
Antoninus Pius] does not need to wear himself out travelling
round the whole empire, nor to visit one land after another and to
lay down regulations for each one when he reaches them.
51 HA, Hadrianus 26.3; Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 15.677d-f; P Oxy 1085. Cf R. Lambert, Beloved
and God. The Story ofHadrian and Antinous (London 1984), 118 f
52 K. Preisendanz, Papyri Magici Groeci IV (Stuttgart 1973, 2nd ed.), 2441 ff.; cf Lucian, Philopseudes
34 f
53 This was the foundation date of Antinoupolis: Chronicon Paschale I 475 (with the wrong year).
54 A. and E. Bernand, Les inscriptions grecques et latines du colosse de Memnon (Paris 1960), nos. 28-
32.
P Oxy 2553; Papyri Osloenses III 77a: see P.J. Sijpestein, 'A new document concerning Hadrian's
visitto Egypt', Historia 18 (1969),109-118; 112 ff.; 115.
56 Hadrian perhaps attended inaugural 'Great Antinoan games' at Antinoupolis in March or April 131,
Bulletin epigraphique 1952, no. 180, and the 'Hadrianic Philadelphian contest' at Alexandria, 1. Moretti,
Iscrizioni agonistiche greche (Rome 1953), no. 84. See G. Grimm, 'Paulina und Antinous. Zur
Vergottlichung der Hadriansschwester in Agypten', in: Das antike Rom und der Osten. Festschrift K.
Parlasca (Erlangen 1990), 33-44, at 39 f
57 The visit to Cilicia is only recorded by adventus coins: British Museum Catalogue rn, op.cit. (n.2),
490. Phaselis: Tituli Asiae Minoris IT 3; 1187; 1191-4.
58 Ephesus: cf Halfmann 1986, op.cit. (n.I), 208. Mysia: E. Schwertheim, 'Zu Hadrians Reisen und
Stadtgriindungen in Kleinasien', Epigrophica Anatolica 6 (1985), 37-42; id., Inschnften griechischer
Sttidte aus Kleinasien, Hadrianoi, on nos. 56; 129.
59 Sylloge Inscriptionum Groecarum, 3nJ ed., 842, Epidaurus: Hadrian wintering for the third time at
Athens.
60 Cf above with n.1 on the uncertainty over Hadrian's participation in the Jewish War and hence over
the date of his return: at latest 134.
61 AE 1957.135 = Smallwood 1966, op.cit. (n.14), no. 195, a comes divi Hadriani per Orientem et
Illyricum, clearly on Hadrian's last journey.
62 IGR I 149 = Oliver 1989, op.cit. (n.22), no. 86.
55
°
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In the early 160s Fronto made a neutral comment, De feriis Alsiensibus
5.229-230:
avom item vestrum, doctum principem et navom et orbis
terrarum non regendi tantum, sed etiam perambulandi
diligentem, modulorum tamen et tibicinum studio devinctum
fuisse scimus et praeterea prandiorum opimorum esorem
.
fu'lsse. 63
optimum
Soon afterwards Fronto waxed sarcastic, Principia Historiae 11.208.7 ff.:
Lucio Parthis aut dilectu novi tirones sumendi fuerunt aut fracti
aspera legitima militia tenendi militibus tristi et molli militia
corruptis. namque post imperatorem Traianum disciplina
propemodum expertes erant Hadriano principe circumeundis et
facunde appellandis exercitibus satis inpigro, sed summa
fugiente bellorum. quin provincias manu Traiani captas, quarum
Daciae non iam pacatae erant, omittere maluit [209.1] quam
exercitu retinere. eius itinerum monumenta videas per plurimas
Asiae atque Europae urbes sita, cum alia multa turn sepulchra ex
saxo formata. non solum in gelosas, sed etiam bis in meridionalis
sedis terras profectus est saluti# his provinciis, * quas trans
Euphratis et Danuvii ripas sitas Traianus spe Moesiae et Asiae
provincias addere posse se§ imperio Romano adnexuerat. * has
omnino provincias Daciam et Parthis missas partes ultro restituit.
exercitus in Asia se pro scutis atque gladiis sali<ci>bus+ sub
pellibus delectare: neminem umquam duce m post eiusmodi
vidit 64
M.P.J. van den Hout (ed.), M. Comelii Frontonis Epistulae (Leipzig 1988).
Van den Hout 1988, op.cit. (n.63); # read soluti<s> ARB?
§ van den Hout prints addere ... e.. imperio, noting Hauler's reading posse se.
• • van den Hout punctuates his provinciis, quas trans Euphratis ... adnexuerat. If one retains saluti, this
would mean that Hadrian's journeys to the southern (=Mediterranean) provinces were 'to the advantage
of those lying beyond the banks of Euphrates and Danube', which cannot be what Fronto wrote. One
could punctuate his provinciis. [with full stop], i.e. Hadrian's two journeys were 'to the advantage of
these [sc. Mediterranean] provinces'], then read: quas trans Euphratis et Danuvii ripas sitas Traianus spe
Moesiae et Asiae provinciis addere posse se imperio Romano adnexuerat, has omnino provincias, Dacis
et Parthis amissas partes, ultra restituit, 'As for those which, lying beyond the banks of Euphrates and
Danube, Tmjan, in the hope that he could add them to the provinces of Moesia and Asia, had annexed to
63
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At the end of the second century Tertullian has a striking phrase,
Apologeticus 5.7, which implies that Hadrian was inspired simply by
(unhealthy) inquisitiveness:
quales ergo leges istae quae adversus nos soli exercent impii,
turpes, truces, vani, dementes? quas Traianus ex parte fiustratus
est vetando inquiri Christianos, quas nullus Hadrianus,
quamquam
omnium
curiositatum
explorator,
nullus
Vespasianus, quamquam Iudaeorum debellator, nullus Pius,
nullus Verus inpressit.
Dio 69.9.1-4 stresses military discipline:
Hadrian travelled through one province after another, visitmg
both countryside and cities and inspecting all the garrisons and
forts-some he removed to more suitable sites, he gave up others
and established new ones. 2. He viewed and inspected absolutely
everything personally: not just the usual items in the forts,
weapons, engines, ditches, ramparts and palisades, but also every
individual's conduct, both soldiers and officers-their lives,
quarters and habits-and reformed and corrected in many cases
what had become too luxurious. 3. He trained the men for battles
of all kinds ... and so that they should benefit from his example,
. he everywhere led a rigorous life and always either walked or
rode, never used a chariot or four-wheeler. 4. He did not cover
his head either in the heat or the cold but alike in German snows
and Egyptian heat went about bare-headed. In short, both by
example and by precept he so trained and disciplined the entire
armed forces throughout the whole empire that even today the
methods he then introduced are the basis of military regulations.
the Roman Empire, all these provinces, the parts lost by the Dacians and the Parthians, he restored
vohmtarily. '
+ sali<ci>bus R.w. Davies, 'Fronto, Hadrian and the Roman anny', Latomus 27 (1968), 75-95,
registered in the apparatus but not included in his text by van den Hout. On 209, 7-8 he comments:
'sententiae perturbatae: nonnulla perisse puto'. As his apparatus indicates, much of this, as with the rest
of Fronto, is highly uncertain. c[ the Loeb edition of Haines (1920) IT 296, who relied on Naber's
Teubner edition (1867), with only minor changes; Haines' text is used by most who discuss this passage.
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The HA, Hadrianus offers several general statements:
13.5: nec quisquam fere principum tantum terrarum tarn celeriter
peragravit. 13.10: et circumiens quidem provincias procuratores
et praesides pro factis supplicio adfecit...17.8: peregrinationis ita
cupidus, ut omnia, quae legerat de locis orbis terrarum, praesens
vellet addiscere. 23.1: peragratis sane omnibus orbis partibus
capite nudo et in summis plerumque imbribus atque frigoribus in
morbum incidit lectualem. Cr. HA, Aelius 2.1 Ceionius
Commodus ... quem sibi Hadrianus aevo ingravescente morbis
tristioribus pressus peragrato iam orbe terrarum adoptavit... and
HA, Antoninus Pius 7.11 nec ullas expeditiones obiit, nisi ad
agros suos profectus est et ad Campaniam dicens gravem esse
provincialibus comitatum principis, etiam nimis parci.
The latest comment, Epitome de Caesaribus 14.4-5, highlights building:
immensi laboris, quippe qui provincias omnes passibus
circumierit agmen comitantium praevertens, cum oppida
universa restitueret, augeret ordinibus. 5 ad specimen legionum
militarium fabros perpendiculatores architectos genusque
cunctum exstruendorum moenium seu decorandorum in cohortes
centuriaverat.
This is often understood to mean that Hadrian formed a special unit of
craftsmen. Rather, he simply assigned soldiers from his entourage to
building and engineering operations. 65
Various conclusions can be drawn. An important motive for the first
part of his tour of 121-125 was to construct new frontiers and to improve
military discipline. Clear from the HA, where in Germaniam transiit, 10.2, is
followed by the lengthy section on army discipline, 10.2-11.1, summed up,
11.2, by ergo conversis regio more militibus. Then comes the building of the
Wall in Britain, 'to divide barbarians and Romans', 11.2; after some
anecdotes, the visit to Britain is summed up by conpositis in Brittania rebus,
12.1. An inscription from his Wall shows that discipulina imp. Had. Aug.
See O. Stoll, 'Refonn oder Marotte? Einige Bemerktmgen zur sogenannten "Handwerkerrefonn" des
Kaisers Hadrian', Lavema 9 (1998), 66-81, reprinted in id., Romisches Heer und Gesellschaft.
Gesammelte Beitriige 1991-1999 (Stuttgart 200 1), 379-394.
65
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was imposed in Britain as well as in Germany. Fronto recounts similar
measures taken in Syria in the 160s by Verus' elderly comes Pontius
Laelianus. Obviously Laelianus remembered his experience forty years
earlier, when as tribune of VI Victrix he moved with the legion from Lower
Germany to Britain, at the same time as the Emperor. Altars to Ocean and
Neptune set up by this legion on the banks of the Tyne at Newcastle, where
the Wall initially ended, hint that Hadrian consciously repeated, in the far
west, what Alexander had done in the far east at the conclusion of his Indian
expedition. Fragments of a monumental inscription found not far away,
interpreted as a 'Hadrianic war memorial', may, rather, be from a speech by
Hadrian to the army, justifying his new frontier policy. (See the Appendix
for texts relating to Britain.) In Spain military matters were still to the fore: a
dilectus, 12.4. As an afterthought the HA, Hadrianus inserts, 12.6, after the
account of the stay in Spain, a general comment on artificial frontiers, in the
form of a palisade, which belonged earlier in the context of the tour of
Germany (and Raetia). The new frontier policy was, it may be argued, a
revival of what was claimed to have been that of Augustus, coercendi intra
terminos imperii. 66
It was long ago pointed out that at about the time he was in Spain
Hadrian's titulature was drastically abbreviated on the coinage: instead of
'Imp. Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus', simply 'Hadrianus Augustus',
sometimes' Augustus Hadrianus,67 The stay at Tarraco coincided with the
150th year since Augustus' assumption of that name; and it was shortly after
this that Augustus had gone to Tarraco. Hadrian had the temple of Augustus
at Tarraco rebuilt (HA, Hadrianus 12.3}. There is more. Suetonius, who had
composed his life of Augustus shortly before this, goes out of his way to
portray the first emperor's foreign policy as basically defensive, a picture
which is contradicted by statements elsewhere in this vita. 68 As Strack
argued, and Syme subsequently underlined, at the same time Tacitus was
subversively hinting that Hadrian was more like Tiberius, a princeps
proferendi imperii incuriosus, than AugustuS. 69 To pursue the notion that
66 Tacitus, Annales 1.11.4. The restoration of military discipline was specifically the restoration of the
post Caesarem Octavianum labantem disciplinam (HA, Hadrianus 10.3).
67 Strack 1933, op.cit. (n.8), 12 ff.; c[ British Museum Catalogue III, op.cit. (n.2), cxv; clxvii; M. Grant,
Roman Anniversary Issues (Cambridge 1950), 101 [; R. Syme, Tacitus (Oxford 1958),248; 496.
68 Suetonius, Augustus 21.2: tantumque aJuit a cupiditate quoquo modo imperium vel bellicam glariam
augendi, etc.; contrast 31.5: proximum a dis immortalibus honorem memoriae ducum praestitit, qui
imperium p. R. ex minima maximum reddidissent.
69 Tacitus, Annales 4.32.1; c[ Strack 1933, op.cit. (n.8), 41; Syme 1958, op.cit. (n.67), 240 ff.; 482; 484;
490;498.
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Hadrian in 123 was attempting a comprehensive imitatio of Augustus, one
may note that he next negotiated with the Parthians, echoing Augustus'
recovery of the standards in 20 BC. Emulation of the first princeps may be
detected again at the end of the reign with the complex succession
arrangements. The selection of an heir who himself had to adopt two sons
recalls Augustus' measures in AD 4.
In the later l20s one may detect a change of role: Hadrian as a new
Pericles. The creation of the Panhellenion was in effect the fulfilment of
what Pericles had attempted with his 'Congress decree'; and in 129 Hadrian
assumed as a title in the east Pericles' nickname Olympios. 70 The lavish
building programme at Athens-itself mirroring what had been undertaken
in Pericles' day-included the completion of the great temple of Olympian
Zeus. The last person who had tried this had been Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
It is tempting to infer that Hadrian's completion of this project led to further
Antiochus-imitatio: the revival of the King's attempt to hellenise the Jews
and the replacement of their temple with a pagan one. 71
It may be added that Hadrian was accompanied everywhere he went
by a large entourage. Inscriptions of his comites are thin on the ground, it is
true. But not all those senators who accompanied Hadrian may have registered
the fact 72 That it is known that Oxyrynchus had to lay in large extra supplies
ten months before Hadrian arrived in Egypt is merely a chance survival of
what must have happened all over the empire in places he was expected to
visit. It is hard to estimate the numbers in his party on this basis-for one
thing, an emperor's arrival would bring in hordes of loyal subjects from
surrounding districts, eager to see their sovereign. 73
Plutarch, Pericles 8.2; 17; 39.2. C( Birley 1997, op.cit. (n.l 0),218 (
Thus convincingly D. Willers, Hadrians panhellenisches Programm (Basel 1990), 101 (, followed by
Birley 1997, op.cit. (n.IO), 228 fI
72 Halfmann 1986, op.cit. (n.!), 249 fmds only foW" (his nos. 48-51). RH. Chowen, 'Traveling
companions of Hadrian', Classical Journal 50 (1954-5), 122-124, has a meagre list of seven persons
(mostly not comites Augusti), followed by M.V. Contini, 'I viaggi in eta adrianea', in: G. Camassa, S.
Fasce, edd., Idea e realtO del viaggio: if viaggio nel mondo antico (Genoa 1991), 343-358. Further
definite or possible travelling companions are mentioned at various points in Birley 1997, op.cit. (n.IO);
add another poetess in Egypt, as argued by I.C. Brennan, 'The poets Julia Balbilla and Damo at the
Colossus ofMernnon', Classica/Joumal91 (1997-8),215-234.
73 BA van Groningell, 'Preparatives to Hadrian's visit to Egypt', in: Studi in onore di A. Calderini eR.
Paribeni IT (Milan 1956),253-256 = F. Preisigke et al., Sammelbuch griechischen Urlamden aus Agypten
no. 9617. Halfmann 1986, op.cit. (n.I), 110 infers from the quantities that there were at least 5000
persons in Hadrian's entow-age. He does not consider how many days' supplies might be involved, nor
does he reckon with local visitors, coming to cheer the Emperor.
70
71
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All over the empire, inscriptions registered the ruler's name. The
Wall in Britain presumably carried a building inscription at every
milecastie--eighty of them, with another forty 'milefortlets' along the coast
to the south of the western end; and the forts on the Wall would likewise
carry his name. Great structures of other kinds, such as the vast temples at
Cyzicus and Athens, carried a similar message. The resplendent buildingworks with his name prominently displayed, and the statues of the ruler,
rammed home his universal presence. "The medium is the message", as
Marshall McLuhan put it. During his travels Hadrian played a variety of
roles in the course of his reign. Not the first ruler to have done so-one
recalls Augustus' question to his friends on his deathbed: ecquid iis
videretur mimum vitae commode transegisse 74-nor the last.
Vindolanda, October 2002
74
Suetonius, Augustus 99.1.
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Appendix: Hadrian's wall: some documents and texts
For discussions of Hadrian's motives for building this and other artificial
frontiers cf. Birley, op.cit. (n.lO), 116 f.; 133 fT.; 304, stressing that it among
other things was a signal for internal consumption, that expansion was over;
DJ. Breeze, B. Dobson, Hadrian's Wall (London 2000, 4th ed.), 25 fT.
1. The Roman Inscriptions of Britain 1319-1320, Newcastle (Pons Aelius),
found in River Tyne: Neptuno l(egio) VI Vi(ctrix) p(ia) f(idelis); Ociano leg.
VI Vi(ctrix) p(ia) f(idelis). Cf. Arrian, Indica 18.11: Alexander's sacrifice to
Poseidon and Ocean.
2. Britannia 10 (1979), no. 6 = AE 1979.388, Chesters (Cilurnum), altar
found in River North Tyne, close to Wall: [dJiscipulinae imp. Had Aug. ala
Augusta [oJb virt. appel. Cf. HA Hadrianus 10.3: si quidem ipse post
Caesarem Octavianum labantem disciplinam incuria superiorum principum
retinuit, etc.
3. CIL VI 1479 + 1549 = ILS 1094 + 1100, Rome: M Pontio M f Pup.
Laeliano Larcio Sabino cos. (AD 144) ... comiti divi Veri Aug. donato donis
militarib. bello Armeniaco et Parthico... trib. mU. leg. VI Victr. cum qua ex
Germ. in Brittan. transiit. Cf. Fronto, Ad Verum imp. 2.19 (Van den Hout
1988, op.cit. (n.63), 128): exercitus tibi traditus erat luxuria et lascivia et
otio diutino corruptus... ad hoc vestiti melius quam armati, adeo ut vir
gravis et veteris disciplinae Laelianus Pontius loricas partim eorum digitis
primoribus scinderet, equos pulvillos instratos animadverteret. iussu eius
cornicula consecta, a sedilibus pluma quasi anseribus devolsa.
4. Tabulae Vindolandenses II 344, archaeological context ca. 105 - ca. 122:
lines 4 iT: tuam maies[tJatem implora ne patiaris me [inJnnocentem virgis
cas[tJigatum esse ... lines 13 fT.: [... tuJam misericord[iaJm imp/ora ne
patiaris me hominem trasmarinum et innocentem de cuius f[idJe inquiras
virgis cruent[atJu[mJ esse ac si qUid sceler[iJs commississem. Cf. HA
Hadrianus 20.1: in conloquiis etiam humillimorum civilissimus juit. This
writing-tablet suggests that the writer expected Hadrian's arrival and hoped
to present him with a petition: Birley 1997, op.cit. (n.lO), 135.
5. CIL VII 498 = LA. Richmond, R.P. Wright, 'Stones from a Hadrianic war
memorial on Tyneside', Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th series, 21 (1943) 93-120
= The Roman Inscriptions of Britain 1051, Jarrow (south side of River Tyne
near Newcastle), reused in the Anglian church, two fragments, (a) 52.5 X
52.5 cm, (b) 55 X 50 cm (underlined lettering is uncertain):
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(a)
4
(b)
4
[divorum?} omnium fil[ius?
imp Caesar Tr}aianus Hadr[ianus
Augustus impo}sita necessitat[e imperii?
?intrafines conser}vati divino pr[aecepto
c}os lI[1
]
diffusis [barbaris? et}
provinc[ia reciperata?}
Britannia ad[didit limitem? inter}
utrumque O[ceani litus per MP LXXX}
exercitus pr[ovinciae opus vallifecit?}
sub curta A. Platori Nepotis leg. Aug. pr. pr. ?}
The editors argue 108-112, for their unparalleled restoration in (a), line 1.
Equally possible is e.g. [principum} omnium fid.[issimusj. In lines 2-4, the
lettering underlined is also restored; previous readings of line 4 were
vatis.. .II, vatisv.. incrr, vatisevnorp, vatisinopr. In (b), of which the left-hand
margin is preserved, line 6 gives the approximate original width.
The editors regard this as from "a tropaeon or war-memorial", dismissing
arguments for it being an adlocutio, as suggested by E. Huebner, on CIL VII
498, and others. This remains possible: if it was inscribed on a four-sided
monument, as at Lambaesis (ILS 2487; 9133-9135 = Smallwood 1966,
op.cit. (n.14) no. 328), the two fragments might represent less than one
quarter of the original. E. Birley, Research on Hadrian's Wall (Kendal
1961), 159, argued that, as Hadrian's name is in smaller lettering than that of
lines (a) 1 and (b) 1-4, the inscription was probably Severan,
commemorating "Severus's reconstruction of the frontier-referring back to
Hadrian as its original builder". Aurelius Victor, Caesares 20.18, wrote of
Severus that he Britanniam, quoad ea utilis erat, pulsis hostibus muro
munivit per transversam insulam ducto utrimque ad finem Oceani. The last
words echo lines (b) 3-4 of this inscription, which could also be restored e.g.
as ad[ducto muro adfinem} utrumque O[ceanij.
6. HA, Hadrianus 1l.2: ergo conversis more regio militibus, Brittaniam petit
in qua multa correxit murumque per octoginta milia passuum prim us duxit,
qui barbaros Romanosque divideret. This is the only explicit record in the
ancient sources that it was Hadrian who built the Wall, confirmed by the
inscriptions cited under 7.
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7. The Roman Inscriptions of Britain 974, Netherby (outpost fort north of
Wall) Imp. Caes. Tra. Hadriano Aug. leg. 11 Aug. fecit; 995, Bewcastle
(another outpost fort): [Imp.] Caes. Tra[iano Hadriano Aug. leJg. II Aug. et
XX v. [VJ ... ; 1340, Benwell (on Wall) Imp. Caes. Traiano Hadr[iaJno
Aug. A. Platorio N[epote IJeg. Aug. pr. p[r.] vexillatio c[lassisJ Britan.;
1427, Chesters (on Wall) Imp. Caes. T[ra. HadrianoJ Aug. leg. VI V[ictrix p.
fJ A. Platorio N[epoteJ leg. Aug. pr. [pr.]; 1637, Wall near Housesteads fort
Imp. Ga[eJs. (sic) Traian. Hadrian. Aug leg. I[IJ Aug. A. Platorio [NJepote
leg. pr. p[r].; 1638, probably from Milecastle 38 Imp. Caes. Traian.
Hadriani Aug. leg. II Aug. A Platorio Nepote leg. pr. pr.; 1666, Milecastle
42 (same text as 1638); 1702, Vindolanda (same text as 1638); 1852, near
Milecastle 47 [Imp. Caes. divi Traiani fil. diviJ Nervae ne[p. TraiJano
Hadriano Aug. leg. XX V. V.
8. Aelius Aristides, To Rome (Orationes 26K) 81: "An encamped army like
a rampart encloses the world in a ring ... as far as from Ethiopia to the Phasis
and from the Euphrates to the great outermost island towards the west; all
this one can call a ring and circuit of the walls. They have not been built
with asphalt and baked brick, nor do they stand there gleaming with stucco.
Oh-but these ordinary works too exist at their individual places, 'fitted
close and accurately with stones and boundless in size and gleaming more
brilliantly than bronze', as Homer says of the palace wall." These words
were delivered just as Hadrian's Wall had been abandoned in favour of the
more northerly Antonine Wall. The 'brilliant gleam' may have been
achieved by a white plaster on the Wall surface: this was at any rate found
on the Wall as rebuilt under Severus: J.G. Crow, 'A review of current
research on the turrets and curtain of Hadrian's Wall', Britannia 22 (1991),
51-63, at 58 f.
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A REVISION OF HADRIAN'S PORTRAITURE
By
C. VOUT'
"In the second century, Roman men did not wear beards; in
second-century Greece, they did. Beards were worn by the Greek
poets, philosophers, and statesmen of the past. Hadrian wore a
beard in life and in his portraits because he wanted to be 'the
Greekling' ."\
We all know what a Roman emperor looks like or rather we are familiar with
imperial imagery. So were the ancients, until Hadrian rewrote the formula.
The orthodoxy is that as the first bearded emperor and avid supporter of Greek
culture, Hadrian changed the public face of Roman rule. Where does this
conception come from? In part, it comes from the ancient literature. Although
fairly scanty and most of it posthumous (with the third or fourth-century
Augustan History and third-century Cassius Dio providing the fullest picture),
this literature bears witness to a man who hunts, writes poetry, takes a young
Greek lover, Antinous, and is initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries; in other
words, in private, who lives like a Greek. It also claims that he was curious
about other cultures, especially Egyptian (into which Antinous plugs perhaps
as well as into classical), and that his favourite author was the Roman epic
poet, Ennius. 2 But it is the Greek nature of the tradition that has captured the
imagination. Or it is the novelty that a good emperor could be "so imbued in
Greek studies that some called him 'Graeculus",.3 Sources of the same period
see Nero and Domitian's Hellenic leanings as indicative of their tyranny.
Hadrian somehow escapes similar venom to embody the success (even acme)
of the Roman Empire. He is not a dilettante but an intellectual who harnesses
the united power of Rome and Greece. 4
This turnaround in the meaning of philhellenism should not surprise
us. In some ways, trying to trace the point at which Roman attitudes towards
• A longer, revised version of this article will appear as 'What's in a beard? Rethinking Hadrian's
Hellenism' in S. Goldbill and R. Osborne, Rethinking Revolutions. I would like to thank colleagues at
the Impact of Empire conference for their comments on the first draft of this paper.
I D. E. E. Kieiner, Roman Sculpture (New Haven & London 1992),238.
2 SHA, Hadrian 16.6.
3 SHA, Hadnan 1.5; Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus 14.2.
4 E.g. compare G. Anderson, The Second Sophistic: a Cultural Phenomenon in the Roman Empire
(London & New York 1993), 6.
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the Greeks and, rather differently, Greek culture, began to shift is subsidiary
to this discussion. Unlike Nero and Domitian, Hadrian died popular, or at
least it was in the interests of his successors to support him.5 Roman authors
show time and time again how a good emperor can be praised for the same
qualities for which a bad emperor is damned. This said, however, Hadrian's
philhellenism is further sanctioned by virtue of the fact that he turns it to
public advantage. He devotes considerable resources into improving Greek
centres such as Athens, Eleusis and Pergamum and encourages the Panhellenion or league of 'Greek' cities so as to give them greater occasion to
take responsibility for themselves. 6 C. P. Jones has recently challenged the
standard line that Hadrian created the league in l31-l32 C.E., preferring
instead to see its foundation as a Greek initiative 7 There is evidence to argue
that Hadrian's predecessors, Domitian and Trajan, invested as much (if not
more) time and money into Eleusis, Cyrene and Pergamum, and that Athens
is in all sorts of ways a special case. 8 But none of these objections (if that is
what they are) slow the increasing trend to gloss the majority of Hadrian's
actions and motivations as philhellenism (positive). Whereas in the past,
scholars tended to be more cautious on this issue (Eugenie Strong, for
example, saying that there was "little indication that Hadrian ever wished to
be classed with the Greeks or to be looked upon as leader of any Hellenic
revival"),9 today almost every initiative is assigned to this heading.!O Philhellenism equates to a political stance, a successful PanheIlenic programme
(so much so that Griffin is now reticent about awarding Nero the adjective
'philhellenic')." Hadrian is credited with changing Roman imperium beyond
recognition, making its fulcrum Greek culture.
Although note Hadrian's unpopularity at SHA, Hadrian 27.1-4.
On the Panhellenion, see A. J. S. Spawfortb & S. Walker, 'The World of the Panhellenion. 1. Athens
and Eleusis' ,Journal ofRoman Studies 75 (1985), 78-104 and 'The World of the Panhellenion. H. The
Dorian Cities', ibid. 76 (1986), 88-105; A. S. Benjamin, 'The Altars of Hadrian in Athens and
Hadrian's Panhellenic Program', Hesperia 32 (1963) 57-86 and for a revisionist view, C. P. Jones,
'The Panhellenion', Chiron 26 (1996), 29-56.
7 Jones 1996, op.cit. (n.6).
8 On Eleusis, see K. Clinton, 'Hadrian's Contribution to the Renaissance of Eleusis' , in S. Walker and
A. Cameron, The Greek Renaissance in the Roman Empire: Papers from the Tenth Bn·tish Museum
Classical Colloquium (London 1989), 56-69.
9 E. Strong, Art in Ancient Rome (London 1929), 110. Also J. Beaujeu, La religion romaine a I 'apogee
de ['empire I. La politique religieuse des Antonins (96-192) (Paris 1955), who advocates that
Hadrian's eclecticism controls his philheUenism.
10 Although as M. T. Boatwright, Hadrian and the City of Rome (Princeton 1987), 202 acknowledges,
the existence of the Athenaeum is attested in late sources only and has never been found.
II M. T. Griffin, Nero: the End ofa Dynasty (London 1984), 126.
5
6
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The strength of this assertion arouses SUSpICIon. How different is
Hadrian from the emperors before him (for example, Augustus is also supposed
to have been initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries)?I2 Is everything he does
'philhellenism'? Regardless of what we want to call it, might his interest in
Greek cities have not been 'simple' exigency or diplomacy? Even a fleeting
glance at the period in which Hadrian was ruling would suggest that the answer
to this last question is confirmatory. The second century is renowned for being a
time when Greek culture came together with (even assumed the lead over)
Roman culture to become the most valued currency of elite interaction. Its
language and heritage had a symbolic capital that outstripped the fact that
relatively few of Rome's politicians were Greek.l3 Seen from this angle, it
matters less what Hadrian's motivations were or how different he was from
Nero. The implication is that it is a different world and that Hadrian is only
doing what a second-century emperor had to do. One wonders what comes first,
the 'Second Sophistic', or the sources' emphasis on Hadrian's Hellenism. Or to
put it another way, in order to be 'the man of the moment', did he have to be
good at atticising Greek?l4
It is less easy to minimise the shock of Hadrian's physical appearance as
made concrete in his coinage and statuary. Here, more than anywhere, scholars
have noted a radical departure from the image of emperor as established by
Augustus. The fact that all of Hadrian's portraits (or at least all of those which
have been identified as Hadrian) show him with a full beard and moustache,
make his iconography unprecedented and the answer to what does a Roman
emperor look like read differently. Recently, Cecile Evers has described it as
"rompant diametralement avec les images de ses predecesseurs", whilst the
starting and end point of Andrea Carandini's study was "una cesura profundo"
between Trajan and Hadrian's reigns. I5 There is no denying that a full beard
appears odd next to ranks of clean-shaven prototypes. Especially when there
were question marks over Hadrian's adoption by Trajan, one might have
expected him to use the power of resemblance to strengthen his right to rule. It
12 See Dio Cassius 51.4.1 and D. Kienast, 'Hadrian, Augustus und die eleusinischen Mysterien',
lahrbuch far Numismatik und Geldgeschichte 10 (1959-60), 61-69. Others to have been initiated
include Cicero (De Legibus 2.14.35) and Sulla (plutarch, Sulla 26.1). Also of interest here is Trajan's
honouring of philosophers and encouragement of the liberal arts, Pliny, Panegyricus 47.1-2.
13 G. W. M. Harrison, The Romans and Crete (Amsterdam 1993),226.
14 SHA, Hadrian 16.5-6.
15 C. Evers, 'Les portraits d'Hadrien: "varius, multiplex, multiformis''', in 1. Charles-Gaffiot & H.
Lavagne, Hadrien: tresors d'une villa imperiale (Milan 1999), 13 = 'I ritratti di Adriano: "varius,
multiplex, multiformis"', in Adriano: archittetura e progetto (Milan 2000), 21; A. Carandini, Vibia
Sabina. Funzione politica. iconografia e il problema del classicismo adrianeo (Rome 1969), 21.
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also seems as though the presence of a beard was seen as odd or at least in need
of explanation in antiquity. For why else would the Augustan History have felt it
necessary to mention that Hadrian had grown it to cover his scars?16 Again the
modem solution is philhellenism. From Diana Kleiner's statement at the start of
this paper to the words of Elena Calandra, Hadrian's beard was not a personal
but strategic decision, "per emulare e quasi revivere gia nell'aspetto gli
intellettuali e i politici della Grecia classica".17 More specific than this has been
the suggestion that the beard is that of a Greek philosopher. 18 One of the main
proponents of this analysis, Paul Zanker, is cleverer in his formulation arguing
that, whilst admittedly not the long beard of the philosopher, it must still be seen
as a "cultivated beard". 19
What follows uses Hadrian's beard as a way of rethinking the 'hot
potato' of his Hellenism. It examines Hadrian's portraiture and that of other
emperors to exemplify the extent to which Hellenism, or the intellectual
credence we now give to Hellenism, is skewing, even obscuring our view. Did
the wearing of a beard in the second century imply a Greek identity, and if so,
why philosophical? Might some of Hadrian's subjects not have nattered about
his scarring rather than exalting his beard as a subtle nod to Greece? These
questions, though specific in their application, impact on the representation of
Hadrian more broadly. How Greek was his imagery or how much more Greek
than that of his predecessors? It should be acknowledged that there is nothing in
the extant literature to suggest that Hadrian's visual material (his beard,
portraiture or architecture) was especially Greek in conception. Pausanias
describes Hadrian as benefactor of Greek and barbarian cities. 20 The writers of
the Augustan History and Cassius Dio, meanwhile, mention harbours, water
supplies and aqueducts. 21 There is little innovation here, only 'long, straight
roads'. We might also wonder how far the reputation of Hadrian's predecessor,
Trajan, as a vir militaris comes up against Hadrian's as 'philhellene' to
discourage any search for continuity. It would be worth remembering at this
point that it is Trajan and not Hadrian who in Julian's third-century Caesars is
credited with the 'Greek vice' ofloving boys!22
SHA, Hadrian 26.1.
E. Calandra, Oltre la Grecia: aUe origini deljilellenismo di Adriano (Naples 1996), 173. Also H. G.
Niemeyer, 'Hadrians Bart', Hefie des Archtiologischen Seminars der Universittit Bern (1983),39-43.
18 A. Hekler, Greek and Roman Portraits (London 1912), xxxvi and 'Philosophen und
Gelehrtenbildnisse der mittleren Kaiserzeit', Die Antike 16 (1940), 115-141.
19 P. Zanker, The Mask o/Socrates. Translated by A. Shapiro (Berkeley 1995),218.
20 Pausanias 1.5.5.
21 SHA, Hadrian 19.2; 20.5-6 and Dio Cassius 69.5.3.
22 Julian, Convivium 311. See also Dio Cassius 68.10.2 and SHA, Hadrian 2.7.
16
17
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The beard as a symbol of Greekness
Hadrian's beard is Greek?3 "Hadrian is more Greek than Roman,,24 Let us
accept these formulations for a moment to pursue their implications and
examine the evidence on which they are based. The clearest support comes
from a statue now in the British Museum in London (plates VII, fig. 1)?5 It
combines Hadrian's bearded head with a torso that spurns the toga (traditional
signifier of Romanitas) for the chiton and himation of a Greek citizen. 26 The
pose, with the right hand tucked into the himation, allows for a more precise
interpretation. It is associated with Greek intellectuals (a statue-type that
originated in the late classical period but was not uncommon under the
empire). Beards are similarly seen as symbols of a classical education: "if you
think to grow a beard is to acquire wisdom, a goat with a true beard is at once
a complete Plato", scoffs a poet preserved in the Palatine Anthology?7 The
obvious conclusion to reach in this context is that the beard and body spark off
each other to cloak Hadrian as a philosopher king. This is made more
convincing once it is recognised that the only other emperor to appear (or
survive and be identified) in this costume is Julian, the empire's second most
notable 'philhellene,?8 Literary sources 'prove' that Hadrian favoured a Greek
cloak (pallium) in public and private, morning, noon and night 29
Unusually for an ancient statue, the original context of this portrait is
recoverable. At two-metres tall it stood in the Temple of Apollo at Cyrene in
North Africa. It was discovered together with several similar intellectual
s
See e.g. W. L. MacDonald & 1. A. Pinto, Hadrian Villa and its Legacy (New Haven & London
1995), 5; S. Goldhill, Being Greek Under Rome: Cultural identity, the Second Sophistic and the
Development ofEmpire (Cambridge 2001),11.
24 R. Syme, 'Hadrian the Intellectual' inLes empereurs romains d'Espagne (Paris 1965),247. See also
R. Syme, 'Hadrian as Philhellene. Neglected Aspects', Bonner Historia-Augusta-Colloquium 198213
(1985), 341-362.
25 British Museum no. 1381. inv. no. 1861.11.27.23. See 1. 1. Bernoulli, Romische 1konographie 2.2
(Stuttgart 1891),109, no. 15; E. Rosenbaum, A Catalogue ofCyrenaican Portrait Sculpture (London
1960), 51, cat. no. 34, pIs. 26.1-2 and 27.1; 1. Huskinson, Roman Sculpture from Cyrenaica in the
Bn·tish Museum (London 1975),38-39, cat. no. 69, pI. 28; C. Evers, Les portraits d'Hadrien: typologie
et ateliers (Brussels 1994), 125-126, cat. no. 57; J. Huskinson, Experiencing Rome: Culture, identity
and Power (London 2000),9, fig. 1.4.
26 C. Vout, 'The Myth of the Toga: Understanding the History of Roman Dress', Greece and Rome
43.2 (1996),204-220.
27 Anthologia Palatina 11.430.
28 Inv. no. MR 246, Louvre, Paris: see K. de Kersauson, Catalogue des portraits romains. Musee du
Louvre (Paris 1996), no. 251. On his Hellenism, see P. Athanassiadi-Fowden, Julian and Hellenism:
an Intellectual Biography (Oxford 1981).
29 See Zanker 1995, op.cit. (n.19), 218.
23
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types suggesting that it was part of a series. It is the only one of the 150
surviving sculpted portraits of Hadrian and all extant coin portraits to show
him wearing Greek clothes. Zanker claims that "Cyrene was surely not the
only city that paid homage to him in this style", and he might be right. 3o
Only a tiny fraction of the 150 sculptures still have bodies (we shall be
coming back to these presently). Any of the heads might have originally
have been palliati, as might the statues which once graced the bases attested
in Benjamin's study of the east?! But it is impossible to deny that the
evidence as it stands contravenes the current orthodoxy. It is dangerous not
to concede the possibility that Cyrene might be a special case. As soon as we
do this, we realise that there are important reasons why Cyrene might have
been different. It was one of the few cities beyond Greece to have been part
of the Panhellenion and as such, might have set more store than most on its
(and its emperor's) share of Greek heritage. It had a special relationship with
Hadrian who re-founded it after the Jewish revolt of 115 C.E. Letters were
displayed in the centre to show that he too stressed the city's Greek rootS?2
All of this suggests that whatever everyone else was doing, Cyrene was
making sense of Hadrian in its own terms, and had personal grounds for its
statue's Greek appearance. Elsewhere in North Africa, Hadrian was
packaged as a pharaoh. 33 Perhaps Cyrene is similarly inventive, only less (to
post-Renaissance eyes) extreme.
It is valuable here to come back to the contention that Hadrian
favoured Greek clothing in public and private. The sources cited to support
this are the Augustan History and Cassius Dio. They report that he dressed in
Greek style at imperial banquets and when he was agonothetes at the
Dionysia in Athens. Already this is more precise in its frame of reference
than is suggested by secondary authors. But it is further qualified by its
context. Cassius Dio claims that Hadrian "carried off his local costume
splendidly at the festival",34 hardly a statement that implies he wore it
30Zanker 1995, op.cit. (n.19),218.
31 Benjarnin 1963, op.cit. (n.6). The same has to be conceded of the various statues of Hadrian
dedicated by cities of the Greek world in the Olympeion in Athens (Pausanias, 1.18.6).
32 See P. M. Fraser, 'Hadrian and Cyrene', Journal of Roman Studies 40 (1950), 77-90; Spawfortb &
Walker 1986, op.cit. (n.6), 96 and M. T. Boatwright, Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire
(Princeton 2000), 173-184.
33 No sculpture in the round survives, or at least that can be identified with certainty. But for temple
reliefs on the Sanctuary of Hathor at Dendera, at Philae and at Deir el - Shelwit, see F. Dawnas, Le
Temple de Dandara (Cairo 1959), 95 A-B and Z. Kiss, Etudes sur le portrait imperial romain en
Egypte (Warsaw 1984) 153, fig. 113.
34 Dio Cassius 69.16.1: ev 'tii eo9i'rn 'tii EltIxmpicp AaI.l1QXO<; E1t1':rEI..eO£.
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regularly, whilst the Augustan History does not say he always wore the
pallium but the pallium or toga when he was at dinner. 35 Neither claim
should lead us to expect ranks of similar statues. If anything, it would appear
that the pallium is being used to make the emperor blend into a particular
setting. This refinement of our reading should be combined with a caution
about the integrity of the statue from Cyrene. Not only was the head found
separate from the body, but is made from a finer, whiter marble. The
assumption is that they were put together in antiquity, but this raises
questions about why the body (ease or efficacy) was reused. Doubts were
also once raised about the identity of the portrait (as indeed they were about
.the pallium-clad statues of 'Julian,)?6 If we accept that it is Hadrian, the
notion that he did not wear a pallium all the time but only when he had to
fuels further revision of the statue's status. Rather than the epitome of philhellenism, it becomes an example of imperial adaptability: not an obsession
with Greek culture but a case of "when in Rome .... ,,?7
Often we see what we want to see. As far as Hadrian's beard is
concerned, most label it a philosopher's beard, a quotation lifted from Greek
statuary and (as the Greek Anthology has already highlighted) from everyday
association as filtered through the literature?8 This explanation works better
for the statue from Cyrene than it does for other statues of Hadrian. But even
at Cyrene, the neatness of the formulation overlooks the import of ill-fitting
details. As Tom Mathews says when faced with the image of the so-called
philosopher-Christ,
"his garb of long tunic, with his arm caught in the sling of his
pallium, identifies him as a philosopher, and indeed this is how
the early Christian apologists from Justin to Augustine regarded
him. But the philosopher's role leaves other aspects of the image
unexpiained.,,39
SHA, Hadrian 22.4-5.
Bernoulli 1891, op.cit. (n.25), 109, cat. no. 15. For doubts about the statue of Julian, see J. J.
Bernoulli, R6mische Ilwnographie 2.3 (Stuttgart 1894),243 and E. Michon, Catalogue sommaire des
marbres antiques (Paris 1922), 57.
37 So Scipio Africanus is said to have worn it in Sicily where Latin and Greek culture co-existed (Livy
29.19.12), Rabirius in Alexandria (Cicero, Pro Rabirio Postumo 9.29) and Tiberius in Rhodes
(Suetonius, Tiben·us 13.1).
38 See also Persius 4.1; Horatius, Satirae 1.3.33 and Juvenalis 14.12.
391. F. Mathews, The Clash o/Gods: a Reinterpretation a/Early Christian An (Princeton 1993), 39.
35
36
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The main points of conflict in Hadrian's statue are the style of his
hair and beard and overall perkiness. The comparison between Plato and
goat might already give it away that a philosopher's beard is, ideally at least,
unkempt and straggly. Classical statues of philosophers and 'copies' from
throughout the Roman period (contemporary and subsequent to Hadrian)
typically have long, lank hair that is sometimes thinning on top. These
factors fit an overall formula that perceives wisdom and age as synonymous.
Philosophers look old. They have sunken cheeks, saggy chests and wasted
arms.40 Often they are depicted seated with a scroll in their hand (whereas
Hadrian from Cyrene holds a laurel branch, plant of Apollo in whose
sanctuary he stands).41 In their purest fourth-century form, they are so
hardened as not to wear a tunic beneath their cloak so as to put more of their
age and wisdom on display 42
Hadrian's coiffure, cropped beard and youthful features set him at an
uncomfortable distance from the stereotype. Conversely, one of the closest
matches is second-century millionaire and sophist, Herodes Atticus, whose
slim, shrunken head and long beard survives in sculptures from his private
estates and public settings throughout the Greek mainland. Susan Walker
goes as far as to claim that there is, "nothing Roman about Herodes' portrait,
which may be explained as a local Greek development so archaising in
appearance that it has been confused with late classical funerary art.,,43 She
over-stresses the oddity of his appearance (or rather underestimates the
number of busts currently identified as Aristotle of Plato which are really
those of second-century intellectuals), but must be right to put it in a
different category from that of Hadrian. Traditionally, the presence of a
beard in both of them (regardless of the differences) has meant that Hadrian
has been seen as the initiator and Herodes following the fashions at court 44
But if Hadrian's beard is not that of a philosopher, then what are we to make
of it? Smith in an article on the fourth and fifth-century 'philosopher
portraits' from Aphrodisias lends credence to this question by arguing that
the short, neatly trimmed beard of one of his subjects dissociates him from
40 On the appearance of philosophers, R. R. R. Smith, 'Late Philosopher Portraits from Aphrodisias',
Journal oJ Roman Studies 80 (1990), 144-146 and 'Kings and Philosophers', in A. Bulloch, E. S.
Gruen, A. A. Long & A. Stewart, Images and Ideologies: Self-Definition in the Hellenistic World
(Berkeley & Los Angeles 1993),202-212.
41 See M. Bieber, Ancient Copies: Contributions to the History oJGreek and Roman Art (New York
1977), 138 and 'Romani Palliati', Proceedings oJthe PhilolOgical Society 103 (1959), 374-417.
42 Compare the rhetoric about 'real' Romans not wearing a twric beneath their toga, Aulus Gellius 6.12.3-4.
43 S. Walker, 'Bearded Men', Journal oJthe History oJCollections 3 (1991), 268.
44 See K. Schefold, Die Bildnisse der antiken Dichter, Redner und Denker (Basel 1997), 332-333.
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the ideal philosopher type and makes him more of a 'real person'. Are there
other possible sources that Hadrian is mining? Or, as Smith prefers for his
example, was his beard 'simply' a "fashion statement" rather than a
deliberate quotation from the past?45
Susan Walker has recently refined her answer to this question to
describe Hadrian's beard as "worn in the style of Pericles". 46 Pericles' short
curly beard and moustache put her on safer ground than those who have
favoured philosophers. It is an identity that would complement Hadrian's
interest in Athens, especially his enthusiasm to build. But the more one
pursues the implications of this hypothesis, the more one is made to doubt it.
If one reads Plutarch so as to get a sense of Pericles' reputation under
Hadrian, one encounters an icon whose head is too long (hence the helmet)
and whose overall appearance is reminiscent of the tyrant Pisistratus
(although this is hardly surprising as he too was a prolific builder,
inaugurator of the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens which Hadrian was
to finish)47 These are hardly auspicious parallels. To make matters worse,
there is little evidence to suggest that Hadrian or his biographers were
conscious of such a connection, or at least not compared to the stronger
associations with a bearded Jupiter or Zeus. 48 There are other candidates:
Aeschines, for example, who has perhaps the best iconographic and
biographic credentials (short beard, soldier, scribe, actor) or Alcibiades, who
is sexy, wealthy, honoured by Hadrian, but highly controversial (his colourful character aside, there is considerable uncertainty over whether the
portrait with its short beard and moustache which exists in a number of
'copies' is actually him).49 In every case, there are problems. On the most
basic level, how strong do similarities in the style of beard and hair and face
Smith 1990, op.cit. (n.40), 150.
S. Walker, Greek and Roman Portraits (London 1995), 9l.
47 Plutarch, Pericles 7.1.
48 A R. Birley, Hadrian the Restless Emperor (London 1997),218-219 as well as in his introduction
and epilogue propagates this notion of Hadrian as Pericles but his enthusiasm appears to stem more
from the suitability of the parallel than concrete evidence of its existence in antiquity. For Hadrian
honoured as Zeus/Jupiter, see ibid, passim; A Raubitschek, 'Hadrian as Son of Zeus Eleutherios',
American Journal of Archaeology 49 (1945), 128-133; W. E. Metcalf, 'Hadrian, Jovis Olympius',
Mnemosyne 27 (1974), 59-66.
49 The study of Aeschines' portraiture is founded upon two herms inscribed with his name (Salle delle
Muse, Vatican, inv. 297 and British Museum, inv. no. 1839); see G. Richter, The Portraits of the
Greeks 2 (I %5), 212, figs. 1372-1375 and 1378-1379. On Alcibiades' honours by Hadrian, see
Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 13.574 and on the doubts over the identity of the Copenhagen series (as
represented by L N. 2263, Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen), see G. Richter, The Portraits of the
Greeks I (I %5), 105, figs. 449-450.
45
46
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have to be for them to be called 'inspirational'? Can a beard alone quote a
visual model, if the subject's hairstyle and face shape are different? One
cannot help be sceptical. The claim that Hadrian's beard evokes a person
rather than a type increases the potential for, and the number of questions
raised by, discrepancy.
Put the head of Hadrian from Cyrene on another kind of body and it
signifies very differently. The beard on his togate statue from Rome is less
obviously sophistic than that at Cyrene, on his statue from Frosinone, where
he has a naked body in the style of the Ares Borghese, more convincingly part
of his visual armoury as Mars. 5o Both of these are unique in the corpus of
Hadrian's statuary. One could claim that Rome "was surely not the only city
that paid homage to him in this style". But as with Zanker and Cyrene, we
cannot knOw. Instead, we ought to examine other extant bodies. Is there a
preferred type? And if so, does it strengthen or deny the power of Hadrian's
Greekness? Might it present an adequate explanation for his wearing of a
beard? Four of the surviving statues are nude in the style of Diomedes in
flight, the original of which is traditionally attributed to fifth-century Greek
sculptor Kresilas. The Homeric hero is shown having stolen the Palladion,
which he holds in his left hand. 51 Luckily, their find spots are recoverable: two
originate in modern Turkey, another near Sousse in Tunisia, and the last, and
most surprising perhaps, in a theatre in Vaison in Gaul (PI. VII, fig. 2).52 Its
existence broadens the application of any argument. The first two are usually
dated to 121 c.E. when Hadrian visited the region. 53 The last two are more
complicated but have portraits of a type dated to 128 C.E.54 Between them,
they cover a large span (temporally and geographically) of Hadrian's reign.
For the togate statue (Capitoline Museum, Rome, atrio 5, inv. no. 54), see Evers 1994, op.cit. (n.25),
158-159, cat. no. 99 and for Hadrian as Mars (Capitoline Museum, Rome, salone 13, inv. no. b34),
Evers, ibid, 159-160, cat. no. 100.
51 On the original, see A. Stewart, Greek Sculpture: an Exploration (New Haven & London 1990), 168
and for this and Roman adaptations, J.-M. Moret, Les pierres graw!es antiques representant le rapt du
Palladion (Mainz 1997). For statues of Hadrian and Diomedes, see E. Calandra, 'Ancora su Adriano:
archetipi scultorei e prograrnmi iconografici', in R. F. Docter & E. M. Moorman, Proceedings of the
15th International Congress ofClassical Archaeology, July 12-17 1998 (Amsterdam 1999), 100-102.
52 For the Perge statue (Antalya, mus. inv. A3861 and A3863), see Evers 1994, op.cit. (n. 25),83, cat. no.
7; Pergamum (mus. inv. no. 160), Evers, ibid. ISO, cat. no. 88; Sousse (Archaeological Museum), Evers,
ibid, 183, cat. no. 133 and Vaison-Ia-Romaine (Musee mwricipal), Evers, ibid, 190, cat. no. 144.
53 See Evers, 1994, op.cit. (n.25), 82-83 and ISO. Although the base of the Pergamum statue acclaims
Hadrian as a god, there is nothing about the base or inscription to dictate that it had to have been
posthumous.
54 The portraits of Hadrian are divided into 7 types. The separation of sculptures into each of these
types is more difficult than most art-historians acknowledge, especially in the case of Hadrian where
they do see iconographic overlap or Klitterungen between the types. Does a sculpture have to have
50
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The Hellenic heritage of these images is obvious. But is there
anything that might explain Diomedes in particular? He is a key figure in the
history of the Palladion, an important emblem of Rome's origins and
continued domination, so important, it seems, that Hadrian exploits it
elsewhere in his statuary and Constantine buries it together with Christian
relics at the base of his column in 'New Rome'. We shall return to this
example of Hadrian's statuary at the end of this paper. It would seem that
such a symbol of continuity was particularly crucial for emperors who tried
to change the imperial formula more than most. More specifically, like the
literary Hadrian, Diomedes is closely associated with horses and, according
to Strabo, is said to have founded many cities, given his name to islands and
been worshipped as a god. 55 One can immediately see the suitability of
Diomedes as a paradigm. But how extensive was this association? Is his
prominence an accident of survival? Is it not the case that one could find
similarities between Hadrian and several ancient figures (especially
Alexander) if one trawled the literary sources long enough?56 What these
objections underplay is the possible significance that Diomedes is bearded.
In the version attributed to Kresilas, the beard is short, curly and tapers
towards the chin not unlike that of Hadrian. Even without a moustache, it
could be argued that this facial hair fits as well as that of a philosopher. This
is without the support that Diomedes is represented with fuller beard and
moustache on cameos and southern Italian pots. 57
But we must not allow this 'coincidence' to cloud our judgement nor
make a rule out of four examples. The motivating factor, and basic error, is
that we still seek to explain the beard as Greek, and not just Greek but a
definition of Greek that suits the 'Second Sophistic'. By this I mean that
Hadrian has to be an intellectual or imitate a hero from Greek history,
embody Culture with a capital C. We might be on safer ground with the
more general statement that to have a beard was to follow Greek fashion
(whether Diomedes or Riace Bronze B). Or rather that for Hadrian to
encourage the cult of his male lover, Antinous, he had to have a beard so as
been made at the same time as others of its type? It is, therefore, with immense caution that either
example can be dated. Both are the Imperatori 32 type, which W. Wegner, Das romische
Herrscherbild II 3. Hadrian Plotina Marciana Matidia Sabina (Berlin 1956) proposed was created for
Hadrian's Pater Patriae title in 127-128 CE.
55 Strabo 6.3.9.
56 See e.g. Hadrian and Alexander's love of hunting, and their excessive mourning for both their
horses and male companions. Compare Arrian, Anabasis 7.14.3-4 and SHA, Hadrian 14.5-6.
57 Moret 1997, op.cit (n.51), plate 118.
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to be understood as the erastes and create the need for his eromenos' role. 58
But even if there is an element of truth in the above, its efficacy relies on the
'fact' that beards were not Roman, or at least that a second-century Roman
was so surprised by Hadrian's beard as to have endeavoured to make sense
of it (and in terms familiar from Greek culture). In Rome before Hadrian,
"the beard had been worn after 300 B.c. only as a sign of mourning", says
Eugenie Strong. 59 Beards were worn by young adults and then ritually
removed and dedicated to the gods at the age oftwenty-four 60
Scan the literary sources and this is the impression we get. Juvenal
and Plautus typecast Greeks as barbati or palliati 61 Dio and Suetonius
celebrate the removal of several young emperors' beards. This material is
cause and comfort for seeing Hadrian's beard as departure. But one set of
evidence is stereotypical, the other normative. Neither may bear much
relation to what Greeks and Romans did or saw in the street. Put the
emphasis on continuity rather than change and watch it pale into perspective.
The final section of this paper briefly demonstrates how an emphasis on
Hadrian's difference has led to an oversight of potential models within
Rome's own imperial tradition. For all Diomedes' Greekness, his body-type
had already had an impact on sculptures from Trajan to Gaius Caesar or
Augustus 62 Their existence should make us reconsider what we make of
Hadrian's association (how far were Hadrian or his artists seeing the
suitability of Diomedes and how far 'merely' making him look like an
emperor, doing what artists had always done?). But it is not just the
iconography of the body that was exploited: we shall soon see that the
hesitation over whether the second is Augustus or Gaius stems in part from
the presence of a beard.
The beard as a Roman reality
Hadrian was the first bearded emperor. This statement relies on us disregarding or explaining away important Roman evidence. It chooses not to
stress that 'Graeculus' can be a negative term and that a bearded Hadrian
might not have been recognised or accepted (whatever the period) if
58 For the most recent catalogue of statues of Antinous, see H. Meyer, Antinoos: Die archaologischen
Denkmaler unter Einbeziehung des numismatischen und epigraphischen Materials sowie der
literarischen Nachrichten (Munich 1991).
59 Strong 1929, op.cit. (n.9), 106.
60 Walker 1991, op.cit. (n.43) and also W. S. Anderson, 'Juvenal: Evidence on the Years AD 117128', Classical Philology 50 (1955), 255.
61 Juvenalis, Satirae 14.1O-14and 215-218; Plautus, Curculio 288.
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iconoclastic and radically Greek. Zanker, for example, claims that on
Trajan's column beards are avoided. 63 This is not true. Several Roman
officers on the column and Arch of Trajan at Beneventum have a similar
short beard and moustache to Hadrian (so similar that he has been identified
on both monuments)64 Once this evidence is admitted, might some of the
bearded statues assumed to follow in his footsteps not have been made
before him? Might he not, far from following Greek tradition, have been
following the fashion in Rome? But even if a case could be made, there is
still the contention that he is flouting imperial tradition in being a barbatus
Caesar. Augustus had established the pattern for what a Roman emperor
looks like. Hadrian breaks the mould. But this is to deny that earlier
emperors had been represented bearded at least on their coinage. Most
extensive in this were Nero and Domitian, although their efforts could be
bracketed as proto-attempts at displaying their Greek affinities (a parenthesis
which would workfor rather than against Hadrian's beard as a marker of his
Hellenism)65 But Augustus and Titus are also shown bearded. 66 Their
existence might mean that for an ancient viewer, the image of a bearded
emperor was not (on coins at least) something new.
As far as the coins are concerned, Augustus' light beard (which
usually runs from the temples to the chin but in some issues also covers the
upper lip) is confined to those between 42 and 37 B.C.E. before he became
Augustus, and is sometimes accompanied by the legend Divi Iulii Filius. His
youth alone would account for its presence. But it turns out that these coins
continue to be issued after the date of the depositio barbae recorded by
Cassius Dio.67 Otto Brendel explains this inconsistency as a need to show
mourning for Julius Caesar (whose name is sometimes mentioned), Walker as
a "sign of vengeance for the murder of his adoptive father" .68 In both cases,
any wider-reaching significance is explained away. By the same token, for a
bearded statue to be accepted as Augustus, it has to be an early example. So
Brendel classifies his 'type B' portrait as 'mourning' even though the beard is
not unkempt (as one would expect of someone too upset to shave) and
Fittschen and Zanker argue that despite its lock scheme, this type is more
See Moret 1997, op.cit. (n.51), 208.
Zanker 1995, op.cit. (n.19), 218.
64 See Walker 1991, op.cit. (n.43), 271.
65 For Domitian's beard, see e.g. BMC II Titus 230-248 and Domitian 1-58.
66 For Titus' beard, see e.g. BMC II Vespasian 707-7ll and Titus 150-217.
67 Dio Cassius 48.34.3.
68 Walker 1991, op.cit. (n.43), 271.
62
63
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likely one of Augustus' heirs (probably Gaius).69 One tentatively wonders
whether bearded Octavians (an Augustus bearded like Philip of Macedon)
might emerge, if we were not so keen to stress his modesty.
Like Augustus, the literature makes much of the dedication ofNero's
beard in 59 C.E. and his smooth transition to manhood?O Again the coins
that show him bearded are issued after this event (in the case of aurei, from
64 to 68 c.E., and dupondii, from 64 to 66 C.E.) and are assumed by
Hiesinger to be linked to the Decennalia. 71 Given the number of coins and
significance of such a landmark, there may well have been hundreds of
bearded statues. Act upon act of damnatio memoriae strengthens the
probability that (as with Domitian) these do not survive.72 Acknowledging
this prospect makes it difficult to believe that archaeologists like Kleiner
ignore this material, especially since others have argued, as Evers did with
Hadrian, that "Neron rompt avec la tradition de l'ancien principat,,73 Nero's
podgier features, thicker hair and preference for the radiate crown do set him
apart him from other Julio-Claudians who are often hard to differentiate.
Why is this? Predictably perhaps in line with his reputation as a tyrant these
features tend to be glossed as a return to the visual vocabulary of Hellenistic
kingship. More recently, Miriam Griffin has isolated Nero's beard as
specifically recalling his family (Aheno-barbus) and has likened his coins to
those of his great-grandfather who put a bearded ancestor on the reverse. 74
But she is not comparing like with like: there is no escaping that Nero
himself is bearded (and crucially why then in his reign?). His reputation
permitting (and acceding that his imagery may have worked well during his
lifetime, especially in the east with its 'false Neros'),75 might Hadrian not
have been exploiting an established symbol of Roman potency? As far back
as 196 B.C.E., coins showing the consul Flamininus with a beard were
issued to honour his involvement with Greece. 76
O. Brendel, Ikonographie des Kaisers Augustus (Nwnberg 1931), 38 and K. Fittschen & P. Zanker,
Katalog der r6mischen Portrtits in den Capitolinischen Museen und den anderen kommunalen
Sammlungen derStadt Rom (Mainz 1985),21-25, cat. no. 20.
70 Suetonius, Nero 12.
71 U. W. Hiesinger, 'The Portraits of Nero' ,American Journal ofArchaeology 79 (1975), 124.
72 Hiesinger 1975, op.cit. (n.71), 120 disqualifies a bearded head of green granite, now in Haifa
Museum of Ancient Art (inv. 2031).
73 H. P. L'Orange, Apotheosis in Ancient Portraiture (Oslo 1942),264.
74 Griffin 1984, op.cit. (n.ll), 22, n. 17.
75 Dio Cassius 63.9.3; 64.19.3.
76 See Walker 1991, op.cit. (n. 43), 271.
69
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The most common surviving statue of the emperor Hadrian turns out
to be the cuirassed type, the most aggressive of which from Hierapytna in
Crete, shows him stamping on a barbarian (PI. VII, fig. 3).77 There are
currently fourteen of these statues catalogued. 78 Not all survive with their
heads intact (some are identified by the Palladion and she-wolf on their
cuirass, imagery exclusive to Hadrian). But those that do have heads have
crueller expressions than Hadrian's other portraits. This and their emphasis
on Roman conquest lead one to expect that they were displayed close to the
frontiers (to warn against potential revolts) or the west of the empire (where,
unaccustomed to ruler worship and the shared import ofGreco-Roman heritage,
images of power might have had to be more obvious and intimidatory).
Incredibly, when one considers our current perception of Hadrian and his
century, as well as what the literary sources say about his disdain for Trajan's
expansionist policies, all were found in the east 79
There are a further three statues from Crete plus one from Cyrene,
making a total of four for the province. Perhaps the success of Trajan in the
Jewish Revolt helps to explain these. 80 We have already seen Hadrian
exploiting this military victory: perhaps in Crete and Cyrene this is what
imperial intervention meant to them. This is another 'nail in the coffin' of
their Hadrian as philosopher. Further battering comes from the fact that four
of these cuirassed statues are from Athens, centre of Hadrian's so-called
Panhellenic programme, one from Syria, one from Antalya in Turkey, and
the other from Olympia, where one might have imagined him as a hero or
Greek god as at Pergamum. A saving grace might be that they date to early
in his reign when it was crucial for him to appear invincible like Trajan. The
inscription on the base of the Antalya example locates it in 121 C.E.81 But
that from Olympia is more problematic. Its find spot in the nymphaeum of
Found in the theatre and now in the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul (Inv. no. 50): see Evers
1994, op.cit. (n.25), 119, cat. no. 50; H. G. Niemeyer, Studien zur statuarischen Darstellungen der
romischen Kaiser (Berlin 1968), 97, cat. no. 53; Kleiner 1992, op.cit. (n.I), 242, fig. 205; and N.
Hannestad, Roman Art and Imperial Policy (lfujberg 1986),200, who is so convinced by Hadrian's
reputation as to conclude that he cannot have approved of such a statue.
78Calandra 1999,op.cit.(n.51), 101.
79 For current orthodoxy on this issue, see N. H. Ramage & A. Ramage, Roman Art: Romulus to
Constantine (London 2000), 209. See also J. Toynbee, The Hadrianic School: a Chapter in the History
o/Greek Art (Cambridge 1934), 5, who dismisses Hadrian's exercitus coins as being of "no specific
artistic interest".
80 Although note that M. Goodman, Jews in the Graeco-Roman World (Oxford 1998), 7 claims that
because the Bar Kokhba revolt was "out of tune with the spirit of Hadrian's reign" it was far less
emphasised than under Trajan.
81 See Evers 1994, op.cit. (n.25), 84.
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Herodes Atticus gives it a date of 149-153 C.E. It is interesting that it is as a
military man that Hadrian is remembered, especially in such a context,
where (more than most places) one would have expected him as a sophist. 82
Concentrate on the breastplate, of course, with its unification of shewolf and palladion, and one can still call these statues evidence of Hadrian's
"predilection for the culture, art and traditions of ancient Greece", or on the
body, and one still sees the contours of Diomedes. 83 But one feels one is
forcing the issue. Indeed it is hard to deny that these statues bridge the
"cessura profondo" between Trajan and Hadrian's reigns and reputations,
and that the overall effect is not one of subtlety or Hellenism but of straightforward Roman aggression. 84 Hadrian's cultivated beard becomes tyrannical
like Nero's beard, or the mark of a Roman bruiser as on Trajan's column. I
am not saying that this is how we should see Hadrian, rather be aware of the
other side of the story. His beard marks him out as different from Trajan,
who as Optimus Princeps in some ways already stood as the apogee of the
existing system. But is it necessarily more loaded than Caligula's jug-like
ears or Nero's podgier face? 'Hadrian the philhellene' has become as
common and potentially misleading a tag as 'Caligula the mad' or 'Nero the
monster' and blocks just as many avenues. A quarter of a century ago and it
was the cuirassed statues that were hailed as "die reichste Oberlieferung des
hadrianischen Bildprogrammes". 85 Today we would do well to examine our
application of Hellenism and the effect it is having on how we view
Hadrian's imagery.
Nottingham, December 2002
82 Evers 1994, op.cit. (n.2S), 139-140 and R. Bol, Das Statuenprogramm des Herodes-AtticusNymphtiums (Berlin 1984). Attention might also be drawn here to the fact that the posthumous image
of Hadrian on the Altar of Ephesus (if it is Hadrian) is togate.
83 For the she-wolf and Palladion, see I. M. Ferris, Enemies of Rome: Barbarians Through Roman
Eyes (Stroud 2000), 82 and C. DuJiere, Lupa Romana: recherces d'iconographie et essai
d'interpretation (Brussels 1979), 198 fT.
84 On the Roman (as opposed to Greek nature) of the cuirassed statue, see Calandra 1999, op.cit.
(n.5I),102.
85 K. Stemmer, Untersuchungen zur Typologie, Chronologie und Ikonographie der Panzerstatuen
(Berlin 1977), 32.
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THE CULT OF ROMA AETERNA IN HADRIAN'S POLITICS
By
S.T.A.M. MOLS
Recent work on Hadrian - such as Anthony Birley's biography (1997) and
Mary Boatwright's monograph on his relations to the cities of the Roman
Empire (2000) - depicts Hadrian much less than has been done in the past as
a naIve lover of all things Greek. 1 The image created is rather one of a
pragmatist whose actions, from the very beginning of his reign, were aimed at
creating a unity of empire, so as to be in a stronger position in relation to the
non-Roman world. To achieve this goal, drastic measures in a whole range of
areas were necessary. Hadrian's building policy seems to have served - at
least partially - the same purpose. This becomes clear, first of all, by his not
insignificant investments in various building projects all over the Roman
Empire. His building activities in Rome, I am convinced, show the same.
I will start this contribution with a quotation from the above
mentioned book by Boatwright, stating: "The evidence points to the use of
religion and the incorporation of the past as distinguishing Hadrian's
municipal activity and fundamental to his encouragement of civic life and Pax
Augusta" (p. 209). In the following, I hope to demonstrate that the same
applies to the city of Rome itself, with the temple of Venus and Roma, and
the cult of, especially, the goddess Roma, as crucial testimonies.
Hadrian, on his accession, does finish Trajan's Forum, but forgoes the
construction of a forum to his own glory and honour - though such fora had
become almost standard during the reigns of the Flavians and Hadrian's
adoptive-father. Building a new forum would have only been useful, if it were
larger and more impressive than Trajan's. It has often been suggested that
Hadrian abstained from this, in order to cut the massive costs of his
predecessor's unfinished projects? But we see how Hadrian spreads out his
building activities in Rome, as his new buildings on the Campus Martius,
amongst others, indicate. 3 Nor would it have been possible for Hadrian to
I
AR. Birley, Hadrian. The Restless Emperor (London 1997); M.T. Boatwright, Hadrian and the
Cities of the Roman Empire (Princeton 2000), especially 204.
2 See e.g. F. Kolb, Rom. Die Geschichte der Stadt in der Antike (MUnchen 1995), 381 f. with
references. I assume this idea results from Scriptores Historiae Augustae. Hadrianus 5.
3 See for activities on the Campus Martius: Boatwright, Hadrian and the City of Rome, Princeton
1987,33-73.
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ignore larger scale projects, because of the popular acclamation that creating
such employment achieved. 4
More, perhaps, than financial difficulties, practical problems hindered
any desire on the part of Hadrian for his own forum: the centre of Rome, in
the area adjoining the Forum Romanum and the imperial fora, simply did not
provide the room for a project of such size. A location further away, on the
other hand, would never be associated with the other fora, and thus not serve
its purpose. The choice of the only area in the direct surroundings of the fora
which at the time lay fallow formed a solution for this dilemma. The area in
question had originally formed part of Nero's Domus Aurea, and was only
partially occupied - having been the site of the atrium and the vestibulum of
Nero's urban villa. The subsequent effort to remove the colossus that Nero
had build there to a location nearer to the Amphitheatrum Flavium - a site
still traceable in the urban landscape - employing 24 elephants in the process,
shows quite how willing Hadrian was to build on this particular plot of land. 5
Furthermore, he enlarged, as it were, the southeastern part of the Velia, by
creating a perpendicular descent through the creation of a foundation platform for the temple of Venus and Roma in opus caementicium. The temple
platform thus created may have been smaller than the Forum Pads and the
Forum of Trajan, but it was still larger than the Forum of Augustus. 6
Such an effort raises questions about the background to this choice of
location, and about the reason for choosing this double cult. Especially since
the cult of Rom a, in this form, would have been new for the city of Rome.
The choice of location was, as has been pointed out, dictated
primarily by its position near the fora. The temple of Venus and Roma would
be thus highly prominent, and clearly visible from the Forum Romanum. In
this way, it almost became a counterpoint to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus
at the other end of the Forum Romanum. 7 Of all the buildings that Hadrian
constructed in Rome, this was the most central one. The fact that the building
4 See e.g. Boatwright 1987 op.cit. (n.3), 7 and 20-24. She even discusses emulation of Trajan in
building activities: pages 29-30.
5 On moving the Colossus, see Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Hadrianus 19.12-13.
6 Cr. for pre-Neronian buildings in the temple area among others G. Schingo, in: C. Panella, Meta
Sudans I. Un 'area sacra "in Palatio" e la Valle del Colosseo prima e dopo Nerone (Roma 1996),
151-154. Also. Cassatella & S. Panella in: LTUR IT (1995), 50-51 s.v. Domus Aurea - Vestibulum;
D. Palombi, Tra Palatino ed Esquilino. Velia Carinae Fagutal. Storia urbana di tre quartieri di
Roma antiqua, Rivista dell'Istituto Nazionale d' Archeologia e Storia dell' Arte, Supplemento I
(Roma 1997 ), 69-71.
7 On the pendant of the Temple of Jupiter: cf. Kolb 1995, op.cit. (n.2), 385. The prominence of the
location is also stressed by D. Kienast, 'Zur Baupolitik Hadrians in Rom', Chiron 10 (1980), 391412, especially 404-407; Boatwright 1987, op.cit. (n.3), 132.
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was adjacent to the Via Sacra raised its profile even further. 8 Dietmar Kienast,
in an article in Chiron of 1980, has rightly emphasised the advantages of the
location and convincingly argues that with the construction of the temple the
Forum Romanum was extended to the East. 9 His argument that the new
building had an intended negative influence on the Forum of Trajan, by
marginalizing the latter, does not, to me, seem tenable.
A further positive element for the choice of place could have been that
a house of the Aelii, Hadrian's family, had previously been located on the
Velia, as a passage in Plutarch's live of Aemilius Paulus shows. But this
argument will certainly not have been the deciding factor. 10
There was, however, as has been mentioned, one serious problem
with the chosen location: the available space did not allow for a real forum,
one that could stand comparison with the Forum Pacis or the Forum Traiani
- let alone outshine them. A temple came to occupy more than two thirds of
the entire terrain, which made that temple, with a length of 107 m., the largest
in Rome. The effect was extreme focus on the religious component, which
was already so important in all other fora. Dio (69.3-5) notes that
Apollodorus of Damascus, Trajan's court architect and perhaps still active at
the beginning of Hadrian's reign, criticised the temple for not being
sufficiently high. This must, however, be interpreted as criticism on the
absence of a high podium, which was a characteristic of Roman temples.
Apollodorus fought a lost battle: the architectural 'language' under Hadrian
had already become Graeco-Roman.
The Greek influence did not stop at the podium: the peristyle of the
temple was accessible from all sides, which was extremely uncommon
amongst Roman temples. The massive size of the cult statues, Apollodorus'
second criticism according to Dio's passage, similarly suited Greek rather
than Roman conceptions of temples. Which brings us to a short
characterisation of the building that Hadrian had constructed. Andrea
Barattolo has managed to clearly divide the Hadrianic building phase from the
Maxentian reconstructions, which followed a major fire in AD 307 and are
currently much easier to recognise. 11 The temple, a peripteral building with 10
8 Cf. Liber Pontificalis I 465: "" in via Sacra iuxta Templum Rome ".". Cf. F. Coarelli, Il Foro
Romano 1 (Roma 1983),42-43.
9 Kienast 1980, op.cit. (n.7), 412.
10 Following from Plutarchus, Aemilius Paullus 5.7 and Valerius Maximus 4.8. Cf. Coarelli 1983,
op.cit. (n.8), 101-103, and especially 103, n.29; D. Palombi in: Steinby 1995, op.cit. (n.6), 22 s.v.
Domus: Aelii.
11 A. Barattolo, 'Nuove ricerche sull'architettura del Tempio di Venere e di Roma in eta adrianea',
Romische Mitteilungen 80 (1973), 243-269; A. Barattolo, 'Il tempio di Venere e di Roma: un tempio
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Corinthian columns on the short and twenty on the long sides, was accessible
from all directions by seven steps. The building thus followed Greek rather
than Roman conventions. This notion was strengthened through the use of
marble and the absence of opus caementicium. 12 To the long sides, the temple
was furthermore flanked by a single row of columns at the South side and a
double row on the North. The entire complex was situated on a platform
measuring 100 by 145 m.
The division in two cellae, approachable through the short sides of
the temple, was, however, alien to Greek temples. This shows how Hadrian,
who played an important role in the construction of the temple, as principal
or even master builder, used the Greek 'visual language' eclectically and
shaped it to his own needs.
The mentioned cellae, as Prudentius, Contra Symmachum makes
clear, contained the cult images, with Venus occupying the eastern, and
Roma the western room. 13
The choice of the cult of Venus and Roma firstly shows how Hadrian
displayed pietas towards the location, an ancient cult-site of Venus,14 and
towards the ever-popular lulio-Claudian dynasty, especially AugustuS. 15 The
latter provided an important way to legitimate power - something Hadrian
had partly taken care of by finishing Trajan's Forum and dedicating it to his
adoptive father. The epithet Felix further shows Venus primarily as goddess
of fertility and fortune. 16 Dedicating part of the temple to this goddess
demonstrates clear respect by Hadrian for imperial traditions. 17
Even more important seems to have been the other goddess to whom
the temple was dedicated: the goddess Roma, personification of the city, who
previously did not have a temple consecrated to her in Rome itself. The
<greco> nell 'urbe', Romische Mitteilungen 85 (1978), 397-410. Also Boatwright 1987, op.cit. (n.3),
119-133. See further, for a good recent summary of the discussion: A. Cassatella in: LTUR V (1999)
121-123, S.Y. Venus et Roma, Aedes, Templum, with bibliography up to 1996 and including
information on the reconstruction by Maxentius in AD 307.
12 cr Barattolo 1978, op.cit. (n.II); Boatwright 2000, op.cit. (n.I), 129 f..
13 Prudentius, Contra Symmachum 1.217-219.
14 cr D. Palombi in: Steinby 1999, 113, s.y. Venus, Aedes; Palombi 1997, op.cit. (n.6), 117-120:
'This would be a temple for Venus from the 3rd century BC, which is named in the Calendarium of
Amiternum (25 May) and which was destroyed by fire in 178 BC and reconstructed afterwards.
15 This is noticeable in Hadrian's building policy more often, for instance in his Mausoleum, which
shows clear similarities to Augustus'. cr among others J. Beaujeu, La religion romaine a ['apogee
de I 'Empire 1. La politique religieuse des Antonins (96-192), Paris 1955, 150; Baratto1o 1978, op.cit.
(n.II), 408-410; Boatwright 1987, op.cit. (n.3), 161-181.
16 cr Boatwright 1987, op.cit. (n.3), 131. Also Beaujeu 1955, op.cit. (n.15), 136-141.
17 cr Boatwright 1987, op.cit. (n.3), 238.
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epithet Aeterna refers to a hopeful future. 18 The goddess' new iconography,
depicting her sitting on a sella curulis or on a throne, is clearly divergent
from the goddess Roma as she was put forward by the Julio-Claudians,
amongst others on the Ara Pacis, where she is shown sitting on a pile of
weapons. She similarly differs from the Flavian Roma, as depicted on
amongst other the Cancelleria reliefs. The fact that the cult of Roma outside
of the city was strongly linked to Augustus was not, I would argue, the main
reason for Hadrian to dedicate part of his temple to this goddess. 19
In fact, Hadrian had already specifically honoured the city of Rome
and the goddess Venus before he constructed this temple for Venus and the
goddess of the city. For them he had organised munera gladiatoria and
circenses, as the Fast; Ostienses imply?O Although previous interpretations
have argued differently, we will see how the choice for Roma had much more
to do with the city itself than with any dynastic purpose. The dynastic element
was already sufficiently emphasised by the choice for the goddess Venus. The
combination of both goddesses shows confidence for present and future 21
The temple was vowed in 121, the year in which Hadrian celebrated
the Parilia under a new name: the Natalis Urbis - Rome's birthday.22
Construction works, however, only started about 5 years later, as brickstamps indicate. There is no agreement about when the building was finished.
Dates between AD 131 and 144 have been proposed,23 but I assume that the
building was finished when it was dedicated in AD 13 5-13 7, following
remarks of Cassiodorus and Hieronymus. 24 Coins minted between AD 141
and 144, which show a decastyle temple, do not, I propose, commemorate
the end of construction works. Rather, they indicate Antoninus Pius'
placement of acroteria and other decorative elements, similarly depicted on
18
cr. on Aeterna: Beaujeu 1955, op.cit. (n.15), 141-157.
Contra M.K. Thornton, 'Hadrian and his Reign', Aufstieg und Niedergang der R6misehen Welt 2.2
(1975),432-476,445 and 458-459. This author sees the introduction of the Roma cult as a first step
towards imperial cult in the city of Rome.
20 Cf. L. Vidman, Fasti Ostienses, Prague 1982, 25, 80, fragment XXXVI and A. Degrassi,
Inseriptiones Italieae 13.1 (1947), 211, 240. For interpretation of this passage, see also: Palombi
1997, op.cit. (n.6), 117-118.
21 Cf. Beaujeu 1955, op.cit. (n.IS), 160.
22 Cf. Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 8.63; Degrassi 1947, op.cit. (n.20) 13.2,443-445.
23 On this discussion Cassatella in: Steinby 1999, op.cit. (n.ll).
24 Cassiodorus, Chroniea 142 M (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Chronica Minora 2, 142):
"templum Romae et Veneris ... quod nune Urbis appellatur"; Hieronymus, Chroniea A Abr. 2147.
On the argument, also Boatwright 1987, op.cit. (n.3), 123-124.
19
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these coins. 25 Minor differences with images of the cult statues on coins from
Hadrian's reign may indicate that these statues, too, like the acroteria, were
finished late, perhaps in Antoninus' time, and that Hadrian's coins show some
type of models, used to promote the cult?6
As far as the cult statues of Venus and Roma are concerned,
Hadrianic coins that depict them make clear that they must have been
markedly similar. Both goddesses are depicted seated and wearing a long
robe, Venus occupying a throne, and Roma, as we have seen, a sella curulis
or also a throne. On their raised right hand stood respectively Amor and a
Victoria or the Palladium?7 In their left hand they were holding a spear, or
perhaps (Venus) a sceptre. It is noticeable that the object that was held by
Roma points upwards, and that by Venus downwards. Partial similarities to
both Zeus' cult statue in his temple in Olympia and the Athena Parthenos,
both known to us through their description by Pausanias, show that not just
size, but iconography too, was strongly influenced by Greek examples?8
Roma, in her new identity created by Hadrian, has been perceived as a
goddess for the empire as a whole. 29 First and foremost, however, the
promotion of her cult in this new temple, seems to have been aimed at the
population of the city of Rome. An important argument in favour of this idea
is the location of the cult statue of the goddess. The statue was placed in the
western cella, this is, on the Forum Romanum-side ofthe temple, and thus at
the side of the city centre. Had Roma been intended as an 'empire-wide'
goddess from the very beginning, a position at the 'country-', or east-side
would have been far more appropriate. 30
The notion of Roma as a goddess for the empire as a whole should be
seen as a later development, though one that perhaps already started at the
25 On this: H. Mattingly & E.A. Sydenham, The Roman Impen'al Coinage 3. Antoninus Pius to
Commodus (London 1930), llO, nrs. 622-623; 1l3, nr. 651; 114 nr. 664.
26 cr. also Beaujeu 1955, op.cit. (n.15), 298.
27 According to Coarelli 1983, op.cit. (n.8), 260 the combination of the two cults must have ancient
roots, also in light of the combination Roma - Amor, which would imply ties between on the one
side Venus - Aeneas and the Julian gens, and on the other the city. Cr. Kolb 1995, op.cit. (n.2), 386.
28 Pausanias, Perihegesis 5.2.1-2 (Zeus in Olympia) and 1.24.6-7 (Athena Parthenos). For coins
showing a seated Roma Aetema: H. Mattingly, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum 3.
Nerva to Hadrian (London 1966), 328-9 no. 703, pI. 60.18 (aureus); 329, no. 707 and pI. 61.1
(denarius) and Venus: ibidem, 334 nos 750 and 756, pI. 61.15-16 (sestertii and aurei). See also E. di
Filippo Balestrazzi in: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae 8.1, 1048-1068, esp. 1056 f..
On Venus Felix: Boatwright 1987, op.cit. (n.3), 131 and E. Schmidt in Lexicon Iconographicum
Mythologiae Ciassicae 8.1, 192-230, s.v. Venus, especially 214-215 and 8.2, especially 149.
29 Cf. for example Kolb 1995, op.cit. (n.2), 386.
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end of Hadrian's reign. 31 It seems to me, that the cult of Roma aeterna was in
fact advanced so strongly by Hadrian to show his loyalty to the people of the
city, and to emphasise that Rome's primacy was eternal - as Kienast argued
so convincingly. The emperor's long absences from Rome and her direct
surroundings may have been more than a minor factor in the need for such
emphasis. 32 Perhaps Hadrian's aims went even further. It was exactly the
choice of an emphatically Greek visual language in developing the new cult
statue of Roma, which helped to create a counterpart to the Athena
Parthenos. This goddess was, of course, the protector of Athens - the city
that Hadrian had to promote to create unity in the Eastern Empire. 33
The introduction of the cult of Roma in the city of Rome - though
mainly aimed at the city itself - would in this way anticipate, and prepare the
way for, the Panhellenion, a league of Greek cities with headquarters in
Athens, which made this city the centre of the Greek east 34 This would
explain the similarities between the role of the temple in Rome and the role
that the Olympeion played in Athens and the Panhellenion in creating unity in
the East - a similarity that has been rightly noted by Boatwright. 35
A Greek architectural language will no longer have been a novelty to
the people of Rome, accustomed as they had become to this through, among
others, the reconstructed Pantheon. Totally new, however, were the gigantic
cultic statues. Their 'Greek' appearance made them counterparts to Greek
30 Placing Venus on the city-side could have been easily defended. The place that she occupies now
evokes a more 'national' character.
31 To support the notion of Roma as a goddess for the realm as a whole, comparisons have been
drawn to the notion - on the rise under Hadrian - of the Roman Empire as Oikoumene, which
seemed to be illustrated clearly by the personifications of the Provinciae in the Hadrianaeum on the
Campus Martius. These sculptures, however, can be dated to the reign of Antoninus Pius. cr
recently: M. Sapelli (ed.), Provinciae Fideles. If fregio del Tempio di Adriano in Campo Manio
(Roma 1999), II and 14 (dedication of the temple in AD 145) and in the same volume C. Parise
Presicce, 'Le rappresentazioni allegoriche di popoli e province nell'arte romana imperiale', 96. On
the Hadrianic notion of cosmopolitism and the Second Sophistic, see 1. Nista, 'La propaganda
imperiale nell'arte ufficiale adrianea e antonina', also in: Sapelli 1999, 107-115, esp. 110. Kolb
1995, op.cit. (n.2), 386-387 also argues that the new temple makes the Roma cult a state cult, and
thus seems to overtly anticipate events. At least in Late Antiquity she is goddess of the city of Rome,
as follows from among others Cassiodorus, Chronica 142 M (see n.24). Cf. E. Papi in Steinby 1999,
op.cit. (n.ll), 96, s.v. Urbis Fanum, Templum.
32 cr Kienast 1980, op.cit. (n.7), 404.
33 On the privileged position of Athens see e.g Cassius Dio 69.16.1-2; Scriptores Historiae Augustae.
Hadrianus 13.1 and 6. Cf. recently Birley 1997, op.cit. (n.I), 262-266; Boatwright 2000, op.cit.
(n.I), 13-14, 68, 83-84, 92, with references to older bibliography. On Hadrian's idea of religion as a
unifYing force, also through building policy: see Boatwright 2000, op.cit. (n.I), 143.
34 cr Boatwright 2000, op.cit. (n.l), 145 and 150.
35 Boatwright 1987, op.cit. (n.3) 132-133.
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exempla and made Roma a counterpart to Athena. The city of Rome should
under no circumstances feel threatened by this notion, which was crucial for
Hadrian's policies. Athens needed to be promoted without damaging the
status of Rome as the eternal city.36
Practical limitations prevented Hadrian from following his adoptive
father in the construction of his very own imperial forum. He therefore had to
limit himself to its essence: a temple. I hope, however, to have made clear
that in form, location, and especially function, the temple of Venus and Roma
was nothing short ofa forum and could in fact be seen as Hadrian's Forum.
Nijmegen, August 2002
36 Barattolo 1978, op.cit. (n.ll), 408-4 ID to my mind overinterprets matters by seeing the temple as
an expression of Hadrian's panhellenism, and as such as an instrument to convince the Senate to
steer away from Trajan's policy of expansion in favour of his own political-ideological progranune.
He fails to take into account the cult, which is primarily aimed at the city of Rome. Nor should one
accept the suggestion of Beaujeu 1955, op.cit. (n.15), 135, who goes even further and argues that the
new cult shows the 'provincialisation' of Rome, of which Hadrian is the creator. The opposite seems
to be the case.
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REPRESENTATION AND PERCEPTION
OF IMPERIAL POWER IN AD 238.
THE NUMISMATIC EVIDENCE I
By
KAREN HAEGEMANS
On an unspecified day early in 235 the prestige of the Roman senate suffered
a severe blow. Not only was one of their most favoured emperors, the
courteous Alexander Severus, killed by his own soldiers, but he was replaced
by a man who allegedly started his career as a Thracian shepherd, the
barbarian C. Iulius Verus Maximinus. 2 Until then, the Roman Empire had
enjoyed relative stability. To be sure, there had been some troubled years and
even humiliations. Romans would have need only remember the year 69,
which saw four emperors, a year that started, according to Tacitus, "a period
rich in disasters, terrible with battles, tom by civil struggles, horrible even in
peace".3 Or maybe 193, when the empire was sold to the highest bidder. Evil
emperors came to power, as in the case of Elagabalus, a man no decent
Roman aristocrat would have preferred to see on the throne. But the least
that can be said is that it was always a man of proper descent who ruled the
empire. The senate had had to accept men who came from equestrian origins
as Macrinus, or men who, even though senators, favoured the army, but
never before had a man from such low ancestry come to the throne. In 235
Maximinus Thrax, who had started his life as a military man from humble
origins, was promoted to the highest rank in the empire, the rank of princeps.
Ruling the empire together with his son Maximus, he kept this position until
238, when a revolution in Africa announced his loss of legitimacy in the eyes
of the aristocracy.
Herodian informs us that, in AD 238, some young African landowners from Thysdrus (the modem El-Dj em), weary of fiscal oppression,
killed a government official and, fearing for retribution, forced the elderly
proconsul of the provincia Africa, M. Antonius Gordianus, to assume the
1 It is a pleasure to thank Professors Katelijne Vandorpe and Kenneth Harl for their kind help and
useful suggestions. I am also largely indebted the American Numismatic Society in New York for the
research opportunities they offered me. All the coin pictures are reproduced by courtesy of the ANS,
with the exception of the coin in Plates VIII, fig. 9, which is part of a private collection. In this paper
RIC IV 2 is H. Mattingly, EA Sydenham & C.H. V. Sutherland, The Roman Imperial Coinage IV 2:
Macrinus to Pupienus (London 1938).
2 Herodian 6.8.1; 7.1.2.
3 Tacitus, Historiae 1.2; all translations cited in this paper are taken from the Loeb text editions.
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purple, a man who "had held many other previous provincial commands and
proved his ability in important achievements". 4 Gordian I Africanus appointed
his son and namesake Gordian 11 cv-emperor. Accepting imperial power from
rebels while the hated opponent still lived, proved dangerous, and so, as
expected, the new emperors quickly came to an untimely end. Both died three
weeks after their accession to the throne as a result of a battle near Carthage
forced upon them by Capellianus, an army-commander faithful to Maximinus.
During the short span of their rule the senate, however, had accepted the
news of the insurrection in a way unique in Roman imperial history: the
senators immediately supported, apparently without hesitation, the rebellion,
declared Maximinus enemy of the state and took a prominent role in the
further events.
With the deaths of the Gordiani and Maximinus still alive, the Senate
had to take other measures swiftly. From an earlier elected committee of twenty
advisors of senatorial rank, two were chosen to replace the Gordiani: M. Clodius
Pupienus Maximus and D. Caelius Calvinus Balbinus. Within weeks after these
two rulers had assumed the power, Maximinus was killed by his own soldiers
while besieging Aquileia, an important trading post and logistic centre in northeast Italy. It is clear that these two emperors received a much more positive
assessment by Herodian than did Maximinus. Pupienus, as Herodian tells us, "had
held many military commands and the prefecture of the city... ; public opinion
considered him an intelligent and shrewd man of sober habits. Balbinus came
from a patrician family, had held two consulships and had been a provincial
governor without giving cause for complaint". 5 Yet the people of Rome and the
army seem not to have agreed with the senatorial choice. They demanded that the
dynastic succession of the Gordiani be upheld by making the grandson of Gordian
I (through his daughter) Caesar. Gordian ill thus became, after Maximus, the
second Caesar of the year, and within three months he was promoted to sole
Augustus after Pupienus and Balbinus were murdered by the Praetorian Guard.
Given the rapid changes of power in 238, the respective emperors
certainly had an interest in making themselves known to their subjects. In this
regard, coinage would be an ideal medium, since it could have access to a
large range ofpeople. 6
Herodian 7.5.2.
Herodian 7.10.4. Cf. P.M.M. LeWlissen, Konsuln und Konsulare in der Zeit von Commodus bis
Severus Alexander (Amsterdam 1989), 115,227,247 and 311.
6C. Ando, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire (Berkeley 2000), 215.
4
5
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Even though some of these emperors reigned for a very brief time,
the mint of Rome issued coins for all of them. As there would have been no
point for the imperial mint to strike coins for a dead emperor, Rome was the
only mint where it was certain that the coins were minted during the lifetime
of the appropriate emperor, or in the case of the Gordiani before the news of
their death reached the capital. The minting of coins for Maximinus and
Maximus, on the other hand, would have stopped as soon as the Roman
senate declared them enemies of the state. We can assume, therefore, that the
issues in Rome were all ordered by the governing emperors, if not in person
than certainly by their administrators. 7 The possibility exists that the emperors
made efforts of legitimisation of their power through their coinage.
The provincial mints are a different matter. Strangely enough we
have coins of cities throughout the empire for all of the emperors of 23 8, both
Augusti and Caesares. Even though in most cases they seem to have been
struck during the assumed lifetime of the emperors concerned, in the case of
Gordian I and 11 an important warning has to be made. At least one city Perge on the southern shore of Anatolia - is known to have erected statues
for the elder Gordiani on the occasion of a visit of Gordian III Augustus in
AD 242-243. 8 We have to accept, therefore, the possibility, that coins were
also issued later as commemoratives. In any case, the choice of the portrait
and the legends lay with the issuing city itself.
Yet, the question arises whether the emperors did not impose their view on
their subjects in the provinces and officially sent forth their personal portraits
in hopes of a correct and dignified representation on coins and in statues.
Swift has argued that "from the middle of the third century certainly, the
custom prevailed of officially sending forth, upon the accession of each new
emperor his portraits crowned with laurel to the provincial cities.,,9 WegnerlO
suggests that most portraits found in the provinces were either Roman export
products or copies from official portraits. Also Graindor assumes that
7 On the question whether the emperor surveyed the minting of coins, see Ando 2000, op.cit. (n. 6),
215-228.
8 This might have been an indication of the hope of the provincials for a new imperial dynasty, a wish
also the Roman populace clearly cherished, given its demand to raise Gordian III to power, together
with the two senatorial emperors. Apparently few outside the senate were interested in the return to
old senatorial values, and most preferred hereditary rule.
9E.H. Swift, 'Imagines in Imperial Portraiture', American Journal ofArchaeology 27 (1923), 297.
10 Die Herrscherbildnisse in antoninischer Zeit (Berlin 1939),11-13.
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Egyptian imperial portraits were copied from official models. 11 Stuart,
however, believes that the distribution of the imperial portraits of succeeding
dynasties throughout the first and second centuries was not led by official
channels. In his view, "only with the anarchy of the third century did political
and economic conditions make necessary the use of official imagines in the
distribution of imperial portraits." 12
Indeed, from the fourth century on, the literary evidence on this subject
is plentiful. But Ando suggests a much earlier date, perhaps from the first decade
of the first century AD, for the custom of sending out official portraits at each
imperial accession. 13 If there is a connection between the representation of the
emperors of 238 on provincial coinage and the portraits in Rome, we might
conclude also for these short reigning rulers that they made conscious efforts to
present themselves as legitimate rulers to their subjects.
When the first coins of Maximinus were struck at Rome, he was clearly
unknown to the die-cutters, for he had never set foot in the capital. They
depicted him as a Severan emperor, a neutral portrait that even if it would not
please the emperor, certainly would do no great harm.14 In fact, the style of
the coins on the whole is quite similar to that of Severan coinage. Towards
the end of his reign the emperor's features become very distince 5 he has a
prominent nose and chin, a beard, and a rather rough look or as Carson
describes the portrait: "the head is very much broader, furrows and lines are
emphasised more, and the jaw is positively prognathous". 16 This can very well
be the portrait of a man of about 65, the age he had probably reached in 238.
17 Herodian as well as the Historia Augusta mention that together with the
message of his Germanic victories, Maximinus sent pictures of the battles to
the capital. 18 If this report is correct, he would have featured prominently in
these depictions so that the Roman die-cutters might have had the
et statues portraits d'Egypte romaine (Cairo 1939), 19,29, 34.
12 M. Stuart, 'How were hnperial Portraits distributed throughout the Roman Empire?' American Journal of
Archaeology 43 (1939), 617. On coinage, see the contribution to this volume by O.J. Hekster.
I3 Ando 2000, op.cit. (n.6), 229-230.
14E.g. ruc IV 2, Maximinus, nr 1, plate 10.1 (PI. VIII, fig. 1).
15 E.g ruc IV 2, Maximinus, nr 85, plate 11.2 (PI. VIII, fig. 2).
16 R.A.G. Carson, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum. VI. Severus Alexander to
Balbinus and Pupienus (London 1962),95-96.
17 Zonaras, 12.16.
18 Herodian, 7.2.8.
11 Bustes
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opportunity of getting acquainted with the real looks of their emperor,19 even
though he never came to Rome himself. The most logical explanation for such
a drastic change of the image seems indeed to have been an attempt to
approach reality. It has also been suggested, though, that the portrait might
have been subject to some physiognomic influences 20 Whatever the case, it
seems safe to conclude that this later depiction of Maximinus Thrax is in fact
a real portrait 21
According to Herodian, Maximinus was "by his birth and normal
behaviour a barbarian. Possessing the bloodthirsty temperament derived from
his ancestors and his country, he devoted himself to strengthening his rule by
cruel actions. He was afraid that the senate and his subjects would despise
him".22 Through his coinage, Maximinus may have tried to inspire awe, and
to legitimise his power.
Probably in 236, he ordered the deification of his deceased wife, an
occasion that was celebrated with an issue of consecration coins. Some of the
greatest empresses had preceded Paulina in this honour, and for Maximinus, it
was certainly a clear way of asserting his legitimacy. The die-cutters, on the
other hand, who had no idea what the woman had looked like, had to resort
to a clever device: the concept of family-resemblance could help them out 23
They took the prominent nose and chin of the soldier emperor, his deeply
sunken eyes and made her face out of these elements. Following portrait
busts of other deified empresses, notably the great Livia, they copied the veil,
added underneath it a Severan hairstyle with clear hair waves and a bun in the
neck, and there she was: the deified Paulina. 24
The son Maximus was easier to depict. According to the Historia
Augusta, he was put through an intensive literary training by his father, who
might have consciously attempted to make his son a more acceptable emperor
to the Roman public than he himself was. Despite his father's efforts to make
him acceptable to the ruling classes, Maximus was reputed to have been
19 Carson 1962, op.cit. (n.16), 89; M. Alrarn, Die Munzprtigung des Kaisers Maximinus I. Thrax
(235/238) (Vienna 1989), 53.
20 M. Wegner, 'Bildniskunde romischer Herrscher', inANRWII 12,2 (1981), 652.
21 Maximinus' portraits have been used by several scholars to draw up a plan of the various stages of
his coinage. See R. Delbruck, Die Munzbildnisse von Maximinus bis Carinus. Das romische
Herrscherbild III 2 (Berlin 1940), who distinguished three portrait types: Feldportrtit, consulares
Portrtit and Triumphalportrtit, Airarn 1989, op.cit. (n.19); M. Alrarn, 'Zum Aufbau der
Milnzpriigung des Maximinus 1. Thrax', Litterae Numismaticae Vindobonensis 4 (1992), 313-322.
22 Herodian 7.1.1.
23 Wegner 1981, op.cit. (n.20), 651.
24 E.g. RIC IV 2, Paulina, nr 3 (PI. VIII, fig. 3).
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excessively insolent and prone to scandalous behaviour. Maximinus strove to
present his son as an intellectual, beautiful young successor, and so worthy of
a predecessor as Severus Alexander. The coin portrait answers this
description. Maximus looks like a young Severan prince, with the facial
features, although mollified, of Maximinus himself. 2S The most significant
reverse legend to accompany this portrait was PRINCIPI IVVENTVTIS, a
title illustrious princes had carried before him. It seems indeed as though,
through his family, Maximinus was making efforts to legitimise his rule.
The mint of Alexandria appears to have understood his intentions. In the
first years of his reign this mint portrayed his son Maximus as a little boy, no more
than a child 26 During the third year of rule, a clear change took place. The boy
was turned into a young man, very much similar to previous young princes, or
Caesares. 27 This may point to a conscious effort of the emperor to present his son
- in the capital as well as in the provinces - as a man who would be worthy of
the throne, in the hope of instituting a new dynasty. Unfortunately, the son
apparently did not live up to his father's hopes.
It cannot be determined whether Maximinus exercised any influence
on the minting of coins in provincial cities. 28 Most cities seem to have
portrayed the emperor as they preferred to see him. Some of the provincial
mints tried to create an accurate likeness, with the same prominent nose and
prognathous chin as on the official Roman portrait 29 Other towns, however,
made no such effort, for they adorned the obverse of their coins with a
stylised image of what a "soldier-emperor" should look like in their eyes. The
results were often not a flattering picture. On all the provincial coins
Maximinus is bearded, and has rough features, but more details were of little
25
Eg. RIC IV 2, Maximus, nr J3 (PI. VIII, fig. 4).
PI. VIII, fig. 5.
PI. VIII, fig. 6.
28 Cities that struck for Maximinus are plentiful: Acmonea, Adana, Adramyteum, Alexandria Egypt,
Alexandria Troas, Amastris, Amisus, Anazarbus, Anchialus, Andeda, Anemurium Apamea,
Aphrodisias, Apollonia, Ariassus, Ascalon, Aspendus, Attalea, Augusta, Bithynium, Bosporus,
Brouzus, Byzantium, Caesarea-Germanica, Carallia, Cardia, Casae, Celenderis, Cibyra, Cius,
Claudioseleucea, Codryla, Coela, Colophon, Colybrassus, Coracesium, Coropissus, Cotiaeum,
Cremna, Cretia-Flaviopolis, Cyzicus, Deultum, Dium, Dorylaeum, Elaea, Ephesus, Etenna,
Eucarpea, Flaviopolis, Hadrianea, Herac1ea, Ilium, Iotape, Isinda, Iuliopolis, Magnesia, Mastaura,
Metropolis, Midaeum, Mylasa, Neapolis, Nicaea, Nicomedia, Ninica-Claudiopolis, Nysa, Olbasa,
Orthosia, Panemotichus, Parium, Pella, Perga, Pergamum, Philadelphia, Phocaea, Pogla, Pogla,
Prostanna, Prusa, Prusias, Prymnessus, Sagalassus, Saitta, Samus, Sardes, Se1eucia, Sibidunda, Side,
Sinope, Smyrna, Syedra, Synnada, Tarsus, Thessalonice, Thyateira, Tium, Tius, Tomis, Tralles,
Tripolis, and probably many more.
29 E.g. Deultum (Tbrace) (PI. VIII, fig. 7).
26
27
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interest to the die-cutters, as Maximinus had in most of the cases never
visited their city and was unlikely to do so. A suggestive image was therefore
more than sufficient. 30
Coins of Smyma and of neighbouring Phocaea (using the same
obverse die) are the most telling examples of wishful thinking. Maximinus and
his son Maximus are shown seated on the curule chairs, as consuls. The
emperor, laureate, is holding a globe and a book roll, while his son is shown
bareheaded carrying only a scroll. These coins present an image that was
earlier used for Septimius Severus accompanied by his two sons 31 It is
remarkable that these cities chose this iconography with republican roots for a
soldier emperor who seems to have paid little or no attention to his civilian
duties, not even setting foot in Rome during his entire lifetime.
When the news of the African insurrection reached Rome, the senate
acknowledged the Gordiani as imperatores. The Roman mint reacted
decisively.32 There is no evidence of an emergency coinage struck in North
Africa, but within the three weeks of their reign, coins of high quality were
struck in Rome. A well designed set of dies with various reverse-types were
cut. There are certainly no signs of careless or hurried workmanship. In fact,
the coins are of such high quality that many scholars have taken the Roman
coins as evidence that the rebellion was a well-prepared conspiracy against
Maximinus. Although there are no certain data on the speed with which dies
could be cut and coins struck in the ancient world, the speed of the senate's
action in 238 certainly raises wider questions on the distribution of imperial
portraits. The fact that the last Roman issue of Maximinus seems to have
been very small has led to the suggestion that preparations for the revolution
were taking place at the Roman mint. This conspiracy theory is, as all
conspiracy theories, as interesting as it is unprovable. Our literary sources,
reflecting senatorial perspective, had no reason to disclose the senate's
participation in such an intrigue. The other sources, such as the numismatic
evidence, can in this case be no more than suggestive. In any case, minting
coins would have been one of the first acts of a new emperor seeking to
assert his power and legitimacy. As a consequence, prompt minting of coins
E.g. Eresus (Lesbus) (PI. VIII, fig. 8).
K. Kraft, Das System der MiJnzpriigung in Kleinasien wiihrend der Kaiserzeit (Berlin 1972), 114
and Table 4; D.O.A. Klose, Die MiJnzpragung von Smyma in der romischen Kaiserzeit (Berlin
1987),20 and Table 52.
32 The following discussion of the Roman coinage of Gordian I and IT is based for a large part on RIC
IV 2, 158-164; Carson 1962,op.cit. (n. 16),97-99.
30
31
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would have been a logical step, whether before or after the official acceptance
of the Gordiani.
The Roman mint issued very rare gold aurei of Gordian I as well as
denarii and sestertii for both emperors. Fractional denominations have not
been found. On the coin portraits father and son resemble each other closely.
Whether these are actual portraits is not clear: they may show nothing more
than an older and a younger man, taken into account the brevity of their reign
and the fact that they were not present in Rome at the time. Furthermore,
very few statues have been attributed to the elder Gordians with any degree
of certainty. There is no agreement among scholars concerning the emperors'
looks. On the other hand, as they were at the time of their accession senior
senators, portraits might well have already been prominent in the capital, so
that it is quite possible that the coins present accurate portraits. The style and
iconography of the coinage are inspired from Severan coins, and so reflect
continuity, be it a conscious choice or not.
The reverse types are all quite common and normal. If they were
deliberately chosen, they then stressed the endeavour of the new emperors to
ground their rule in the tradition of the good emperors of Rome, ruling with
respect for the constitution. Besides one titular type of Gordian I
(P.M.TR.P.COS.P.P.: stressing his tribunician and consular power) the
legends ROMAE AETERNAE and SECVRIT AS AETERNA appear, both of
which occur on coins of Severus Alexander. Coins of Gordian 11 stress the
emperors' concern for the well being of Rome and hope of victory by such
legends as PROVIDENTIA AVGG, VICTORIA AVGG and VIRTVS
AVGG. The aes coinage carries similar images and legends except for a type
exclusive to Gordian I that reads VlRT. EXERCIT. S.c. Since the new rulers
lacked support of the army, choosing this legend seems either an act of hubris
or a desperate hope to sway the army's loyalty. Since Maximinus was
murdered by his own soldiers, the type ironically foreshadowed what
happened a few months later. On the other hand, coin types might have been
chosen as a matter of administrative routine with little conscious plan - a
possibility that seems less plausible to me.
As for the provinces, Herodian reports that "the senate ... did their
best to rouse (them). Delegations of special senatorial representatives and
well-known members of the equestrian order were sent in all directions to
visit all provincial governors. Letters also went out to explain the position of
the Romans and the senate, and to urge governors to join sides with those
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who were planning for their common state and its senate; the provincial
population was told to remain loyal to the Romans". 33
Herodian also tells us that in Africa "all the honorary dedications to
Maxirninus were torn down, and in their place the cities were adorned with
portraits and statues of Gordian (1)"34 and that "all the statues, pictures and
honorific dedications of Maxirninus were torn down" 35 It can be deduced
from the literary sources that Maximinus desperately tried to reassert himself.
His loyal legate of Nu midi a, Capellianus, attacked and punished the cities that
had accepted the Gordiani as soon as the two African emperors were dead. 36
In at least three cities of Asia Minor the coins of Maximinus suffered
damnatio memoriae. 37 Several examples of damnatio memoriae are known
from Pergamon, although at least one coin survives where the erasion was
not executed. 38 Smyrna, after first depicting the emperor as consul, erased his
image from coins as well. On one of them a primitively drawn star is carved,
as if to emphasise the damnatio memoriae. 39 Also from Elaea, the port of
Pergamum, a single specimen is known of an erased coin of the Thracian
emperor. 40 The erasures were to all probability not carried into effect while
Maxirninus was still alive. Many of portraits were probably chiselled off as
soon as the citizens heard of Maximinus' death.
The same point holds true for cities coining for the two Gordiani.
After eliminating all known forged coins of the African emperors,41 the
remaining coins are few. Besides Alexandria in Egypt, coins survive from
only two other cities: Prymnessus in Phrygia, and Aegeae in Cilicia. In the
Herodian 7.7.4-5.
Herodian 7.5.8.
35 Herodian 7.7.2.
36 Herodian 7.9.11; Historia Augusta, Vita Max. 19.4; Gord. 9.3; on one inscription (CIL 8.757 and
10047) the name of Maximinus was re-inscribed after having been erased; C.R. Whittaker,
Herodian. Books V-VIII (Cambridge MAl London 1999 [= 1970] ), 188 n. 2.
37 R. Mowat, 'Marte1age et abrasion des monnaies sous l'empire romain', Revue Numismatique 4, 5
(1901),443-471; 4, 6 (1902), 286-290, 464-467; K. Regling, 'Zur griechischen MUnzkunde Ill.
Erasionen', ZeitschriJt fur Numismatik 24 (1904), 134-144; R. MOnsterberg, 'Damnatio Memoriae' ,
Monatsblatt der numismatischen GesellschaJt in Wien 11 (1918), 32-37; P. Berghaus, 'Erasionen auf
Milnzen aus Pergamon in der Sanun1ung Tb. Bieder der Westfalischen Wilhelms Universitiit',
Studien zur Religion und Kultur Kleinasiens, ed. S. Sahin (Leiden 1978), 158-162; K. Harl, Civic
Coins and Civic Politics in the Roman East, AD 180-275 (Berkeley 1987), 34-35,150-151 n. 36.
38 H. Dresse1, 'Erwerbungen des Koniglichen Milnzcabinets in den Jahren 1898-1900', ZeitschriJt
fur Numismatik 24 (1904), 17-104.
39 Klose 1987, op.cit. (n. 31), 119 and Table 52.
40 PI. VIII, fig. 9.
41 Antiocheia, Byzantium, Heraclea Pontica, Caesarea Germanica, Corcyra, Maeonia, Mi1etus, Myra,
Samus and Smyrna; H. Von Aulock, Munzen und Stadte Phrygiens 2 (Tilbingen 1987),44-46.
33
34
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case of Alexandria, most likely the coins were struck before the news of the
emperors' death reached the city.42 The portraits on the Alexandrine coins are
stylised but so were those of other emperors at this mint, so personalised
features can seldom be detected
The coins of the other two cities have given rise to debate. Bosch
believed that the Gordiani were never acknowledged in Asia Minor, as these
provinces remained under the domination of Maximinus. Therefore, no coins
could have been struck during the lifetimes of the Gordiani so that their coins
that cannot be dismissed as forgeries had to be struck under Gordian III as
commemoratives. These coins were thus analogous to the statues at Perge.
The coin of Prymnessus would have been an example of this.43 But von
Aulock has argued, on the basis of milestones found in Galatia, that the
Gordians were accepted in some areas in Asia Minor. Based on the imperial,
he reasons that the coins were struck during their lifetimes. 44 Prymnessus is
an odd place to strike coins, especially for such short-reigning emperors.
Even though von Aulock believes the city was a commercial centre, it was
located far inland, so that it would have taken time for the news to arrive.
Since no ancient sources save for Ptolemaeus45 and some Christian texts
mention the town, Prymnessus was hardly an important city. It is an enigma
as to why such a small town minted coins for the Gordiani, and then a few
months later for Pupienus and Balbinus. 46 The most plausible solution is that
some prominent inhabitants of the city who had visited Rome returned with
the news, faster than it could be announced through the official channels. On
their report, the town, for reasons unknown to us, decided to strike the coins.
It could have been sudden need for money in tandem with civic pride and
hopes of imperial favour.
Aegeae, on the other hand, was home to a major sanctuary of
Asclepius and a strategic port on the route between Syria and Cilicia Pedias.
This city asserted its virtues whenever possible, as did its rivals Anazarbus
and Tarsus 47 In my opinion, Bloesch correctly points out that there is no
42 H. Bloesch, Erinnerungen an Aigeai (Winterthur 1989), 16 suggests that it took the news 20 days
to reach Alexandria from Rome.
43 C.E. Bosch, 'MOnzen Gordians I aus Kleinasien', Anadolu Arosztinnalari 1 (1955-1959),203-205.
44 Von Aulock 1987, op.cit. (n. 41), 50; the linear fonn of sigma and epsilon on portrait coins seems
to be the trademark of one die-cutter, working in the year 238.
45 Ptolemaeus 5.2.24.
46 VonAulock 1987, op.cit. (n. 41), 51.
47 P. Weiss, 'Ein Altar fur Gordian rn, die illteren Gordiane und die Severer aus Aigeai (Kilikien)',
Chiron 12 (1982),190-205.
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reason to be surprised 48 about the fact that a coin of the Gordians from this
city is known. 49 He argues that, along with the dispatches of messengers to
the provinces, the senate also sent official portraits. This fact can also be
deduced from Herodian's statement. 50 Moreover, Cilician cities seem to have
been especially assiduous in minting coins in the first half of the third century.
Eighteen cities coined for Maximinus and at least seventeen for Gordian Ill. 51
At Aegeae an altar has been found, with two dedications to Gordian
Ill, the theoi Gordianoi I and 11, and a third inscription honouring the theoi
sebastoi Severus Alexander, Septimius Severus, Caracalla and lulia Domna.
All three inscriptions are from different hands, and they might have been cut
in the year 238. What is significant is the city's linking of Gordian III to the
Severan dynasty. This action by the Cilician city probably reflected official
ideology, best seen on the style and iconography of the coins struck at Rome.
Aegeae did not mint coins under Maximinus, but the absence of coinage in
itself does not indicate hostility or rejection of the soldier. 52 Far more likely,
the city had struck an abundance of coins under previous emperors so that it
saw no particular need to coin under Maximinus. 53 In any case, the city
immediately presented itself as loyal to the teams of senatorial emperors, first
the Gordiani and then Balbinus and Pupienus.
When the news of the death of the Gordiani reached the capital, the
Roman mint immediately started issuing for the new senatorial emperors,
Balbinus and Pupienus. 54 Their coins struck at Rome are more diversified
than those of Gordian I and 11 are, but these too were not abundant. A handful of aurei were struck for both emperors, as were also some silver denarii.
Most of the silver coins are antoniniani, the double denarii that they reintroduced to remedy their shortage of money. The aes coinage consists of
mostly sestertii, along with some dupondii and a few asses.
Some significant reverse types reflect aspects of their political
program. Besides a titular type for both emperors, six other reverse types can
be found on the denarii, three for each emperor. LIDERALIT AS obviously
Bloesch 1989, op.cit. (n. 42), 23.
Avon Sallet, 'Die Namen der beiden ersten Gordiane', Zeitschriftfilr Numismatik 7 (1880), 140;
D. Nony, 'Une monnaie de Balbin a Aegeae de Cilicie (238 ap. lC.)', Bulletin de la Societe
Fram;aise de Numismatique 27, 7 (1972), 244.
50 Bloesch 1989, op.cit. (n. 42), 15-18 COWlts 25 days at the speed of 137 kmld to reach Aegeae from Rome.
51 Nony 1972, op.cit. (n. 49),244.
52 Weiss 1982, op.cit. (n. 47), 197.
53 Nony 1972, op.cit. (n. 49), 244.
54 Much of the following discussion fOWld its origin in RlC IV 2, 165-176; Carson 1962, op.cit. (n.
16),99-104.
48
49
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refers to the donative, given out at the time of the coronation. 55 The appeals
to IOVI CONSERVATORI and PROVIDENTIA DEORVM not only called
for the protection of the gods, but also for divine sanctioning of the new rule.
Types associated with the legends PAX PVBLICA, CONCORDIA AVGG
and VICTORIA AVGG expressed either hopes of a quick victory or became
in effect a triumphal coinage upon the death of Maximinus. The antoniniani
all feature on the reverse clasped hands with the legends CONCORDIA
AVGG, FIDES MVTVA AVGG, PIETAS MVTVA AVGG (for Balbinus)
and AMOR MVTVVS AVGG, CARITAS MVTVA AVGG, PATRES
SENATVS (for Pupienus). This array of types emphasised the ideal of the
senatorial tradition and respect for the laws, but foremost the ideal of the
double dominion, reminiscent of the old times of the republic. 56 The reality
was different, with both emperors suspicious and full of envy for each other,
an attitude that would speed up their downfall.
The portraits on the obverses of the coins have every appearance of
being realistic. Since Balbinus and Pupienus were in Rome at the time of their
election to the principate, they enjoyed a great advantage: they were known
to their subjects. The most eye-catching feature of Pupienus' image is his
long, full beard. 57 According to Bastien58 this type of beard, also worn by
Pertinax59, Didius Julianus and Macrinus, was the last manifestation of a long
gone fashion. Based on sculpture portraits, Kleiner makes the telling
observation that, "By having himself depicted with an Antonine beard, he
emphasised his senatorial side and his descent from such good emperors of
the past as Marcus Aurelius. ,,60 Balbinus can be recognised from his heavy
jaw and fleshy features. 61
As previously argued, we can be reasonably sure that the portraits
on the obverse of their Roman coinage are accurate. If so, the question is
raised as to whether the new government cared at all to send along with the
message of their accession accurate portraits also to the provinces, to give
faces to the new people in power. Herodian mentions the presence of pictures
The Chronographer of the year 354 and Herodian 8.7.7 both mention a generous distribution of money.
Whittaker 1970, op.cit. (n. 36),299 nl 2; 303 n. 3.
57 E.g. RlC IV 2, Pupienus, nr 22a (PI. VIII, fig. 10).
58 P. Bastien, Le buste mom!taire des empereurs romains (Wetteren 1992-1994),28.
59 Delbruck 1940, op.cit. (n. 21),69.
6OD.E.E. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture (New HavenILondon 1992), 365.
61 E.g. RlC IV 2, Balbinus, nr 16 (PI. VIII, fig. 11).
55
56
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of Pupienus, Balbinus and Gordian III in the beleaguered Aquileia when
Maxirninus was killed. 62
The surviving statues of both emperors depict them after the fashion of
their coin portraits. 63 Most significant is the pair of statues of Balbinus and
Pupienus, each of whom is cast as Jupiter,64 that were salvaged from a shipwreck
off the Piraeus. Although the statues are not of a high artistic quality, they
demonstrate that there was an immediate market for images of these emperors.
Given their find spot, these statues were either made in Athens to be exported to
a shrine or a public space or they were being imported into Athens when the ship
went down. 65 It is not clear when the statues were created either. Although they
might have been ordered during the lifetime of the senatorial emperors, they could
also have been made under the rule of Gordian III.66 The iconography of a statue
of Balbinus on his sarcophagus is most instructive, for he is presented both as a
togate senator, reclining on the top of the lid, and as an army commander on the
side of the coffin. Therefore, he is represented both performing his civil and his
military duties, although his function as a civil magistrate has received preference
over his task as a general.
Most specimens of provincial coins exhibit fairly accurate portraits of
the emperors.67 In contrast to Maximinus, images of Balbinus and Pupienus were
apparently known in the provinces because either these emperors were quick to
send pictures or were already known at their accession due to their connections
with local elites or contacts acquired while discharging their senatorial duties in
the provinces. Among the cities to mint coins were Prymnessus and Aegeae, the
two cities that had coined for the Gordiani. Among others was the major mint of
Tarsus, the first city of Cilicia and favoured by Severan rulers. 68 Balbinus and
Pupienus must have appreciated the importance of being accepted by the cities of
the East.
62 Herodian 8.6.2: "AquiJeian commanders ... brought out pictures of Maximus, Balbinus and
Gordian Caesar wreathed in crowns of laurel, which they cheered."
63 The coin images are so much like the statue portraits that they helped to identify a sculpture head
of Balbinus. See H. Jucker, 'A Portrait Head of the Emperor Balbinus', The Bulletin of the Cleveland
Museum of Art (1967), 11-16.
64 Based on the example of statues of Claudius as Jupiter: Kleiner 1992, op.cit. (n. 60), 366.
65 C.C. Vermeule, Roman Imperial Art in Greece and Asia Minor (Cambridge MA 1968), 314.
66 Vermeule 1968, op.cit. (n. 65), 310.
67 Pupienus: Miletus, Prymnessus, Herac1ea, Nicomedia, Prusa, Tarsus, Pupienus-countermark on a
coin of Erythrae, Hadrianopolis; Balbinus: Aegeae, Amisus, Herac1ea, Milete, Tarsus, Thessalonica
and Hadrianopolis.
68 PI. VIII, figg. 12 and 13.
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In addition, many Asian cities might have coined in anticipation of a
campaign by Pupienus against the Sassanids. 69 The Historia Augusta is the
only literary source that mentions this expedition and has not yet been
confirmed by any other source, but the striking of civic bronze suggests
preliminary mobilisation in the eastern army was under way in 238. The
reverse of a Nicomedian coin of Gordian III Caesar shows the emperor in a
military cloak, being crowned by Nike and sacrificing to the gods. Another
reverse depicts an equestrian emperor, either Pupienus or Gordian III Caesar,
with his lance positioned for attack. 70 The coins of Tarsus also support this
hypothesis. Military types were found on the reverses of Pupienus' coins
(notably the emperor with a trophy, the goddess Nike and the emperor
spearing a lion). Moreover, the large volume of coins struck by Tarsus for
both emperors suggests that the city was providing fractional bronze currency
in anticipation of the aurei and denarii that would be spent in local markets
by soldiers on campaign. 71 Tarsians almost certainly were expecting an
offensive by these emperors against the Sassanids.72
In the city of Rome the emperors used their coins to present themselves as
legitimate rulers and to promote their program to urban plebeians, Senate, and
Praetorian Guard. The style and iconography of the coinage of Maximinus, as
well as that of the senatorial emperors, was Severan in inspiration and presented a
continuation of appeals of the Severan dynasty. Reverse types of the coins seem
to have been deliberately chosen. The legends on the coinage of Balbinus and
Pupienus, for example, harkened back to a restoration of a traditional order
replete with Republican ideals. In the provinces attention was paid to the choice
of reverse types. The military types on the coins of Tarsus indicate expectation of
an expedition ofPupienus to the East.
In their official portraiture, Roman emperors made every effort to
legitimise their reign and present themselves to their subjects as acceptable
rulers. Maximinus, for one, might have tried to overcome the suspicion the
senate nursed against him by portraying his family as an impeccably imperial
SHA, Max. et Balb.13.5.
C.E. Bosch, Die kleinasiatischen Manzen der romischen Kaiserzeit 2.1.1: Bithynien (Stuttgart
1935), 293-294; R. Ziegler, Stadtisches Prestige und Kaiserliche Politik. Studien zum Festwesen in
Ostkilikien im 2. und 3. Jhr. n.Chr. (Dilsseldorf 1985), 139.
71 K. Had, Political Attitudes of Rome's Eastern Provinces in the Third Century A.D. (Ph.D. Yale
1978),28,142 n. 42,428; Ziegler 1985, op.cit. (n. 70),139-140.
72 SHA, Max. et Balb. 13.5; Zonaras 12.18 for a possible Persian threat and the fall of Nisibis and
Carrhae, but the last is contradicted by Herodian 7.8.4.
69
70
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family, with a young successor and a deified empress. If the literary sources
are to be trusted, unfortunately his son Maximus refused to play the role and
so earned himself a bad reputation. The Gordiani reigned for too short a
period to make effective any of the promises presented on coins.
Balbinus and Pupienus undoubtedly linked themselves to Severan,
Antonine, and even Republican traditions. In the East, the numbers of their
coins and statues are surprisingly high, given the brevity of their reign. What
is even more impressive is the accuracy of the imperial portraits. This
precision, along with the speedy appearance of the likenesses, indicates that,
at least for the larger cities, there was an official means for sending out
imperial portraits. In the case of smaller provincial towns circumstance and
lines of patronage probably dictated early distribution of imperial portraits.
In my opinion, the coins indicate that the emperors of 238 sought to
make themselves known in the provinces. Roman emperors depended on the
goodwill of the provincial cities. They were customarily presented the way a
provincial city wished to see them, even if such depictions did not coincide
with the reality as in the case of Maximinus' coins. In the case of Balbinus
and Pupienus, there seem to have been conscious efforts by the emperors to
be portrayed correctly and by the cities to disseminate quickly this accurate
image. It is most reasonable to surmise, although it cannot be proved
conclusively, that these attempts resulted from senatorial sympathies among
the local elites. As for Gordian I and 11, their reigns were too short, and their
portraits too few to draw many conclusions. Even so, we cannot help but be
amazed as to how quickly some provincial towns accepted these two rulers.
This very speed hints at efforts to promote these rulers as well. Facing
Maximinus at the head of the daunting frontier legions, the African emperors
had every reason to canvass for supporters across the empire.
Leuven, September 2002
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THE LABARUM, SHIELD BLAZONS, AND CONSTANTINE'S
CAELESTE SIGNUM
By
HENKSINGOR
The conversion of Constantine to Christianity is one of those momentous
events in history of which nobody doubts the importance but of which it is
nearly impossible, or so it seems, to grasp the reality of what actually
occurred. What was it that had led Constantine to his choice and how and
when did he first reveal it? Contemporary pagan sources hardly take notice of
any change and where they do it is in circumspect and ambiguous phrases,
never offering an explanation. Contemporary Christian sources, that is the
Latin teacher of rhetoric Lactantius and the Greek bishop Eusebius, do give us
stories of what 'really happened' but these are in part contradictory, besides
being full of the miraculous in the shape of dreams and a wonderful vision in
the sky. Modem scholars usually point to the differences between these
accounts, following either the one or the other, trying to combine the two, or
again ignoring them both.l In my view, attempts to reconstruct what happened
too often try to build on these explanatory stories offered to us by the pious
professor and the bishop. They were, however, written two years and a quarter
of a century, respectively, after the events they describe, and have as their core
not so much an inner change on the part of the emperor, but more materially
the creation of some specific objects that by themselves explained the victory
of Constantine and thus Christ's support for the emperor and, by implication,
the latter's embrace of Christianity, i.e. shields with christianised blazons and
a new, christianised banner. When trying to assess what happened we should, I
believe, start with these realia, for the Christian stories are, so to speak, the
aetiological myths meant to explain the existence of those sacred things.
A few years after Constantine had openly embraced Christianity,
perhaps as early as 314, Lactantius, writing his little book on the deaths of
the emperor's predecessors who had persecuted the Church, tells us how
Constantine had assured himself of Christ's assistance on the battlefield by
adding a symbol or nota of Christ to the shields of his soldiers on the eve of
I The literature on Constantine is enormous. In the following notes I shall refer only to those
publications which are in my opinion representative or otherwise relevant for the views in discussion
without claiming any completeness. For a recent survey of the history of Constantinian scholarship see
K. Nowak, 'Der erste christliche Kaiser. Konstantin der Grosse und das "Konstantinische Zeitalter" im
Widerstreit der neueren Kirchengeschichte', in: E. Miihlenberg, Hg., Die Konstantinische Wende
(Giltersloh 1998), 186-233.
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his final victory over Maxentius in October 312. The emperor had been
admonished to do so in a dream in which he had been ordered to note 'the
heavenly sign of God' (caeleste signum dei) on the shields before going into
battle. 2 The same Lactantius tells us elsewhere in his work of another divine
instruction sent in a dream to an emperor: when half a year later Licinius,
Augustus of the East, was facing his rival Maximinus at Campus Serenus in
the Balkans in the spring of 313, he dreamt of an angel dictating to him a
special prayer addressed to 'the highest god' (summus deus); after waking,
Licinius had the prayer written out and given to his officers, so that next
morning his whole army could send up the pious words to heaven - an
amazing spectacle, no doubt, and the consequent victory proved, so we are
meant to believe, the prayer's efficacy 3 The text that Lactantius cites
resembles the text of another prayer written for those of his soldiers who
were then still pagan by Constantine himself, when he proclaimed the
observance of Sunday rest for his army and indeed for most of the citypopulation in his realm in 321, according to bishop Eusebius 4 No dreams are
mentioned in that case, but when telling us elsewhere in his 'Life of
Constantine' his version of the campaign against Maxentius in 312 Eusebius
goes out of his way to relate first the vision in the sky that Constantine and
his whole army saw - the famous light-cross above the sun with the words
'By this conquer!' - and then a dream in which Christ himself ordered
Constantine to make a copy of the sign he had seen in the shape of a military
banner. It was that banner, the famous labarum, adorned with the first two
letters of the name of Christ, which brought the emperor victory over his
foes ever since. The bishop himself, we are told, saw the awe-inspiring staff
with all the paraphernalia and jewellery that then adorned it, no doubt in
Constantinople on the very occasion when the emperor, so the bishop claims,
told him the story of the wonderful vision in the sky.5 Years before, around
315, when writing his 'History of the Church', the bishop of Caesarea had
not been aware of that miracle and had presented Constantine as a pious
Christian who from the outset of his campaign had put his trust in God. 6 A
rumour of some special banner, though, had reached him even then, for he
describes a statue of the emperor 'in the busiest spot' in Rome which had
received on Constantine's orders, after his entry into the city in 312, 'the
Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum 44.5
Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum 46.3-6
4 Eusebius, Vita Constantini 4.20 (c£. Gratio Tricennalia 9.219)
5 Eusebius, Vita Constantini 1.28-31.
6 Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 9.9.2
2
3
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trophy of hail-bringing suffering' into its hand. 7 This is Eusebian language
for the sign of the cross. Since Christ had conquered Death and the Devil by
his Resurrection, that victory had made the Adversary's weapon, the cross,
into a trophy of the Victor, promising more victories for those who believed.
Christians were inclined to recognize the victorious sign in various natural or
man-made shapes, not the least important of which was the vexillum or
military banner, made of a spear-like shaft with a cross-bar from which a
flag or banner hang down. I have little doubt that Constantine' s statue, which
has disappeared since, had a vexillum in its hand. 8 That by itself was already
a novelty, for never before had an emperor been represented bearing a
7 Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 9.9.10-11. For the problem of this statue, usually identified with a
seated colossus of approximately 10 m. in the north-western apsis of the Basilica of Maxentius at the
Forum, remains of which can be seen in the courtyard of the Conservatori Palace in Rome, see among
others: H.G. Thilmmel, 'Die Wende Constantins und die Denkmii.ler', in: E. Milhlenberg, Hg., Die
Konstantinische Wende (Giitersloh 1998), 144-185, esp. 158-162; 171-179; W. Kuhoff, 'Ein Mythos in
der romischen Geschichte: [)er Sieg Konstantins des Grossen iiber Maxentius vor den Toren Rorns am
28. Oktober 312', Chiron 21 (1991), 127-174, esp. 170-171; R. Leeb, Konstantin und Christus (Berlin
1992), 33-38. I retain some doubts, though, whether this seated statue, if it represented Constantine in
heroic or divine nakedness or semi-nakedness, was the one that Eusebius (or rather his informant) had in
mind. A standing statue in military attire would be more to the point, as it would also provide the
prototypes for the coin images of first Constantine ca. 320 and then his two eldest sons ca. 326 showing
the Augustus and the Caesars, respectively, holding a military standard, as argued by P. Bruun, 'The
Christian signs on the coins of Constantine', Arctos 3 (1962), 5-35, esp. 28 n. 2, identifying Eusebius'
statue with the remains of a bronze colossus in the Lateran. If the statue in the basilica of Maxentius wore
a cuirass and paludamentum it could indeed have been the one referred to by Eusebius, see also 1. Curran,
Pagan City and Christian Capita/. Rome in the fourlh century (Oxford 2000), 78-82. It has also been
identified, however, as a former statue of Maxentius. See 0.1. Hekster, 'The city of Rome in Late
Imperial Ideology: The Tetrachs, Maxentius and Constantine', Mediterraneo Antico 2 (1999), 717-748.
The identity of the statue mentioned by Eusebius may never be established, but the sign in its hand
must surely have been a vexillum, which could rather easily have been identified with a cross by the
Christian informant of Eusebius. That banner, then, must have been something special and to my mind
that means that it must have been 'the sign' of Christ that had brought the emperor victory, the
difference between this banner and the labarum described by Eusebius being the absence of the ChiRho monogram on its top: instead it must have shown it on its cloth, as is also the case on most of the
coins showing the labarum. See also, e.g., 1. Vogt, 'Die constantinische Frage', in: Relazioni del X
Congresso Intemazionale di Scienza Storica. If. Storia dell' Antichita (Florence 1955), 377-423 = H.
Kraft, Hg., Konstantin derGrosse (Darmstadt 1974),345-387, esp. 371-372 (the statue held a vexillum
that was combined with "das von Laktanz bezeugte Siegeszeichen").
8 Bruun, op. cit. (n. 8), 28 n.2; A. AIllildi, 'In hoc signo victor eris. Beitriige zur Geschichte der
Bekebrung Konstantins des Grossen', in: Pisciculi. Studien zur Religion und Kultur des AlterlUms,
Franz Joseph Dolger zum 60. Geburlstag (Miinchen 1939), 1-18 = H. Kraft, Hg., Konstantin der
Grosse (Darmstadt 1974), 224-246, esp. 237 and Abb. 3,4. Rufinus, writing his Latin version of
Eusebius' Church History in the 390s, speaks of a vexillum dominicae crucis (i.e. with the sign of the
cross, which maybe a mistake for the christogram or an echo of Eusebius' view that the cross was
represented) and, in citing the inscription, of a singulare signum (Rufmus, Historia Ecclesiastica
9.9.10-11).
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military sign or standard. But from Constantine's reign onwards the emperor
as signifer or bearer of a vexillum made a regular appearance on the coins. 9
Eusebius, who never visited Rome, heard of the statue with its banner and
rightly judged it worthy of mention in his Church History, as well as later in
his Tricennalian Oration and his Life oj Constantine, together with the
inscription that proclaimed that by "this sign, the real proof of manly power"
(andreia or virtus) Rome had been freed from the tyrant's yoke and been
restored to its former liberty and glory. 10 Such a special sign, newly put into
the emperor's hand, cannot have been anything else than the christianised
banner that Eusebius tells us elsewhere Constantine had made on the eve of
his campaign against Maxentius. 11
What we have, then, as the realia for which Lactantius and Eusebius
offer us their explanatory stories, are shields with the nota of Christ on the
surface as well as a special banner with the first letters of the name of Christ.
To my mind, these things belong together. For what I want to argue is this:
Constantine introduced a new military banner, not for any particular army
unit but one closely bound to his own person and one that by its design
pointed to the emperor's special relationship with his protecting divinity, for
it had the sign of his divine comes or companion on its drapery. The divinity
it at first referred to was the Sun. The new banner was guarded by a special
troop of soldiers who at some moment on the orders of the emperor had their
shields marked out by an emblem that was the same as the sign on the
banner, which, now, referred to Christ. It was but a small group and its
military value must have been equally small in comparison with the moral or
religious value it provided for the emperor. With their labarum, as the banner
AlfOldi 1939, op. cit. (n. 8),236-239.
For the meaning of andreia (virtus) see F. Heim, Virtus. Ideologie politique et eroyanees religieuses
au IVe siecie (Paris 1991),9-12; 17-18; idem, La theologie de la vietoire de Constantin a Theodose
(Paris 1992),39-42; 64; esp. 98-105 (Constantine's signum). The authenticity of the inscription cited
by Eusebius has been questioned by, among others, Kuhoff 1991, op. cit. (n. 7), 176-177; Thiimmel
1998, op. cit. (n. 7), 178; Th. GTilnewald, Constantinus Maximus Augustus. Herrsehaftspropaganda in
der zeitgenossisehen Oberlieferung. Historia Einzelschr. 64 (Stuttgart 1990),70-71. In my view these
doubts are unwarranted. The inscription is ambiguous, for 'the real proof of virtus' could be
interpreted as the vexillum itself as the sign in which the Divine Power (Virtus) resided, or it could, in
the eyes of Christians who recognized a cross-shape in the sign, point to Christ's courage in
overcoming Death by his suffering and resurrection. Eusebius in any case highly valued the sign in the
hand of the statue and the inscription that belonged to it, for he refers to them repeatedly: Historia
Eeciesiastiea 9.9.10-11; 10.4.16 (speech at the dedication of the church at Tyre); De Laudibus
Constantini 9.8 (in the Trieennalian Oration of 335); Vita Constantini 1.40.
II Thus, among others, Alfoldi 1939, op. cit. (n. 8), 237-238. See also R. Egger, 'Das Labarum, die
Kaiserstandarte der Spatantike' , Sitzungsberiehte Wien. Philologisch-historisehe .Klasse 234 (1960) I,
3-26, esp. 11.
9
10
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was called, these soldiers constituted the first open manifestation of
Constantine's embrace of Christianity. In fact, it was a manifestation on a
small scale, one could almost say: timid. In that respect it resembled
Constantine's coinage policy, for his coins too remained overwhelmingly but
not exclusively non-Christian in design, which may have resulted from a still
existing lack of Christian imperial iconography12. I have no doubt that
Constantine was a Christian from at least 312 and probably from already 311
on, but he could use one language when speaking to the bishops, for many
years he used another, much more subdued and circumspect, when
addressing the army or the public at large.
To start with, we have no need for the wonderful vision in the sky, be
it a special constellation of the planets at night - as has been suggested 13 - or
a halo around the sun in the afiernoon. 14 That is not to say that Constantine at
some point did not see anything in the sky which seemed to him out of the
ordinary - he might very well have or at least have imagined so, for as we
shall see, in the years 310-312 he probably had some reason to look up at the
sun with more than usual attention - but we do not need a solar or heavenly
vision on his part to explain what happened. There are at least two arguments
for this. First: a halo or any similarly spectacular phenomenon must have
been noticed by many more people - indeed, Eusebius says that the whole
army witnessed it - but that makes one wonder how Constantine could have
presented his divine inspiration as being known only to him or at least to an
extremely small circle. For that is implied by the panegyric orator in Treves
in 313, who, looking back on Constantine's victory the year before, says in
phrases that must have had the stamp of official approval that the emperor
had been prompted by an inner divine force known only to himself and at
variance with the advice of his officers and haruspices. 15 This is surely
incompatible with a wonderful sign in the sky seen by many. 16 Second: the
'sign of Christ' on both the shields and the labarum was the Chi-Rho
monogram or Christogram (on which see below) and I fail to understand
See Hekster 1999, op.cit. (n. 7).
M. Dimajo, 1. Zeuge & N. Zotov, 'Ambiguitas Constantiniana: the Cae1este Signum Dei of
Constantine the Great', Byzantion 58 (1988), 233-260.
14 Recently: P. Weiss, 'Die Vision Constantins', in: J. Bleicken & K. Bringmann, ColloqUium aus
An/ass des 80. Geburtstages von Alfred Heuss (Kallmilnz 1993), 143-169, arguing for a date of the
solar vision in 310 and combining that vision with the revelation of Apollo in the sanctuary at Grand
as described by Panegyrici Latini 6.21.3-7 in the same year.
15 Panegyrici Latini 12. 2.2-5
16 R. MacMullen, Constantine (New York 1969),73: "".if the sky-writing was witnessed by forty
thousand men, the true miracle lies in their unbroken silence about it".
12
13
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how anyone could have seen such a sign in or above the sun, halo or not. In
fact, Eusebius speaks of a cross of light above the sun and then goes on to
tell us that the copy to be made of it was the Chi-Rho monogram on top of
the labarum. The latter certainly, as a vexillum, as we have seen, was crossshaped, but its essential feature, the Christogram, which made it into the
banner of Christ, had in itself little to do with the shape of the cross. Indeed,
Eusebius places the Christogram in a crown of precious stones and gold on
top of the pole, thereby destroying any cross-shape that the labarum as a
vexillum would have had.
Eusebius' sacred tale of a light cross in the sky with the words of God
("By this conquer!") and of Christ appearing to the emperor in a dream to
instruct him to make the labarum, largely evaporates as a source of historical
information. To the solar vision I shall come back once more at the end of
this contribution. The dream mentioned here might to some extent be a copy
or a reflection of the dream attributed to Constantine by Lactantius, whose
version of the events must have been known to the emperor and may be
assumed to have influenced Constantine's memory when many years later he
spoke to Eusebius. Alternatively, the story of the dream arose with Eusebius
as a, to his mind, completely normal explanation of such a momentous
innovation as the introduction of the first Christian banner in the Roman
army. Dreams and visions, portents and oracles were, after all, the language
of the day. It was an explanation given all the more readily by Eusebius if he
had some knowledge of the dream that Licinius had proclaimed as the
inspiration for his prayer to the summus deus in 313. That latter dream has
every appearance of being a piece of official propaganda made on the
occasion of a decisive battle and both Lactantius and Eusebius may have felt
the need to attribute a similar dream to Constantine when writing their
versions of this emperor's appeal to the Christian god a little later, in 314/5
and 337/9 respectively. I? What is left to us as the hard core of Eusebius'
information, then, is his description in the Life of Constantine of the new
imperial banner or labarum. In fact, he had already, in his 'Church History',
unwittingly hinted at its existence, as we have seen above, when he
mentioned the 'sign of the cross' in the hand of Constantine' s statue, a sign
Licinius' dream might have been a piece of official propaganda, at any rate the prayer for his army
'can scarcely be a complete invention': J.L. Creed, Lactantius. De Mortibus Persecutorum (Oxford
1984), XLV. For imperial dreams generally see G. Weber, Kaiser, Trtiume und Visionen in Prinzipat
und Sptitantike. Historia Einzelschr. 143 (Stuttgart 20(0), 273-296; for the contemporary climate of
ready belief in 'the irrational': R. MacMullen, 'Constantine and the Miraculous', Greek, Roman and
Byzantine Studies 9 (1968), 81-96.
17
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that must in reality have been a vexillum of some very special importance
and should in my view be identified with an early form of the labarum.
In the case of Lactantius' story there is no mention of a banner but
solely of shields that were to receive the sign or nota of Christ. We are told
that Constantine, at a moment when the outcome of the war against Maxentius
hung in the balance, on the eve of the decisive battle, had a dream in which
he was instructed to apply 'the heavenly sign of God' to the shields and
doing so he put the nota of Christ onto the shields: Commonitus est in quiete
Constantinus ut caeleste signum dei notaret in scutis atque ita proelium
committeret. Facit ut iussus est et TRANSVERSA X LITTERA, SUMMO
CAPITE CIRCUMFLEXO, Christum in scutis notat. 18 The words, which I
have written out in capitals are most often understood as 'the letter X turned
upside and curved at the top', which would yield a cross-sign (+) with a loop
at the upper end of the vertical bar. This sign is the so-called staurogram and
occurs in fragments of New Testament manuscripts already before 312 as a
contraction of tau and rho; preceded and followed by a sigma it forms the
nomen sacrum 'stauros' or 'crossd 9 I do not believe, however, that this sign,
standing alone, could in 312 be interpreted as 'Christ' or, for that matter, as
'the heavenly sign of God': even if the nota on the shields were this
staurogram it could not have referred to either Gods 'heavenly sign' or to the
name of Christ but at most to the cross and only indirectly to Christ. Yet we
are told that Constantine Christum in scutis notat. I have little doubt that by
this Lactantius meant the first two letters of the name of Christ, i.e. the
Christogram, just like it was described later on top of the labarum by
Eusebius. Only the Christogram could in that time have functioned as a nota
or shorthand for the name of Christ. It is shown clearly, albeit in miniature,
on Constantine's helmet on the famous silver medallion from Ticinum dating
from 315, one year or less after Lactantius wrote 20 Three coin issues from
Siscia, dating from 319, show the same sign on the side of the emperor's
Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum 44.5.
M. Black, 'The Chi-Rho Sign - Christogram and/or Staurogram ?' in: W.w. Gasque & R.P. Martin,
eds., Biblical and Historical Essays Presented to F.F. Bruce (Grand Rapids 1970), 319-327; W.
Wischmeyer, 'Christogramrn Wld Staurogramrn in den lateinischen Inschriften altkirchlicher Zeit', in:
C. Andresen & G. Klein, Hg., Theologia Crucis - Signum Crucis. Festschrift fur Erich Dinkler
(Tubingen 1979),539-550; HR. Seeliger, 'Die VerwendWlg des Christogramrns durch Konstantin im
Jahre 312', Zeitschriftfur Kirchengeschichte 100 (1989), 149-168.
20 K. Kraft, 'Das Silbermedallion Constantins des Grossen mit dem Christusmonogramrn auf dem
Helm', lahrbuch for Numismatik und Geldgeschichte 5/6 (1954/55), 151-178 = H Kraft, Hg.,
Konstantin derGrosse (Darmstadt 1974), 297-344; Leeb 1992, op. cit. (n. 7),29-42; ThUmmel 1998,
op. cit. (n 7),165-169.
18
19
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helmet. 21 Moreover, all the evidence from various monuments showing the
labarum and/or the shields has the Christogram for a design and not a
staurogram (see below). Then how are the words TRANSVERSA
... CIRCUMFLEXO to be explained? One could assume that Lactantius
simply blundered and described a staurogram where a Christogram would
have been in order, but that would perhaps be unfair to the rhetor. More to
the point has been the suggestion that the words in question are an
interpolation that has crept into the text of the manuscript from a gloss in the
margin made by some pious reader later in the 4th or 5th century when indeed
a staurogram could symbolically refer to the Crucified Christ. 22
Alternatively, the word TRANSVERSA, translated here as 'turned upside',
might already in Lactantius' text be understood as 'pierced through', in
which case the meaning would be a X crossed in the middle by a vertical bar
with a curve at the top, i.e. the Christogram. This latter interpretation,
however, is usually rejected on philological grounds, which leaves us with
the interpolation as the most plausible solution. 23 Lactantius, then, most
probably wrote: Factt ut iussus est et Christum in scutis notat.
According to Lactantius the shields of Constantine's soldiers
received the new design shortly before the battle, one presumes in the early
morning after the emperor had woken up from his dream, if not already in
the preceding hours of the night. This, of course, we do not have to believe. 24
Bruun 1962, op. cit. (n. 7), 10-14.
The suggestion was made by J. Rouge, 'A propos du manuscrit du De Mortibus Persecutonun', in:
Lactance et son temps. Recherches actuelles. Actes du IVe colloque d 'etudes historiques et patristiques.
Chantilly 21-23 septembre 1976 (= lbeologie Historique 48), 13-23, who, however, himself did not
prefer it; it was accepted by, among others, T.D. Barnes, 'The Conversion of Constantine', Echos du
Monde Classique 29 (1985),371-391, esp. 383-384; K.M. Girardet, 'Die Konstantinische Wende und
ihre Bedeutung fur das Reich. Althistorische Oeberlegungen zu den geistigen Grundlagen der
Religionspolitik Konstantins d. Gr.', in: E. MiIhlenberg, Hg., Die Konstantinische Wende (Gutersloh
1998),9-122, esp. 25, n. 56 and 42. For the wider use of the staurogram and the cross later in the 4th and
5th centuries: Wischmeyer 1979, op. cit. (n. 19),539-540; 549-550.
23 I refrain from judgement on the philological question of transversa. I find it highly improbable,
however, that Lactantius described a staurogram while somehow 'meaning' a christograrn, as Seeliger
1989, op. cit. (n. 19), 155 and Thtimmel 1998, op. cit. (n. 7), 157 suggest.
24 J. Vogt, 'Die Bedeutung des Jahres 312 fur die Religionspolitik Konstantins des Grossen',
Zeitschrijt fur Kirchengeschichte 61 (1942), 171-190 = H. Krait, Hg., Konstantin der Grosse
(Darmstadt 1974), 247-272, esp. 268, argued that the signs were painted on the shields for the
occasion and were not meant to be lasting emblems, referring to Caesar, Bellum Alexandrinum 58.3;
59.1 and Cassius Dio 42.15.5 for a parallel during the Civil Wars: some troops of Caesar in Spain
rebelled against his legate and painted the name of Pompey on their shields, only to erase it again
when some of their allies objected to such a political statement. To my mind the situation of
Constantine in 312 can hardly be compared with this. The Christian monogram was a sacred sign of
quite another status than the name of a military leader and would not have been erased so quickly. But
21
22
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Nor is it credible that at some other point in time, perhaps already during the
preparations for the campaign in 311, the whole army - let us say some
30,000 men - were instructed to change the blazons of their shields. Roman
shield blazons were not that easily changed and certainly not for a whole
army at the same time. And if such a drastic change had occurred, it would
surely have left some trace in the record. But neither in the pagan historians,
nor in monuments as the Arch of Constantine, fitted out in 315, with all its
military scenes, is there any trace of a Christian sign to be found. Nor is it
likely that, if not the whole army, perhaps some particular unit might have
received new shield emblems. We know that Constantine, ever since his rise
to power in 306, but particularly after his elimination of Maximian and his
rupture with Maxentius in 310, had been busy amassing troops. Indeed, the
mobile field army of the Late Empire owes many of its core units to the
legiones, auxilia and vexillationes recruited by Constantine in Gaul and
along the Rhine. 25 But considering the conservative nature of shield designs
one would, again, expect such a strikingly new emblem, particularly one that
so clearly proclaimed the triumph of Christianity, to leave some traces in our
record. But there is nothing. Especially the collection of some 200 shield
emblems in the manuscript of the Notitia Dignitatum of the beginning of the
fifth century is revealing for the complete absence therein of any Christian
design. 26 Since most of the units of Constantine's army of 312 survived, at
least on paper, for a century or more, I find it hard to believe that in that year
there had been an auxilium or vexillatio with so outspokenly a Christian
emblem that had mysteriously disappeared in the years thereafter.
Yet there were, in 3 12 and later, some soldiers with shields showing
Christograms for their emblems. We can see them on a few monuments. A
coin from 321 showing Constantine's son Crispus with the Christogram on his
shield does not prove very much; Crispus had been too young to participate in
the war of 312 and his shield with the Christian emblem on the coin of 321
should probably be interpreted more symbolically as pointing to Christ's
it is very unlikely that all the shields in the anny would have taken over the new emblem, for that
certainly would have interfered with the function of shield blazons to distinguish various units (for
which see Anunianus Marcellinus 16.12.6; Vegetius 2.18.1-2). See also Kuhoff 1991, op. cit. (n. 7),
173 n.124.
25 D. Hoffmann, Das spiitromische Bewegungsheer und die Notitia Dignitatum (Diisseldorf 1969),
131-208; RS. CromweU, The Rise and Decline a/the Late Roman Field Anny (Shippensburg PA
1998), 5-12.
26 This remains significant even if a large proportion of the blazons as depicted in the manuscript are
fictitious, as argued by R Grigg, 'Inconsistency and lassitude: the shield emblems of the Notitia
Dignitatum·. Journal a/Roman Studies 73 (1983),132-142.
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favour for the young prince than to his actually having such a shield. 27 But at
least the connection between the Christogram and a shield is there. More to
the point, the so-called Niello cup from St. Petersburg has a soldier marching
behind the emperor Constantius 11 and armed with a shield that clearly has the
Chi-Rho monogram depicted on it, while a silver plate with, probably,
Valentinian 11, shows the labarum but no shields with the christogram. 28 A
little later there is the base of the column of Arcadius at Constantinople, known
only from an 18th century drawing. Here soldiers with clearly decorated shields
follow the two emperors Arcadius and Honorius in two symmetrically
composed groups. Of both groups the soldier closest to his emperor has a shield
with the Christian monogram, while in the lower panels labarums are shown in
the shape ofvexilla with the Chi-Rho sign on the cloth. 29 What we have, then, is
imperial bodyguards or at least some very special soldiers in the immediate
proximity of the emperor, equipped with shields that show the Christian blazon.
The testimony of Eusebius in his Life of Constantine on the labarum
guarded by a small elite force of fifty men in my view points to the close
connection between the sacred banner and the shields born by its guardians. 30
Constantine, I believe, created these shield-bearers around his new banner, for
the latter was to function not as an ordinary military vexillum but as a visible
guarantee that the Highest God or rather the Force of His human-shaped
Emanation, Christ, was there to protect the emperor and his realm. Both
banner and shields bore the Chi-Rho sign, a nota that was, according to
Lactantius, at the same time 'the heavenly sign of God'. We have now to ask
what that expression - caeleste signum dei - means. It is either 'God's sign in
heaven' or, metaphorically, 'God's divine sign'. I find the latter meaning
rather pleonastic and have little doubt that Lactantius meant 'the sign of God
in heaven' or 'in the sky'. What sign could that be? Not, to my mind, a cross
of light as Eusebius was later to describe the emperor's vision, if only because
27
Cl Brmlll 1962, op. cit. (n. 7), 17.
Niello cup: Seeliger 1989, op. cit. (n. 19), Abb. 8 opposite p. 165 (St Petersburg, Ennitage);
missorium of Valentinian : Aurea Roma. Dalla citta pagana alia citta cristiana. Exposition Catalogue
(Rome 20(0), 576, ill. 258 (Geneve, Musee dArt et d'Histoire). Compare also the so-called Somerville
Gem, showing the triumphal procession of an unknown 4th centmy emperor with the labarum
prominently at his side: D. Nicolle & A. McBride, Romano-Byzantine Armies, 4th_9th centuries
(London 1992), 7.
29 A good illustration in Nicolle-McBride 1992, op. cit. (n. 28), 12; also: Aurea Roma 2000, op. cit. (n.
28),610.
30 Eusebius, Vita Constantini 2.8. The guards were presumably recruited from the imperial
protectores. One wonders what, if any, connection there might have been between these elite
protectores and the special corps of candidati, first attested in 350: Ammianus Marcellinus 15.5.16.
28
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of the fact that a cross was not what was depicted on the shields. In my view it
was the sun, that is to say: not the sun itself but a sign representing the sun.
The sun could be looked upon as a sign of the summus deus in the
henotheistic beliefs current among educated people at the time. As such he
could be seen as standing to the Supreme Deity in more or less the same
relationship as Christ stood to the Father. A very common sign for the sun was
the eight-, six- or four-armed star, known among various peoples, from the
Celts in the West to the Iranians in the East?l Christians could identify such a
solar sign with Christ, Himself the Sol Salutis and the Light in the darkness of
this world 32 More literally, the six-armed star could also be interpreted as a
Chrismon or Iota-Chi monogram for Jesous Christos, as occurred certainly
later in the fourth century and probably already before 312.33 When
Constantine had the caeleste signum dei put onto the shields, thereby
producing a shorthand for the name of Christ, he either had a real vision of the
sun or a sign in the shape of a four- or six-armed star to work from. To derive
a Christogram from the very real and visible sun in the sky would have
required a lot of adaptation and interpretation, for a connection between the
two was far from obvious. But if the emperor had already such a sign on his
new banner he now had only to have a loop added at the top of the vertical bar
or to add such a bar going through the middle of the 'star' in order to change it
into the Christian monogram. I believe that this is what happened. The banner,
i.e. the labarum, was already there as solar emblem. At some point, no doubt
under the influence of some learned Christians in the emperor's entourage,
that emblem was, quite easily, made into the Christogram?4
We must take into account the strong probability that Constantine's
introduction of his new banner together with its guards should be dated to the
period of preparations for his campaign against Maxentius. To raise new army
units, to train and to equip them must have taken considerable time, perhaps a
A. Roes, 'An Iranian Standard Used as a Christian Symbol', Journal of Hellenic Studies 57 (\937),
248-251; M. Green & J. Ferguson, 'Constantine, Sun-symbols and the Labarum', Durham University
Joumal49 (\987),9-17.
32 See, among others, Girardet 1998, op. cit. (n. 22),40 and n. 127.
33 W. Seston, 'La vision parenne de 310 et les origines du chrisme constantinien', Melanges Franz
Cumont (Brussels 1936), 373-395, esp. 384-391. A well-known example from the later 4th century on
a sarcophagus in Istanbul (the chrismon held by two flanking angels): Aurea Roma 2000, op. cit. (n.
28),393 (cf. Weiss 1993, op. cit. [no 14], Abb. 2,5).
34 Something to this effect was aIready suggested by Roes 1937, op. cit. (n. 31) and by Seston 1936,
op. cit. (n. 33), 390; J.J. Hatt, 'La vision de Constantin au sanctuaire de Grand et l'origine celtique du
labarum'. Latomus 9 (1960), 427-436 (suggesting that Constantine saw in the Gallic sanctuary in 310 a
statue of Apollo as a horseman with a labarum-like standard in his hand); see also Green-Ferguson
1987, op. cit. (n. 31), 14.
31
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few years. The probably Celtic etymology of the word labarum also points to
Gaul and to the period up to the spring of 312, when the expedition against
Maxentius started, as the region and the time of its origin. 35 It is tempting,
then, to connect that origin with Constantine's earlier choice for the Sun-god
as his divine companion in 310. The anonymous panegyric oration of that year
tells us of Constantine's vision of Apollo in the Gallic temple near Grand. It
does not matter much in this context whether or not Constantine really saw
anything out of the ordinary in that sanctuary36 What is important here is that
the emperor is officially said to have recognized himself in the appearance of
the god; in other words, Constantine wanted it to be known that he, the
emperor, had the features of the Sun-god. Perhaps this stress on physical
likeness was an attempt to make his claim of 'companionship' with Sol the
more credible. 37 In any case, it is certain that from 310 onwards the Sun as Sol
Invictus figured prominently on Constantine's coinage, while the solar
attribute of Invictus became a regular ingredient of the imperial titulature 38 At
the same time, the panegyric of 310 publicized a new lineage: Constantine, the
orator now dares to reveal, was descended from Claudius IT, the warrioremperor who had also been a devotee of Sol. All this, of course, had political
significance, for it signalled Constantine's break with the political and
theological system of the Tetrarchy, coming as it did just after the death or
enforced suicide ofMaximian.
It was in this context, then, that I think Constantine introduced his new
banner or vexillum, guarded by a troop of elite imperial bodyguards. Perhaps the
basic innovation was precisely this: to conjure up by the device of the labarum
the presence of the Divine Companion to ensure victory in battle. That the
emperor would be protected and sustained in battle by the gods, especially by
the traditional dii militares Jupiter, Mars and Victoria, was a familiar idea, but
the signa of the various units, equipped with the imagines of these gods,
functioned more like rallying points and signalling instruments in the field
Egger 1960, op. cit. (n. 11), 14-17; 20; Bames 1985, op. cit. (n. 22), 387.
For Constantine's 'pagan vision' of 310 see, among others: B.Saylor Rodgers, 'Constantine's Pagan
Vision', Byzantion 50 (1980), 259-278; Gtilnewald 1990, op. cit. (n. 10), 50-54; C.E. V. Nixon & B.
Saylor Rodgers, In Praise of Later Roman Emperors (Berkeley 1994),211-253; Heim 1991, op. cit.
(n. 10),14-17; S.N.C. Lieu & D. Montserrat, From Constantine to Julian: Pagan and Byzantine Views
(London 1996), 63-96.
37 Compare the well-known gold medallion of 313 showing Constantine and the Sun-god as practically
identical twins: (e.g.) Girardet 1998, op. cit. (n. 22), Abb. 30.
38 Seston, op. cit. (n. 33),384-391; Vogt 1955, op. cit. (n. 7), 373-378; M.R. Alfoldi, 'Die Sol ComesMiinZe vom Jahre 325', in: Mullus. Festschrift far Theodor Klauser (Miinster 1964), 10-16;
Griinewald 1990, op. cit. (n. 10),46-61; Leeb 1992, op. cit. (n. 7), 9-12; 21-26.
35
36
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than like religious objects meant to install the confidence that divine help was
present. Jupiter's eagle too had long become the soul of the legion to which it
was attached and was no longer a device to enforce the high god's presence.
Moreover, these traditional war-gods, closely connected with their visible
symbols on the signa, had suffered substantially in appeal since victory had in
the course of the 3rd century ceased to be the natural companion of Roman
arms. The rise of Sol Invictus as the emperor's Companion in war, especially
under Claudius IT, Aurelian and Probus, can be seen as partly filling this gap,
while the need for a tangible presence of the deity on campaign reflects
perhaps the revival of certain archaic notions that can be observed more
widely in the second half of the third century.39 Yet it remains unknown where
Constantine got the idea to introduce the Sun-god in the shape of the labarum
at his side. We do know, however, that before 305 he had spent many years in
the East, both in the army and at court. The story that the emperor Aurelian
had seen an apparition of the Sun-god during his final battle against Zenobia's
army in 272 was, if historical, probably known to him and provides a certain
parallel. Participating in the campaign of Galerius against the Persians in 297
Constantine might very well have become acquainted with Persian banners as
well. Already in Achaemenid times the Persians had various banners for army
units as well as a royal banner accompanying the person of the king. Among
the former were X-shaped designs, while on the latter figured the winged
shape of an eagle. 40 Under the Sassanids there were regimental banners, royal
banners (changing with every rule), and an imperial banner of mythical origin
and carried by a small troop of mopeds or priestly nobles. 41
The idea of an exclusively imperial banner, which was at the same
time a personal banner for the emperor who introduced it and on which the
safety of both emperor and empire was believed to depend, might very well
have occurred to Constantine from his memory of these Persian institutions,
when in Gaul in 310 he entered into a new politico-theological relationship
with the Sun-god. For the demise of Maximian in that year disqualified the
For the revival of archaic religious notions: G. Alfoldy, 'Die Krise des Imperium Romanum und die
Religion Roms', in: W. Eck, Hg., Religion und Gesellschaft in der R6mischen Kaiserzeit. Kolloquium
zu Ehren von Friedrich Vittinghoff(CologneNienna 1989), 53-102, esp. 87-94; for the crisis in the
traditional religion and the need for an all-powerful god as helper in war, also: Heim 1992, op. cit. (n.
10),25-27.
40 Iranian standards: F. Sarre, 'Die altorientalischen Feldzeichen, mit besonderer Berucksichtigung
eines unveroffentlichten Stiickes', Klio 3 (1903), 333-371, esp. 344-361; Roes 1937, op. cit. (n. 31); C.
Nylander, 'The standard of the Great king - a problem in the Alexander Mosaic', Opuscu/a Romana
14 (1983),19-37.
41 Sarre 1903, op. cit. (n. 40), 356-360; Nylander 1983, op. cit. (n. 40), 27.
39
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whole theological fabric of the Tetrarchy with its bonds between Jupiter and
Hercules on the one side and the Augusti of the first and second rank
respectively on the other. In 310 Constantine could no longer be Herculius and
did not want to be !ovius, for that title would have been too provocative
towards the other emperors in the East at a moment when a war with
Maxentius loomed on the horizon. Besides, these gods were all too familiar
and, ultimately, no longer inspiring the confidence needed for an attempt at
attaining the highest power. Constantine, therefore, had to create another
divine relationship that would not only legitimise his rule but also provide help
and protection in the wars that he knew lied ahead. That it was the gods or
rather the 'highest god' alone who bestowed the imperial power on whom they
chose, was part of the imperial ideology at the time. So Constantine turned to
the Sun-god, the Unconquerable, who had long favoured his devotees in
battle, as Aurelian and Constantine's so-called ancestor Claudius II had
already known. An inner circle received knowledge of his 'vision' of Apollo,
after which, perhaps already in 310 or later in 311, the new banner with its
special guard made its appearance in his army. Not only the idea might be
ultimately derived from Sassanid Persia, the solar connections and even the
design on the cloth of the banner too could well be Iranian in origin.42 But in
Gaul it was easily assimilated to other four-, or six-armed solar signs. Here
too, probably, it received its Gallic name labarum.
Then, at some moment, the sign was changed into the Christian
monogram. That could have been most easily done, as we saw, by adding a
loop to the top of the vertical bar in a six-armed star or by piercing a fourarmed star through the middle with a vertical bar curved at the top. Only a
minority of soldiers in the army would have realized that the new sign was an
abbreviation of the name of Christ, for to the vast majority the sign must still
have looked very much like that of the Sun. 43 When this happened is
unknown, but I prefer to think that it was after the edict of Galerius, which
also bore Constantine's name, had been issued in April 311, putting
Christianity on the same level as the traditional cults of the Roman state - or
perhaps as late as at the beginning of Constantine's Italian campaign in the
spring of 312 44 It proclaimed the fact - but to a relatively small circle - that
Roes 1937, op. cit. (n. 31); also M. RostovtzefI, 'Vexillum and Victory', Journal ofRoman Studies
32 (1942), 92-106, esp. 104 (the labarum as a continuation of the religious banners - in the shape of
vexilla - venerated in especially the eastern provinces).
43 Green-Ferguson 1987, op. cit. (n. 31), 15-16.
44 The significance of Galerius' edict in this respect is rightly stressed by Girardet 1998, op. cit. (n.
22),37-39.
42
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Constantine now saw Christ as his companion instead of the traditional Sungod. How he came to this step we shall never know. We may accept, I believe,
his own assertion, later, that he had been trying to find the 'real' god of his
father Constantius before he received his revelation about Christ 45 This god
could in his eyes no longer have been Hercules or Jupiter, whereas the Sungod too had been discredited by the persecuting emperors of the East who had
venerated him next to Jupiter and Mars. Constantine had himself seen the
turmoil and the bloodshed of the Great Persecution in the East till 305 and had
ended every anti-Christian measure in his domains as soon as he became
emperor in the western provinces in 306. Galerius' cancellation of the
persecutions in April 311 could be seen as an admission of defeat, in which
case not only the traditional Jupiter but also the Sun-god had shown themselves to be inferior to the god of the Christians. 46 For someone who clearly
aspired to the supreme position of imperial power the capitulation and inglorious end of Galerius in 311 must have given food for thought. The God of
the Christians had proved himself to be a match for the gods of the Roman
state in whose midst He was now officially admitted. Moreover, Maxentius,
ruler of Italy, the Alpine provinces and Africa, had been tolerant and generous
towards the Christians in his realm, with the result that the rich and large
community of Rome itself should have no special reason to prefer Constantine
over Maxentius as long as both were perceived to be pagans; presumably it
could be expected to pray for the latter as the ruler who had benefited the
Christians and thus to invoke the awesome power of the Christian God against
Constantine. In 311 war between Maxentius and Constantine was in the air,
while the rulers of the East, Licinius and Maximinus, were positioning
themselves on either side. The Sun to whom Constantine had turned in 310,
therefore, may have lost some of his exclusive attractiveness already when, I
presume, it occurred to him that Christ, in Whom the Supreme Deity of the
Eusebius, Vita Constantini 1.27. Already in his letter to the synod at Aries in 314 Constantine
speaks of a clear break in his life between the past and the present, cf. Girardet 1998, op. cit. (n. 22),
28. Such statements make it hard to believe that Constantine had been a Christian all his life, as was
suggested by T.G. Elliott, 'Constantine's conversion: do we really need it?', Phoenix 41 (1987),420438. Certainly, in his later years Constantine inteIpreted his own life as driven all along by the
Christian God Who had chosen him from the start: T.G. Elliott, 'Constantine's explanation of his
career', Byzantion 62 (1992), 212-234.
46 In 306 Constantine had immediately put an end to whatever lingered on of the Great Persecution in
the West: Bames 1985, op. cit. (n. 22),44-46. The significance of the failure of the Great Persecution
for Constantine's move to distance himself from the gods of the Tetrarchy is well pointed out by P.
Barcel6, 'Zur Begegnung, Konfrontation und Symbiose von religio Romana und Christenturn', in: G.
Gottlieb & P. Barcel6, Hg., Christen und Heiden in Staat und Gesellschaft des zweiten his vierten
lahrhunderts (Munich 1992), 151-209, esp. 163-169.
45
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Christians had taken human form, was related to that High God in the same
way as the sun could be seen to be the visible manifestation of the summus
deus. Christians in his entourage probably encouraged his thinking in that
direction. The bishops of the cities of ArIes, Autun and Cologne, along the
great commercial and military road from the Mediterranean to the Rhine, were
all of them visited by the emperor and in their turn attended his court,
probably more than once. 47 It is tempting to think that it was one of them who
suggested to Constantine that the solar sign on his new labarum could easily
be changed into an abbreviation of Christ, for the sign was already the caeleste
signum dei and the addition of a curved pole would make it more clearly into
the nota of Christ. It has been said that Lactantius in his short description of
Constantine's dream and of the new sign on the shields had no knowledge of
the labarum 48 But if my reconstruction is correct, it was precisely the
labarum, to be identified as the caeleste signum dei that was depicted as a new
shield design. When he had been convinced that the solar emblem 'was'
already the sign of Christ but that it could be made more clearly the emblem of
this god by adding a small loop, it occurred to Constantine also to adorn the
shields of the special guard with the same design. Perhaps that happened at the
same time in Gaul in 311 or in the spring of312, but it could equally well have
taken place later during the campaign of 312 and perhaps even not long before
the final battle, as Lactantius implies. In any case, for the Christian rhetorician
the caeleste signum dei was already there in the shape of the new banner, and
it was the appearance of the same powerful sign on the shields that in his
presentation of the events brought about the crowning victory.
What we can be sure of, is that it was this victory of 28 October 312
that not only confirmed in the eyes of Constantine the rightness of his choice
for Christ, but that also elevated the labarum to the rank of a semi-mystical
sacred object, charged with Divine Power. 49 This was the sign of Christ and
especially of Christ as the God of Battles, of the Force that had chosen
Constantine and had pushed and driven him from victory to victory, all along
from the first beginnings in Britain in 306, as he now came to see it, to Rome
in 312 and further to 324 and the defeat of Licinius, the reunification of the
47 As was pointed out by W. Eck at the conference in Rome, March 2002 (it was not by chance that
Constantine chose these three Gallic bishops to attend the hearing of the Donatists in Rome in 313);
Girardet 1998, op. cit. (n. 22), 39 n. 124, though, is doubtful about the influence of these bishops.
48 E.g. Leeb 1992, op. cit. (n. 7), 46-47. Consequently Leeb dates the introduction of the labarum after
312, even as late as 324. Elsewhere, though, Lactantius is well aware of the symbolic significance of
the military Signa: De Mortibus Persecutorum 26.8; 27.3.
49 Heim 1991, op. cit. (n. 10), 19-27; idem 1992, op. cit. (n. 10),98-105.
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empire and even beyond that to a possible great war with Persia. Years later
Eusebius gives us his description of the sign in connection with his account of
the emperor's vision of the light cross above the sun. In that form - a shaft
with the Chi-Rho monogram set in a bejewelled crown on its top just above
the cloth of the vexillum and hung with the medallions of the emperor and the
Caesars his sons - it must date from at least 3 17 or later. On coins its first
appearance is in 326. 50 It is often supposed that the labarum was actually
introduced only in or after 317 or even as late as 324, but that is based on the
supposition that its shape must have been invariably the same. In fact, the
labarum had some variety of shapes, its permanent elements being only the
cloth or vexillum and the Chi-Rho monogram that was either stitched to the
cloth or set in a gilded laurel wreath on top of the pole. 51 When it had the
Christian sign on its cloth and it was still without the medallions of the
imperial family attached to it the labarum must have looked very much like a
normal vexillum. As stated above, I believe that the 'cross' in the hand of
Constantine's Roman statue was in fact such a vexillum and thus the earliest
known form of the labarum. In that shape it was still shown on coins later in
the fourth century and on the base of Arcadius' column at Constantinople. The
labarum with the monogram in a gilded wreath on top was perhaps created
only after the battle at the Milvian Bridge in October 312, the gilded laurel
wreath functioning as an old-style Roman emblem of victory that also adorned
many ordinary military signa. The specimen that Eusebius saw in the palace at
Constantinople could very well have been the original labarum fashioned out
with all the trappings that it had in later years acquired and treated, beset with
gold and jewels as it was, like a most precious and sacred relic. Of its use in
the wars between Constantine and Licinius in 316 and 324 Eusebius has a
little more to tell, presumably because by then it had been used more
confidently and hence more openly than at the time of its first appearance in
312 as a magico-religious device of great power. For Licinius too, we are told,
was aware of its presence in the army of his adversary and had ordered his
soldiers not to look at it directly, let alone attack it, whereas on his part
Constantine had sent the awesome banner to every danger spot on the battlefield
- with invariable success. 52 Thus the Christian labarum mightily enhanced the
Bruun 1962, op. cit. (n. 7), 21-27; Leeb 1992, op. cit. (n. 7),43-48.
Green - Ferguson 1987, op. cit. (n. 31), 15-16; Leeb 1992, op. cit. (n. 7),45.
52 Eusebius, Vita Constantini 2.7-16. In the war against the Goths, as well, the labarurn bestowed
inunediate victory: Vita Constantini 4.5. In his Tricennalian Oration of 335 Eusebius referred to the
labarurn repeatedly, stressing its apotropaeic power and its inner divine force that guarantees victory:
Heim 1992, op. cit. (n. 10), 67-87.
50
51
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emperor's inherent quality of being ever victorious in war and became an
attribute of the highest esteem of the now Christian Roman monarch.
Understandably, various 4th century emperors show the banner on their coins. 53
During much of the 4th century, then, the labarum remained the symbol
of the Roman emperor's victorious qualities in war. The sign with the powerful monogram on its top or on its cloth was a guarantee of the presence of the
Divine Force that would bring victory to the pious emperor, God's servant.
The task of the latter had now become primarily a priestly one: in prayer the
emperor assured himself and his army of the Presence and hence of victory: no
longer was the Imperator expected to commit himself personally to battle.
Constantine himself contributed to his military successes by praying, like
Moses with outstretched arms, and by bringing along on his campaigns a tent
for Christian worship, filled with clergy, as a movable house of God. In the
course of the 4th century we can see the emperors distancing themselves more
and more from the actual battlefield. Julian is of course an exception and paid
for this with his life but he was an anachronism in more than one respect. The
trend could be seen in the behaviour of Constantius II at Mursa (350) or of
Valens at Adrianople (378): while their armies were engaged in battle they
spent their time in prayer at some distance behind the lines. Theodosius at the
Frigidus (394) behaved likewise, standing with outstretched arms, visible to
both armies, invoking the help of the God of Battles. The next step was for the
emperor in time of war to stay at home altogether, so that his person could not
be involved in any possible defeat of his troops. That behaviour became the
rule from the death of Theodosius (395) till the accession of Maurice (582):
while their generals were sent out to fight their wars, the ever-victorious
Augusti remained in their palace at Constantinople. Perhaps already after
Constantine the labarum had become more and more ceremonial in character
and perhaps it had not even been carried into the field anymore after the death
of its creator54 Certainly from 395 on this must have become the rule. It was
then, if not already before, that the labarum acquired its purely ceremonial
R. Grosse, 'Labarwn', RE 12 (1925), 239-242 ; Egger 1960, op. cit. (n. 11),9.
Egger 1960, op. cit. (n. 11), 19. Eusebius tells us that Constantine had copies made of the labarwn
and sent to his armies (Vita Constantini 1.31). It is hard to see what this meant in practice. Presumably
the imagines of the older gods were removed from the standards (cf. Vita Constantini 2.16) and
replaced by Christograms or vexilla with that Christian sign. Julian then restored the signa to their
former pagan quality (Sozomenos, Historia Ecclesiastica 5.17), a move that must certainly have been
made undone under his successors, but after that we do not hear of the labarwn in a military context
any more. For practical purposes other signs and banners were used, especially the bandon from the 5th
century onwards. Cf. R. Grosse, 'Die Fahnen in der romisch-byzantinischen Arnee des 4.-10.
Jahrhunderts', Byzantinische Zeitschrift 23/24 (1924), 359-372.
53
54
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function, guarded by praepositi of senatorial rank from the early 5th century
on, accompanying the emperors on their triumphal processions in the city or
enhancing their majesty in the palace where as late as the 9th century two
labarums flanked the imperial throne. 55 The guards too with the Christogram
on their shields had become palace guards with presumably ceremonial
functions, as we can see them on the grand mosaic of San Vitale in the
presence of Justinian.
Finally, back to Constantine and his vision of the light cross in the sky
as described by Eusebius. To repeat, it is not necessary for us to assume the
reality of any meteorological or astronomical phenomenon, for the connection
between sun or solar sign and Christian monogram could be and in my view
had been made without it. But we can well imagine how the emperor, once he
had turned to the Sun-god in 310 and especially since some Christian advisers
probably had pointed out to him the resemblance between the sign for the sun
and the monogram of Christ, supporting their view no doubt with the overall
resemblance between the Sun and Christ as Sun of Righteousness and Sol
Salutis, might really have looked up at the sky with more than usual attention
and probed the sun in heaven for some visible sign: waiting for meaningful
dreams, looking for signs and portents, searching out oracular texts, all this
formed part of the decision-making process in any Roman government at the
end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century. 56 So perhaps Constantine
did see something which seemed to him a sign of Christ or perhaps he just
imagined so when many years later he told his story, in 325 or even as late as
335, to bishop Eusebius 57 . The victory of October 312 had surely confirmed
the emperor in his choice for Christianity and ever after he had devoted much
of his energy to the affairs of the Church with the zeal of an honest convert.
But he was slow and very careful in proclaiming his new allegiance to the
world at large. Looking back after he had become sole emperor to the long
years from 306 to 324, it seemed to Constantine to have been a slow but
steady progress from the western ends of the world to the eastern borders of
his realm, from a position of one among four or five emperors to that of sole
ruler, from a dim and vague groping for the 'real god' to the recognition of
Christ and the reassuring knowledge of being elected by Him.58 Precisely
Grosse 1925, op. cit. (n. 53), 42; Egger 1960, op. cit. (n. 11), 13.
Weber 2000, op. cit. (n. 17); MacMullen 1998, op. cit. (n. 17).
57 For the occasions when Eusebius met or could have met with Constantine: I.D. Barnes, Constantine
and Eusebius (Cambridge Mass. 1981),266.
58 Elliott 1992, op. cit. (n. 45), 212ff. Also (passim) HA Drake, Constantine and the Bishops. The
politics of intolerance (BaltimoreILondon 2000).
55
56
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because in his first years as emperor he had not been a Christian or at the very
least had not made it clear to anybody that he might be, the psychological need
in later years to mark a clear break between the old and the new and to
emphasize in sharper lines what had in reality most probably been a blurred
transition, transformed his decision of 311 or 312 to mark the labarum and the
shields of the soldiers with the sign of Christ into a momentous' conversion'.
What exactly Constantine told Eusebius we cannot know. But we may be sure
that what we read in the 'Life of Constantine' is also the bishop's interpretation of the emperor's words about Christ and the sun and the sign of
Christ that had to be made into a banner. It may explain how the banner
becomes, as usual with Eusebius, a crosS. 59 Probably Eusebius even more than
Constantine himself made the vision of the light cross into the turning-point of
the emperor's reign and indeed of the history of the Church. Essentially, the
story of the wonderful vision in the sky acquired the meaning that an imperial
baptism would have had, for it gave the unbaptised emperor the authority to be
the de facto leader of the Church. Whereas in his 'Church History' Eusebius
had depicted Constantine as a second Moses leading his Chosen People, in his
later works it is Christ himself who seems to suggest the parallels. The scene
of the solar vision has some reminiscence of baptismal ritual, as has been
observed. 60 Its prototype in my view was not Moses before the burning bush
nor Paul on his way to Damascus, but Jesus baptised in the River Jordan.
Parallel to the cross of light in Constantine's vision we have the dove
descending in light on Jesus in the Gospel story; in the latter there is God's
voice from heaven, in the former we have God's words written in the sky: By
this Conquer! The words are symbolic and programmatic: Christian initiation
had, through Constantine, acquired the trappings of Triumph.
Leiden, October 2002
Eusebius, Vita Constantini 1.31.
For the parallels with Moses see, among others, A. Cameron, 'Eusebius' Vita Constantini and the
construction of Constantine', in: M.J. Edwards & S. Swain, eds., Portraits. Biographical
Representation in the Greek aruJ Latin Literature o/the Roman Empire (Oxford 1997), 145-174. Leeb
1992, op. cit. (n. 7), 138, speaks of 'geistige Taufe'; for the imagery of baptism see: H. Montgomery,
'Konstantin, Paulus und das Lichtkreuz', Symbolae Osloenses 43 (1968), 84-109; F. Tiddia,
'Terminologia della luce e battesimo nelle iscrizioni greche cristiane', Vetera Christianorum. 38
(2001), 103-124.
59
60
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Index Nominum
The index covers the names of ancient individuals and deities who are mentioned in
the main text.
202; 207-209; 212-215; 240-249; 253;
273; 286; 329-357; 362; 364; 371; 373;
376; 383; 425; 436-438; 444; 453-455;
459; 461-462;
Aulus Gellius, 415
Aurelian, 9; 42; 115; 493-494
L. Aurelius Avianius Synunachus, 234
Aurelius Carzeus, 263; 266
M. Aurelius Hennes Pa[--], 254
Aurelius Victor, 88; 291
Avidius Hadrianus, 263; 266
Ausonius, 75; 76; 94
Avitus, 47; 116
Aelian,96
Aelius Aristides, 70; 432
Aelius Gallus, 349-350
Aemilianus, 115
Aemilius Papinianus, 162; 167; 169
Aemilius Paulus, 460
Aeneas, 361
Aeschines, 450
Agrippina the Elder, 286
Agrippina the Younger, 25; 81; 94; 286287;359;363;383-384;386
Alcibiades, 450
Alexander the Great, 381; 452
Ammianus Marcellinus, 45; 104; 294; 297299
Amyntas, 242; 245; 340
Anatolius, 105
Andronicus of Berenice, 322
Annia Regilla, 307
Anthemius,116
Antinous, 442; 452
Antiochus IV Epiphanes, 437
Antoninus ofEphesos, 130
Antoninus of Fussula, 131
Antoninus Pius, 8; 24; 84; 92; 94; 105;
107; 109, 114;273;315;434;462-463
Aphrodite, 250
Apollo, 216; 227; 228; 230; 231, 233; 238;
341;449;492;494
Apollodorus ofDarnascus, 416; 460
Arcadius, 9; 116; 490; 497
Arrian, 20
Aristotle, 173; 449
Artaxes, 351
Artemis, 244
Asc1epius, 219, 227; 230-231, 233; 236;
238;312;315
Asterius, 131
Athanasios, 130
Athena, 397; 463-464
Athenaeus, 88
Atticus, 102
Augustine, 128; 131; 135;448
Augustus, xi; 3-6; 7-16; 18-19; 50; 56; 61;
75; 80; 91-94; 101-103, 107, 114; 141142; 145; 147; 168; 194; 197-198; 201-
Babylas, 127
Baebius Iuncinus, 265
Balbinus, 103; 114; 467; 475-480
Bar Kokhba, 21
Basil of Caesarea, 130; 135
Boethos, 381
Bonifatius I, 125
Boudicca, 82; 94; 403
Britannicus, 359; 363
Caecilianus, 296
Caligula, 13; 75-76; 81-82; 88; 91-94; 97;
102-103; 114; 242; 362-363; 370; 376;
381;383;386-387;425;457
Cn. CaIpumius Piso, viii; ix; 16; 284;
C. Calpurnius Piso, 367
L. Calpurnius Piso Caesonus, 200
L. CaIpurnius Piso Frugi, 354
L. Calpumius Piso Frugi Licinianus, 359;
372
Capellianus, 107; 467; 474
Caracalla, 9-11; 86-88; 91-93; 95; 97; 102;
114; 122; 154; 232; 234-235; 237; 252253; 263-266; 476
Carausius, 31
Carinus, 115
Casperius Aelianus, 288
Cassiodorus, 462
Cassius Chaerea, 103
Cassius Dio, 88-89; 93; 95-97; 149-151;
155; 166; 198,200;209;334,336;347-
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348;353;356;367-368;378;426;428;
442;445;447;453-454;460
Castor, 11; 12; 15
Carns,115
Catiline, 197
P. Catius Sabinus, 263
L. Ceionius Cornrnodus, 435; 314
Cicero, 31; 102; 138-140; 175; 197; 200;
333;347
Cilicia Q. Oppius, 252
Claudius, 10; 23; 28-29; 75; 90; 114; 166;
234-235; 237; 286; 334; 354; 358; 362363;371;379;382-386;425
Claudius 11 Gothicus, 42; 107; 115; 492494
Claudius Tryphoninus, 167
Cleopatra, 331
Clodius, 197; 198
Clodius Albinus, 289
Sex. Cloelius, 197, 200
Coelestinus, 125
Cornrnodus,9; 16-17; 31-32; 84-85; 91; 95;
97; 114;258;269;387
Coustans, 40-42; 45-46; 115; 297
Costans n, 232
Constantine, xi; 39-40; 42-43; 45; 80; 84;
115; 123; 173; 284; 293-296; 323; 452;
481-500
Constantine 11, 41; 43-44; 46; 115; 297
Constantine Ill, 301
Constantius I Chlorus, 115; 294; 299; 495
Constantius 11, 37; 39-41; 43-47; 115; 297298;300;490;498
P. Comelius Anullinus, 263
L. Comelius Balbus, 350
M. Comelius Fronto, 79; 433; 436
Comelius Fuscus, 421
C. Comelius Gallus, 13; 17; 349
P. Comelius Lentulus Sura, 197
Comelius Nepos, 140
Comelius Sabinus, 103
Crispus, 43; 44; 297;489
Croesus, 100
Cybele,371
Cyprian, 121
Cyril of Scythopolis, 126; 127
Diomedes, 451-453; 457
Dionysius of Halicamassus, 197, 199; 209
Domitian, viii; 10; 17; 23; 76; 83; 91; 94;
102, 114; 168; 204; 361; 366; 368-369;
372; 379; 385; 399; 416-421; 425; 442443; 454-455
L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, 344
Drusus, 6; 14-15; 101; 248; 341; 345; 352354;356
L. Egnatius Victor Lollianus, 263-264; 266
Elagabalus, 12; 33; 87; 88; 93; 95-97; 102;
114; 466
Ennius,442
Epictetus, 70-71
Eugenius, 115; 301
Eusebius, 124; 481-482; 484-487; 490;
497; 499-500
Euthymios, 126
Q. Fabius Theogonus, 202
Faustina Augusta, 234
Flavius Josephus, see Josephus
Flavius Sabinus, 360
Florianus, 115
Florus, 334; 427; 432
Frontinus, 210; 213, 214
Fronto (anti-Priscillian), 131
Gaius Caesar, 337; 341; 345; 356; 453; 455
Galba, 23; 26; 75-76; 83; 94; 114; 359-360;
370;425
Galerius, 115; 493-495
Gallienus,40; 115; 290-291; 293
Gallus, 39; 44
Germanicus,6; 16; 248; 286; 362-363
Geta, 114; 169
Glycerius, 47; 116
Gordian I, 88; 92; 107, 114; 275; 467-468;
472-476; 478; 480
Gordian 11, 114; 275; 467-468; 472-476;
478;480
Gordian Ill, 114; 154; 250-251; 253; 260;
270;275;467-468;475-476;478-479
Gratian, 46; 115
Gratus,363
Gregory Thaurnaturgos, 127
Gregory ofNazianzus, 125; 135
Darius I, 397
Decebalus, 404; 406; 412-413; 420; 422
Decentius, 108
Decius, 99; 104; 115; 253
L. Decidius Saxa, 335
Demosthenes,124
Diana, 219-220; 227;; 230; 231, 233; 238;
341
Didius Julianus, 86; 92; 95; 99; 114; 153;
477
Diocletian,42; 115; 181; 291; 324-325
Hadrian, xi; 8; 11; 16; 21; 23; 84; 89; 94;
109; 111-112, 114; 168; 201; 205; 244;
250; 255; 258-259; 289; 302; 306-316;
334; 376; 425-441; 442-457; 458-465
Helios,312
Helvidius Priscus, 83
Hercules, 31-32; 220-221; 227; 230-231;
233;236;312;315;387;494-495
Herennius Etruscus, 253
502
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Licinius, 42-43; 115; 482; 486; 495-497
Licinius 11, 43
M. Licinius Crassus, 335; 349; 351
M. Licinius Crassus (cos. AD 30), 403
Q. Licinius Silvanus Granianus, 310; 317
Q. Licinius Silvanus Granianus Quadronius
Proculus, 310; 317
L. Licinius Sura, 310
Livia,6; 15; 101; 470
Livy, 142-145; 147; 193; 199
Lollia Paulina, 386
M. Lollius, 352-353
Lucan, 359; 365
Lucilius Capito, 162; 163
Lucius Caesar, 337; 341; 345; 356
Lucius Verus, 114; 234; 237; 434; 436
Luke, 282
Luna,230
Lysippos, 381
Herennius Maces, 81
Herennius Modestinus, 265; 267
Hermogenes, 253
Herod, 340
Herodes Atticus, 307; 449; 457
Herodian, 103; 148-156; 466-467; 469470;473-474;476-477
Horace, 145; 284; 335-338
Honorius, 9; 116; 490
Hosius of Corduba, 296
Irenion of Gaza, 129
Isidore of Pelusium, 134
Ism, 221;230; 231; 312;315;360
Janus, 141; 142;331-333;338;349;355;
379-380; 425
Jerome, 134; 462
Jovinus, 301
John Chrysostom, 127; 132-134
John the Usurper, 47;
Josephus, 14; 15;362-363;420
Jovian, 45; 115
Julia Domna, 476
Julia Mamaea, 154
Julia Paula, 254
Julian, 44-45; 104-105, 115; 300; 335; 445446;448;498
Julianus, 258
Ti. Julianus Attalos, 255; 259
Julius 11, 192
Cn. Julius Agricola, 48-49
C. Julius Caesar, 66; 73; 75-76; 98; 102103; 113-114; 140; 198; 330; 333; 336;
339;354-355;403;454
C. Julius Demosthenes, 256
Julius Paulus, 167
L. Julius Ursus Servianus, 311; 314
C. Julius Vindex, 26; 83; 92; 94
C. Julius Zoilos, 250
Juno, 221; 230
D. Junius Torquatus Silanus, 386
Jupiter, 103; 221; 230; 232-233; 379; 450;
459; 478; 492-495
Justin,448
Justinian, 499
Juvenal, 453
Macrinus, 109; 114; 155;466;477
Maecenas, 150;383
Magnentius, 37-38; 40-41; 108; 115; 297
Maioranus, 116
Marcianus, 104; 116
Marcus Antonius, 80; 92; 331; 335; 345;
351
Marcus Aurelius, 17; 77; 79; 84; 89-90; 92;
97; 105-107; 109; 112; 114; 151-152;
154-156; 165; 234; 237; 269-270; 393;
410;477
Marinus von Arelate, 296
M.MariusGratidianus,197
Maroboduus, 356
Mars, 11-14; 224; 227; 230-231; 233-234;
380;451;492;495
Martial, 368
Matemus von Agrippina, 296
Matthew, 20
Maurice, 498
Maxentius, 115; 296; 482; 484; 487; 489;
491-492; 494-495
Maximian, 115; 489; 492-493
Maximinus Daia, 107; 115; 482; 495
Maximinus Thrax, 88; 90; 114; 154; 270;
273-275; 466-480
Maximus, 116; 132; 273-274; 466; 467468; 470-472; 478
Maximus (philosopher), 105
Meletius of Antioch, 127
L. Mennnius Rufus, 258
MenanderRhetor, 152; 318-322
Mercury, 216; 224; 225; 227; 228; 230;
231;232;233;234;236
Messalina, 108
P. Messius Satuminus, 167
Miltiades of Rome, 296
Minerva, 225; 230; 231; 382; 386
Kresilas, 451; 452
Lactantius, 481-482; 484; 486-488; 490;
496
Laetus, 108
Laocoon,381
Leo I, 47; 116
Leo 11, 116
Libanius, 318-326
Liber Pater, 230
503
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L. Minicius Natalis, 302; 310; 317
L. Minicius Natalis Quadronius Verus,
302-317
Moses, 498; 500
Munatius Plancus, 80; 202
Pliny the Elder, 189; 190; 381; 383
Pliny the Younger, viii; 72; 172; 330; 350;
361; 368-369; 394
Plotina, 360
Plutarch, 149; 367; 450; 460
Pollux, 11-12; 15; 230
Polybius, 339; 406
Pompey, 30; 336; 339; 347;351; 380
T. Pomponius Victor, 163
Pontius Pilatus, 14-15; 282
Pontius Laelianus, 436
Porphyrius ofGaza, 129
Postumus, 40; 292; 292-293
Priscus, 105
M. Primus, 350
Probus, 88; 115;493
Procopius, 45; 294
Propertius,145;335;337
Pulcheria, 46
Pupienus, 103; 114; 154; 273; 467; 475480
N ectarius, 13 2
Nemesis, 230
Nepos, 116
Neptune, 225;230;233;436
Nerius Quadratus, 202
Nero, xi; 20; 23; 24; 26; 29; 75-76; 82-83;
88; 90-92; 94; 101; 108; 114; 192-193;
203; 206; 356; 358-360; 362-366; 370;
372; 376-388; 418; 425; 442-444; 454455; 457; 459;
Nerva, 11;24; 114;288;361;367;416
Nostia Cleopatra, 202
Nostia Dapbne, 202
Numa, 331
Numerianus, 103; 115
Octavia, 365
Octavian, see Augustus
Olybrius, 116
Olympias, 132
Oppius Statianus, 335
Orosius, 142
Otho, 26-27; 76; 83; 88; 92; 108, 112-114;
359-360; 370
Ovid, 13; 145-146; 337; 356
Quadronia, 310; 317
P. Quinctilius Varus, 333; 344; 357
Quintillus, 115
T. Quinctius Flamininus, 455
Rabbulas ofEdessa, 134
Ramesses 11, 395
Ramesses Ill, 395
Reticius of Augustodunum, 296
Roma, 240; 243; 458-465
Romulus Augustulus, 116
Paul, 500
Paul III Farnese, 192
Paul ofSamosata, 117-124; 136
Paulina, 470
Pausanias, 304-305; 445; 463
Pallas,386
Pedania, 314; 317
Cn. Pedanius Fuscus Salinator, 311; 313314
Pericles, 437; 450
Pertinax, 85-86; 94; 103-104; 113-114;
150; 153;269;477
Pescennius Niger, 86; 92; 167
P. Petronius, 349
Petronius Probus, 136
Philip of Macedon, 455
Philippus Arabs, 88; 90; 115
Philo, 88; 92; 96
Philostratus, 88; 96
Phraates, 336; 339; 350
Pisistratus,450
D. Pius Cassius, 264; 268
Plato, 173; 446; 449
Plautianus Alexandros, 258
Ti. Plautius Silvanus, 412
Plautus, 453
Sabas,126
C. Sallius Aristaenetus, 263-4; 264
Sallust, 138; 140
Saloninus,291-292
Samus,67-68
Sarapis, 312; 315
L. Sempronius Atratinus, 350
Seneca, 29; 88;93;96; 111;359;365
Septimius Severus, 7; 9; 24; 86; 90; 92; 95;
114; 150; 153; 155; 161; 167; 169; 234235; 237; 252-253; 270; 289; 324; 411;
472;476
Servilia Aucta, 202
Servius Tullius, 197; 199; 383
Seti 1,395
Severus (sculptor), 67-68
Severus Alexander, 9; 87; 92; 94; 114; 154;
270;378;466;471;473;476
Severus, Flavius Valerius, 115
Severus, Libius, 47; 116
Severus, Sulpicius, 131; 135
Sextus Pompeius, 208; 331
Silius Italicus, 258
504
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Silvanus, 163; 226; 227; 228; 230; 231;
233;234
Silvanus (army commander), 297-300
Sixtus V, 192
Socrates, 105; 111
Sol,230
Solon, 100
T. Statilius Taurus, 378; 386
Statius Annaeus, 111
Stalticius, 157; 164; 165; 167
Stephanos, 253
Strabo, 209; 332;338; 348;452
Suburanus, 102
Suetonius, 73; 76; 88; 89; 94; 102; 108;
194; 200; 334; 348; 366; 368; 382; 387;
436;453
Sulpicius Priscus, 255; 258
Synesius of Cyrene, 322
Valentinianll, 115; 294; 301; 490
Valentinian Ill, 47; 116; 301
Valerianus, 88; 115; 290; 293
L. Valerius, 199-200
Valerius Patruinus, 157; 158; 162; 164167; 169
Varro, 208
Vedius Pollio, 193
Velleius Paterculus, 284; 330; 333
Venus, 66; 230; 233; 331; 365; 380; 458465
Vespasian, 23; 27; 72; 76; 83; 94; 97; 106,
114; 189; 360; 369; 378; 381; 385; 418420;425;434
Vesta, 380
Vetranio, 37-40; 42-43
Victorinus, 293
Virgil, 31; 145; 335
M. Vipsanius Agrippa, 11; 56; 145; 207214;330;349;354;377
Vitellius, 27;34; 35; 76; 114;287;359;425
Vonones, 339
Vulcanus, 227; 230; 231; 233
Tacitus, 27; 48; 50-51; 72; 88; 96; 122;
163; 168; 193; 362-363; 367; 370; 377;
385-387;394;403;436;466
Tacitus, M. Claudius, 115
Tausius, 103
Terentius Varro, 352
Tertullian, 434
Tetricus, 293
TheodosiusI, 116; 132; 183;319;322;498
Theodosius 11, 99; 104; 116
Theophilus of Alexandria, 134
Theophilus of Antioch, 262
Tiberius, ix; 6; 10; 11; 13; 14; 15; 20; 8081; 92; 94; 114; 163; 166; 168; 242; 248;
284; 286; 341; 345; 348; 352; 354-357;
362;372;383;436
Tibullus, 145
Tigellinus, 367
Tigranes, 351
Tiridates, 350; 379
Tisamenes, 319-322
Titus, 23; 24; 30; 76; 114; 378; 382; 418420;454
Trajan, xi; 8; 10; 12; 14; 20; 23-24; 72; 77;
83-84; 88; 92; 94; 102; 107, 114; 168;
255; 258; 287-290; 310; 334; 360; 381;
392-424; 425; 433-434; 443-445; 453454; 456-457; 458-461
Trebonianus Gallus, 115
Tullius Tiro, 31
Tutankhamun, 396
Zenobia, 493
Zenodorus, 382
Zeus, 244; 264;267; 308;437; 450; 463
Zonaras, 292
Zosirnus, 292
Ulpian, 158; 159-161; 163; 165; 167; 169;
320
Ulpius Marcellus, 258
Ursicinus, 298-299
Valens, 46; 115; 294; 498
Valentinian, 46; 115; 227; 232; 234
505
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List of illustrations
Plates I
Fernando L6pez Sanchez - Left and right in Roman coins of the fourth
and fifth centuries A.D.
Fig. 1. Solidus. Vetranio. Siscia, 350, J.R. Cay6n, Compendio de las monetas
del imperio romano IV, Madrid 1985,2594 (la)
Fig. 2. Centenionalis. Vetranio. Siscia, 350-351, Cay6n IV, 2596 (8b)
Fig. 3. Centenionalis. Vetranio. Siscia. 350-351, Cay6n IV, 2597 (11a)
Fig. 4. Solidus. Constantius Gallus. 351, RICVIII, Thessalonica, n° 146, pI. 19
Fig. 5. Centenionalis. Constantius Gallus. Sinnium. 351, Cay6n IV, 2613 (35)
Fig. 6. Centenionalis. Constantius 11. Sirmium. 351, Cay6n IV, 2553 (318)
Fig. 7. Solidus. Constans. Siscia. 337. G. Depeyrot, Les monnaies d'or de
Constantin 11 aZenon (337-491) (Wetteren 1996) p118, nO 14.
Fig. 8. Solidus. Constantius 11. Siscia. 337, Cay6n IV, 2478 (57a)
Fig. 9. 2 Solidi. Constans. Aquilea. 340, Cay6n IV, 2403 (13)
Fig. 10. Solidus. Constantine I. Sirmium. 321. Cay6n Ill, 2135 (156)
Fig. 11. Solidus. Constantine I. Sirmium. 322-323. Cay6n IV, 2135 (155)
Fig. 12. Follis 19 mm. Licinius I. 317. Heraclea. Cay6n Ill, 2063 (139 b)
Fig. 13. Follis 19 mm. Constantine I. 326-328. Antioquia. Cay6n Ill, 2227
(478 b)
Fig. 14. Follis 19 mm. Constantius 11.328-329. ArIes. Cay6n Ill, 2545 (295 a)
Fig. 15. Y2 Centenionalis. Constans. Nicea. 330-335. Cay6n Ill, 2452 (182).
Fig. 16. Solidus. Crispus. Trier. 324. Cay6n Ill, 2297 (21 b)
Fig. 17. Miliarensis. Constantius 11. ArIes. 355. Cay6n IV, 2511 (164)
Fig. 18. Heavy Miliarensis. Julianus. ArIes. 355. Cay6n IV, 2627 (30)
Fig. 19. Miliarensis. Constantius Gallus. Antiochia. 351. Cay6n IV, 2607 (14b)
Fig. 20. Miliarensis. Julianus. Sirmium. 361. Cay6n IV, 2628 (33)
Fig. 21. Solidus. Julianus. ArIes. 360-361. Cay6n IV, 2622 (15a)
Fig. 22. Solidus. Julianus. Sirmium. 361-363. Cay6n IV, 2624 (1811)
Fig. 23. Solidus. Jovianus. Sirmium. 363-364. Cay6n IV, 2658 (8b)
Fig. 24. Centenionalis. Constantius 11. 348-350. Cay6n IV, 2552 (314b)
Fig. 25. Centenionalis. Constantius. Nicea. 348-350. Cay6n IV, 2550 (306c)
Fig. 26. Solidus. Valentinianus. Trier. 367-368. Cay6n IV, 2677 (28b)
Fig. 27. Solidus. Pulcheria. Constantinople. 421-454. Cay6n IV, 2919 (3 ft)
Fig. 28. Solidus. Avitus. ArIes. 455-456. RICX, n° 2401 fn, pI 55
Fig. 29. Solidus. Valentinianus Ill. Milan. 425-455. Cay6n IV, (5b)
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Plates 11
Henner von Hesberg - Romisches Ornament als Sprache. Die Sanfte
gegenwart der Macht
Fig. la. La Turbie, Siegesdenkmal des Augustus. Fonnige 1949, op.cit.
(Anm.19), 60 Abb. 7
Fig. lb. Narbonne, Friese von Grabbauten. Joulia 1988, op.cit. (Anm.9), Taf.
8 und 35
Fig. 2a. Padua, Museo Civico, Grabmal der Volumnier. Olivier 1989, op.cit.
(Anm.50), 65 Abb. 24
Fig. 2b. Rom, Casa dei Grifi. Rizzo 1936, op.cit. (Anm.42), 13 Abb. 12.
Fig. 3. Rom, Museo Nazionale Romano, Simakronung aus Terrakotta.
Rohden-Winnefeld 1911, op.cit. (Anm.43), 227 Abb. 459
Fig. 4. Alesia, Giebel einer Aedikula und eines Tempels. Olivier 1989,
op.cit. (Anm.50), 66 Abb. 26
Fig. 5. Mainz, Grabstein des Cn. Musius. Domaszewski 1885, op.cit.
(Anm.80), 29 Abb. 3.
Fig. 6a. Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemma Augustea, Capricorn. J.
Arneth, Die antiken Cameen des k.k. Munz- und Antiken-Cabinettes
in Wien (Wien 1849), Taf. 1
Fig. 6b. Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Actium-Kameo, Ruckseite von
6a. Dwyer op.cit. (Anm.66), Taf. #
Fig. 6c. dass., Detail der Vorderseite. Arneth, op.cit. (Abb. 6a.), Taf. 12
Fig. 7a. Rom, Antiquarium Comunale, Antefix. Anselmino 1977, op.cit.
(Anm.66), Taf. IV
Fig. 7b. Rom, Antiquarium Comunale, Antefix. Anselmino 1977, op.cit.
(Anm.66), TafXN
Fig. 8a. Mainz, Legionslager, Giebel. Frenz 1992, op.cit. (Anm.54), 23 Abb.
17
Fig. 8b. Carnuntum, Fahnenheiligtum des Legionslagers, Giebel. Frenz
1992, op.cit. (Anm.54), 23 Abb. 18
Fig. 8c. Mainz, Keilsteine eines Bogens mit der Wiedergabe von
Capricornen. Frenz 1992, op.cit. (Anm.54), 25 Abb. 20
Fig. 9a. Parma, Fragment eines Giebels von einem Grabbau mit Capricornen
- nach Corradi-Cervi 1949, op.cit. (Anm. 68)
Fig. 9b. Koln, Romisch-Gennanisches Museum, Giebel einer Grabfassade
mit Capricornen. Nach Borgers 1977, op.cit. (Anm.76)
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Plates III
Concepci6n Neira Faleiro - La plenitudo potestatis e la veneratio
imperatoris come principio dogmatico della politica della tarda
antichita. Un esempio chiaro: la notitia dignitatum
Fig. 1. Diuiva Prouidentia, Oxoniensis. Canonicianus. Misc. 378, Bodleian
Library, Oxford, f.129v.
Fig. 2. Diuina Electio, Oxoniensis. Cononicianus. Misc. 378, Bodleian
Libary, Oxford, f.13Or.
Plates IV
Andrew Wallace-Hadrill- The Streets of Rome as a Representation of
Imperial Power
Fig. 1. The regiones of imperial Rome. Added by the editors. Source: G. de
Kleijn, The water supply 0/ ancient Rome. City, area, water and
population, Amsterdam 2001. © Gieben, Amsterdam.
Plates V
Paula Botteri - Ancyra, Antiochia e Apollonia. La rappresentazione
delle Res Gestae Divi Augusti
Fig. 1. Il sito dell'acropoli antica (Botteri)
Fig. 2. Il tempio di Augusto e Roma ad Ankara (Botteri)
Fig. 3. L'iscrizione latina (Botteri)
Fig. 4. L'iscrizione greca (Botteri)
Fig. 5. Antiochia di Pisidia: l'acquedotto (Botteri)
Fig. 6. Tempio romano ad Antiochia (Botteri)
Fig. 7. Ricostruzione ideale del propylon (M. Taslialan)
Plates VI
Jon Coulston - Overcoming the Barbarian: Depictions of Rome's
Enemies in Trajanic Monumental Art
Fig. 1. Campidoglio balustrade, Rome. Trophy sculpture in the round.
Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 2. Trajan's Column, Rome. Pedestal, north-eastern side. Detail of
'draco' standard (centre) surrounded by scale armour, helmets, oval
shields and weaponry. Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 3. Trajan's Column, Rome. Pedestal, south-eastern side. Detail of
double-handed/alx. Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 4. Forum Traiani, Rome. Colossal statue ofDacian prisoner.
Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
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Fig. 5. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene XXIV. Auxiliary soldiers presenting
severed Dacian heads to Trajan. Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 6. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene XXIV. Combat between Romans and
Dacians. Note auxiliary soldier gripping the hair of a severed Dacian
head in his teeth (lower right). Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 7. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene XXVII. Detail of heads of German
emissaries with nodus hairstyle. Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 8. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene XXXI. Dacians and armoured
Sarmatians crossing a river in confusion. Note 'draco' standard (top
centre). Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 9. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene XXXVII. Armoured Sarmatian
cavalry. Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 10. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene LVI. Roman citizen troops
constructing fieldworks. Note severed Dacian heads on poles (upper
right). Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 11. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene LXXII. Detail ofDacians with
single-handedfalces. Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 12. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene C. Barbarian emissary groups
meeting with Trajan. Left to right: men in long tunic and cap; in
kaftan; mixed bare-chested and nodus with others in long tunic and
cap. Photograph: Cichorius 1896-1900.
Fig. 13. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scenes CXX-XXI. Dacian mass-suicide(?).
Photograph: Cichorius 1896-1900.
Fig. 14. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene CXLV. Suicide ofDecebalus.
Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 15. Great Trajanic Frieze, Arch of Constantine, Rome. Praetorian
infantry presenting severed Dacian heads to Trajan. Photograph:
J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 16. Tropaeum Traiani, Adamclissi (Romania). Metope relief depicting
combat between a Roman legionary and a standing barbarian with
double-handedfalx, and a seated German with nodus hairstyle.
Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 17. Tropaeum Traiani, Adamclissi (Romania). Metope relief depicting a
Roman legionary in combat around a wagon with a man wearing
trousers and cap, and wielding a double-handed falx, with a woman
and infant nearby. Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 18. Tropaeum Traiani, Adamclissi (Romania). Metope relief depicting a
Roman soldier between two barbarian prisoners wearing long tunic,
trousers and cap. Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
Fig. 19. Tropaeum Traiani, Adamclissi (Romania). Crenellation relief
depicting a bound barbarian wearing kaftan and boots. Photograph:
Florescu 1965.
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Plates VII
Caroline Vout - A Revision of Hadrian's Portraiture
Fig. 1. Statue of Hadrian in a himation from Cyrene. © The British Museum
Fig. 2. Statue of Hadrian from Vaison. Cast from the Museo della Civilta
Romana. Photograph C. Vout
Fig. 3. Statue of Hadrian from Hierapytna in Crete. Cast from the Museum
della Civilta Romana. Photograph C. Vout
Plates VIII
Karen Haegemans - Representation and Perception of Imperial Power
in AD 238. The Numismatic Evidence
Fig. 1. Maximinus, Rome, RlC 1 (ANS 1944.100.7117)
Fig. 2. Maximinus, Rome, RlC 85 (ANS 1944.100.10459)
Fig. 3. Paulina, Rome, RlC 3 (ANS 1944.100.10614)
Fig. 4. Maximus, Rome, RlC 13 (ANS 1935.117.96)
Fig. 5. Maximus, Alexandria, D.4650IM.3217 (ANS 1944.100.64880)
Fig. 6. Maximus, Alexandria D.4645IM.3268 (ANS 1944.100.64889)
Fig. 7. Maximinus, Deultum (ANS 1948.19.541)
Fig. 8. Maximinus, Eresus (ANS 1944.100.44330)
Fig. 9. Maximinus, Elaea (private collection)
Fig. 10. Pupienus, Rome, RlC 22a (ANS 1944.100.13627)
Fig. 11. Balbinus, Rome, RlC 16 (ANS 1001.1.11035)
Fig. 12. Pupienus, Tarsus (ANS 1944.100.54603)
Fig. 13. Balbinus, Tarsus (ANS 1944.100.54600)
Paul Erdkamp, O. Hekster, G. de Kleijn, Stephan T.A.M. Mols, and Lukas de Blois - 978-90-04-40163-1
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PLATES I
Fig 2
Fig 1
Fig 4
Fig 3
Fig 6
Fig 5
Fig. 1. Solidus. Vetranio. Siscia, 350, lR. Cayon, Compendio de las monetas
del imperio romano IV, Madrid 1985, 2594 (1 a)
Fig. 2. Centenionalis. Vetranio. Siscia, 350-351, Cayon IV, 2596 (8b)
Fig.3. Centenionalis. Vetranio. Siscia. 350-351, Cayon IV, 2597 (11 a)
Fig. 4. Solidus. Constantius Gallus. 351, RlCVIII, Thessalonica, nO 146, pI. 19
Fig. 5. Centenionalis. Constantius Gallus. Sirrnium. 351, Cayon IV, 2613 (35)
Fig. 6. Centenionalis. Constantius n. Sirrnium. 351, Cayon IV, 2553 (318)
513
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PLATES I
Fig 7
Fig 8
Fig 10
Fig 9
Fig 12
Fig 11
Fig. 7. Solidus. Constans. Siscia. 337. G. Depeyrot, Les monnaies d'or de
Constantin 11 cl Zenon (337-491) (Wetteren 1996) pI 18, n° 14.
Fig. 8. Solidus. Constantius 11. Siscia. 337, Cayon IV, 2478 (57a)
Fig. 9. 2 Solidi. Constans. Aquilea. 340, Cayon IV, 2403 (13)
Fig. 10. Solidus. Constantine I. Sirmium. 321. Cayon Ill, 2135 (156)
Fig. 11. Solidus. Constantine I. Sirmium. 322-323. Cayon IV, 2135 (155)
Fig. 12. Follis 19 mm. Licinius I. 317. Heraclea. Cayon III, 2063 (139 b)
514
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PLATES I
Fig 13
Fig 14
Fig 15
Fig 16
(;,rf Ir ~
~ . ~ ; ~,\
:~
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Fig 18
Fig 17
Fig. 13. Follis 19 mm. Constantine 1. 326-328. Antioquia. Cayon Ill, 2227
(478 b)
Fig. 14. Follis 19 mm. Constantius II. 328-329. ArIes. Cayon Ill, 2545 (295 a)
Fig. 15.12 Centenionalis. Constans. Nicea. 330-335. Cayon Ill, 2452 (182).
Fig. 16. Solidus. Crispus. Trier. 324. Cayon Ill, 2297 (21 b)
Fig. 17. Miliarensis. Constantius II. ArIes. 355. Cayon IV, 2511 (164)
Fig. 18. Heavy Miliarensis. lulianus. ArIes. 355. Cayon IV, 2627 (30)
515
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PLATES I
Fig 20
Fig 19
Fig 22
Fig 21
Fig 23
Fig 24
Fig 25
Fig 26
Fig. 19. Miliarensis. Constantius Gallus. Antiochia. 351. Cayon IV, 2607 (14b)
Fig. 20. Miliarensis. JuIianus. Sirmium. 361. Cayon IV, 2628 (33)
Fig. 21. Solidus. JuIianus. ArIes. 360-361. Cayon IV, 2622 (15a)
Fig. 22. Solidus. Julianus. Sinnium. 361-363. Cayon IV, 2624 (1811)
Fig. 23. Solidus. Jovianus. Sinnium. 363-364. Cayon IV, 2658 (8b)
Fig. 24. Centenionalis. Constantius H. 348-350. Cay6n IV, 2552 (314b)
Fig. 25. Centenionalis. Constantius. Nicea. 348-350. Cayon IV, 2550 (306c)
Fig. 26. Solidus. VaIentinianus. Trier. 367-368. Cayon IV, 2677 (28b)
516
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PLATES I
Fig 28
Fig 27
Fig 29
Fig. 27. Solidus. Pulcheria. Constantinople. 421-454. Cay6n IV, 2919 (3a)
Fig. 28. Solidus. Avitus. ArIes. 455-456. RIC X, nO 2401 fu, pi 55
Fig. 29. Solidus. Valentinianus Ill. Milan. 425-455. Cay6n IV, (5b)
517
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PLATES
11
5
i~1
0
nN
'"
Hg
~
~
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~I
=
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1-18
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0
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Fig. la. La Turbie, SiegesdenkmaI des Augustus. Formige 1949, op.cit.
(Anm.19), 60 Abb. 7
Fig. lb. Narbonne, Friese von Grabbauten. JouIia 1988, op.cit. (Anm.9), Taf.
8 und 35
518
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PLATES 11
Fig. 2a. Padua, Museo Civico, Grabmal der Volumnier. Olivier 1989, op.cit.
(Anm.50), 65 Abb. 24
Fig. 2b. Rom, Casa dei Grifi. Rizzo 1936, op.cit. (Anm.42), 13 Abb. 12.
519
Paul Erdkamp, O. Hekster, G. de Kleijn, Stephan T.A.M. Mols, and Lukas de Blois - 978-90-04-40163-1
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PLATES
11
Fig. 3. Rom, Museo Nazionale Romano, Simakronung aus Terrakotta.
Rohden-Winnefeld 1911, op.cit. (Anm.43), 227 Abb. 459
520
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PLATES
11
Fig. 4. Alesia, Giebel einer Aedikula und eines Tempels. Olivier 1989,
op.cit. (Anm.50), 66 Abb. 26
521
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PLATES
11
Fig. 5. Mainz, Grabstein des en. Musius. Domaszewski 1885, op.cit.
(Anm.80), 29 Abb. 3.
522
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PLATES
11
Fig. 6a. Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemma Augustea, Capricorn. J.
Arneth, Die antiken Cameen des k.k. Miinz- und Antiken-Cabinettes
in Wien (Wien 1849), Taf. 1
Fig. 6b. Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Actium-Kameo, Rtickseite von
6a. Dwyer op.cit. (Anrn.66), Taf. #
Fig. 6c. dass., Detail der Vorderseite. Ameth, op.cit. (Abb. 6a.), Taf. 12
523
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PLATES
11
Fig. 7a. Rom, Antiquarium Comunale, Antefix. Anselmino 1977, op.cit.
(Anm.66), Taf. IV
Fig. 7b . Rom, Antiquarium Comunale, Antefix. Anselmino 1977, op.cit.
(Anm.66), Taf XIV
524
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PLATES
11
~
o
so
100
ISO
200
250 cm
Fig. 8a. Mainz, Legionslager, Giebel. Frenz 1992, op.cit. (Anm.54), 23 Abb.
17
Fig. 8b. Carnuntum, Fahnenheiligtum des Legionslagers, Giebel. Frenz
1992, op.cit. (Anm.54), 23 Abb. 18
Fig. 8c. Mainz, Keilsteine eines Bogens mit der Wiedergabe von
Capricomen. Frenz 1992, op.cit. (Anm.54), 25 Abb. 20
525
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PLATES 11
~
o
50
100
150
200
250 cm
Fig. 9a. Panna, Fragment eines Giebels von einem Grabbau mit Capricomen
- nach Corradi-Cervi 1949, op.cit. (Anm. 68)
Fig. 9b. Koln, Romisch-Gennanisches Museum, Giebel einer Grabfassade
mit Capricomen. Nach Borgers 1977, op.cit. (Anm.76)
526
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PLATES
III
Fig. 1. Diuiva Prouidentia, Oxoniensis. Canonieianus. Mise. 378, Bodl'eian
Library, Oxford, f.129v.
527
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PLATES
III
\.
Fig. 2. Diuina Eleetio, Oxoniensis. Cononieianus. Mise. 378, Bodleian
Libary, Oxford, f.130r.
528
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PLATES
IV
I
r
/~
n
ne
J[
-)
Fig. 1. The regiones of imperial Rome. Added by the editors. Source: G. de
Kleijn, The water supply of ancient Rome. City, area, water and
population , Amsterdam 2001. © Gieben, Amsterdam.
529
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PLATES
V
Fig. 1. Il sito dell'acropoli antica (Botteri)
530
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PLATES
V
Fig. 2. Il tempio di Augusto e Roma ad Ankara (Botteri)
531
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PLATES V
Fig. 3. L'iscrizione latina (Botteri)
532
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PLATES V
Fig. 4. L'iscriziane greca (Batteri)
533
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PLATES V
Fig. 5. Antiochia di Pisidia: l'acquedotto (Botteri)
534
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PLATES
V
Fig. 6. Tempio romano ad Antiochia (Botteri)
535
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PLATES V
- ----==---=..= ..
~-.
Fig. 7. Ricostruzione ideale del propylon (M. Taslialan)
536
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 1. Campidoglio balustrade, Rome. Trophy sculpture in the round.
Photograph: I.C.N. Coulston.
537
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 2. Trajan's Column, Rome. Pedestal, north-eastern side. Detail of
'draco' standard (centre) surrounded by scale armour, helmets, oval
shields and weaponry. Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
538
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 3. Trajan's Column, Rome. Pedestal, south-eastern side. Detail of
double-handed/alx. Photograph: lC.N. Coulston.
539
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 4. Forum Traiani, Rome. Colossal statue of Dacian prisoner.
Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
540
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 5. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene XXIV. Auxiliary soldiers presenting
severed Dacian heads to Trajan. Photograph: J.C.N. CouIston.
541
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 6. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene XXIV. Combat between Romans and
Dacians. Note auxiliary soldier gripping the hair of a severed Dacian
head in his teeth (lower right). Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
542
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 7. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene XXVII. Detail of heads of Gennan
emissaries with nodus hairstyle. Photograph: lC.N. Coulston.
543
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 8. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene XXXI. Dacians and armoured
Sarmatians crossing a river in confusion. Note 'draco' standard (top
centre). Photograph: lC.N. Coulston.
544
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 9. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene XXXVII. Armoured Sarmatian
cavalry. Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
545
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 10. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene LVI. Roman citizen troops
constructing fieldworks. Note severed Dacian heads on poles (upper
right). Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
546
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 11. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene LXXII. Detail of Dacians with
single-handedfalces. Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
547
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PLATES
VI
~
Fig. 12. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene C. Barbarian emissary groups
meeting with Trajan. Left to right: men in long tunic and cap; in
kaftan; mixed bare-chested and nodus with others in long tunic and
cap. Photograph: Cichorius 1896-1900.
548
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 13. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scenes CXX-XXI. Dacian mass-suicide(?).
Photograph: Cichorius 1896-1900.
549
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 14. Trajan's Column, Rome. Scene CXLV. Suicide of Decebalus.
Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
550
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 15. Great Trajanic Frieze, Arch of Constantine, Rome. Praetorian
infantry presenting severed Dacian heads to Trajan. Photograph:
J.C.N. CouIston.
551
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 16. Tropaeum Traiani, Adamclissi (Romania). Metope relief depicting
combat between a Roman legionary and a standing barbarian with
double-handed/alx, and a seated German with nodus hairstyle.
Photograph: lC.N. Coulston.
552
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 17. Tropaeum Traiani, Adamclissi (Romania). Metope relief depicting a
Roman legionary in combat around a wagon with a man wearing
trousers and cap, and wielding a double-handed/alx, with a woman
and infant nearby. Photograph: J.C.N. CouIston.
553
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PLATES VI
Fig. 18. Tropaeum Traiani, Adamclissi (Romania). Metope relief depicting a
Roman soldier between two barbarian prisoners wearing long tunic,
trousers and cap. Photograph: J.C.N. Coulston.
554
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PLATES
VI
Fig. 19. Tropaeum Traiani, Adamclissi (Romania). Crenellation relief
depicting a bound barbarian wearing kaftan and boots. Photograph:
Florescu 1965.
555
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PLATES
VII
Fig. 1. Statue of Hadrian in a himation from Cyrene. © The British Museum
556
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PLATES
VII
Fig. 2. Statue of Hadrian from Vaison. Cast from the Museo della Civilta
Romana. Photograph C. Vout
557
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PLATES
VII
Fig. 3. Statue of Hadrian from Hierapytna in Crete. Cast from the Museum
della Civiita Romana. Photograph C. Vout
558
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PLATES
.~;:-
.~
-/;
'.- ~
. , '. ,0-
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.
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-,.- -
~:
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-. """'
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.....
Fig. 1. Maximinus, Rome, RIC 1 (ANS 1944.100.7117)
Fig. 2. Maximinus, Rome, RIC 85 (ANS 1944.100.10459)
559
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PLATES
Fig. 3. Paulina, Rome,
VIII
ruc 3 (ANS
Fig. 4. Maximus, Rome,
1944.100.10614)
ruc 13 (ANS 1935.117.96)
560
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PLATES
VIII
Fig. 5. Maximus, Alexandria, D.4650IM.3217 CANS 1944.100.64880)
Fig. 6. Maximus, Alexandria D.4645IM.3268 CANS 1944.100.64889)
561
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Fig. 8. Maximinus, Eresus (ANS 1944.100.44330)
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Fig. 9. Maximinus, Elaea (private collection)
Fig. 10. Pupienus, Rome,
RIe 22a (ANS
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Fig. 11 . Balbinus, Rome, rue 16 (ANS 1001 .1.11035)
Fig. 12. Pupienus, Tarsus (ANS 1944.100.54603)
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Fig. 13. Balbinus, Tarsus (ANS 1944.100.54600)
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Gerda de Kleijn