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The Romans
Aquila – eagle – symbol of Roman legion (army soldier)
SPQR – Senatus Populusque Romanesque
The Roman World
Roman History •
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Rome was founded by Romulus on April 21, 753 BCE and continued to grow over a period of 900 years to become the capital of a great empire. 2 periods to Roman history:
– Republic (509‐27 BCE)
– Empire: (27 BCE – 476 AD) & (27 BCE – 1453 AD). The Roman Empire was a "multicultural" entity, stretching from Mesopotamia in the east to Spain in the west, and from North Africa in the south to Britain in the north
During the Republic, the Romans developed a special interest in and taste for Greek art which continued through out the Empire.
Architecture, Engineering, City Planning: – Major Roman innovations: concrete, arch, amphitheater
– Column shafts are one piece (instead of stacked drums)
– Temple architecture shows a blending of Etruscan and Greek features, and emphasizes the front of the building
– Roman city planning: square plan with 2 main avenues that cross, 4 gates
Roman Society
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Patrician and Plebeian were the two orders, or classes, of free residents in ancient Rome. – The patricians were a hereditary aristocracy. Among the most eminent patrician gentes
(clans) were the Fabii, Cornelii, Julii, and Claudii. – The plebeians were a varied group—including native peasants, laborers, and merchants, and residents of Italian states absorbed by Rome. They greatly outnumbered the patricians.
– Originally only the patricians could vote or hold public office. Intermarriage between the orders were forbidden. •
Slaves during the Roman Empire were foreigners and Roman slavery was not based on race. Slaves in Rome might include prisoners of war, sailors captured and sold by pirates, or slaves bought outside Roman territory. – Slaves worked everywhere – in private households, in mines and factories, and on farms. They also worked for city governments on engineering projects such as roads, aqueducts and buildings. As a result, they merged easily into the population. – Manumission – the ability of slaves to be freed. Manumission did not give freed men full Roman citizenship and they were not allowed to hold office. Roman Society
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Women in Rome were not regarded as equal to men before the law. They received only a basic education, and were subject to the authority of a man. – Traditionally, this was their father before marriage, and switched to the husband after marriage; husband had the legal rights over the children. – By the time of Augustus, however, women with three children (and freedwomen with four) became legally independent, a status known as sui iuris (of one’s own laws)
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Soldiers ‐ The Roman Empire was created and controlled by its soldiers. At the core of the army were its legions, which were without equal in their training, discipline and fighting ability.
– By the time Augustus came to power, the army contained 60 legions. The minimum term of service for a soldier during the first century AD was twenty years.
Roman Citizenship
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Citizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free‐born individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance.
– A male Roman citizen enjoyed a wide range of privileges and protections defined in detail by the Roman state. – Roman women had a limited form of citizenship. They were not allowed to vote or stand for civil or public office. – Freedmen, freed slaves, were granted a limited form of Roman citizenship. Freedmen could later attain full Roman citizenship.
– Slaves were considered property and had only very limited rights as granted by statute after the establishment of the Principate (27 BC – 284 AD). The toga was the characteristic garment of the Roman citizen
Model of the city of Rome during the early 4th century CE
2) Circus Maximus. 3) Palatine Hill, 5) Pantheon, 6) Column of Trajan, 7) Forum of Trajan 10) Forum of Augustus,
11) Forum Romanum, 12) Basilica Nova, 13) Arch of Titus, 15) Arch of Constantine, 17) Colosseum. 7
Roman Religion
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In Latin, religio means “something that binds.”
Emperors understood the importance of religion to the lives of the Romans and often used it for their own ends. •
Augustus appointed himself as the chief priest – or Pontifex Maximus – and used the appearance of Halley’s Comet to claim that he was, himself, the son of a god. •
State Worship
– Romans also had a set of public gods, such as Jupiter and Mars. State worship was much more formal: colleges of priests paid tribute to these gods on behalf of Rome itself. •
Cult worship:
– Each god needed an image – usually a statue or relief in stone or bronze – and an altar or temple at which to offer the prayers and sacrifices.
– Approval from the gods did not depend on a person’s behavior, but on perfectly accurate observance of religious rituals. Roman Religion
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Judaism in Ancient Rome Communities of Jews existed in cities throughout the Roman Empire for centuries. Written records tell us of brutal treatment in Alexandria and a revolt in Judaea led to the destruction of the temple
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Rise of Christianity New religion is established in the 1st c AD. Jesus’ message of eternal life and hope was spread across the empire by missionaries such as Paul. – Although Christians in Rome suffered persecution, Christianity eventually conquers Rome itself. Temples
Temple of Vesta (?), Tivoli, Italy, early first century BCE
Temple of Portunus (Temple of “Fortuna Virilis”), Rome, Italy, ca. 75 BCE
Sculpture and Republican Verism
Head of an old man, from Osimo,
mid‐first century BCE
Ancestry and gens in the Roman world.
In the funerary relief, figures are shown bust‐
length (cut off at the base of the chest) in the Etruscan tradition.
Gens ‐ refers to a family, individuals who shared the same name and claimed descent from a common ancestor. ‐ important to social structure as an individual's social standing depended on the gens to which he belonged. Certain gentes (pl) were considered patrician, others plebeian, while some had both branches. The importance of membership in a gens
declined considerably in the Empire.
Man with portrait busts of his ancestors, from Rome, late first century BCE
Portrait of a Roman general, from the Sanctuary of Hercules, Tivoli, Italy, ca. 75‐50 BCE
Art for Former Slaves
Funerary relief with portraits of the Gessii, from Rome(?), Italy, ca. 30 BCE
• Freed slaves aspired to assimilate into Roman society
• Commissioned funerary work that reflected the elevation of their social status as freed slaves
• Unlike works commissioned by aristocrats, the work for former slaves did not strictly adhere to the classical rules of illustration established by Greek art
Men of Rome
Denarius with portrait of Julius Caesar, 44 BCE. Head of Pompey the Great, mid‐first‐century Silver
CE copy from the Via Salaria, Rome, Italy, of a portrait of ca. 55–50 BCE
Pompeii
Brawl in the Pompeii amphitheater, wall painting from House I,3,23, Pompeii, Italy, ca. 60–79 CE. Fresco
Concrete Construction
(a) barrel vault
(c) fenestrated sequence of groin vaults
(b) groin vault
(d) hemispherical dome with oculus Restored view and plan of a typical Roman house of the Late Republic and Early Empire (1) fauces, (2) atrium, (3) impluvium, (4) cubiculum, (5) ala, (6) tablinum, (7) triclinium, (8) peristyle.
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(1) Atrium ‐ the main or central room of an ancient Roman house, open to the sky at the center and usually having a pool for the collection of rain water.
(3) Impluvium – rain (fr); a pool in the atrium or peristyle
(6) Tablinium – board room (latin); the office in a Roman house, the centre for business where clients were received. The walls were richly decorated with fresco pictures, and busts of the family were arranged on pedestals on the two sides of the room.
(7) Triclinium – to lean, recline (latin); a dining room furnished with a couch extending around three sides of a table used by the ancient Romans for reclining at meals (8) Peristyle – pillar (grk); an open space enclosed by a colonnade surrounding a building or court First Style
Also called Masonry Style; ca. 200–60 B.C, depicts different kinds of stone paneling, particularly marble of various colors and types, on painted plaster .
First Style wall painting in the fauces of the Samnite House, Herculaneum, Italy, late second century BCE.
ca. 80‐15 B.C., artists imitated architectural forms purely by pictorial means
Second Style
Dionysiac
mystery frieze, Second Style wall paintings in Room 5 of the Villa of the Mysteries,Po
mpeii, Italy, ca. 60–50 BCE.
Second Style wall paintings (general view left, and detail of tholos right) from cubiculum M of the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor, Boscoreale, Italy, ca. 50–40 BCE. Cubiculum ‐ A small room, especially a bedroom, typically those small rooms found on the upper floor of a Roman house
Gardenscape, Second Style wall painting, from the Villa of Livia, Primaporta, Italy, ca. 30–20 BCE
Greek vs. Roman Landscapes
Third Style
ca. 20 B.C.– 20 A.D.; A single monochrome background—such as red, black, or white—
with elaborate architectural and vegetal details. Small figural and landscape scenes appear in the center of the wall as a part of, not the dominant element in, the overall decorative scheme.
Detail of a Third Style wall painting, from cubiculum 15 of the Villa of Agrippa Postumus, Boscotrecase, Italy, ca. 10 BCE
Fourth Style
ca. 20–79 A.D, revives large‐scale narrative painting and panoramic vistas, while retaining the architectural details of the Third Style. Also, a textile like quality dominates and tendrils seem to connect all the elements
Fourth Style wall paintings in Room 78 of the Domus
Aurea (Golden House) of Nero, Rome, Italy, 64–68 CE. Fourth Style wall paintings in the Ixion Room (triclinium P) of the House of the Vettii, Pompeii, Italy, ca. 70–79 CE. Wall Mosaics
Neptune and Amphitrite, wall mosaic in the summer triclinium of the House of Neptune and Amphitrite, Herculaneum, Italy, ca. 62–79 CE
62–79 CE
300 BCE
310 BCE
Portrait Painting
Portrait of a husband and wife, wall painting from House VII,2,6, Pompeii, Italy,
ca. 70–79 CE
Woman with stylus and writing tablet, from a house in Insula Occidentale VI, Pompeii, Italy, ca. 55–70 CE
Still Life
Still life with peaches, detail of a Fourth Style wall painting, from Herculaneum, Italy, ca. 62–79 CE
Pax Romana, Augustus & the Empire
• Pax Romana: meaning “the peace of Rome”, lasted from in 27 BC –
180 AD, lasting 207 years. (Pax Augusta)
• It was a long period of relative peace and minimal expansion by military force experienced by the Roman Empire
– inhabitants of conquered lands were not automatically considered Roman citizens but they were subject to Roman laws and paid Roman taxes. Some of these paid for public utilities, like roads and waterworks
– While local inhabitants behaved themselves and paid their taxes, they were allowed to continue with their local customs and religions, as long as these did not directly violate or compromise Roman law. • The arts and architecture, commerce and economy flourished.
Modeled on Classical Greek sculptures, the ruler’s
portrait depicts him as a never aging son
of a god. It also shows the emperor in armor in his role as general.
Idealized Portraits
Women (usually the wives, daughters, mothers or sisters of emperors) were often depicted as Greek goddesses but also wore the latest hair coiffures.
Portrait bust of Livia, from Arsinoe, Egypt, early 1st c CE
Portrait of Augustus as general, from Primaporta, Italy, early 1st c CE copy of a bronze original of ca. 20 BCE
Roman
Classical Greek
Etruscan
Portrait of Augustus, early 1st c
Aule Metele, early 1st c. Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear Bearer),
Roman marble copy, original ca. 450 BC
Ara Pacis Augustae
Rome, Italy, 13–9 BCE
Altar of Augustan
Peace
Female personification (Tellus?), panel from the east facade of the Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome, Italy, 13–9 BCE The central figure is Tellus, or Mother Earth, although earlier she was identified as a personification for Peace, bestowing prosperity, or as Ceres, goddess of harvests. The two children on her lap are interpreted as the nephews/heirs to Augustus, Gaius and Lucius Caesar.
To Tellus’ right is a representation of the beneficial earth, to the right is a representation of the sea winds.
Procession of the imperial family, detail of the south frieze of the Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome, Italy, 13–9 BCE
Meant to make a political and artistic statement. On (the north and) south sides of the enclosure, priests, cult attendants, magistrates, and historical men, women and children are crowded into rows of figures. The procession is located on both sides of the exterior, therefore, it is one single procession with the figures walking toward the western (main) entrance of the Ara Pacis
Augustan influence outside the city of Rome
Aqueduct, Pont‐du‐Gard, Nîmes, France, ca. 16 BCE.
(above)
Maison Carrée, Nîmes, France, ca. 1–10 CE. Greek Corinthian columns, similar to Etruscan
temples
Nero’s Golden House
Built near the Roman Forum, it had
rooms decorated in fresco in the Fourth Style, marble panels,
gold and precious stones (including pearls). Water was available in the baths, the oculus illuminated all the rooms.
SEVERUS and CELER, section (left) and plan (right) of the octagonal hall of the Domus Aurea (Golden House) of Nero, Rome, Italy, 64–68 CE
Colosseum
Began under Vespasian, over the site of Nero’s Domus
Aurea, it was completed under Titus.
Façade has 4 bands with large arches on the lower 3 levels.
Ornamental Greek orders frame the arches from the ground up: Tuscan, Ionic, Corinthian. Greek: columns
Roman: arches
Held 50,000 spectators, took roughly 8 years to build.
Aerial view of the Colosseum
(Flavian Amphitheater), Rome, Italy, ca. 70–80 CE
The Colosseum in a 1757 engraving by Giovanni Battista Piranesi
2010
Verism in the Empire
Portrait of Vespasian, ca. 75–79 CE
Receding hair lines, aging/leathery skin
Portrait bust of a Flavian woman, from Rome, Italy, ca. 90 CE Idealized beauty through fashion (vs. goddess). Use a drill (not chisel) to create the corkscrew curls.
Triumphal arch – made to commemorate Roman victories, buildings of roads and bridges, etc.
Engaged columns; Composite type columns (Ionic volutes/Corinthian acanthus leaves); Victories (winged women) fill the spandrels; dedicatory inscription on the attic
honoring the god Titus, son of the god Vespasian.
Roman emperors were deified after death.
Those who suffered damnatio memeriae
(condemnation of memory)
had statues torn down and names erased from
public monuments.
Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy, after 81 CE
Spoils of Jerusalem, relief panel from the Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy, after 81 CE
Roman soldiers carrying the spoils of war. Trying to create the illusion of movement. Sculptors are no longer working in low relief style of Ara Pacis but prefer high relief.
Triumph of Titus, relief panel from the Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy, after 81 CE.
Victory rides with Titus , placing a wreath on his head. Bare‐chested individual below them is Honor. Valor (female) leads the horses. Transforms the relief from a record of Titus’s victory into a celebration of imperial virtues.
Allegorical ‐ symbolic work: a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically expressing a deeper, often spiritual, moral, or political meaning
High Empire
96‐192 AD; the Roman Empire reaches its greatest geographic extent and the height of its power.
Trajan
• First non‐Italian to rule Rome. He was from Italica
(modern day Spain)
• Imperial armies expanded Roman territories, government took a more active role in social programs and the people’s welfare
• He was so popular he was given the title Optimus
(the best), a nickname he shared with Jupiter.
• In Late Antiquity, all measures for success were based on Augustus & Trajan.
– New emperors hoped to be “luckier than Augustus, better than Trajan”
The center of civic life in all Roman towns was the forum (public square). It was usually located
at the intersection of the cardo (main N/S street) & decumanus (main E/W avenue) in the city center. It has a chief side, focus of attention.
This is where citizens conducted daily commerce and held festivities. Secular and religious structures are found within a forum. The most noteworthy structure was usually the basilica, a public building.
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FORUM OF TRAJAN
APOLLODORUS OF DAMASCUS, Forum of Trajan, Rome, Italy, dedicated 112 CE. 1) Temple of Trajan, 2) Column of Trajan, 4) Basilica Ulpia, 5) forum
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Column of Trajan
Has a continuous spiral frieze, the 1st in history
Depicts Trajan’s successful
campaigns against the
Dacians (Romanians)
Typical compositions:
Trajan addressing his troops, sacrificing to the gods
Not a reliable account, but it
accurately recorded the general character of the campaign.
Column of Trajan, and detail, Forum of Trajan, Rome, Italy, dedicated 112 CE
Arch of Trajan
Arch of Trajan, Benevento, Italy, ca. 114–118 CE
Hadrian
• Hadrian was also a Spaniard
• Greatly admired Greek culture and travelled extensively in the Greek East.
• Connoisseur and lover of art, he is known for building Hadrian’s Wall, Pantheon and his villa at Tivoli.
Portrait bust of Hadrian, from Rome, ca. 117‐
120 CE. Hadrian often had himself depicted as a mature Greek male with a beard.
Pantheon
Pantheon, Rome, Italy, 118 – 125 CE
Restored cutaway view Revolutionary technique: 1.) concrete cylinder covered by a hemispherical dome.
2.) coffers (sunken decorative panels) lessened
the dome’s weight
Dome was symbolic of the heavens, rising 142 ft.
Each coffer likely had a gilded‐bronze rosette, enhancing the symbolism of the heavens.
Interior of the Pantheon
Tivoli
arcuated lintels
Greek sculpture
Greek Corinthian columns
Canopus (pool) and Serapeum (grotto), Hadrian’s Villa, Tivoli, Italy, ca. 125–128 CE
Model of an insulae, Ostia, Italy, second century CE
The average Roman lived in apartment houses (insulae) with shops on the floor. Private toilet facilities were rare – often on a different floor from the apartment.
Unlike the houses of Pompeii, the insulae had small courtyards, windows that faced noisy streets, and people cooked in the hallways.
Neptune and creatures of the sea, detail of a floor mosaic in the Baths of Neptune, Ostia, Italy, ca. 140 CE
Ceiling and mural paintings, room 4,
Insula of the Painted Vaults, Ostia, Italy,
early 3rd c. CE
Insulae tended to have modest mosaic floors and painted walls and ceilings.
Isola Dell’ Sacra, Ostia
Communal tombs were decorated with the activities of middle‐class merchants and professional people. Representative of daily life.
Funerary relief of a vegetable vendor, second half of second century CE
Childbirth Scene, first century CE
Antoninus Pius and Faustina
Apotheosis of Antoninus Pius and Faustina, pedestal of the Column of Antoninus Pius, Rome, Italy, ca. 161 CE
Classical tradition –
elegant, well proportioned figures and personifications.
Campus Martius
personified as a youth holding an obelisk that stood in that area of Rome; Roma leans on a shield decorated with the Capitoline Wolf, waves to the couple. Center winged personification is uncertain.
Marcus Aurelius
Meant to convey majesty and authority.
Retains imperial iconography. Aurelius is
much larger than any normal human
would be in relation to his horse.
Hand is raised as a greeting and an offer of clemency.
** Notice the beard, following in the tradition of Hadrian
Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, from Rome, Italy, ca. 175 CE
Changes in Roman art & society….
• Verism moves beyond showing realism and distinctive images; it also includes character, thoughts, soul, etc. – Major turning point in the history of ancient art. Marks the beginning of the end of Classical art’s domination in the Greco‐Roman world.
• Romans begin to favor burial over cremation.
– This may reflect the influence of Christianity &/or Eastern religions, whose followers believed in an afterlife for the human body.
– This led to a demand for sarcophagi (vs. urns)
Funerary Practices
• Greek mythology was the most common subject depicted on sarcophagi
– Battles with Amazons were a favorite, as were Dionysiac scenes or the tragic saga of Orestes
– Greek heroes/heroines were given portrait features of Roman men/women in the late 2nd /early 3rd c CE
– These private patrons were following the model of imperial portraiture, where emperors often depicted themselves as gods or heroes
• Sarcophagi were produced in several regional centers.
– Western sarcophagi were decorated only in the front
– Eastern sarcophagi were decorated on all 4 sides
Sarcophagus with the myth of Orestes, ca. 140–150 CE. Orestes (center) slays his mother and her loves to avenge the death of his father, Agamemnon. He then takes refuge at Apollo’s sanctuary at Delphi.
Asiatic sarcophagus with kline portrait of a woman, from Rapolla, near Melfi, Italy, ca. 165–170 CE. Foreign decorations attest to a vibrant
export market.
Faiyum Mummy Portraits
• Burial was a common funerary practice in Egypt. Even after it became a Roman province, Egyptians continued to bury their dead. • In Roman times (after 30 BC), painted portraits on wood often replaced traditional stylized portrait masks.
– Portraits were likely painted while the individual was still alive
– Artists showed mastery of texture and the ability to portray the deceased calm demeanor
– Encaustic: painting technique of mixing colors with hot wax and then applying them to a (wooden) surface • Regional differences are to be expected in the Roman Empire but Western & Eastern sarcophagi, and Roman mummy portraits, all served the same purpose, despite their differing shape and character. Mummy portrait of a priest of Serapis, from Hawara (Faiyum), Egypt, ca.140–160 ce
Mummy of Artemidorus, from Hawara, Egypt, ca. 100–120
Woman with stylus and writing tablet, from a house in Insula Occidentale VI, Pompeii, Italy, ca. 55–70 CE
COMPARE + CONTRAST
Mummy portrait of a young woman, from Hawara, Egypt, ca. 110–120 CE
The Late Empire
Plan of the Baths of Caracalla, Rome, Italy, 212–216 CE. 1) natatio, 2) frigidarium, 3) tepidarium, 4) caldarium, 5) palaestra
Baths – recreational complexes, like a modern day health spa (but was for males only)
Warm – tepidarium
Hot – calidarium
Cold – frigidarium
Exercise rooms – palaestras
Pool – natatio
Decorated in stuccoed walls, mosaics, marble walls and marble statuary.
Frigidarium, Baths of Diocletian, Rome, ca. 298‐306 CE (remodeled by Michelangelo as the nave of Santa Maria degli Angeli, 1563).
Diocletian & the Tetrarchs
• The general turned emperor , Diocletian, broke up rule of the empire among three others besides himself, when he established the tetrarchy (rule by four) in 293. • There was to be an Augustus and a Caesar of the West and an Augustus and a Caesar of the East. • The tetrarchy survived until his retirement in 305, but the division of the empire into East and Western halves continued, eventually developing into the Latin West & Byzantine East
Portraits of the four tetrarchs, from Constantinople, ca. 305 CE
Restored view of the palace of Diocletian, Split, Croatia, ca. 298‐306.
It combines qualities of a luxurious villa with those of a military camp, with its huge gates and watchtowers
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Invading Italy in 312, Constantine took control of the entire empire with his victory over Maxentius at the Milvian
bridge. Because of a vision Constantine attributed his victory to the Christian god and in 313, issued the Edict of Milan, ending the persecution of Christians within the empire.
Constantine became sole ruler of the entire empire in 324. The same year he founded his New Rome on the site of Byzantium at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, and called it Constantinople. The next year at the Council of Nicaea he made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, and the Roman state religion began to decline. Constantinople was consecrated in 330, and Constantine himself baptized on his deathbed in 337. Many scholars begin the Middle Ages with these events.
Constantine
Portrait of Constantine, from the Basilica Nova, Rome, Italy, ca. 315–330 CE
Arch of Constantine
Distribution of largess, detail of the north frieze of the Arch of Constantine, Rome, Italy, 312–315 CE
Depicts Constantine himself, distributing wealth to the citizenry of Rome. Restored cutaway view of the Basilica Nova, Rome, Italy, ca. 306–312 CE ( by John Burge).
•walls and floors were finished in marble and stucco. •ceilings of the vaults were coffered. •fenestrated groin vaults
A colossal image of Constantine was to go into apse—the round room pushed out at one end—of the great basilica, on the Roman Forum. It would have presided as a commanding presence in the great hall where his imperial business was enacted, the way a Roman god’s image presided over its temple
Aula Palatina (exterior & interior), Trier, Germany, early fourth century CE
Basilica‐like audience hall that was included in in a new palace complex Constantine built over the site over his father’s imperial seat.
** Important in large part as a model for the Christian basilican church that was to follow**
COMPARE
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Medallion (right), ca. 315 CE
Coin with portraits of Constantine, 307 CE
•Made to look older, like the Tetrarchs (he was really in his early 20’s)
•Generalized portrait with accompanying inscription identifying Constantine as Caesar
•As unchallenged Augustus of the West, he is shown realistically (30 yrs old)
•Dual nature: Imperator (commander in chief) dressed in armor & shield; holds the cross crowned by an orb (global power)
•On the crest of his helmet is the monogram chi (X) rho (P) iota (I) = Christos
East vs. West
• Christianity is a new focus in the Late Empire and becomes the focus in the years to come.
• In Late Antiquity (next week), the divide between East & West becomes more prominent, which is noticeable in the art and architecture.
– Latin West: Rome
– Byzantine (Greek) East: Constantinople
• This divide will be made even greater by the East‐West Schism of 1054 (Medieval) where there is a formal split.
– Latin West = Catholic
– Byzantine (Greek) East = Orthodox