Download Continuity through Art in the Roman Empire

EMILY SONGEY
CONTINUITY THROUGH ART IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
“So perish anyone else who shall jump over my walls.”1
The Roman Empire thrived for centuries based on its military ideal, the principle that
Rome was the dominant empire and that nothing and no one could bring it to an end. After years
of civil war, crime, and bloodshed during previous emperors’ and kings’ regimes, Octavian –
who was later given the title of “Augustus,” or the August One – was named emperor, and
thereby granted control over all major aspects of the newly created Roman Empire. Augustus,
the grandnephew of Julius Caesar, entered into the army when he was nineteen years old, and
became the ruler of the Roman Empire when he was only thirty-two years old.2 Augustus
needed to institute a feeling of national unity throughout the empire due to the amount of chaos
created during the civil wars previous to his reign. Therefore he needed to establish a new face
of Rome and also needed to promote himself as emperor. He did this through endorsing a
particular vision of Rome’s history and its foundation, which was illustrated through works of
art, myths, and epic legendary tales.
Emperors after Augustus, such as Constantine, had the same motives in using works of
art to illustrate the foundation of Rome and to promote themselves. Constantine’s works include
coins, the Vatican Virgil illuminated manuscript, and the Arch of Constantine, all with images
either representational of the myth of Romulus and Remus or of images from Virgil’s Aeneid. It
is through these foundation stories and works of art portraying the stories that the Greco-Roman
world is unified, and these cultural myths were created to enhance continuity between citizens in
the Roman Empire.
1
2
Jane F. Gardner, Roman Myths (Austin, University of Texas Press, 1993), 29.
Eve D’Ambra, Roman Art (Cambridge University Press, 1998), 30.
Although there were many different epic tales told about the formation of Rome, the
story of Romulus and Remus is one of the most famous. The legend says that Rome was
founded around 750 BC by Romulus, who had a twin brother, Remus. Before Rome was
founded, King Numitor ruled Alba Longa but he was overthrown by his brother Amulius. Not
only did Amulius steal the throne from his older brother, but he also murdered Numitor’s son so
that he would not have a successor to the throne. In addition, Amulius forced Numitor’s only
daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become a Vestal Virgin so she would not have any children, but his
plan failed. One day, while Rhea Silvia was asleep, Mars, the Roman god of war, came upon her
and slept with her. She bore twin sons whom she named Romulus and Remus. Rhea Silvia was
killed by Amulius, thrown into the Tiber River, and her sons were put in a basket and floated
downstream to never be found. The legend says that the twins were found by a she-wolf, and
were cared for by a shepherd until they were old enough to revenge the wrongs done to their
family. The brothers put together an army and murdered Amulius so that Numitor could become
king again. Romulus and Remus then decided to create their own separate cities, and, according
to the legend, Romulus saw twelve vultures come down from the heavens and land on what
would later be named Rome. The vultures were considered a premonition from the gods and a
good omen for Romulus and his new city.3 Romulus created a small waist-high wall defining his
city’s boundaries but Remus defied his brother and his brother’s land by jumping over the wall
and mocking him. Romulus lost his temper and killed Remus for defying his rules and
regulations. Thus runs the legend of the foundation of Rome.
Not only does this myth present us with a founding story, but it also represents continuity
between the two ancient cultures of Greece and Rome. It does this by using the Roman god of
3
Kenneth Scott, “The Identification of Augustus with Romulus-Quirinus,” Transactions and Proceedings of the
American Philological Association, 56:1 (1985), 91.
war, Mars, who is the same as the Greek god of war, Ares. This made understanding the legend
much easier for both the Greeks and Romans, therefore helping to combine the two cultures into
one Greco-Roman world. Combining the two cultures into one was very important because the
myth became more famous in the Roman Empire during Augustus’ reign. This was a time when
Rome’s military continued to expand the empire’s borders into different territories, yet wanted to
retain stability both socially and politically. The foundation myth of Romulus and Remus
managed to retain continuity, and many different images and figures were created of the two
brothers and she-wolf. These images were therefore produced in the Roman Empire to portray
the permanence of the Greco-Roman world and Rome’s strength.
Because of the popularity of this myth, many versions survive in text and image. This
can be seen on coins that were produced throughout the empire. For example, according to the
British Museum, silver coins were found which had been produced around 275 BC with imagery
of Romulus, Remus, and the she-wolf who suckled them.4 Coinage was very important
throughout the empire because it was a form of payment which most everyone would see at some
point in their lifetime. Coins would have been given to anyone – people in the city, tradesmen,
or also men in the military – who would travel to different parts of the empire and the coins
would be spread cross-country. Thus the myth of Romulus and Remus would be known to
anyone who had come across these coins, helping to establish continuity throughout the empire.
By having this uniting myth about the identity of Rome and its establishment by Romulus,
Romans and non-Romans within the empire were provided a common basis for their belief about
the history of the empire.
4
“Silver Didrachm with Wolf and Twins Design,” The British Museum, accessed April 2, 2009
<http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/cm/s/silver_didrachm_with_wolf_and.aspx>
(no date).
Coins have also been found which tie the emperor Constantine to Romulus, the first king
of Rome. Placing images of the emperor on coins was not unusual during the period: “The
image of the ruling elite appears in realistic portraits in sculpted heads, busts, coins, or portrait
statues of the first century BC onward.”5 This idea of presenting images of the elite on coins
started in the first century BC and continued throughout the end of the empire. Many coins were
produced and re-produced for the public’s everyday use. Coins were incredibly available and
useful not only for monetary purposes but also for social purposes. According to Eve D’Ambra,
a silver coin was found that was created around 315 AD with an image of Constantine, the
emperor at the time (Fig. 1). Constantine is portrayed with, “a Christian monogram on his
helmet as a soldier of Christ and with an imperial Roman shield.”6 On the shield that
Constantine takes to battle with him, D’Ambra notes that the shield has the same representational
design of Romulus, Remus, and the she-wolf, all summarizing one thing: Rome. This coin is
very important, especially during Constantine’s reign over the Roman Empire, because it not
only has Christian elements that promote Christianity, but also has ancient Greco-Roman
elements, including the she-wolf and the representation of Romulus as the founder of Rome, thus
reinforcing the myth. Here, Constantine is comparing himself to Romulus or comparing
Romulus to himself, especially due to the fact that the imagery of the twins is on the shield that
he would have brought in to battle with him, implying that he would come out of war victorious,
as Romulus had. This coin, like the previous one described earlier, would have traveled
everywhere in the empire and passed through many different hands. These people would have
then seen the fact that Constantine was their emperor, that Christianity was a legal religion, and
also that Constantine was looking back to Rome’s past and portraying the founding myth of
5
6
D’Ambra, 26.
D’Ambra, 160.
Romulus and Remus. This coin helped to portray Constantine in a favorable way since it
establishes both that Constantine recognized Romulus as the founder of Rome, and traces his
authority as emperor to Romulus, and that he recognized the authority of Christ.
Although there is a great deal of imagery of the myth of Romulus and Remus that was
created in the Roman Empire to promote the Emperor, Virgil’s Aeneid also had a similar
purpose. According to Eve D’Ambra, “the story of Aeneas … complemented the story of
Romulus and Remus and was represented in a variety of media from monumental relief sculpture
to satirical paintings and graffiti.”7 D’Ambra clearly states here that this myth was represented
on many different mediums and figures throughout the Roman Empire, so practically everyone
in the empire knew the myth of Aeneas. D’Ambra also states that Virgil’s Aeneid was written
around 20 BC, under Augustus’ influence while he was the emperor. Augustus used his
influence on Virgil compel him to write this epic poem in order to disseminate to people
throughout the empire his version of the foundation of Rome, and his role as emperor and
therefore successor to the founder of Rome.
The myth begins with Aeneas, a Trojan who travels to Italy to find a second home with
the rest of his army because of a premonition that he would be the first to create a new people
and a new race from the gods. Unfortunately, his voyage took a turn for the worse because of
jealous gods, and they landed in Carthage where Aeneas tells the people which they met about
what had happened to him earlier in life, which was depicted in the Iliad. Aeneas and Dido, the
Queen of Carthage fall in love, but Aeneas does not stay with her. As his ship was sailing away,
he saw her funeral pyre in flames, but felt that he had to fulfill his destiny and go to the Italian
peninsula. They venture to Latium where war breaks out, but Aeneas and his army win and he is
7
D’Ambra, 15.
able to begin the Roman race and empire.8 Many works of art were created to depict Aeneas’
travels and his accounts with different gods. This can be seen in the beautifully illustrated
Vatican Virgil illuminated manuscript, which was created in the late fourth or early fifth century.
Throughout the manuscript, there are fifty different depictions and illustrations of scenes
from the Georgics and the Aeneid.9 This legend is of great importance when trying to
comprehend why Rome wanted to have a connection with the Greek world. Jas Elsner states
that:
All the complex politics of the formation of an imperial system were bolstered by
a pervasive cultural programme (in the visual arts and in literature) which
redefined Rome’s history in terms of the mythology of Augustus’ family
(reaching back to Aeneas, the legendary ancestor of the Roman people) and which
reconceptualized Rome’s relations with the Greek world, whose Hellenistic
monarchies formed Augustus’ model for an empire dominated by a single ruler.10
The story is about a Greek who establishes the Roman Empire, thus again combining the two
worlds into one. One of the most famous scenes is the death of Dido, the Queen of Carthage and
Aeneas’ lover. In the Vatican Virgil illuminated manuscript, Dido is shown lying down with a
sword in hand, and surrounded by women that are mourning for her (Fig. 2). According to the
story, the sword belongs to Aeneas. Unfortunately for Dido, Aeneas left her in Carthage to
found a new country, as the gods had predicted, and because of this she stabbed and killed
herself with his sword. Before she committed suicide, Dido made a prediction that there would
forever be conflict between her people, the people of Carthage, and of Aeneas’ people in the
country that he would soon found. This is very important, especially in regards to the Roman
Empire, because Aeneas’ love of his new country was greater than his love for Dido, the
8
Virgil, Robert Fagles, The Aeneid (Penguin Books, 2008).
Judith Lynn Sebesta, “Costume in the Vatican Vergil Codex,” The Classical World, 87:1 (1993), 27.
10
Jas Elsner, Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph (Oxford University Press, 1998), 6.
9
beautiful Queen of Carthage. Aeneas would rather be victorious, and fulfill his destiny as the
new King of Rome.
Although there are two different stories of how Rome was founded, both The Aeneid and
the story of Romulus and Remus in fact coincide with each other. D’Ambra states that, “the two
strands of the founding myths, Romulus and Aeneas, are fitted together: Aeneas’s son Ascanius
founds the city of Alba Longa, ruled by a series of kings until Romulus establishes Rome,
allegedly in 753 BC.”11 Not only do both legends tell us how Rome was founded, but also they
both connect, making these founders’ stories even more inspirational and important to Rome and
its citizens. They support the fact that the emperors were looking for continuity for the Roman
Empire, not change or instability. As Elsner states, “one way to build a coherent cultural
background, to bind the peoples of the empire together, was to emphasize a shared cultural
heritage based on the classical myths and literature of Greece (and to some extent of Rome
itself).”12 Because of these cultural myths the Roman Empire has, such as Romulus and Remus
and The Aeneid, they were able to establish unity throughout the empire and create a common
background and history.
This theme of continuity is also seen on the Arch of Constantine, a representation of the
connections between Roman emperors on a great victory monument. The Arch of Constantine
was created and dedicated to Constantine in 312-5 AD. It contains elements borrowed from
monuments for previous emperors (Fig. 3). It was a victory monument since it was created for
Constantine, “three years after his portentous victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian
Bridge. The specific occasion is generally thought to have been the decennalia, the celebration
11
12
D’Ambra, 15.
Elsner, 7.
of the tenth anniversary of Constantine’s rule as Emperor of the West.”13 It is a composition of
imagery from monuments of the Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius, who were all
considered heroes who played significant roles in Roman history. From the monument made for
Marcus Aurelius in the late 170s, the artists took the reliefs from the top story, which are now on
Constantine’s arch. From Trajan’s forum, the artists used the statues on the upper level of the
arch, which represent Dacian prisoners from the second decade of the second century AD.
Finally, from the monument created under Hadrian in the 130s, the artists used the roundels that
are now seen on the Arch of Constantine.14 It has many small scenes throughout the arch, all
varied in style because the scenes were created at different times in the Roman Empire.15
According to Elsner:
One of the persistent cultural features of the Roman world was its ability to
reinvent itself while preserving a rhetoric of continuity. The present could be
radically transformed above all by rewriting the past so that the new patterns of
the present appeared as a seamless development from the past.16
This constant theme of continuity is very important in the Roman Empire because it was vital
that there was one common history in order to retain the idea of continuity and unity. The Arch
of Constantine is a great representation of these ideas because it is a collage of different
monuments from different emperors that all represent the same thing, the grandeur of the Roman
Empire. This arch is important, not only because it was a victory monument for Constantine, but
also because, like the modest coins discussed above, it was in public, a visual work of art that
everyone in the empire could see. It had imagery of battle and victory scenes from different
emperors, hunting and sacrifice scenes, and also has Constantine’s face re-created on the image
13
Mark Wilson Jones, “Genesis and Mimesis: The Design of the Arch of Constantine in Rome,” The Journal of the
Society of Architectural Historians, 59:1 (2000), 51.
14
Elsner, 6.
15
D’Ambra, 85.
16
Elsner, 6.
of previous emperors’ faces. Although the representational styles shift dramatically and the
images on the arch show a great deal of change throughout the empire, the Arch of Constantine
represented a continuation of the Roman world, from Marcus Aurelius’ reign to Constantine’s
Empire, all in one work of art.
The idea of continuity was very important for the Roman world. Rome was constantly
changing politically, socially, and geographically over the years. It was imperative that the
citizens throughout the empire had an unifying myth of Rome’s history and foundation. In order
to comprehend Rome’s history, the founders’ myths of Romulus and Remus and the Aeneid
made understanding the history of the empire easier. Emperors such as Augustus and
Constantine used these stories to promote the Roman Empire and to promote their own agenda.
Augustus was promoting the new institution of the Empire, whereas Constantine was promoting
a new religion, Christianity.17 These mythological images were then transplanted onto public
works such as coins and monuments, as well as more private works, such as manuscripts.
Therefore, these images and the stories that connected them to the Roman world were
everywhere in the empire, helping to created a unified concept of history and empire. The
images of Romulus and Remus on coins and images from the Aeneid in the illuminated
manuscript and on Constantine’s arch all helped to preserve continuity in the Roman world,
which allowed it to be a prosperous and united Empire.
17
D’Ambra, 159.
Figures
Fig. 1: Silver Coin of Constantine I, c. 315
(Image credit: University of California, San Diego)
Fig. 2: Vatican Virgil Vat. Lat. 3225 fol. 41r The Death of Dido, late 4th-early 5th C., Biblioteca
Apostolica Vaticana,
(Image credit: University of California, San Diego)
Fig. 3: Arch of Constantine, c. 312-315 CE, Rome, Italy
(Image Credit and original data: SCALA, Florence/ART RESOURCE, N.Y.)
Fig. 4: Diagram of the Arch of Constantine
(Image credit: http://sights.seindal.dk/sight/299_Arco_di_Costantino.html)