Download 3-24-2015-Rome on the Seas-Luxury-Pt1

Roman Luxury
Carthage
Dr. Kristian
Lorenzo
Dr. Kristian Lorenzo,
[email protected]
Today’s Plan
Upcoming Important Dates
3rd Extra Credit Opportunity
Part 1
Luxury
Sumptuary Laws
Antikythera Wreck
Part II
Antikythera Wreck (cont.)
The Lake Nemi Ships
Upcoming Important Dates
Tues. March 24th: Developed Bibliographies and Outlines
Due by 1:30pm
Thurs. March 26th: Paper and Presentation Conferences
Thurs. April 9 Research Pres. #1: Caroline Smith
Tues. April 14: Research Pres. #2: Olivia Romansky
Thurs. April 16 Research Pres. #3: Jackie Palmer
Tues. April 21: Research Pres. #4: Katherine Rutherford
3rd Extra Credit Opportunity
Ancient Cypriot Limestone Sculpture and Self-Taught Sculptors in the
Ancient World
The island of Cyprus in antiquity is known for many things, among them an international reputation
for concentrated religious activity, and quarries of soft limestone. These two features come together
in the survival of tens of thousands sculptural offerings on the island: diverse in style and form, locally
made and locally dedicated. This lecture will explore the unique experience of worship in ancient
Cyprus with a particular focus on these dedications. I argue that the soft limestone was easily
carved, so the sculptors required little training. By examining many works of limestone sculpture,
we’ll see the styles, techniques and themes of these artists reflect an environment similar to the selftaught artists working in more contemporary times..
Luxuria
the Roman conception of luxuria, included unruly or willful behavior, implied excess,
immoderation and “disregard for moral constraints”. This definition, embedded in the late
republican milieu of Pliny, Cicero, Sallust and Livy, represents the elite discourse that saw
unbridled extravagance as a threat to Roman morality.
1
Offering Bowl with Bacchus,
Hercules, and Coins (The Patera
of Rennes), Roman, about A.D.
210; gold, The drinking contest
between Bacchus and
Hercules
Luxuria
Luxuria’s corrupting influence transcended the immediate social sphere of the elite, creeping
into the political realm, capable of precipitating the demise of the Republic itself. Similarly, the
proliferation of luxury to lower strata of society was threatening and, in the elite moral
discourse that disparaged it, marked a destructive splintering of the Roman social fabric.
Offering Bowl with Bacchus,
Hercules, and Coins (The Patera
of Rennes) (detail), Roman,
about A.D. 210; gold, The
drinking contest between
Bacchus and Hercules
Luxuria
The widespread disapproval of conspicuous consumption, itself an essential component of
the phenomenon of luxury, was largely a function of elite Roman self-perception. For the
vast majority of Roman society that did not participate in this discourse, conspicuous
consumption was a channel for climbing upwards in society and making claims to new
statuses and identities.
Cup with Centaurs (detail), Roman, A.D. 1-100; silver and gold
Luxury: Sumptuary Legislation
various laws passed to prevent inordinate expense in banquets, dress, etc. In antiquity it
was considered the duty of government to put a check upon extravagance in the private
expenses of persons, and among the Romans in particular we find traces of this in the laws
attributed to the kings (ca. 758-509 BC) and in the Twelve Tables (ca. 450 BC).
Perfume Flask with the Seasons, Roman, 25 B.C.-A.D. 50; cameo glass with a modern resin neck
and enameled metal foot.
Luxury:The Twelve Tables (ca. 455 BC)
is the earliest attempt by the Romans to create a CODE OF LAW; it is also the earliest
(surviving) piece of literature coming from the Romans. In the midst of a perennial struggle
for legal and social protection and civil rights between the patricians and plebeians a
commission of ten men was appointed to draw up a code of law which would be binding
on both parties and which the consuls would enforce impartially.
V. 7 A spendthrift (i.e. a person who spends possessions or money extravagantly or
wastefully) is forbidden to exercise administration over his own goods.
X. 6a "Anointing by slaves is abolished, and every kind of drinking bout....there shall
be no costly sprinkling, no long garlands, no incense boxes."
Luxury: Sumptuary Legislation
The first sumptuary law, the Lex Oppia, was enacted in 212 BC, adjudicating against
opulence in women’s clothing and jewelry. Although this can be categorised as the first
formal sumptuary law, anti-luxury mechanisms were not new to the Roman state being
part of the Twelve Tables. Following that, officials within the Roman aristocracy, Censors in
particular, bore the overt responsibility of monitoring the moral excesses of their citizenry.
Luxury: Sumptuary Legislation
The precepts of the Lex Oppia against women’s clothing and jewelry did not resurface in
later laws. Instead, beginning with the Lex Orchia in 181 BCE, sumptuary legislation almost
exclusively regulated expenditure at banquets and feasts.
Luxury: Sumptuary Legislation
With increasing detail, the Lex Fannia, Didia, Licinia, Cornelia, Aemilia, Antia and Julia
(Augustan period) reiterated regulations for convivial feasting, mildly modifying the exact
numbers of how much expenditure was acceptable and how many guests were permitted.
Luxury: the Source
The source of luxury, how and when it forcefully penetrated the Roman milieu and wreaked
havoc with the mos maiorum, was a difficult issue for republican Romans to put a finger on.
Some writers, such as Livy and Pliny the Elder, looked outward, identifying as culpable the
booty of eastern conquests.
Plin. Nat. Hist. 33.148: “It was the conquest of Asia that first introduced luxury into Italy,
inasmuch as Lucius Scipio carried in procession at his triumph 1400 lbs. of chased
silverware and vessels of gold weighing 1500 lbs…”
Liv. 39.6: “…the beginnings of foreign luxury were introduced into the City by the army
from Asia.They for the first time imported into Rome couches of bronze, valuable robes
for coverlets, tapestries and other products of the loom…Yet those things which were
then looked upon as remarkable were hardly even the germs of the luxury to come.”
Luxury: the Source
Sallust, on the other hand, chose a more introspective explanation for the origin of luxury at
Rome. In his treatise on the Catiline conspiracy, he postulates that the Roman resolve to fight
Carthage kept the republic disciplined and bound to ancestral virtue. However, with the fall of
Carthage in 149 BC, “tendencies to vice,which had been bottled up by external menaces,
were uncorked when foreign pressure on Rome was removed.”
Sal. Cat. 10: “when Carthage, the rival of Rome’s dominion, had been utterly destroyed, and
sea and land lay every where open to her sway, Fortune then began to exercise her
tyranny, and to introduce universal innovation. To those who had easily endured toils,
dangers, and doubtful and difficult circumstances, ease and wealth, the objects of desire to
others, became a burden and a trouble. At first the love of money, and then that of power,
began to prevail, and these became, as it were, the sources of every evil.”
Luxury: Part II
The Antikythera Shipwreck
The Lake Nemi Ships
The Roman silver treasure dedicated to Mercury, found at Berthouville in 1830
The Antikythera Wreck: Imported Luxury
The Antikythera Mechanism
The
Antikythera
Mechanism:
Discovery
Luxury: Sumptuary Legislation
With increasing detail, the Lex Fannia, Didia, Licinia, Cornelia, Aemilia, Antia and Julia
(Augustan period) reiterated regulations for convivial feasting, mildly modifying the exact
numbers of how much expenditure was acceptable and how many guests were permitted.
Crete
In 1901, two sponge boats fleeing a storm find shelter in a bay of the island Antikythera.
The Antikythera Mechanism: Discovery
After the waters calm down, a sponge diver, Ilias Stadiatis, goes for a dive and
discovers a shipwreck.
From a depth of ca. 42 m Ilias brings
up the right arm of a bronze statue.
The Antikythera Mechanism: Excavation
1900-1901: Salvage of the shipwreck is undertaken by the Greek government
In
1976, with the help of Jacques Cousteau, the shipwreck is excavated
The Antikythera Wreck: the ship
Was on a Roman merchant vessel built between 260-180 B.C., but which sank in ca. 1st
century B.C.
The Antikythera Mechanism
82 fragments remain, as of today
The Antikythera Mechanism: Analysis
All the fragments have been digitally
photographed, x-rayed, as well as…
Microfocus X-ray tomography (i.e. a
CT scan) using a prototype highenergy X-ray machine
The Antikythera Mechanism: Analysis
Full resolution digital surface imaging using Polynomial Texture Mapping
(PTM). In this case showing the letter ‘H’ on the surface of Fragment A.
The Antikythera Mechanism: Analysis
Inscriptions giving the names of planets, astronomical cycles, months,
festivals, etc. appear on many of the fragments.
The Antikythera Mechanism: Analysis
Consisted of 37 gears each with the correct number of teeth for its
purpose, with some teeth being as small as 1 or 2 millimeters