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POWER AND AUTHORITY
AP Art History
The Julio-Claudians: Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero
1. “The emperors who followed Augustus, known as the Julio-Claudians, always had his reputation, his taste,
and his plans as a legacy. Each succeeding emperor set a new tone which gave a special character to the
artistic output of his time, although the framework of images and associations that Augustus had set up
remained unaltered. The value of continuity for political purposes was put above personal taste, because not
all of the Julio-Claudians seem to have had the same regard for the cool classicism that Augustus had
cultivated so assiduously. Although Augustus had no sons, his daughter Julia produced two boys: Gaius and
Lucius Caesar. Augustus hoped that they would succeed him, and in order to expedite this, he had formally
adopted his grandsons as his own children. Unfortunately, both died early in manhood, leaving Augustus
without a clear heir. Although he had never been very enthusiastic about his stepson Tiberius (who ruled AD
14-37), son of Livia by her previous marriage to Tiberius Claudius Nero, this man seemed to be the only
suitable person to fill the need. Augustus adopted him as his son and successor” (Ramage and Ramage 114).
2. Tiberius “was tall, powerful, and well featured; but acne accentuated his shyness, his awkward manners, his
moody diffidence, and his love of seclusion” (Durant, Caesar and Christ 259). “He seems to have sincerely
disliked monarchy and to have considered himself the administrative head and arm of the Senate. He refused
all titles that savored of royalty, contented himself with that of princeps senatus, stopped all efforts to deify
him or offer worship to his genius, and made evident his distaste for flattery. When the Senate wished to
name a month after him, as it had done for Caesar and Augustus, he turned the compliment aside with dry
humor: ‘What will you do if there should be thirteen Caesars?’…Though skilled in the art of war, he denied
himself, as Prince, the glories of the battlefield; and after the third year of his long reign he kept the Empire at
peace” (260, 261).
3. Tiberius was “succeeded by his grand-nephew Caligula, who seemed as attractive as Tiberius had been
morose. Unfortunately, Caligula was also insane. His whimsical cruelty and his lack of military sense
disgusted his army and led to a conspiracy in which Caligula was put to death” (Stayer and Gatzke 84).
“Caligula had left the Empire in a dangerous condition: the Treasury empty, the Senate decimated, the
people alienated, Mauretania in rebellion, Judea in arms at his insistence on placing his cult statue in the
Temple of Jerusalem. No one knew where to find a ruler fit to face these problems. The Praetorians,
coming upon the apparently imbecile Claudius hiding in a corner, proclaimed him imperator. The Senate, in
terror of the army, and perhaps relieved by the prospect of dealing with a harmless pedant instead of a
reckless lunatic, confirmed the choice of the Guard; and Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus
hesitantly mounted the throne” (Durant, Caesar and Christ 268).
4. “Claudius turned out to be a more capable ruler than anyone had expected. He initiated the conquest of
Britain and gained good will in the provinces by generous grants of Roman citizenship. He started the
reorganization of the imperial government by creating four administrative bureaus, each headed by a
freedman (usually a liberated Greek slave). Senators still commanded armies and governed provinces and
equestrians handled most of the financial affairs of the empire, but a new imperial bureaucracy was to grow
out of Claudius’ group of freedmen. Claudius married his niece Agrippina, an evil and ruthless woman who
persuaded him to disinherit his son by an earlier marriage and to give the succession to her own son, Nero”
(Strayer and Gatzke 84).
5. Nero “disguised himself and visited brothels; he roamed the streets and frequented taverns at night with the
comrades of his mood, robbing shops, insulting women, ‘practicing lewdness on boys, stripping those whom
they encountered, striking, wounding, murdering.’ A senator who defended himself vigorously against the
disguised Emperor was soon afterward forced to kill himself. Seneca sought to divert the royal lust by
condoning Nero’s relations with an ex-slave, Claudia Acte. But Acte was too faithful to him to keep his
affections; he soon exchanged her for a woman of superlative refinement in all the ways of love. Poppaea
Sabina was of high family and great wealth; ‘she had everything,’ says Tacitus, ‘except an honest mind’; she
was one of those women who spend all the day in adorning their persons, and exist only when they are
desired. Her husband, Salvius Otho, boasted of her beauty to Nero; the Emperor at once commissioned
him to govern Lusitania (Portugal), and laid siege to Poppaea. She refused to be his mistress, but agreed to
be his wife if he would divorce Octavia” (Durant, Caesar and Christ 276-277).
6. “Octavia had borne the transgressions of Nero silently, and had preserved her own modesty and chastity
amid the stream of sexual license in which she had been forced to live from her birth. It is to the honor of
Agrippina that she lost her life in defending Octavia against Poppaea. She used every plea against the
proposed divorce, even, says Tacitus, to offering her own charms to her son. Poppaea fought back with hers
and won; youth was served. She taunted Nero with being afraid of his mother, and led him to believe that
Agrippina was plotting his fall. Finally, in the madness of his infatuation, he consented to kill the woman who
had borne him and given him half the world. He thought of poisoning her, but she had guarded against this
by the habitual use of antidotes. He tried to have her drowned, but she swam to safety from the shipwreck he
had arranged. His men pursued her to her villa; when they seized her she bared her body and said, ‘Plunge
your sword into my womb.’ It took many blows to kill her. The Emperor, viewing the uncovered corpse,
remarked, ‘I did not know I had so beautiful a mother.’” (277).
7. “Believing that he was a great poet and musician, he traveled about the Empire performing his works.
When a disastrous fire almost destroyed Rome in 64, there were rumors, almost certainly not true, that Nero
had set the blaze to provide a brilliant background for a recitation of his poetry. Seeking a scapegoat, Nero
blamed the fire on Rome’s small community of Christians and put many of them to death. Naturally there
were plots against such a man, and naturally Nero imagined plots where none existed. He condemned to
death his mother, his old friend Seneca, the poet Lucan, and the brilliant general Corbulo, who had defended
the eastern frontier against the Parthians. He executed many senators and confiscated their property. And
while he was building up a mountain of resentment against himself, he was paying no attention to the
administration or to the army. This time the legions led the rebellion, not the palace guard… Nero, easily
overthrown, committed suicide; then three army commanders in succession marched on Rome.. claimed the
imperial title, and promptly lost it to the next aggressor” (Strayer and Gatzke 85).
Roman Religion
1. “The Romans borrowed religious elements, such as the rites of divination and the religious calendar, from
the Etruscans. At the same time, the Romans cherished a powerful and distinctive religion. Chief among the
Roman gods were Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus. Jupiter was worshiped as the god of the sky, Mars as the god
of war, and Quirinus as the deified Romulus, the legendary first king of Rome (753-716 BC). Each of these
gods was served by one of the three senior Roman priests, or flamines maiores, who wore a distinctive dress
including a white conical cap and who observed an elaborate system of taboos in order to keep themselves
free from any defilement” (Wren 1: 113).
2. “Two other religious forces were Janus and Vesta. Janus was the god of doorways and the special god of all
undertakings. His temple in the Forum had two doors, which were kept open in times of war and closed only
in the rare event of universal peace. The opened doors indicated the sanctified route by which the Roman
army marched to battle” (113).
3. “Vesta was worshiped as the hearth goddess. She presided over both the family hearth or altar and the
central altar of the state. Her symbol was a sacred fire reputed by legend to have been brought by Aeneas
from Troy and preserved in Rome in the sanctuary of the goddess in the Forum. The fire was watched by six
virgins. The vestal virgins were consecrated to the goddess as young girls and remained in her service for
thirty years. They were treated with the highest degree of reverence. Any offense against a vestal virgin was
punishable by death; any violation of the vow of chastity by a vestal virgin was punishable by being buried
alive in an underground vault” (113-114).
3. “The early traditions of Roman religion are described by the Roman historian Livy (59 BC- AD 17) in his
History of Rome from Its Foundation. Born in Padua in northern Italy, Livy spent most of his life in Rome,
where he wrote the comprehensive survey of early Rome. His history covered the period from the legendary
founding of the city in 753 BC until the death of Drusus, Augustus’ stepson, in 9 BC. As a historian, Livy was
less concerned with literal accuracy and less critical of his sources than other ancient historians, such as
Thucydides. His object was to revive the patriotism of his contemporaries by recalling their great heritage.
Livy attributed the origin of Roman religion to Numa, who was the legendary second king of Rome (715-673
BC). According to Roman mythology, Egeria, one of the nymphs of the springs as well as a birth goddess
and a prophetess, instructed Numa on the religious rites which he should establish in Rome” (114).
Augustus (Primaporta), copy of a bronze original of c. 20 BCE, marble
1. “The Roman empire was created by Augustus (63 BC- AD 14), who, after his military success against
Antony and Cleopatra, claimed that he wanted to establish the best civilian government possible. The system
of government which he devised endured with no major changes for the next three centuries” (Wren 1: 122).
“Augustus was originally named Gaius Octavius, or Octavian. He was only seventeen when Caesar, his greatuncle, was assassinated. By Caesar’s will, Octavian, whose natural father had died when he was four years old,
was named as Caesar’s heir and son. Although he was opposed by much more powerful and influential men,
Octavian was determined to avenge Caesar and to claim his inheritance. He fought and defeated Antony in
Mutina in northern Italy in 43 BC. Shortly afterward he joined forces with Antony and Antony’s ally,
Lepidus, to form the Second Triumvirate. In 42 BC, Octavian and Antony won the battle of Philippi against
Caesar’s assassins, Brutus and Cassius. Antony took control of the eastern provinces of the Roman state and
Octavian of the western provinces. Octavian was then able to use Antony’s entanglement with Cleopatra as a
pretext for arousing public opinion and for declaring war on his rival” (122).
2. “After the defeat of Antony in the naval battle of Actium, Octavian became the sole ruler of the Roman
world. In 27 BC, he assumed the title Augustus. During the next forty-four years of his rule, Augustus
exercises unprecedented powers, while preserving, in form, the republican institutions of government. He
died universally respected and admired” (122). “In the Augustus of Prima Porta the emperor is portrayed as
both orator and general. Even thought the head is a likeness, it is idealized. Augustus was seventy-six when
he died after a long reign, but this statue represents a self-confident, dominating, and above all youthful figure.
A possible source for this idealization is the Doryphoros of Polykleitos. The similar stance suggests that the
artist who made the Augustus was familiar with the Greek statue, probably from Roman copies, if not the
original” (Adams, Art Across Time 241).
3. “The iconography of this statue again emphasizes the power of Rome embodied in Augustus as emperor.
By his right leg, Cupid (Venus’ son) rides a dolphin and serves as a reminder that Augustus traced his lineage
to Aeneas (also a son of Venus), and was thus descended from the gods. Among the little reliefs carved on
Augustus’ armor is Mother Earth with a cornucopia, indicating the emperor’s identification with the land as a
source of plenty. The association of Augustus with the earth also has an implied reference to Roman
territorial conquests. Another scene depicts a Parthian returning a military standard looted from the
Romans. A canopy spread out by a sky god at the top of the breastplate alludes to the scene of the surrender
below” (241). “Apollo and Diana at bottom left and right are paralleled by the son god Sol and moon goddess
Luna near the emperor’s shoulders. Thus, the cosmic forces and passage of time are also included in this
grand vision of Augustan peace” (Ramage and Ramage 95). “The composition is dominated by a
personification of the sky, which hovers over the chariot of the Sun god as he follows the figures of Aurora
and Phosphorus. Tellus, god of the Earth, accompanied by two putti and flanked by Apollo riding a griffin
and Diana on a hind, occupies the lower part of the cuirass” (Duby and Daval 195). “The king of the
Parthians, Phraates IV, is shown restoring the standards lost by Crassus. He hands them to a Roman general,
probably Tiberius, who pacified Germany and Pannonia in the years 12-8 BC” (195). “The back is
unfinished, indicating that the statue was intended for a niche… The fact that he is barefoot is probably a
reference to his divinity and indicates that the statue would have occupied a sacred space” (Adams, Art
Across Time 240). “Although Augustus wears a cuirass (torso armor) and holds a commander’s baton, his
feet are bare, suggesting to some scholars that the work was made after his death and commemorates his
apotheosis, or elevation to divine status… Since the decorations on the cuirass allude to Augustus’s victory
over the Parthians in 20 BCE, the original statue may have commemorated that event” (Stokstad, Art History
248).
4. “Strict Classical balance is violated, however, by the dominating gesture of the right arm, which is
sometimes associated with the adlocutio, the formal address by the emperor to the army and the citizenry.
The small figure of Cupid riding on a dolphin next to Augustus’ right leg served the practical function of
providing an additional support for the statue but was also probably an allusion to the official genealogy of the
imperial family and therefore part of the statue’s message. Cupid was the son of Venus, as was Aeneas, from
whom the Julian line claimed descent. The dolphin was probably intended to call to mind Augustus’ naval
victory over Cleopatra and Antony at Actium” (Boardman 246). “On the emperor’s elaborate breastplate we
encounter the same blend of mythical and religious figures, personifications, and historical personalities that
also appear on historical reliefs and gems. At the top the bearded figure of Caelus, the Sky, spreads his
mantle across the heavens. Beneath this, to the left, the Sun (Greek Helios or Latin Sol) rises in a four-horse
chariot. To the right, Dawn (Aurora), riding on a winged female figure, looks back towards the sun. These
figures were probably intended to convey a feeling of universality and perhaps also of the dawning of a new
age. At the bottom of the breastplate, in the center, is the goddess Tellus, Earth. To her left and right
respectively are Apollo riding a griffin, and Diana riding a stag, and above them are seated female figures who
may represent conquered provinces. The two standing figures in the center are generally agreed to allude to
an important historical event, the return in 20 BC of the Roman legionary standards that had been captured
by the Parthians thirty-three years earlier. Their loss had been a severe blow to Roman pride, and their
recovery was a diplomatic triumph for Augustus. The figure on the right is identified by his baggy trousers as
a Parthian. He is handing over a legionary standard to a figure in Roman armor who is accompanied by a
dog, or perhaps a wolf. The identity of this latter figure remains an enigma for modern interpreters.
Augustus himself, Tiberius (who was the official deputy sent to receive the standards), Romulus, or a
personification of the Roman army have all been suggested” (246). “Still another puzzle about the statue is its
bare feet. Generals normally wore boots, and Augustus’s barefootedness has been thought by some to mean
that he is represented as a god, which would mean that he has already been deified, and that the statue must
therefore be posthumous. If this is true, the Prima Porta statue may be a copy or variant, created for Tiberius
and Livia shortly after Augustus’s death, of an earlier bronze statue, perhaps one set up in Pergamum shortly
after the recovery of the legionary standards… Over 150 examples of it exist” (246).
Ovid and the Art of Love
1. “Ovid (43 BC- AD 17) was the third great poet of the Augustan age. Born in Sulmo, a town ninety miles
east of Rome, Ovid was the son of a wealthy and respectable landowner. His father intended that he enter a
career in government, but Ovid decided that public life did not suit him and devoted himself instead to
poetry. Written in three books, The Art of Love is a handbook on the art of seduction. The first tow books
offer instruction to men’ the third book gives advice to women. The frankly sensual view of life and love
espoused by Ovid in this work ran counter to Augustus’ sober moral principles. The previous year, Augustus
had banished his only child, Julia, for sexual profligacy, and he was attempting, though with little success, to
raise the moral standards of upper-class Roman society. To Augustus, Ovid’s poem was shocking and
offensive” (Wren 1: 128).
2. “Ovid attempted to placate Augustus with another of his compositions, the Metamorphoses. A long poem
written in fifteen books, the Metamorphoses is a collection of mythological and legendary stories drawn from
Greek, Latin, and Eastern sources. All stories share a common element: a miraculous transformation. The
stories are told in chronological order, beginning with the Creation, in which Chaos is transformed into the
ordered universe of earth, sea, and sky, and culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar, in which
Caesar is transformed into a star. The final transformation of the poem was intended by Ovid to be a tribute
to the divinity of Augustus. In AD 8, just as he was finishing the Metamorphoses, Ovid was summoned to
Rome for a personal interview with the emperor. Ovid was aghast to learn that he was to be banished. One
reason given by Augustus for his banishment was his poem The Art of Love. Ovid was ordered to Tomis, a
semi-Hellenized port on the Black Sea at the extreme edge of the Roman empire. Tomis, near the modern
town of Constantsa, Romania, was subject to periodic attacks by surrounding barbarian peoples. Ovid
suffered from personal danger, from the severe climate, and, most of all, from the intellectual isolation of the
place. From Tomis, Ovid addressed repeated appeals for clemency, first to Augustus, and later to his
successor, Tiberius. Ovid died in exile in AD 17” (128-129).
Works Cited:
Adams, Laurie Schneider. Art Across Time. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1999.
Boardman, John, ed. The Oxford History of Classical Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Duby, Georges, and Jean-Luc Daval, ed. Sculpture: From Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Cologne: Taschen,
1991.
Durant, Will. The Story of Civilization: Caesar and Christ. New York: MJF Books, 1944.
Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. The Visual Arts: A History. 7 ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Prentice-Hall, 2005.
th
Ramage, Nancy H. and Andrew. Roman Art. 2 ed. London: Laurence King, 1995.
nd
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999.
Strayer, Joseph R. and Hans W. Gatzke. The Mainstream of Civilzation. 3 ed. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, Inc., 1979.
rd
Wren, Linnea H., ed. Perspectives on Western Art. Vol. 1. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.