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Pompey and Hercules

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

Beryl Rawson*
Affiliation:
Australian National University

Extract

There was a temple or shrine to Hercules at Rome which bore Pompey’s name: aedes Herculis Pompeiani. If we knew when Pompey vowed or dedicated it, we might be able to map more clearly his association with this hero figure and thus one aspect of his public image (and his image of himself).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 1970

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References

1. Probably the most famous Hercules by Myron was atSamos (Strabo xiv 1.14). Another was owned in Sicily by Heius (Cic. Verr. ii 4.5), who ‘sold’ it, under pressure, to Verres. Its fate after Verres’ trial is unknown.

2. Lanciani, R.Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome (London, 1897), p. 457. Cf. CIL vi 312–19.Google Scholar

3. Both Inuictus and Victor are the epithets associated with the worship of Hercules at the ara maxima.

4. Quoted in Macr. Sat. iii 12.6.

5. omnia esculentapoculenta: Fest. 253 M (posculenta 298 L).

6. Varro in Macr. Sat. iii 12.2.

7. Varro, LL vi 54.

8. See p. 138 of Lenaghan, Lydia H., ‘Hercules-Melqart on a coin of Faustus Sulla’, ANSMusN 11 (1964), 131–49.Google Scholar

9. CIL. i2 2.626 = ILS 20. In the year 70, Cicero had quoted Mummius as an admirable example of how to make use of one’s spoils (Verr. ii 1.55).

10. He gave a banquet to celebrate Hercules’ festival(Plut. Praec. reip. ger. 20) and it was probably he who brought back to Rome a famous statue of Hercules from Carthage (Plin.NH xxxvi 39). His career offered many parallels with Pompey’s, and Cicero quoted him as a precedent for Pompey in 66, when speaking in favour of a special Eastern command for Pompey (De imp.Cn.Pomp. 60).

11. See MacDonald, W.L., Architecture of the Roman Empire (New Haven, 1965), p. 7;Google ScholarHanson, John Arthur, Roman Theater-Temples (Princeton, 1959), p. 36.Google Scholar Tibur was the centre of an ancient cult of Hercules, and some writers believe that it was by way of Tibur that the cult reached Rome. See Warde Fowler, W., The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1933), p. 244,Google Scholar and Bayet, JeanHistoire politique et psychologique de la religion romaine (Paris, 1957), p. 123.Google Scholar

12. Statius, , Silu. 4 6.59 ff.;Google ScholarMartial, 9 43.Google Scholar

13. The years 81, 80, and 79 have all been suggested: see Broughton, T.R.S., Magistrates of theRoman Republic, Supplement (New York, 1960), p. 47.Google Scholar For a strong argument in favour of 81 see Badian, E. in Hermes 89 (1961), 254–6.Google Scholar

14. Badian, E. in Hermes 89 (1961), 254ĶGoogle Scholar and PACA i(1958), 7. The only other generals to win a triumph since the year 93 were Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo in 89 and Publius Seruilius Vatia Isauricus in 88. Strabo was Pompey’s father and his triumph would give Pompey an incentive to emulate him, especially at so short an interval. Seruilius was probably the only uir triumphalis alive in 81 (as Badian points out), before Sulla’s triumph, and he looked like a man with his glory behind him: he was already well over fifty years of age and had not succeeded in attaining the consulship. (In fact, Seruilius was to show, in the seventies, that he could not yet be written off: he became consul in 79 and won his greatest military distinction in Cilicia between 78 and 74.) Thus Pompey would have some reason for feeling that, once he was awarded a triumph, he and Sulla would be the two men of military distinction head and shoulders above all others.

15. Pompey may have been disappointed in 78 to see Quintus Lutatius Catulus inherit the rebuilding of the temple of Capitoline Jupiter which had been begun by Sulla (CIL i2 2.737; Cic. Verr. ii 4.69; Plin, . JVH 7 138, xix 23, xxxvi 45;Google Scholar Tac. Hist, iii 72; Val.Max. vi 9.5, ix 3.8). Note the attempt to associate him with this temple in 62 (p. 35 below).

16. Plut. Pomp. 2.4; Sall, . Hist, 3 88 M.Google Scholar

17. See Gardner, Percy, JHS 13 (1892–3), 70–6;CrossRefGoogle ScholarFarnell, L.R., Greek Hero Cults (Oxford, 1921), Chapter 5, e.g., pp.139, 145;Google ScholarSjöqvist, E., Opuscula Romana 4 (Lund, 1962), 119–23. The cult of Hercules seems concentrated on the north and east coasts of Sicily.Google Scholar

18. Plut, . Pomp. 10; Cic. Verr. ii 2.110.Google Scholar

19. Sjöqvist, E., op. cit., 118.Google Scholar

20. Plut, Pomp. 10. Note his apparent clients there,the Pompeii Percennii and Cn. Pompeius Basiliscus (Cic. Verr. ii 4.25) and the Ouii (Cic. Balb. 51).Google Scholar

21. Cic. Verr. ii 4.3.

22. Cic. Balb. 19. Macrobius (Sat. iii 6.16) quotes a point that Hercules’ ritual at Rome from Balbus’ writings

23. (Macr. Sat. iii 12.6; Prise, vi, p.232, 1.6Hertz); a Hercules story in the Diuinae (Macr. Sat. iii 6.10); and probably in De gente populi Romani (August. De ciu. dei xviii 8, 12 [frgs 6, 13 Peter]).

24. Livy xxi 21.9; App. Iber.28; Sil. Iber. iii 14–32.

25. Suet. Iul. 7.1. Note also Caesar’s early writing, Laudes Herculis (Suet. Iul. 56.7).

26. Caes. BC ii 21.3. The philosopher Posidonius, who later became closely associated with Pompey, had spent some time at Gades investigating the Hercules associations there (Strabo iii 5.5 and 7) as well as more scientific phenomena (Strabo iii 5.8, 9, 10).

27. Plut. Crass. 2.2, 12.3; Comp. Crass. Nic. 1.4.

28. Plut. Pomp. 22.4–6.

29. Cic. Verr, i 31; Ps.-Ascon. 217 Stangl.

30. As Lenaghan has shown (ANSMusN xi [1964], 131–49), Sulla’s son continued the cult of Hercules by striking a coin with Hercules’ head on the obverse: Sydenham, E.A., Coinage of the Roman Republic (London, 1952), 880.Google Scholar

31. Lucullus also gave a lavish public banquet at the time of his triumph (Plut. Lucull. 37.4)—delayed until 63—and this was surely the banquet and tithe in honour of Hercules recorded by Diodorus (iv 21.4). He brought back as part of his booty a much-prized statue o Hercules (Plin. NH xxxiv 93).

32. Pompey was supposed to have found in Mithridates’ possessions a cloak which once belonged to Alexander and which Pompey subsequently wore in his triumphal procession. (App.Mith. 117 reports this sceptically; but for us the importance of the story is not the true origin of the cloak but the significance of Pompey succeeding Mithridates as emulator of Alexander.) Cicero later described Mithridates as ‘the greatest king since Alexander’ (Acad.ii 3). Note also the statue of Mithridates as Hercules (the ‘Louvre statue’, Cambridge Ancient History, Plates, Vol.iv 44 c and d).

33. FGH 188; Cic.Arch.24; Strabo xiii 2.3.

34. App. Mith. 103.

35. App. Mith. 478; Plut. Pomp. 34.7.

36. Dio xxxvii 5.1; Iustin. xlii 3.4.

37. Strabo xiv 1.14; a colossal statue, comprising figures of Zeus, Athene and Hercules on one base. Marcus Aurelius Cotta (cos. 74) had been so impressed by the fine statue of Hercules at Heracleia in Bithynia that he had removed it and taken it back to Rome as part of his booty (Memnon[FGH 434]52); but he was later prosecuted for appropriation of booty. Pompey has a good reputation for leaving works of artin situ. Contrast Antony, who had Hercules ambitions of his own, and who took the Samos statue back to Rome as his own property. Augustus restored it to Samos (Strabo xiv 1.14).

38. josephus, BJ 1 154.Google Scholar

39. The dates of Pompeia’s birth and of her marriage to Sulla are not definitely known. But she had already been betrothed to Sulla when in 59 she was re-allocated to Seruilius Caepio. In fact, it was Sulla whom she actually married, perhaps soon after 59. (See RE, s.v. ‘Pompeius’ 54.)

40. Lenaghan, Lydia H.ANSMusN 11 (1964), 131–49.Google Scholar

41. The other known type issued by Sulla at this time refers explicitly to his father, and seems to refer to his father’s African victories: Sydenham 879.

42. Dio xxxvii 44; Suet. Iul. 15.

43. Plin. NH vii 97. There is little evidence to help one explain Pompey’s choice of Minerva. She was, of course, one of the great Capitoline triad. Scipio Aemilianus had made an offering of much Carthaginian spoil to Mars and Minerva, on the occasion of the destruction of Carthage (App. Lib. 133). Minerva was also the Roman version of Athene, and Athene had figured importantly on Alexander’s coinage. Alexander had also paid special respect to Athene in Asia Minor (Plut. Alex. 15.4; Arr. Anab. i 11.3–12), and Athene appeared on the reverses of coins of Pompeiopolis (the town in southern Asia Minor re-established and re-named Pompey about 67) for several centuries. Vergil connected the Trojan Minerva with Rome’s Trojan origins (Aen. vi 840)

44. There were also four lesser shrines incorporated into the theatre, to Honos, Virtus, Valetudo (?), and Felicitas (CIL i2 pp. 217, 244).

45. Hanson, John ArthurRoman Theater-Temples (Princeton, 1959), pp. 50–1.Google Scholar

46. Note however, that a date of 55 B.C. is attributed to Pompey’s temple to Hercules in Platner, S.B. and Ashby, T.Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Oxford, 1929), p. 591Google Scholar (in Chronological Index). This date does not appear in the main entry for Hercules Pompeianus and there is no evidence or argument adduced in favour of it. In a recent article, ‘Taten des Pompeius auf den Münzen’, JNG xviii (1968), 7—24, Konrad Kraft has tried to relate a series of coins, issued in 55–54 B.C., to Pompey’s previous achievements, especially in the East. None of these coins has any reference to Hercules.

47. He had claimed family descent from Venus in his funeral oration for his aunt Julia in 69 (Suet. Iul. 6; for date, see Lily Ross Taylor, CP xxxvi(ig4i),i 13–32). Was Pompey’s dedication of his theatre to Venus an attempt to compete with Caesar? For Caesar’s use of Venus Victrix as his watchword at Pharsalus, see App. BC ii 76 and Serv. Aen. vii 637.

48. Plut. Ant. 4, 36, 60.

49. App. BC iii 16.

50. Note Antony’s purchase of Pompey’s house in Rome soon after Pharsalus (Plut. Ant. 10.2). Note also his appropriation of the Hercules statue from Samos (n.37 above). See Grimal, P. in REA 53 (1951), 5161,CrossRefGoogle Scholar on Octavian’s attempt to appropriate the date of the Hercules festival for himself. Augustus’ stepson Tiberius later acquired Pompey’s house in Rome (Suet. Tib. 15.1). Tiberius also held some heirlooms from Pompey’s daughter (Suet. Tib. 6.3), and many members of his circle of friends and supporters could be labelled ‘Pompeians’: see Syme, R. in HSCP 64 (1959), 69,Google Scholar and Roman Revolution (Oxford, 1952), p.424. He allowed Pompey’s head to remain on the coins of Pompeiopolis during his reign, without adding or substituting his own head. Nero was the first emperor to put his own head on these coins: see Boyce, A.A.Festal and Dated Coins of the Roman Empire [Numismatic Notes and Monographs 153] (New York, 1965), p. 13.Google Scholar It is therefore perhaps not without significance that Tiberius set up an inscription in Spain honouring Hercules Inuictus (CIL ii 1660 = ILS 161).

51. Michel’s, DorotheaAlexander als Vorbild fur Pompeius, Caesar und Marcus Antonius (Collection Latomus 94) (Brussels, 1967) came to my notice too late to be used in this article, but it does not seem to refer to Pompey’s shrine to Hercules.Google Scholar