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Simulacra Gentium: the Ethne from the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

R. R. R. Smith
R. R. R. Smith
Affiliation:
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
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Extract

Series of provinces and peoples were something new in Roman art. They were a distinctively Roman way of representing their empire visually, and reflect a distinctively Roman and imperial mode of thought. Such images are most familiar to us in sculpture from the reliefs that decorated the temple of Hadrian in Rome, and on coins from the ‘province’ series of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. We know, however, from various written sources that extensive groups of personified peoples were made at Rome under Augustus. Recently, the discovery of such a series in relief at Aphrodisias, there called ethne (peoples), allows us for the first time to see what an early imperial group of this kind looked like. The new reliefs were part of the elaborate decoration of a temple complex, probably called a Sebasteion, dedicated to Aphrodite Prometor and the Julio-Claudian emperors. I have already published in this journal the reliefs with imperial scenes, which portray the Roman emperor from a Greek perspective. This article publishes the ethne reliefs which, it will be argued, set out to reproduce or adapt in a much more direct manner an Augustan monument in Rome. The use of an Augustan-style ‘province’ series in Asia Minor is a telling illustration both of some of the mechanisms in the transmission of imperial art and of a Greek city's identification with the Roman government's view of its empire.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 78 , November 1988 , pp. 50 - 77
Copyright
Copyright ©R. R. R. Smith 1988. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Bienkowski, 52–86; Toynbee, chs 1, 3 and 5; Pais, 33–81; cf. also Jatta, M., Le representanze figurate delle provincie Romane (1908)Google Scholar.

2 JRS 1987.

3 On the architecture: Hueber, F., Outschar, U., in de la Genière, J., Erim, K. T. (eds), Aphrodisias de Carie: Collogue Lille 1985 (1987), 101–13Google Scholar.

4 See JRS 1987, 128 and below p. 53.

5 Reynolds, ZPE, 317–22, and Fest. Pippidi, 114–15.

6 Reliefs: Erim, 122, fig. 122a. Bases: Reynolds, ZPE, 325, nos 12–13.

7 Athenaeus 5. 197d.

8 For example, Nox(?) on Trajan's Column, scenes 28 and 90: Lehmann-Hartleben, K., Die Trajanssäule (1926), 54 n. 1, pls 21 and 70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Polybius 31. 3 = Athenaeus 5. 195b.

10 Arches, for example: Crema, L., L'architettura romana (1959), figs 346–7Google Scholar (Gavi, Verona), 564 (Trajan, Timgad), 572 (Sbeitla), 576–7 (Marcus, Tripoli), 725 (Caracalla, Djemila), 729–31 (Tebessa). For a similar formula on tomb façades—relief figure on base between engaged columns—see, for a well-preserved example, the Khazne Firaun at Petra: Der Königsweg: 9000 Jahre Kunst und Kultur in Jordanien und Palästina (Cat. Exhib. Köln, 1987), 187–9Google Scholar, with excellent illustrations.

11 Of those extant, eleven face to the front, three to the viewer's right, and two to the viewer's left.

12 Eight published by Reynolds, ZPE, 325–7, nos 14–21; these and the other eight discussed in Reynolds, Fest. Pippidi, 115–16. The few restorations are all certain except no. 3, for which Reynolds now prefers the Arabs (following Bowersock, G. W., Roman Arabia (1983), 49 n. 15Google Scholar), rather than the Suebi or Perrhaebi: cf. Fest. Pippidi, 115 n. 37.

13 On the plan, Fig. 1, the putative Ethiopians' base (Pl. VII, 9) is immediately to the west of the Judaeans' base.

14 Reynolds, ZPE, 327.

15 The inscription: Pliny, NH 3. 136. The monument: Formigé, J., Le trophée des Alpes, La Turbie (1949)Google Scholar; Lamboglia, N., Le trophée d'Auguste à la Turbie (1964)Google Scholar.

16 Cf. below p. 74 and n. 70.

17 Reynolds, ZPE, 326–7 and Fest. Pippidi, 115.

18 Main sources: Andizeti, Arabs, Callaeci, Dacians, Egyptians, Iapodes, Piroustae, Sicily—RG 26–7 and 30; Bessi, Bosporans, Dardani, Rhaeti—Dio Cass. 51. 23; 54. 22 and 24 (see also n. 70, for others in Dio). More details and sources: Reynolds, Fest. Pippidi,115–16 n. 38. Victory over Ethiopians (24–22 B.C.) is recorded in RG 27. 3 and Dio Cass. 54. 5. 4.

19 The relevant section of the Res Gestae, 27. 3, is couched vaguely: ‘I recovered all the provinces extending eastwards beyond the Adriatic Sea and Cyrene, then for the most part in the possession of kings…’.

20 Josephus, BJ 1. 386–93 (for ‘recovery’ after Actium); Dio Cass. 55. 27. 6 (A.D. 6).

21 Three of the figures turn to the viewer's right (nos 1, 3, 4) and two to the viewer's left (nos 2 and 5). The bases: above, n. 11. In the Hadrianeum reliefs, eleven of the figures turn to the viewer's right, five to the viewer's left (cf. Pais, 118).

22 Erim, 121, fig. 121b.

23 Visible with cross light, as in Erim, fig. 121b.

24 Cf. JRS 1987, 129 n. 124 for parallels.

25 Erim, RA (1982), 166, fig. 10; Erim, 121, fig. 121a.

26 Toynbee, pl. 11. 14–18.

27 Doria Pamfili, Rome: Toynbee, pl. 36. 4; Pais, no. 5.

28 Cf. above nn. 11 and 21.

29 Toynbee, 70–80, pls 3. 23–6, 8. 1–3, 12. 11–28, 13. 1–14.

30 Erim, 121, fig. 121c.

31 Thasos Museum, inv. 1472: Guide de Thasos (1968), 133, no. 32, fig. 71; M. Gernand, AM 90 (1975), 3–10, Pl. 1. 1–2.

32 A good example in the mythological sphere is the group of Aeneas' Flight from Troy, a familiar Greek composition, appropriated by Augustan art, and then ‘re-issued’ to the provinces with Roman or Julio-Claudian meaning (see LIMC, s.v. ‘Aineias’, nos 59–154 (F. Canciani)). It also appears in the Sebasteion in the south portico: Erim, fig. 118c (detail).

33 Krug, A., Binden in der griechischen Kunst (Diss. Mainz, 1968), 114–18Google Scholar.

34 Bieber, M., Ancient Copies (1977), 27, figs. 22–5Google Scholar.

35 Dio Cass. 51. 25. 5: sanctuary transferred, 29 B.C. Dio Cass. 54. 34. 5–7: Vologaesus, priest of Dionysus, 11 B.C. Cf. R. Syme, CAH X. 356–7.

36 Leipen, N., Athena Parthenos: A Reconstruction (1971)Google Scholar. Cf. also the ‘Artemis of Ariccia’ type: Boardman, J., Greek Sculpture: The Classical Period (1985), fig. 198Google Scholar.

37 Conservatori: Bienkowski, no. 41, fig. 69; Toynbee, 156, pl. 34. 3; Pais, no. 12.

38 Conservatori: Bienkowski, no. 44, fig. 57; Toynbee, 156, pl. 34. 5; Pais, no. 14.

39 Toynbee, 7–12; Hamdorf, F. W., Griechische Kultpersonifikationen der vorhellenistischen Zeit (1964), 25–30, 90–3Google Scholar; Robertson, M., A History of Greek Art (1975)Google Scholar, index, s.v. ‘personifications of cities … or districts’. Much useful information in Gardner, P., ‘Cities and Countries in Ancient Art’, JHS 9 (1889), 47CrossRefGoogle Scholar ff.

40 Athenaeus 5. 201d–e: ‘(They) wore very rich robes and ornaments and were named after cities, some from Ionia, while all the rest were Greek cities which occupied Asia and the islands and had been under Persian rule. They all wore gold crowns’. Cf. Rice, E. E., The Grand Procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus (1983), 108–9Google Scholar.

41 The statue group of the various cities which claimed to be the birthplace of Homer, set up in Ptolemy IV6s temple of Homer in Alexandria, was a curiosity: Aelian, VH 13. 21. For the (unlikely?) possibility that a group of c. 40 draped females found on the terrace of the Great Altar at Pergamon might represent cities, see Winter, H., Altertümer von Pergamon VII. 1 (1908), 74–6Google Scholar.

42 Some examples: (1) Hellas, statue by Euphranor: Pliny, NH 34. 78; (2) Hellas and Asia, on Apulian crater (Naples 3253): EAA 1. 709, fig. 902; (3) Aetolia, on coins of third century B.C.: Toynbee, 7, pl. 9. 1; (4) Oikoumene, on Archelaus relief (second century B.C.): Toynbee, pl. 21. 2; (5) Macedonia and Asia, see below, n. 46.

43 Andreae, B., Das Alexandermosaik aus Pompeji (1977)Google Scholar.

44 Recently: M. Pfanner, AA (1979), 46–7; Pollitt, J. J., Art in the Hellenistic Age (1986), 97–110Google Scholar.

45 Kunzl, E., Die Kelten des Epigonos von Pergamon (1971)Google Scholar; Wenning, R., Die Galateranatheme Attalos I (1978)Google Scholar; Pollitt (n. 44), 83–97.

46 First properly interpreted thus by Robertson, M., JRS 45 (1955), 58–67Google Scholar. Cf. Fittschen, K., in Andreae, B., Kyrieleis, H. (eds), Neue Forschungen in Pompeji (1975), 93–100Google Scholar, with survey of literature, p. 100.

47 Some examples: (1) Puteoli base with fourteen cities of Asia aided by Tiberius: Vermeule, C. C., Studies B. L. Trell (1981), 85–101Google Scholar; (2) two cities on a fragmentary Claudian(?) historical frieze (frs C and D): Laubscher, H. P., Arcus Novus und Arcus Claudii: Zwei Triumphbögen an der Via Lata in Rom (1976), 80, 91, pls 15–16Google Scholar; (3) frieze of c. twenty cities(?) on the Antonine altar at Ephesus: Oberleitner, W., Funde aus Ephesos und Samothrake (1978), 72–3, 83–7Google Scholar; (4) bronze statues of Athens' ‘colonies’ in the Olympieion at Athens (under Hadrian): Paus. 1. 18. 6. The city personification type, with mural crown, was used later for the busts of provinces on the mosaic from Biregik (near Zeugma on the Euphrates; now in Berlin); it included Britannia, Gallia, Hispania, Macedonia, Rhaetia: Jatta (n. 1), 9–28; Toynbee, pl. 25. 3, 26. 2, 28. 2.

48 Examples: (1) Glanum: Schoppa, H., Die Kunst der Römerzeit in Gallien, Germanien und Britannien (1957), pls 9–10Google Scholar; (2) Carpentras: ibid, pls 12–13; (3) Tripoli: E. Angelicoussis, RM 91 (1984), 186, pl. 74. 2.

49 M. Waelkens, AJA 89 (1985), 645–8.

50 Examples: (1) two seated figures on cuirass of Prima Porta Augustus statue: Toynbee, pls 25. 2 and 26. 3; (2) narrative group of seven figures (lead by Mars) on Boscoreale cup: Toynbee, pl. 22. 4; Kuttner, A. L., The Boscoreale Cups of Augustus (Diss. Berkeley, 1987), 104–37Google Scholar; (3) two figures on fragmentary Claudian(?) historical frieze (fr. B): Laubscher, H. P., Arcus Novus und Arcus Claudii (1976), 80, 91–3, pl. 14Google Scholar; (4) ‘Thusnelda’ statue in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence: Bienkowski, no. 17, fig. 17a; (5) seated ‘Dacia’ on keystone from an arch, Conservatori: Toynbee, pl. 25. 1; (6) gilded statues on arch for Germanicus in Rome, voted in A.D. 19, recorded in Tabula Siarensis: ZPE 55 (1984), 58, fr. 1, ll. 9–11: ‘ianus marmoreus … cum signis devictarum gentium in[auratis …]’; (7) provincial relief, from Lydia, with Germania (inscribed) and rider: Toynbee, pl. 25. 4, Pais, 122–5; (8) Germania (labelled) on handle of Arretine pot: Toynbee, pl. 26. 1.

51 Pliny, NH 36. 41: ‘… a Coponio quattuordecim nationes, quae sunt circa Pompeium …’ (of marble, because in NH 36).

52 Suet., Nero, 46: ‘… a simulacris gentium ad Pompeii theatrum dedicatarum circumiri arcerique progressu’.

53 Bienkowski, 14–16, argued for large scale and ethnic, ‘barbarian’ dress because Nero was frightened by them.

54 Pliny, NH 36. 39: ‘inhonorus est nec in templo ullo Hercules, ad quem Poeni omnibus annis humana sacrificaverant victima, humi stans ante aditum porticus ad nationes’.

55 Cf. Platner, S. B., Ashby, T., A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (1929), 426Google Scholar, s.v. Porticus ad Nationes.

56 OLD, s.v. simulacrum; used for statues, for example, by Suetonius, n. 52.

57 Included but misinterpreted in the basic publication by Moretti, G., Ara Pacis Augustae (1948), 83–9, 188–90, 282–4, figs. 70–84Google Scholar. Not discussed by Toynbee, , ‘The Ara Pacis Reconsidered’, Proc. Brit. Acad. 39 (1953), 67–95Google Scholar, or Simon, E., Ara Pacis Augustae (1967)Google Scholar. Recently: Torelli, M., Structure and Typology of Roman Historical Reliefs (1982), 35–6Google Scholar, ‘Kähler's conjecture that at least one (of the friezes) represented the conquered northern provinces seems to me if not unlikely (considered the peaceful character of the altar), at least unproven’; LaRocca, E., Ara Pacis Augustae (1983), 52Google Scholar, ‘… non certo personificazioni di Provincie o di popoli vinti in quanto non sarebbe consono all'ideologia dell'ara’. The fragments are re-published by R. de Angelis Bertolotti, RM 92 (1985), 221–34.

58 (1) Bare-breasted Amazonian figure, with axe, therefore not Roma-Virtus: Kähler, JdI 69 (1954), 98, no. 2, fig. 20. (2) Female(?) figure in calf-length, fringed dress and fringed cloak, holding spear: ibid., no. 7, fig. 25. (3) Fragment with ankle and foot wearing soft Amazonian boot and trousers: ibid., no. 11, fig. 29. For the Amazonian axe = barbarian axe, cf. Horace, Odes 4. 4. 20: ‘Amazonia securi’ of the Alpine Vindelici.

59 There are, however, in the surviving fragments, no exact parallels (viz. repeated figure types) with the Hadrianeum reliefs, as Kähler wanted to see, nor with the Sebasteion ethne figures.

60 Cf. the interaction of the two gentes on the Claudian(?) state relief, above n. 50, no. 3.

61 Velleius 2. 39. 2: ‘Divus Augustus, praeter Hispanias aliasque gentes, quarum titulis forum eius praenitet, paene idem facto Aegypto stipendaria, quantum pater eius Galliis, in aerarium reditus contulit’.

62 Cf. OLD, s.v. titulus.

63 Lugli, G., Fontes ad Topographiam Veteris Urbis Romae pertinentes VI (1965), 19, nos 117–43Google Scholar; cf. Zanker, P., Forum Augustum (1968), 14–16Google Scholar.

64 Collected by Lugli (n. 63), 15–37, nos 80–208.

65 Dio Cass. 56. 34. 3:

66 Tac., Ann. 1. 8. 4: ‘… ut porta triumphali duceretur funus Callus Asinius, ut legum latarum tituli, victarum ab eo gentium vocabula anteferrentur L. Arruntius censuere’.

67 On imperial funerals: Price, S. R. F., in Cannadine, D., Price, S. (eds), Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies (1987), 56–105Google Scholar; also Arce, J., Funus Imperatorum: los funerales de los emperadores romanos (1988)Google Scholar (non vidi).

68 Dio Cass. 75. 4. 5:

69 La Turbie: above n. 15. Lugdunum: Strabo 4. 192; cf. CIL XIII, pp. 227–30.

70 For example, in Dio Cassius 51–6, there are over forty peoples recorded explicitly as Augustan victories, conquests or acquisitions. In the following list, the eight marked with an asterisk are recorded in the Sebasteion (a few of the names subsume smaller peoples also listed): Egyptians, Cantabri, Vaccaei, Astures, Pannonians, Dalmatians, Iapydes, Morini, Suebi, Dacians, Bastarnae, Moesians, Maedi, Getae, Artacii, Triballi, Dardani (Bk 51); Salassi, Arabians (Bk 53); Ethiopians(?), Camunni, Venni, Norici, Dentheleti, Scordisci, Bessi, Sarmatians, Sugambri, Usipetes, Tencteri, Rhaeti, Comati (Ligurians), Bosporans, Frisians, Chauci, Cherusci, Chatti (Bk 54); Armenians, Hermunduri, Isaurians, Gaetulians, Breucians (Bk 55).

71 For the interconnections between the various representations of Augustan myth-history in art, see now Zanker, P., Augustus und die Macht der Bilder (1987), chs 3–5.Google Scholar

72 Listed in n. 18: eight certainly, and the Ethiopians. On the Res Gestae and the Augustan monuments, see now Nicolet, C., L'Inventaire du monde: géographie et politique aux origines de l'Empire romain (1988), 27–68, at 66–8Google Scholar on the Sebasteion.

73 None of the monuments cited above, n. 50, constituted an independent series of peoples or provinces; they were single figures or parts of other compositions. For individual conquered provinces on the coinage between Augustus and Hadrian, see Toynbee, 22, pls 9–17. The figures become regularly the abstract place rather than the people, e.g., Judaea under Vespasian, Arabia under Trajan. A major provinces monument after Hadrian has been doubtfully deduced from [P. Victor], De Regionibus Romae, Rubric Reg. IX: ‘Basilica Antoniniana ubi est provinciarum memoria’; cf. Bienkowski, 20–2, discussing this and another doubtful provinces monument of the early fourth century.

74 Excellent account of both ‘province’ and ‘army’ series in Strack, P. L., Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts 11 (1953), 139–66Google Scholar. ‘Province’ series: Toynbee, ch. 3.

75 Strack (n. 74) stressed graded levels of pacification.

76 A total of twenty-two reliefs have been recovered from the Piazza di Pietra which bounds the north side of the temple and are now in Naples, Rome, the Vatican, or lost. A fragment found closely associated with the temple in 1928 affirms their attribution to the building (Pais, 33 n. 1). Current dogma that the reliefs decorated the inside of the cella is surely wrong, for two reasons: (1) the proportions of the internal order would be too low (as in Passerelli, 130, fig. 8); and (2) there are too many reliefs for the number of internal columns that can be restored in the plan. For the temple: Passerelli, V., ‘Rilievo e studio di restituzione dell'Hadrianeum’, in Atti del III Convegno Nazionale di Storia dell'Architettura (1938), 123–30Google Scholar; Cozza, L. (ed.), Tempio di Adriano (1982)Google Scholar. For the reliefs: H. Lucas, JdI 15 (1900), 1–42; Bienkowski, 60–86; Toynbee, 152–9; Pais, 33–81.

77 Two or three figures crossed their arms in front, like our no. 2: Toynbee, pl. 34. 2 (Conservatori), pl. 36. 1 (Farnese), and pl. 36. 4 (Doria Pamfili).

78 Nine survive: Lucas, JdI 15 (1900), 17–21; Pais, 81–95.

79 A fragment of a relief, almost certainly from the Sebasteion (a stray find), represents a standing frontal figure with boots, bare legs and calf-length cloak. Only the feet and lower legs are preserved. The dimensions are unusual, but it may nonetheless be from the ethne series.

80 Bienkowski, 60–86, reviewed critically by Toynbee, 152–9; Pais, 33–81, 120–7, finds little to add. Several small figures on a fragmentary lid of a sarcophagus (in the Conservatori) have been interpreted as versions of the Hadrianeum figures but do not help identification: Mustilli, D., Il Museo Mussolini (1939), 160, no. 6, pl. 101Google Scholar (I thank A. Kuttner for this reference).

81 Toynbee, 3–23.

82 See esp. Horace, , Odes 4. 14Google Scholar; cf. Crinagoras, below n. 85.

83 ‘Rerum gestarum divi Augusti, quibus orbem terrarum imperio populi Romani subiecit …’

84 Cf. Crinagoras, Pal. Anth. 9. 235: black Ethiopia, a ‘great frontier-region of the world’.

85 Cf. ibid. 16. 61: Tiberius' victories range from one end of the world to the other, from the rising to setting sun, from Armenia to Germany, from Araxes to Rhine.

86 JRS 1987, nos 6–7.

87 Inscribed base: Reynolds, ZPE, 323, no. 7. Relief: unpublished.

88 JRS 1987, no. 2. Panegyrical inscriptions: see e.g. Ehrenberg, V., Jones, A. H. M., Documents illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius2 (1955), no. 72Google Scholar (Myra, statue base): ‘God Augustus Caesar … imperator of land and sea, the benefactor and saviour of the whole world …’.