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The Imperial Family as Seen in Cyrene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

Susan Walker
Susan Walker*
Affiliation:
The British Museum, London
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Extract

In the summer of 1989 a new electricity cable was laid from New Shahat to the Caesareum of Cyrene, its course following the line of the road made in the 1920s through the (now largely abandoned) village of old Shahat. The construction of the road had already revealed several blocks of an engaged Doric architectural order in the unexcavated southeastern quarter of the ancient city; from the trench cut in 1989 were recovered parts of eight marble sculptures susceptible of interpretation, less identifiable fragments of other figures in marble and limestone, and a number of ashlar blocks with drafted margins cut in local limestone. Though the architectural finds suggest the presence of a substantial public building, the sculptures were apparently found packed in a row, giving the impression of having been deliberately buried during preparation for transit to a lime kiln. Without excavation no more can be said of their original context, beyond what may be gleaned from an examination of the sculptures themselves.

This paper is concerned with six of the more complete marble statues, which form an interesting, if not aesthetically distinguished group of portraits of members of the first Roman imperial family. The six survivors fall into three sub-groups, which are briefly described below; there follows an assessment of the relationship of the statues to contemporary portraits of the imperial family from Cyrene and elsewhere.

Two of the statues are carved in Pentelic marble, and are of exceptional scale. Of these the better preserved is a figure of a woman originally cut from one block to stand about 2.10 metres high but now sliced from top to base through the thicker part of the lower torso and horizontally through the whole torso into pieces 20–30 cm high, presumably to facilitate delivery, perhaps by hand, to the lime kiln (Figs 1–2). The unveiled woman is dressed in tunic and cloak, the latter swept over her left shoulder in the manner of the Kore of Praxiteles, a type well known in the Cyrenaican repertoire. The cloak is drawn far from the right side of her body, suggesting that her right forearm, now lost, was raised to hold an object (Fig. 3, right). The hair is waved to either side of a central parting, and drawn back from the face in thick tresses which are massed wide of the head to fall into a looped plait below the nape of the neck and over the edge of the cloak (Fig. 4). Around the face is a row of pin-wheel curls; there is no break in the curls at the central parting of the hair, and the curls come close to the ends of the eyebrows. The lower earlobes are exposed. The face is broad and round, with a low brow accentuated by the hairstyle, plump cheeks and a small receding chin. The nose and mouth are badly damaged, but the mouth appears small. The eyes are large, round and wide-set (Fig. 5).

Type
Roman Period and Late Antiquity
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 25 , January 1994 , pp. 167 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 1994

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References

Notes

1. Rosenbaum, E., Cyrenaican Portrait Sculpture (London 1960), Group 3, nos 155–159, pl. LXXII, pp 92–93, and no. 33, pl. XVIII, 3, p. 51Google Scholar.

2. Later comparable examples: Kruse, H.-J., Römische weibliche Gewandstatuen des zweiten Jahrhunderts n. Chr. Diss. Göttingen 1968, esp. p. 134 nos. D 35 (from Cyrene) and D 36 (from Eleusis), with pl. 50Google Scholar.

3. Marcadé, J., Au Musée de Délos (Rome 1969), no. A 4136, pp 269–273, 276, 279, 287, 310 n. 1, 318 n. 2, 323, pls LXVIII, LXIXGoogle Scholar.

4. Smith, A. H., A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum II (1900), 262, no. 1504Google Scholar; Rosenbaum (n.1), 46 no. 21*. The head is mentioned in Lieutenant Porcher's despatch of 7/6/1861 (BM P.No. 6328, 5/7/1861) as having been found in a building in front of the Fountain of Apollo.

5. It was proposed by von Heintze, H. in a review of Rosenbaum (n.1) in AJA LXVI (1962), 112Google Scholar and supported by Huskinson, J., Roman Sculpture from Cyrenaica in the British Museum CSIR II.1 (1975), 35, no. 65Google Scholar, but doubted by Zanker, P. in Fittschen, K.-Zanker, P., Katalog der römischen Porträts in den Capitolinischen Museen und den anderen kommunalen Sammlungen der Stadt Rom, III: Kaiserinnen und Prinzessinnenbildnisse Frauenporträts (Mainz 1983), 4 n. 6Google Scholar.

6. For the quarries, see Matthews, K.et al., ‘The re–evaluation of stable isotope data for Pentelic marble’ in (eds. Waelkens, M., Herz, N., Moens, L.), Ancient Stones: Quarrying, Trade and Provenance. Acta Archaeologica Lovaniensia Monographiae 4 (Leuven 1992), 203–212Google Scholar.

7. A recent overview is given by Boschung, D., ‘Die Bildnistypen der iulisch-claudischen Kaiserfamilie: ein kritischer Forschungsbericht’, JRA 6 (1993), 39–79Google Scholar.

8. Boschung (n.7), 71–73, s.v. W Valeria Messalina; for a fuller description of the facial features, see Wood, S., ‘Messalina, wife of Claudius: propaganda successes and failures’, JRA 5 (1992), 219–234, esp. p. 222Google Scholar. The Cyrenaean portrait resembles the Vatican Chiaramonti head (inv.N. 1814) discussed by Wood and rightly noted by Boschung (p. 71, n. 1660) as differing from Wood's other examples. It also resembles a portrait found in the theatre at Fiesole: Fuchs, M., Il Teatro Romano di Fiesole. Corpus delle Sculture (Rome 1986) I 4 (pls 5–7, pp 49–50)Google Scholar.

9. S. Walker and K. Matthews, ‘A Tale of Two Islands’, forthcoming in the proceedings of the Third International ASMOSIA conference held at Athens in May 1993.

10. Similar reused blocks have been found amongst the statuary of the extra-mural Sanctuary of Demeter at Cyrene: I am grateful to Susan Kane for this information, as yet unpublished.

11. Rosenbaum (n.1), pl. LXX, nos 39,43, pp 144–147, with pp 53–55, 86–89.

12. For a similar headless portrait from Apollonia see Rosenbaum (1960), pp. 85–86, no. 137, pl. LX1X, 3; Rosenbaum identifies this figure as a philosopher or poet.

13. For the portraits of Germanicus, see recently Boschung (n.7), 59–61, s.v. N Germanicus. BM Sculpture 1883: Massner, A.-K., Bildnisangleichung (Berlin 1982), pl,19bGoogle Scholar. Recent discussion of the portraits of Germanicus and of other Julio-Claudians in an African context: Queyrel, F., ‘De Paris à Ziane: Identification d'un groupe Julio-Claudien’, Antiquités Africaines 29 (1993), 71–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14. Polaschek, K., Studien zur Ikonographie der Antonia Minor (Rome 1973), Taf. 8.1, 14.1Google Scholar.

15. Balty, J.-Ch., ‘Notes d'iconographie julio-claudienne, IV. M. Claudius Marcellus et le type B de l'iconographie d'Auguste jeune’, Antike Kunst 20 (1977), 102–118, pl. 26.3Google Scholar.

16. See the comments of Zanker, P. in Fittschen, K.-Zanker, P., Katalog der römischen Porträts in den Capitolinischen Museen und den anderen kommunalen Sammlungen der Stadt Rom. I Kaiser und Prinzenbildnisse (Mainz 1985), 19–21Google Scholar.

17. Possibly following damage in the Jewish Revolt: for more examples, see Rosenbaum (n.1), 47 with n. 1.

18. Unpublished: inv. nos. 71–701, 76–224, 76–843, 77–44.

19. Agrippina: Rosenbaum (n.1), pl. XVI, 1–2, no. 16, with p. 43; see also no. 14, a head of a Julio-Claudian prince from an unrecorded find-spot. It was suggested at the colloquium that the sculptures may have been moved from the building identified by Stucchi as the Augusteum in the Agora, on which see Stucchi, S., L Agora di Cirene I.I Lati Nord ed Est della Platea Inferiore (Rome 1965), 107Google Scholar.

20. Rosenbaum (n.1) nos 128 pl. LXVII, with p. 83 and 155, pl. LXXII with p. 92.

21. Compare the other figures illustrated by Rosenbaum (n. 1), pl. LXVII.

22. Rosenbaum (n.1), pl. XV, 1–2.no. 15, with p. 43.

23. The list of imperial texts was compiled by Joyce Reynolds, using her own records. See also Giambuzzi, G., ‘Lessico delle Iscrizioni Latine della Cirenaica’, QAL 6 (1971), 82Google Scholar. Note that Giambuzzi did not distinguish between appearances of an emperor's name during his reign and those in the geneologies of his descendants.

24. SEG XXVI, 1824Google Scholar.

25. CIG 5186 from Pacho, pl. LXXTV= IGRR I 1025Google Scholar, both proposing incorrect restorations. See also Kunzl, S., ‘Die Kinder des Claudius: Porträts von Antonia, Octavia und Drusus’, Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 23 (1993), 95–109Google Scholar.

26. Aurigemma, S., Africa Italiana 8 (1940), 1–94. See also Boschung (n.7)Google Scholar.

27. Polacco, L., Il volto di Tiberio (Rome 1955), 144, pl. XXXVIIGoogle Scholar.

28. For some aspects of Cyrenaican workmanship, see Rosenbaum (n.1), pp 6–8.

29. Polacco (n.27), 50ff, pls IV–VI. Rosenbaum (n.1), pl. XV, 3–4, no. 17 wisely catalogues this head as a portrait of a young man: see discussion with note by R. G. Goodchild pp. 43–45.

30. Reynolds, J. M. with Ward-Perkins, J. B. and Ballance, M. H., ‘The Caesareum at Cyrene and the basilica at Cremna’, PBSR XXVI (1958), 160, lib, fig. 3, pl. XXXIaGoogle Scholar; AE1960, 267; Gasperini, L., ‘Le iscrizioini del Cesareo e della basilica di Cirene’, QAL 6 (1971), 5Google Scholar, CI; Luni, M., ‘Il Ginnasio-“Caesareum” di Cirene nel contesto del rinnovamento urbanistico della media età ellenistica e della prima età imperiale’, Atti dei Convegni Lincei 87 (Rome 1990), 87–120Google Scholar; ‘Strutture monumentali e documenti epigrafici nel Foro di Cirene’, L'Africa Romana IX (Sassari 1992), 123–146 and in this volume pp. 191–209Google Scholar.

31. Reynolds, J. M. with Goodchild, R. G. and Herington, C. J., ‘The Temple of Zeus at Cyrene’, PBSR XXVI (1958), 37–38Google Scholar, D.

32. Reynolds (n.31), 36–37, A.

33. See Giambuzzi (n.23).