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From Conquest to Pax Romana the Signa Recepta and the End of the Triumphal Fasti in 19 Bc

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From Conquest to Pax Romana the Signa Recepta and the End of the Triumphal Fasti in 19 Bc FROM CONQUEST TO PAX ROMANA THE SIGNA RECEPTA AND THE END OF THE TRIUMPHAL FASTI IN 19 BC Ida Östenberg In the 1540s, a most important archaeological find was made in the Forum Romanum. In the quest for new building material, a bulk of inscriptions came to light. These inscriptions turned out to contain two lists, one recording the magistrates of Rome, the other giving her triumphators. The inscribed lists were placed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline hill, from where they received their name, the Fasti Capitolini. Later on, several new fragments were unearthed, both to the north and south of the temple of Divus Iulius.1 The Fasti consulares, naming Rome‟s magistrates, were inscribed on four panels that were framed by small Corinthian pilasters, while the Fasti triumphales, displaying the names of Roman triumphators, were inscribed on four pilasters of Doric order. Both lists once adorned the same monument, and scholars have for a long time debated which one. Today, most opt for the triple arch that was built in honour of Augustus after his return in 19 BC with the standards recovered from the Parthians. The arch is described by a scholiast to Vergil as situated iuxta aedem divi Iulii,2 and it is identified with the fundaments of a triple-bayed arch just south of the temple of Divus Iulius.3 1 A. Degrassi, Inscriptiones Italiae 13.1 (Rome 1947), pp. 1-142, tables I-LIV; E. Nedergaard, „Facts and fiction about the Fasti Capitolini‟, Analecta Romana Instituti Danici 27 (2001), 107-127; M. Beard, The Roman Triumph (Cambridge/MA 2007), 61-66, 72-80, 295 f., 302 f. 2 Scholia Veronensia in Vergilii Aeneidem 7.606. 3 Nedergaard 2001, op.cit. (n. 1), 107-127; T. Itgenshorst, „Augustus und der republikanische Triumph. Triumphalfasten und summi viri-Galerie als Instrumente der imperialen Machtsicherung‟, Hermes 132 (2004), 438; C.B. Rose, „The Parthians in Augustan Rome‟, American Journal of Archaeology 109 (2005), 28-36. The Fasti were first attributed to the arch south of the temple of Caesar in the 1940s, by the Italians Attilio Degrassi and Guglielmo Gatti (who identified it as Augustus‟ Actian arch) and the Americans Lily Ross Taylor and Leicester Bodine Holland (claiming it to be the Parthian arch). In later days, Rich has interpreted the remains Ida Östenberg - 9789047428275 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 12:38:49PM via free access 54 IDA ÖSTENBERG Not only the location but also the date of the lists has been widely debated. First of all, there is the question of to what extent the lists copy earlier documentation. As both the Fasti consulares and triumphales were published under Augustus, they must have been edited to suit the imperial image.4 Then there is the issue of when the Augustan editions themselves were first published. The Parthian arch was erected in 18/17 BC, but the first publication of the Fasti consulares might have occured some years before that date.5 The consular list continued in active use after the inauguration of the arch, and came to an end only in AD 13. as the Actian arch, later modified to celebrate also the Parthian settlement, J.W. Rich, „Augustus‟s Parthian Honours, the Temple of Mars Ultor and the Arch in the Forum Romanum‟, Papers of the British School at Rome 66 (1998), 97-115. There have been other suggestions for the original placement of the Fasti too. In 1985, Coarelli proposed that the inscriptions came from the Parthian arch, which was however to be located north of Caesar‟s temple: F. Coarelli, Il Foro Romano II: Periodo repubblicano e augusteo (Rome 1985), 269-308. Simpson instead argued that the Fasti should be attributed to the Regia, thus reviving Hülsen‟s late 19th century theory: C.J. Simpson, „The original site of the Fasti Capitolini‟, Historia 42 (1993), 61-81. Still others have proposed the fornix Fabianus, E.M. Steinby, „Il lato orientale del Foro Romano‟, Arctos 21 (1987), 139-184. In this article, I follow the now mostly accepted view that the Fasti adorned the Parthian arch. 4 T. Itgenshorst, Tota illa pompa. Der Triumph in der römischen Republik (Göttingen 2005), esp. 9-12, 219-223. 5 On the fourth tablet of the Fasti consulares, the name M. Antonius (of the triumvir and his grandfather) has been erased and later restored. In the Fasti triumphales, on the other hand, M. Antonius (the triumvir) appears twice, and his name has not been touched: Degrassi 1947, op.cit. (n. 1), 19f., 54f., 56f. It has been suggested that the erasure of the Antonii names was performed after Antony‟s death in 30 BC, when his honours were cancelled, cf. Plutarchus, Cicero 49.6; Cassius Dio 51.19.3f. Octavian would then have had the Antonii names restored after his return to the city a year later; see now H.I. Flower, The Art of Forgetting. Disgrace and Oblivion in Roman Political Culture (Chapel Hill 2006), 116-121. If this is correct, the consular lists must have existed already in 30 BC, while the triumphal lists did not (at least not in the preserved form). It has therefore been proposed that the Fasti consulares adorned some other building before they were moved to the Parthian arch: M. Spannagel, Exemplaria principis. Untersuchungen zu Entstehung und Ausstattung des Augustusforums (Heidelberg 1999), 245-252. Nedergaard, on the other hand, insists that the two Fasti lists were planned together specifically for the Parthian arch, and places the erasure of the Antonii names in 2 BC, when Antony‟s son Iullus Antonius was condemned and executed, Nedergaard 2001, op.cit. (n. 1), 121. She suggests that Antony‟s name might have been spared on the Fasti triumphales as it occurs only together with Octavian‟s: E. Nedergaard, „Reconstructing the Fasti Capitolini‟, Analecta Romana Instituti Danici 30 (2004), esp. 96-99. Ida Östenberg - 9789047428275 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 12:38:49PM via free access FROM CONQUEST TO PAX ROMANA 55 In contrast, the list of Roman triumphators stops sharply at 19 BC. There were no later additions; in fact, there was not even any space spared on the four pilasters to add more names (fig. 1). Thus, the Fasti triumphales were not a list in active use, but were edited and published at one time as a fully completed and closed record.6 Some two thirds of the list, which once announced around three hundred triumphs, ovations and also triumphs on the Alban Mount, are preserved, giving names, celebration dates and enemies of Roman triumphators. The last name recorded is that of Cornelius Balbus, who in 19 BC celebrated his victories in Africa. As Tiberius‟ later ovation in 9 BC and triumph in 7 BC are absent, the list must have been published sometime between 19 and 9, presumably together with the erection of the Parthian arch in 18/17 BC. The question of why Augustus would have the list of Republican triumphators end at 19 BC with the rather unimportant figure of Cornelius Balbus has long puzzled scholars. Indeed, Balbus‟ celebration over some obscure tribes in Africa makes a rather unexpected and abrupt end to this incised proof of Rome‟s expansion to world wide rule. Above all, it in no way matches the majestic introduction to the list, which starts off with Romulus‟ three triumphs, the first of which was celebrated on the symbolic date of 1st of March 753 BC. Seemingly, it would have made much more sense had the Fasti ended with a symbolic crescendo, preferably with Octavian‟s own triplex triumphus held in 29 BC, after the fall of Cleopatra. Several scholars have noted that the three triumphs of the „new Romulus‟ would have made a perfect closure to a story that began with the three triumphs of Rome‟s founding father. Consequently, it has been suggested that the Fasti triumphales were first set up soon after 29 BC, ending with Octavian‟s name to boast the emperor‟s triumphant entry.7 Others have thought it strange that the list of triumphators did not rather continue beyond Balbus, including the heir to the imperial throne, Tiberius. The stop at 19 BC 6 A. Wallace-Hadrill, Augustan Rome (Bristol 1993), 53; Nedergaard 2004, op.cit. (n. 5), 94 f. 7 Spannagel 1999, op.cit. (n. 5), 245-252; Itgenshorst 2004, op.cit. (n. 3), esp. 438 f., 443; id. 2005, op.cit. (n. 4), 219. Ida Östenberg - 9789047428275 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 12:38:49PM via free access 56 IDA ÖSTENBERG has been explained as more or less coincidental, simply reflecting the fact that the space on the four pilasters was by then fully inscribed.8 Still, very little in Augustus‟ policy happened by mere chance, and instead of trying to explain away the fact that the list ends with Cornelius Balbus, this article aims to show that the finishing date was deliberately chosen to signal the end of Republican triumphs. Balbus‟ triumph was the last to occur before Augustus‟ return from the East with the Roman standards in 19 BC, the very reason for which the Parthian arch was built. In emphasising the connection between Augustus‟ return and the end of the Fasti triumphales, I will argue that the Parthian arch with its celebration of the signa recepta and its completed list of past triumphs symbolically announced the beginning of a new age, in which foreign people submitted to the pax Romana without bloodshed.9 The inauguration of the Parthian arch coincided with the announcement of the new saeculum in 17 BC, and it formed part of Augustus‟ proclamation of the coming of a golden age.
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