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Imperial Triumph and Apotheosis: The in Rome

Naomi J Norman

Introduction (for a complete list of the divi, see Beurlier 1890). Equally Spectacle was an important part of life at Rome, especially striking is the fact that in the Imperial period, apotheosis the life of the Roman who occupied center stage was not reserved for the emperor but was on twenty-seven in the city on many occasions, particularly when he occasions extended to members of his family. and celebrated a triumph and when he was buried. As Geertz Henderson (1998) note thc quickening pace of these (1973, 132-40) has demonstrated, spectacle has the ability collateral deifications in the second century CE as new and both to provide a narrative of a complex city and to give complex issues of succession arise. That collateral deification groups within the city the opportunity to tell their stories; could be an important part of an emperor's public persona to his observation there should be added the recognition is suggested by the coinage of the divine Faustina, which that architecture can facilitate a group narrative by serving was in wide circulation even after the reign of Antoninus either as a vantage point from which the narrative may be Pius (Mattingly 1948; see also MacCormack 1981,93-158; told or as a mnemonic device for that narrative. This article Davies 2000, ch. 4). takes the position that the Arch of Titus serves as mnemonic The funeral and apotheosis of the emperor commemor- device for Roman narratives about both triumph and ated the past and, in addition, pointed the way to the future, apotheosis. On the day of an emperor's triumph, the people for the emperor's successor emerged from the funeral and the Senate of Rome commemorated his military bearing the potent epithet . quickly achievements and conquests and equated him with recognized the political value of apotheosis and of this Optirnus Maximus for one day (I leave aside the vexing epithet (Weinstock 1971, 356-63). Apotheosis was, there- issue of whether his costume and painted face were meant fore, particularly important when the dead emperor had no to equate him visually with Jupiter; e.g., see Warren J 970). biological heir and his successor was adopted, as, for On the day the emperor was buried, the people and the example, in the cases of and . Senate of Rome commemorated his life and rule and, in the Both the triumph and the funeral that culminated in case of some , witnessed the apotheosis that marked apotheosis offered striking opportunities for imperial image his identity as a god. At his funeral, final judgment was making and were popular subjects in imperial in Rome. passed on the emperor and his rule: "good" emperors were As Kunzl (1988, 9) points out, however, the subject of the divinized, "bad" emperors suffered a condemnation of triumphal parade is not as popular as its cultural importance memory, and all the others just faded away. For Augustus, might us to expect; indeed, on his list of triumphal Titus, Trajan, and the other so-called "good" emperors, the reliefs (162-63) nearly half belong to the Flavian and funeral and apotheosis were the culmination of a process Trajanic periods. More popular are images that capture a that began on the days of their when they were "snapshot" from the triumph, individual scenes that staod privileged to get a taste of the that might await them for the entire ritual, as on the silver cup from Boscoreale at apotheosis. (Kuttner 1995, figs. 10-12.) Surprisingly, only the Arch of In myth, was the first ruler to be divinized; in Titus on the Via overtly depicts both the imperial history, it was Julius . Between the time of Augustus triumph and the imperial apotheosis on the same monument and Constantine, thirty. six of sixty emperors were divinized (I likewise read the Column of Antoninus Pius as depicting 42 Naomi J Norman

both triumph and apotheosis, but in a much more allusive see also Beard 2003 and Magness, this volume). As he tells manner). the story, the Senate had originally decreed separate triumphs The Arch of Titus commemorates both his triumph and for , Titus, and , but the Flavii decided apotheosis and creates an official visual narrative that to celebrate a common triumph instead. records grounds Titus's apotheosis in his trinmph over Jndaea. By that the entire city came out to witness the event, so filling tapping into a powerful web of ideas connecting triumph up the route (Fig. 6.6a) that there was barely enough room and apotheosis, the Arch deftly binds the two spectacles for the parade to pass. The night before the triumphal parade, together (Brelich 1938 offers a full discussion of the many participants gathered in the ; at dawn, the connections between an imperial funeral and a three Flavii emerged to receive the acclamation of the crowd ). This article demonstrates how the at the where Vespasian prayed to the gods. sculptural decoration, architecture, and physical location of Afterward, the troops marched forth with seven hundred the Arch worked together to give voice to Roman ideas prisoners of war who had been specially selected by Titus ahout imperial triumph and apotheosis and to illustrate the for their stature and beauty, accompanied by the Jndaean fundamental link between the two spectacles; it argues that booty and vivid displays of the hattles. the Arch not only memorialized Titns's triumph and The parade exited the Campus Martius and entered the but also gave spectators the opportunity to city through the Porta Triumphalis, the exact date, form, experience and reactivate either one of those spectacles each and location of which is problematic (see Magness this and every time they passed through the Arch on their way volume for a brief discussion of the problems). There the into or out of the . Flavii, each dressed in the garb of a triumphator (aUtoKpatopE<; in Josephus [B1 7.123]), sacrificed to the gods. From the Campus Martius, the participants could see The Imperial Triumph in the distance their destination: the temple of Jupiter on The triumph is a ritual with a very long pedigree in Rome, the Capitoline (Favro 1994, fig. 6). The triumphal route took stretching back beyond the Republic, all the way to the them through the markets to the , around legendary Romulus (Plut. Vito Rom. 16). Scholarship on the the , across the Forum Romanum, and finally up the includes a variety of perspectives and Capitoline to the Jupiter temple. interpretations (see, e.g., RE VilA 493-511, S. V. "Triumphus" So massive was the Flavian triumph that Josephus [W. Ehlers]; Kunzl 1988; Barini 1952; Versnel 1970; declares himself incapable of describing it, opting instead MacCormick 1981; and Beard 2007). During the Republic, to call it a symbol of the greatness of Roman rule (Tij:; a triumph was the highest honor that a general could earn 'POJ~aiOJv~YE~ovia<;... TOlleys80<;;B1 7.133). On display in recognition of his military achievements, growing in both were , statues, gems - so many gems, indeed, that complexity and splendor with each passing generation. In Josephus dares anyone to continue to consider them rare the Imperial period, it was the exclusive prerogative of the - and other marvels. He likens the great masses of displayed emperor or members of his immediate family (see Barini booty to a riverftowing through the city (ru; pEOVTU1roTUllOV; 1952,201-4, for a complete list of all imperial triumphs). B17.134). The procession also included sacrificial animals Though each triumph has its own distinctive tempo and and prisoners of war, all accompanied by Roman soldiers, features, every celebration shares a common shape and officials, standard bearers, and others. Some participants structurewith its predecessors and successors. For example, held plaques describing the exotic booty; others held models every triumph revolves around three venues, each of which or platforms (n~y~aTU) depicting the battles or the cities or is associated with a particularaudience: the Campus Martius the captured generals. Josephus saves his greatest praise for and its association with the military; the Forum Rornanum these platforms (some as high as three or four stories), which with its emphasis on the people and Senate of Rome; and vividly depicted important episodes in the war aud gave the , home to Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The spectators the sense of actnally "being there": ~ TEXV'l08 parade also has a tripartite structure: first come the spoils Kat nov xnrccncsuncudrcov it ~syaA.ODpy{a TOts aUK iOOUO"l and prisoners of war; then the , public officials, and Ylv6~EVaTOT' "OEiJcVU>:V00<;nnpobot (both the art and the sacrificial animals; and at the end the army. Thns the ritual magnificent workmanship of these structures at that time is inscribed onto the topography of Rome and draws within revealed the incidents to those who did not see them, as its orbit much of the population of Rome. though they were actually present; B1 7.146). He remarks that the craftsmanship was so accomplished and the models so awesome that spectators feared the stages would collapse The Flavian Triumph and fall on top of them. This is not quite the same fear as For the Flavian triumph over Judaea, celebrated in 71 CE that experienced on the field of battle, but real fear and featured on the Arch of Titus, we are fortunate to have nonetheless (see Beard 2003, 34-37, who is particularly Josephus's rich and detailed written account (B17.116-57; interested in the effect of the festival on its spectators and Imperial Triumph and Apotheosis: The Arch of Titus in Rome 43 who characterizes the parade, at some moments, as teetering remembered and in a sense reactivated whenever later precariously on the edge of bathos and, at others, of evoking parades passed under or alongside these earlier triumphal so much empathy for the captives as to rob the triumphator monuments. Thus each triumph was linked to the past and of the limelight). Surely one of the points of the triumph laid the groundwork for the future. Each trinmph served to was to give the some sense of what Roman weave the triumphator into the fabric and history of the military action meant and what it was like for the Roman city; each triumph tapped into the distinct power of the city state to go to war. In other words, the triumph helped Roman of Rome. So close was the identification of the triumph with citizens experience, albeit at one remove, some of the very Rome that Antony was roundly criticized for trying to real emotions of battle. celebrate one in instead (, Vito Ant. Josephus records that most ofthe booty was carried along 50.2). in heaps (BJ 7.148). The exceptions were the spoils from On the day of his triumph, the triumphator was the center the temple at (BJ7.149), which stood out above of attention, the object of all eyes (see Brilliant 1999; Beard all the rest: namely a golden table many talents in weight 2003 views it qnite differently). According to Josephus each (i.e., the shewbread table), a lamp stand also made of of the Plavii, like all previous triumphatores, wore a (i.e., the menorah), aod a copy of the Jewish Law (i.e., the cloak over a star-studded . According to tradition, the ). These sacred relics were followed by gold and ivory triumphator carried a scepter crowned with an eagle in one statues of Victory and finally by the Flavii themselves - hand and a laurel branch in the other and rode in a magnificent Vespasian and Titus, each riding in a triumphal chariot, gilded chariot drawn by four horses (the costume, the chariot, followed by Domitian riding a magnificent horse. The and the slave all appear on the silver cup from Boscoreale; parade ended on the Capitoline, at the temple of Jupiter see Kuttner 1995, figs. 10, 25). Behind him in the chariot Capitolinus, where the emperor and his sons performed the stood a slave whose job it was to hold above the triumphator's sacrifices (see Makin 1921 for discussion of the route); head a crown oflaurelleaves known as the corona triumphalis afterward they aud the entire city spent the rest of the day and whisper in his ear, "look behind you, and remember that feasting, some in the , the rest scattered throughout you are a man" (Tert. Apol. 33.4; also Juv. 10.41, Plin. HN the city. 38.41, Beard 2007,85-92 for different view). In the Imperial This triumph was a magnificent spectacle - a loud, messy, period, the servus publicus was replaced by various members exuberant, awe-inspiring celebration of the emperor, the of the imperial family - in a nod to the future of the ruling , the army, and the Romao people. It was also a family and the stability of their rule - and, sometimes, by moment in time that transcended time. The triumphal route Victory herself traced the in broad strokes, from the The traditional interpretation of the whispered words of pam erial boundary of tbe city to Romulus's hut on the the slave is that, in response to the parts of the ritual that Palatine to the wellspring of Roman religion on the assimilated the triumphator with Jupiter, the slave was there Capitoline. And scattered along the route, like the footprints to remind him of his mortality and to keep him from of earlier triumphs, were the monuments built by earlier succumbing to superbia: "remember that you are a man." generals and emperors to commemorate their own triumphs: But the slave also tells him to "look behind" and tbns "to here is the temple of built by Duilius to commemorate the future" for in much of Roman literature, the future is his victory over Carthage; and there, the arcb of Augustus conceptualized as coming from behind rather than lying lauding his victory at and inscribed with the ahead (Sen. Ad Lucilium 49.9; Suet. Dom. 23.1; Cic. Div. triumph ales recording the names of all triumphatores, 1.49ff; see Bettini 1991, lSI-57). On the day oftrinmph, beginning with Romnlus (Cll: 1'.1 Acta triumphornm p. then, the triumphator was advised to look beyond the present 43-50). day and his status as "god for a day" and tbink abont the Because the itinerary of the triumph was not static, future. In other words, he was urged to look to the future triurnphatores vied to locate their triumphal monuments at and accomplish those feats that would secure his deification nodal points along the route: the southern end of the Campus for all time. Martins, the Circus Maximus, the Roman Forum, and the Capitoline. Similarly, they designed rontes to suit their own purposes, passing by the triumphal monuments erected by The Arch of Titus their ancestors and bypassing those erected by their enemies. The Arch of Titus (Fig. 6.1), located at the eastern end of The path traced by a triumph could either recall to memory the Roman Forum, at the head of the Sacra Via, commemorates an earlier triumph or completely ignore it, assigning to it a the Flavian triumph but presents Titus as the sole protagonist sort of passive . Each triumphal route in the event. Key images from the triumph occupy pride of was thus both a celebration and a didactic journey; it created place in the scnlptural program of the Arch. Two large a three-dimensional timeline, what Favro (1994, 154) calls panels decorate the interior of tbe single bay of the Arch a kinetic history of the Roman state. Earlier triumphs were and illustrate two moments in the triumph: the display of 44 Naomi J. Norman

Fig. 6.1 East facade of the Arch of Titus. Rome (Photo: © DA1R 79.2000).

the spoils from Jerusalem and Titus in his triumphal On the north side of the bay is the relief depicting Titus chariot. in his triumphal chariot and accompanied by a crowd of and other officials (Fig. 6.3). He wears the costume of the triumphalor and holds in his left hand Jupiter's scepter The Relief Panels in the Bay of the Arch crowned with an eagle and extends a in his The spoils panel occupies the south side of the bay (Fig. right (illustrated in Pfanner 1983, especially fig. 32, pI. 52.1, 6.2). In it, two of the three most important relics meutioned 3). In the place ofthe slave stands VictoriaAugusti, holding by Josephus are depicted: the menorah and the shewbread the corona triumphalis over his head. The chariot, decorated table, each shown in great detail and each carried on a with a frieze of baetyls on its rim and an eagle standing on ferculum. Traditionally stored inside the Temple at Jerusalem a thunderbolt below (illustrated in Davies 2000, figs. 56-57), and known only to the high priests there, they are here put is guided by (or perhaps ) and is accompanied on public display, suhject to the gaze of the vast crowd of by the Populi Roman (or perhaps Honos), the Genius spectators, most of whom had no knowledge of what they Senatus, and togate officials. The presence of the personifi- were seeing or ofthe importance ofthese objects to Judaism. cations in the scene and the focus on Titus to the exclusion Attendants carrying identifying placards follow the objects, of his fellow triumphatores elevate the scene from the purely and everyone moves toward an arch on the extreme right historical to the symbolic. side of the panel which Kleiner (1990,129) identifies as the The triumph also figures on the exterior decoration of arch voted for Vespasian by the Senate in the year before the Arch, at the level of the cornice where a small, poorly the triumph (Dio 65.7.2). preserved frieze depicts the procession. Plainly visible are Imperial Triumph and Apotheosis: The Arch a/Titus In Rome 45

Fig. 6.2 Spoils relief in the bay of the Arch of Titus, Rome (Photo: ©Alinorl/Art Resource, New York. AL5839).

Fig, 6.3 Triumphator relief in the bay a/the Arch of Titus, Rome (Photo: © DAIR 79.2491). 46 Naomi J Norman

Fig. 6.4 Smail triumphfriezefram below cornice of Arch of Titus, Rame (From Kunzl i988,fig. 10).

a number of soldiers - some carrying placards, some carrying Reading the Relief Panels shields - and various officials, including a victtmarius, and The figures in the spoils panel march from left to right; a sacrificial bull (Fig. 6.4). In addition to these explicit those in the triumph relief, from right to left, so that the narratives of tile triumph, the other sculptural decoration of figures in each panel move toward the temple of Jupiter on the Arch employs more generalized victory iconography: the Capitoline, the goal of the triumphal procession. As winged Victories appear in the spandrels of the Arch, each many scholars have noted, the orientation of the two panels holding a different attribute allnding to ; and place a viewer standing in the bay of the Arch in the midst magnificent ofHonos (or the Genins Populi of a sculpted re-creation ofthe triumphal parade. This gives Romani) and Virtus (or Roma) grace the keystones of the the viewer the opportunity to reenact the experience of Arch (note that these same personifications appear in the "being there" (much like Josephus's use of the deictic relief panel). expression rot' lo€iKVUf:V roc;1CUpOUCHin his description of the event) during the parade and to retrace the route of the Imperial Triumph and Apotheosis: The Arch a/Titus in Rome 47 procession as she moves through the Arch and into the Forum. This is not, however, the only procession reenacted by the on the Arch.

TItus's Apotheosis The Arch is not solely a triumphal monument in the strictest sense; that is to say, it was not built merely to commemorate Titus's triumph. This was accomplished, perhaps, by triumphal arches voted for Vespasian and Titus by the Senate, which included three Vespasianic arches (Kleiner 1990) and the arch erected by Titus in the Circus Maximus (Humphrey 1986,97-100). The inscription from the arch in the Circus Maximus (ClL 6.944) reads:

The Senate and the people of Rome to the emperor Titus Caesar Vespasian Augustus the son of the divine Vespasian, , holder of the tribunician power for the tenth time, for the seventeenth time, consul for the eighth time, father of the fatherland, the very of Rome because by the example and advice of his father he overcame the people of Judaea and destroyed the city of Jerusalem which before Fig. 6.5 Apotheosis relief from vault of Arch of Titus, Rome was besieged by generals, and peoples in vain or left (Photo: © DAIR 79.2393). unmolested by them.

This is a typical triumphal inscription and quite different from the dedicatory inscription on the east side of the attic awkwardly - on the back of an eagle and ascending to of the Arch of Titus. Holloway (1987, 187) provocatively heaven to join the company of the gods. In Roman suggested over twenty years ago that the Arch functioned illustrations of apotheosis, the deceased generally rides to primarily as a monumental pedestal for tbe inscription on heaven in a chariot, as on the Belvedere , or on a winged its attic (a duplicate of which may have appeared on the creature, either an eagle as here or a , as in west side as in the Arch of Trajan at Beneventum), and that the apotheosis of relief or the apotheosis relief on its sculpture was the equivalent of a funerary elogium. The the Antonine column base (Kleiner 1992, fig. 86, Belvedere inscription is monumental in scale (letters range from 35 to altar; fig. 222, Sahina relief; fig. 253, Antonine column 46 em in height) but surprisingly terse: SENATUS I relief). The crippled seems to have been the only POPULUSQUE ROMANUS I DIVO TITO DIVI emperor to have walked to heaven (Sen. Apoco!. 1) which VESPASIANl F I VESPASIANO AUGUSTO (The Senate may explain why his bid for divinization was rejected by and the people of Rome to the divine Titus Vespasian the gods. Titus rode on an eagle, and this relief is the first Augustus, son of the divine Vespasian; CIL 6.945; restored monumental Roman state relief sculpture to use an eagle as by G. Valadier in 1822-24, see Dyson, this volume). The the vehicle of apotheosis (for a completely different reading inscription is crystal clear: the Arch was dedicated sometime of Titus's eagle, see Beard and Henderson 1998). after Titus's death in 81 CEo Lehmann-Hartleben (1934) suggested that tbe Arch was actually Titus's tomb and suggested that Titus's ashes were placed in a small chamber Imperial Death, Burial, and Apotheosis in the attic. Although his argument has not found wide What do we know of Titus's death, burial, and apotheosis? acceptance, scholars do acknowledge that the Arch com- Almost nothing. records that Titus died of a fever memorated the emperor's apotheosis and thus had funerary at the age of forty-two, only two years, two , and connotations, and Pfanner (1983, 98-103) has convincingly twenty days after his father's death. According to Suetonius demonstrated that the principal programmatic theme of the (Tit. 11; Dam. 2.3), he was widely mourned by the people Arch was Titus's apotheosis. and extravagantly praised by the Senate, though Domitian A small relief panel placed in the summit of the vault nf "bestowed no honor on him, except for deification, and often the Arch provides explicit reference to Titus's death and slandered his memory in ambiguous phrases, both in his apotheosis (Fig. 6.5). The panel is framed by thick garlands speeches and in his edicts." Although no ancient source that are held at the corners hy small putti. Within this describes Titus's funeral, it must have followed the model garlanded frame, we see Titus perched - alheit somewhat established by Augustus's funeral, especially since the Flavii 48 Naomi J. Norman

-'.:

".

".: Imperial Triumph and Apotheosis: The Arch of Titus in Rome 49 were fond of revitalizing Augustan precedents. Fortunately, for the decursio itself, see Suet. Aug. 100.3; Dio 56.34-46 we know quite a bit about Augustus' funeral which drew on the funeral of Augustus; App. B Civ 1.106, ; Suet. upon the earlier tradition of the aristocratic funeral of the Claud. 1, Drusus; Dio 59.11.2, Drusilla; 75.4-5, ; Republic (the primary source isPolyb. 6.53-54, contextualized Herodian 4.2, ). Afterward, by Toynbee 1971,43-64; Flower 1996, ch. 4). Augustus's took up torches and lit the pyre from below. As it burned, funeral also borrowed from the ceremonies for Sulla (Plut. those present threw on it their own triumphal decorations Vito SuI/. 38.3; App. B Civ 1.106.497-500) and and watched them burn along with the body of Augustus. (App. B Civ 2.616; Dio 47.18.3-19.3). It set the precedent Once 'the pyre was completely consumed, an eagle was for all imperial funerals to come, although some variations released from it to signify the emperor's spirit ascending to were introduced, especially after inhumation replaced the gods. Because the eagle is missing from Suetonius's cremation as the principal funerary rite in Roman culture description of the funeral, Price (1987, 95) suggests that (see Richard 1966a-d; 1978; Price 1987; Arce 1988). Dio anachronistically included the bird in his account, but According to Dio (56.34-46), Augustus's fuueral began with I see no reason to discount, as Price does, the evidence from a ceremonial procession that transported his body from his first-century gems that show eagles carrying emperors to house on the Palatine down to the Forum (Fig. 6.6b). Like the heavens (see Megow 1987, 199-200, inv. A80, pl. 27.1; the aristocratic Republican funeral, the procession included Fraschetti 1984, 180-84). Dio reports that after five days, images of Augustus's ancestors and deceased relatives gathered up Augustus's burnt bones and placed them alongside images of other prominent Romans, going all the in the Mausoleum in the northern Campus Martius. Some- way back to Romulus. Also present were likenesses of all time after that, Numerius Atticus vowed that he had the countries he had conquered (ra re e9vTj 1Hlv9' oaa personally witnessed Augustus ascending to heaven in the npO"8K"t~(mTO; Dio 56.34.3) and two golden images of mauner ofthe legendary Romulus (Dio 56.46.2); the Senate Augustus himself: one carried in from the and another then voted him divine honors, and the apotheosis was that came in a triumphal chariot (t

out ofthe urbs and vertically up to the heavens, establishing of the triumph, his ashes were interred in the base of his both a horizontal human axis and a vertical divine one, not column and he was proclaimed divus (SHA Hadr. 6.3: unlike the axis of the triumphal route that ran through the Eutropius, Breviarum 8.5.2-4; according city and up to the Capitoline. By moving along both axes, to , Epitome de Caesaribus, 14.12, Trajan's the body of the emperor straddled the line between human body was burnt at Seleucia and the ashes were later sent to space and divine space, between mortality and immortality Rome for interment). Thus Trajan triumphed, was buried, (ej Dupont 1989; Bickerman 1972). and became divine all on the same day. The event was The pyre in the Campus Martius was the crucial setting commemorated by bearing on the obverse the head for the funeral, both as the locus of the cremation and as ofTrajan with the legend Diva Traiano Partli[ico] Aughnto] the venue for apotheosis (Price 1987 discusses the import- Patri and on the reverse the triumphal chariot driven by the ance ofthe pyre, though he insists that the emperor continued emperor/effigy holding a scepter with the legend triumphus to be cremated long after inhumation had become the Parthicus (EM Coins Rom. Emp. 3, 244, no. 47, pI. 47.7: standard burial rite throughout the Roman world; but there another minted by depicts the divine Trajan is too much evidence, including the sarcophagus of Balbi nus not in the traditional fashion with toga and mantle but as a that suggests the opposite). Though the final act of the cuirassed military figure; EM Coins Rom. Emp. 3, 318, no. funerary spectacle may have occurred at the pyre, the 603, pI. 59.3; also see Richard 1966c). Triumph and funerary ritual as a whole cut a wide swath across much of deification appear quite literally as two sides of the same the topography of Rome. It moved from the Palatine to the . Rhetorically this link between the triumph and Forum to the Campus Martins, drawing participants from apotheosis of Trajan is articulated by Pliny who, when across the social and political spectrum of the city and describing the effect of gazing at Trajan during his first creating a powerful image of unity at a time of potential triumph in 99 CE, remarked that the emperor "towered disruption upon the death of the emperor. Since Augustus above us" like a god (Plin. . 22.2.3, 24.5). Pliny tells had not established a formal mechanism for transferring Trajan: "by your own renown and , by freedom and to his successor, his death was potentially by your subjects' love, you are borne aloft far above .. unsettling to the state and the Roman people; this sense of [other] rulers; you are lifted to the heavens by the very unease is recorded in Dio (56.45.2) as a series of bad omens ground we all tread, where your imperial footsteps are that accompanied the succession of Tiberius. The difficulty mingled with our own." demands superlatives, of the succession was eased by Augustus's apotheosis, which but this goes beyond mere praise; it is the language of hestowed on Tiberius the mantle of divi filius, the same role divinity. Compare this to the experience of a viewer standing co-opted by Augustus during his own rise to power. In later in the bay of the Arch of Titus who sees Titus similarly years, apotheosis afforded heirs, especially those who were towering above her. adopted by the emperor, considerable political leverage and The Arch of Titus eloquently articulates the web of ideas significantly eased their transition to the purple. For example, and symbols that unite triumph and apotheosis. On it, as we when the Senate balked at giving Hadrian divine honors, have seen, both the triumph and the apotheosis of the Antoninus insisted and made it a condition of his becoming emperor are illustrated; but, despite the fact that they appear emperor, saying that, if the Senate so hated Hadrian, they in independent relief panels, they are not depicted as could decide to annul all his acts, including his own adoption; completely independent events but rather are united by a the Senate, anxious for Antoninus to rule, relented and number of sculptural details. Not only does Titus in the divinized Hadrian, thus ensuring the succession (Dio apotheosis panel wear the same tunic and toga as on the 70.1.2-3). The very full accounts ofthe funerals of Pert ina x triumphal relief, but the apotheosis eagle takes the same (Dio 75.4-5) and Septimius Severus (Herodian 4.2) indicate stance as the eagle carved on Titus's triumphal chariot that subsequent imperial funerals followed the same general (Davies 2000, 71, figs. 56-57; the eagle on Titus's chariot pattem established by the funeral of Augustus and drew also resembles the one depicted on the pediment of the upon many of the same themes, including the deployment temple of Jupiter Capitolinus on the Boscoreale cup). of triumphal imagery. Similarly, the garlands that frame the apotheosis panel recall The funeral of Trajan provides an excellent example of the triumphal of laurel that Augusti places the interplay between triumph and apotheosis. When Trajan on Titus's head in the chariot panel. These are subtle but died on campaign far from Rome, the ritual cycle was altogether clear visual cues that encourage us to read the telescoped and, according to his late biographer, his Parthian panels together and to acknowledge that Titus's divinization triumph and funeral were combined into one magnificent is grounded in his triumph. Titus's apotheosis at the very public event when his cremated remains were finally returned apex of the vault, then, serves as the climactic "text" of the to Rome; for that event Hadrian placed a lifelike effigy of Arch. The triumphal panels in the bay remind us that Titus's Trajan in the triumphal chariot and paraded it through the apotheosis is founded on his significant military achieve- streets afRome in a triumphalprocession. At the culmination ments. To borrow Davies's (2000, 72) phrase, the triumphal Imperial Triumph and Apotheosis: The Arch of Titus in Rome 51

Fig. 6.7 Interior of the Arch of Titus, Rome (Photo: courtesy Timothy N. Gantz). reliefs in the bay are a "visual res gestae." Holloway (1987) the Porta Trinmphalis as part of the , a calls the reliefs an elogium. Whatever term one uses, the double gate in the whose exact location is idea is essentially the same: the reliefs create a text that unknown. He argues that it consisted of two arches placed narrates the achievements that earned Titus divine status at right angles to one another. For anyone leaving the city, after his death and serve as an exemplum for others. the arch to the right was called the Porta Scelerata because That message is conveyed not only by these sculptural it was the gate through which corpses were regularly carried details but also by the orientation of the reliefs on the Arch. out of the city to pyres in the Campus Martius (Ov. Fast. As mentioned above, the triumphal reliefs inside the bay of 2.201-4); the arch to the left was the Porta Triumphalis, the Arch are most legible as one follows the path of the generally used only by those entering the city, in particular triumphal procession; the apotheosis panel, however, is most by triumphatores and triumphal (Coarelli 1968, legible as one follows the path of the funerary procession 55-103; 1988,363-414; Richardson 1992, 301, s.v "Porta (Fig. 6.7). A spectator passing through the Arch going into Carmentalis," accepts this reconstruction; see also Versnel the Forum is moving in the direction ofthe triumphal parade 1970,132-63, who maintains that the gate was opened only as it heads toward the Capitoline to the temple of Jupiter, for triumphal parades; Kleiner 1989). The emperor's corpse the goal of the triumphator, Such a spectator finds herself seems to have been the only one to exit the city via the surrounded by the triumph and feels as if she herself is Porta Triumphal is (first documented for Augustus: Tac. Ann. moving in the triumphal parade, with the display of the 1.8.4; Suet. Aug. 100.2; Dio 56.42.1). This was not simply spoils on her left and the resplendent emperor in his chariot a mark of special honor. Rather, it marked the completion on her right. The apotheosis panel, however, is most legible of the process of his deification that hegan on the day of when one moves in the opposite direction, going from the his triumph. Forum to the Campus Martius, following the path of the funerary procession. To read the reliefs properly and to appreciate their interdependence, a spectator must first trace Conclusion the triumphal route of Titus and then his funerary route, The imperial funerary procession reversed the route of the reenacting both of these moments in time and bringing to triumph; it began at the Palatine, traversed the Forum, and life both spectacles and the commemoration of Titus. ended in the Campus Martius. The imperial triumph and The architecture ofthe Porta Triumphalis also articulates apotheosis together thus formed a circle, with the one the link between triumph and apotheosis. Coarelli identifies completing the arc (both literal and metaphorical) begnn hy 52 Naomi J. Norman

the other. The triumph and the funeral were conceptually Beurlier, E. (1890) Essai sur le culte rendu aux empereurs romains. two halves of the same idea. The funeral completes the , E. Thorin. circuit begun by the triumph and moves the emperor from Bickerman, E. (1972) Le culte des souverains dans l'Empire the center of the city to the Campus Martius, both the start remain. Entretiens de lafondation Hardt 19, 7-37. of the triumphal procession and the final resting place for Brelich, A. (1938) e morte. Studi e materiali di storia delle the Roman emperors (Trajan is, of course, the great religioni 14, 189-93. Brendel, O. (1980) The Visible Idea: Interpretations of Clossicot exception; he was given the honor of interpomerial burial, Art. Washington, D.C., Decatur House Press. within his forum, which was itself a magnificent triumphall Brilliant, R. (1999) "Let the trumpets roar!": . victory monument). The goal of the trinmph was to make In B. Bergmann and C. Kondoleon, The Art 0/ Ancient the emperor a god for one day; the goal of apotheosis was Spectacle: Studies in the , 56. Symposium Papers to make him a god forever. For the so-called "good" 34,221-29. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art. emperors, the triumph was but a taste of the divinity that Coareili, F. (1968) La Porta Tionfale e la Via dei Trionfi. Dialoghi awaited them at apotheosis. di Archeologia 2,55-103. The Arch of Titus is a complex monument. The placement ~-- (1988) II Foro Boario: Daile origini alia fine della of the relief panels within the architectural frame reinforces Repubblica. Rome, Quasar. the connection between triumph and apotheosis. Further- Davies, P. (2000) Death and the Emperor: Roman Imperial more, the location of the Arch at a major nodal point along Funerary Monuments from Augustus to . Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. the routes taken by both triumphal and funerary processions Dupont, F. (1989) The emperor-god's other body. In M. 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