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.~-------------------- COPY/SCAN 1/2/20194:18 PM NOS: Call #: DE60 .K65 2009 Item not found on shelf Location: Olin Library Level 3 Stacks NOT 0 CHECKED OUT Article not found in book --J 0 --J Journal Title: Koine : Mediterranean studies in Item damaged or fragile -= honor of R. Ross Holloway / 0 ::>----- = ISSN: 9781842173794 0 Other: ~ =- .......... = Volume: >- ~ - Issue: Borrower: AFU en~ MonthNear: 2009 University of Arkansas (1) Pages: 41-53 - =;;; Email: [email protected] .~ c ("') Article Author: Norman, Naomi Deliver via: Odyssey :::J I.() C "f"'" Article Title: Imperial triumph and apotheosis: the 0 N ILL Number: 192569713 +-' N Arch of Titus in Rome 0) m c 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111I11111I11111111 .c (J) Z ro .... Questions? Contact WTU at: 4 S [email protected] 314-935-7193 6 Imperial Triumph and Apotheosis: The Arch of Titus 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 emperor who occupied center stage was not reserved for the emperor but was on twenty-seven in the capital city on many occasions, particularly when he occasions extended to members of his family. Beard 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 divi filius. Augustus quickly achievements and conquests and equated him with Jupiter 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 Trajan and Antoninus Pius. Senate of Rome commemorated his life and rule and, in the Both the triumph and the funeral that culminated in case of some emperors, 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 art 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 lead 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 triumphs when they were "snapshot" from the triumph, individual scenes that staod privileged to get a taste of the divinity 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, Romulus was the first ruler to be divinized; in Titus on the Sacra Via overtly depicts both the imperial history, it was Julius Caesar. 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 Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, but the Flavii decided apotheosis and creates an official visual narrative that to celebrate a common triumph instead. Josephus 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 Campus Martius; at dawn, the connections between an imperial funeral procession and a three Flavii emerged to receive the acclamation of the crowd triumphal procession). This article demonstrates how the at the Porticus Octaviae 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 divinization 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 Roman Forum. 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 Circus Maximus, around legendary Romulus (Plut. Vito Rom. 16). Scholarship on the the Palatine, across the Forum Romanum, and finally up the Roman triumph 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 tapestries, 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 Capitoline hill, 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 victor, public officials, and Ylv6~EVaTOT' "OEiJcVU>:V00<;nnpobot (both the art and the sacrificial animals; and at the end the army.
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