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CULTURAL CONSTRUCTIONS: DEPICTIONS OF ARCHITECTURE IN ROMAN STATE RELIEFS Elizabeth Wolfram Thill A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Classics. Chapel Hill 2012 Approved by: Dr. Monika Truemper Dr. Sheila Dillon Dr. Lidewijde de Jong Dr. Mary Sturgeon Dr. Richard Talbert ABSTRACT ELIZABETH WOLFRAM THILL: Cultural Constructions: Depictions of Architecture in Roman State Reliefs (Under the direction of Monika Truemper) Architectural depictions are an important window into crucial conceptual connections between architecture and culture in the Roman Empire. While previous scholarship has treated depictions of architecture as topographic markers, I argue that architectural depictions frequently served as potent cultural symbols, acting within the broader themes and ideological messages of sculptural monuments. This is true both for representations of particular historic buildings (identifiable depictions), and for the far more numerous depictions that were never meant to be identified with a specific structure (generic depictions). This latter category of depictions has been almost completely unexplored in scholarship. This dissertation seeks to fill this gap, and to situate architectural depictions within scholarship on state reliefs as a medium for political and ideological expression. I explore the ways in which architectural depictions, both identifiable and generic, were employed in state-sponsored sculptural monuments, or state reliefs, in the first and second centuries CE in and around the city of Rome. My work is innovative in combining the iconographic and iconological analysis of architectural depictions with theoretical approaches to the symbolism of built architecture, drawn from studies on acculturation (“Romanization”), colonial interactions, and imperialism. I present a comprehensive ii analysis of the architectural depictions of six case studies: the Trajanic Arch at Beneventum, the Column of Trajan, the Great Trajanic Frieze, the Anaglypha Reliefs, the Column of Marcus Aurelius, and the panels from a lost arch of Marcus Aurelius. By integrating a close analysis of the architectural depictions within the study of the themes of these monuments, I connect the depictions of buildings to ideas of identity, urbanism, and the supremacy of Rome. I demonstrate how depictions of elaborate, sophisticated buildings celebrate the particular architectural glory of Rome, and associate Rome closely with the phenomenon of urbanism. In contrast, the illustration of strange, primitive architecture for Rome’s enemies underscores their inferiority, as well as the impermanence of their way of life. Architectural depictions thus serve as an essential source of information for the study of culture, architecture, imperialism, and ideology in Rome at the height of her multi-cultural empire. iii To Stephen. This is both of ours, with all my love. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the support that I have received over the years from many different people. I am glad to have the opportunity to thank them here, however briefly. Since I first began this project, I have benefitted greatly from the input of those who read my work as it progressed through its various stages. My advisor and eventual committee chair Monika Truemper read my original paper on architectural depictions for her Roman sculpture seminar and suggested that I pursue the topic for my Master’s Thesis, a suggestion that ultimately resulted in her continued reading about the topic for the next six years (and counting). Nicola Terrenato kindly served on my Master’s Thesis committee, and gave particularly valuable advice on how to approach the quantitative analysis of small datasets. Sheila Dillon gamely served on the committees for both my Master’s Thesis and my dissertation. Her methodological advice on working with commemorative sculpture, and “historical” monuments in particular, has been hugely influential for me. Lidewijde de Jong, Mary Sturgeon, and Richard Talbert also helped as members of my dissertation committee to bring this project to its realization. Dr. de Jong’s probing questions about my use of Roman architecture and identity have encouraged me to articulate my thoughts on these crucial subjects and steered me away from intellectual fuzziness. Dr. Sturgeon’s mastery of the corpus of Greek and Roman sculpture, and her apparently effortless ability to identify and provide intriguing comparanda (and v associated bibliography), have helped me greatly in situating my work within a broader sculptural tradition. Dr. Talbert’s enthusiasm for my topic and insistence that I remember the “big picture” issues of my work have revived my spirits multiple times when I have become lost in minutia. The chance to discuss my work with a committee of such scholars at my dissertation defense was an honor and a pleasure. I am extremely grateful to all of them for the work, expertise, and enthusiasm that they have contributed to this project. Special thanks are due to my advisor Monika Truemper. Throughout the seven years I have worked with her, she has never failed to be a positive source of energy, interest, and advice. From delivering bibliography at a moment’s notice, to reading literally thousands of pages of drafts, Dr. Truemper has provided crucial and endless support. More importantly, she has taught me by example to be an exceptional scholar. She has encouraged me to set the highest of standards for myself, and has held me to those standards. She has guided me in issues both big and small, while always insisting that I stand on my own two feet intellectually. She has challenged me on every weak point of my arguments or approach, and celebrated with me when I have overcome those weaknesses. In short, she has been an ideal advisor. I cannot express fully my gratitude to Monika, and I hope that this dissertation does her credit. Throughout the process of graduate school and writing this dissertation, I have received generous financial support from numerous institutions. The Classics Department of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill provided the funding for five years of graduate study, as well as numerous summer grants to conduct research in Italy. I will always be grateful for their support. A Richard M. Weaver Fellowship from the vi Intercollegiate Studies Institute allowed me to devote a crucial semester to research at the beginning of my dissertation. The award of a Paul Hardin Dissertation Fellowship from the Royster Society of Fellows at the Graduate School of UNC-Chapel Hill enabled me to spend a luxurious final year exclusively writing my dissertation. My fellow Royster Scholars also provided me with new friendships and encouragement. Finally, as a Humane Studies Fellow with the Institute for Humane Studies, I have received invaluable financial, logistical, and intellectual support over many years, and have become a better scholar for it. My greatest thanks go out to all of these institutions, without which my graduate study would simply not have been possible. I would like to thank everyone at the American Numismatic Society for teaching me how to work professionally with coins. Peter van Alfen and Rick Witschonke in particular made possible my participation in the 2010 Eric P. Newman Graduate Summer Seminar in Numismatics. I enjoyed a wonderful summer and learned more than I could have imagined. I am especially indebted to Bernhard Woytek, who served as my seminar advisor and generously has continued to mentor me in my work. He also has provided an invaluable set of images of Trajanic coins, which I continue to draw on and for which I am grateful. Many scholars have offered help and encouragement at various stages of this project. Julia Wood not only served as my mentor in the Royster Society of Fellows, but generously provided financial support for my John C. McGowan Summer Research Fellowship, so that I could spend a summer researching and writing for my dissertation. I am thankful for her support, but especially for her infectious enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity. Martin Beckmann and Nathan Elkins both offered helpful access to their work vii in its early stages, for which I thank them. John Humphrey and Naomi Norman provided editorial advice and enthusiasm for the parts of my research that have been published as separate articles. I am thankful for the particularly kind encouragement for my work that I have received at conferences from Steve Ellis, Lothar Haselberger, and Natalie Kampen. Thanks to James Rives for providing helpful information regarding the lustratio. I am also indebted to Sue Alcock, Drew Coleman, Derek Counts, John Rogers, Vin Steponaitis, Michael Thomas, Michael Toumazou, and Gregory Warden for their role in shaping my intellectual career. I extend my thanks to the Museo della Civiltà Romana for their generosity in the use of my photos of the Column of Trajan casts, and to Liz Robinson for taking photos for me of the Column of Marcus Aurelius. Finally, I am grateful for all the friendships and kindness that I have experienced in graduate school. The faculty of the Classics Department at UNC-Chapel Hill has been a wonderful source of intellectual support over the years, and I thank them for everything. My friendships that I have made at UNC-Chapel Hill will be treasured always; I am sure my memories of graduate school will not be of late nights in the library, but of laughing until the point of tears in the third floor office of Murphey Hall. My family also deserves more thanks than I can give them. My grandparents, Harold and Hera Wolfram and Loretta Gompers, have always had an encouraging word for me and are the first people I call when I am feeling low. My parents, Gary and Mary Wolfram, and my brothers, Wyatt and Liam Wolfram, have never wavered in their support. Stephen Thill, my husband, has done everything to make my dream of becoming an archaeologist true.