THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE: ROMAN CONCEPTIONS OF TWINS IN THE AUGUSTAN SUCCESSION by Saúl Omar Cardona Luciano A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Art History Committee: ___________________________________________ Director ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Department Chairperson ___________________________________________ Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Date: _____________________________________ Spring Semester 2015 George Mason University Fairfax, VA There Can Be Only One: Roman Conceptions of Twins in the Augustan Succession A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at George Mason University by Saúl Omar Cardona Luciano Bachelor of Arts George Mason University, 2009 Director: Christopher Gregg, Assistant Professor Department of History and Art History Spring Semester 2015 George Mason University Fairfax, VA This work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noderivs 3.0 unported license. ii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to the memory of those who have gone before: Private First Class Tim Vimoto Corporal Eric Thompson “Doc” Price and Atticus iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are invariably too many people to thank for too many kindnesses over the course of too many years to make any words of gratitude satisfactory. I beg forgiveness from any whose name I have left unmentioned or overlooked. To the Graduate Program in Art History at George Mason University, I thankful for their support and for the kind awards of a fellowship, a research travel grant, and for the opportunity to once more work with my undergraduate professors, Christopher Gregg and Carol Mattusch. Of these two eminent individuals, I can only say that the best of me that is a student and scholar can rightly be attributed to them. What merit there is in this work is largely due to their years of patient guidance, support, and mentoring. It goes without saying that any errors or deficiencies that remain are entirely my own. At the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, I would like to thank Danielle Horetsky and Lynley Herbet for providing me the time and space to examine the basalt Julio-Claudian head in the museum’s collection. To my friend Dan Diffendale at the University of Michigan, I owe a debt of gratitude for the numerous high-quality images of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ head of Augustus/Gaius, which he took on my behalf, allowing me to use my research travel grant to visit the Met. Michael Baran at the Metropolitan Museum of Art assisted me with coordinating the date and times to view a marble Julio-Claudian head that has yet to appear in scholarly publication. To my numerous friends and coworkers, I am grateful for your support and friendship. Particular thanks are due to Mark LaFramboise, Ariel Weiner, and Tony and Jenni Peters for their encouragement and insightful conversations. Lea Morris and Patrick Quarles provided valuable feedback on an early draft of this work. Particular thanks are due to Sean Tennant and Ashley Stone at the University of Virginia who encouraged my return to academia despite my own personal anxieties. Both provided insights on my research, particularly on a truncated form of this study presented before a colloquium of the Classics Department at the University of Virginia. I hope that one day we have the opportunity to once more work side-by-side. I am eternally grateful to my parents Saul and Aida for their years of unwavering support. They were perhaps the first to recognize how ill-suited I was for the business world and how central scholarship was to my life. To my father and mother in-law Bernie and Sharon, thank you for allowing me to lead your younger daughter down the path of academic asceticism in pursuit of this dream. iv Finally, I will never be able to fully or adequately express the thanks due to my wife, Jennifer, who encouraged and assisted me, sometimes into the wee hours of the night, and whose stern resolve helped keep existential crises at bay. How she managed to cope with me and all the while handle a full-time job, the running of our household, and her own personal pursuits, I will never know. This work is in large part due to her patient feedback and assistance. And Molly, for reminding me of the little joys that can be found in a tennis ball and sunshine. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................ xii Abstract ............................................................................................................................ xiii Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter I: Cultural Origins ................................................................................................. 6 The Twin Castors ............................................................................................................ 9 The Twin Founders ....................................................................................................... 11 The Iconic Twins ........................................................................................................... 14 Chapter II: Caesares Gemini ............................................................................................. 20 Numismatic Pairings ..................................................................................................... 21 Sculptural Pairings: Velia.............................................................................................. 25 Sculptural Pairings: Corinth .......................................................................................... 31 Chapter III: Aemulatio Augusti ........................................................................................ 39 Pollini’s Gaius Typology .............................................................................................. 40 Defining the Problems ................................................................................................... 43 Suggested Solutions ...................................................................................................... 52 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 62 Images ............................................................................................................................... 66 Appendix I: Careers of Imperial Princes ........................................................................ 101 Appendix II: Distinguishing Between Gaius Type V and Octavian Type-B .................. 107 Appendix III: Implications for Further Research ............................................................ 110 References ....................................................................................................................... 118 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1: Proposed reorganization of Pollini's Gaius typology. ........................................ 64 Table 2: Diagrammatic visualization of twin pairs divided by origins and character. ..... 66 Table 3: Careers of Imperial Princes I: Marcellus, Tiberius, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, Drusus (42-8 BCE) ........................................................................................................... 105 Table 4: Careers of Imperial Princes II: Tiberius, Gaius, Lucius, Agrippa Postumus (20 BCE-14 CE) ....................................................................................................................... 106 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1: Detail of a Praenestine bronze cista depicting the Dioscuri, ca. 3rd Century BCE. Musée de Beaux Arts, Lyon.............................................................................................. 66 Figure 2: Reverse of quinarius depicting the astral Gemini Dioscuri, 211-210 BCE. ....... 67 Figure 3: Painting from the house of M. Fabius Ululutremulus depicting Aeneas’ (center) flight from Troy with his son Ascanius/Iulus (left) and his father Anchises (carried), who holds the Penates in his hands, 1st Century CE. Pompeii. ................................................. 67 Figure 4: Denarius struck by C. Suplicius depicting standing Penates Publici (indicated by the inscription P.P. on the bottom of the obverse), 106 BCE. ....................................... 68 Figure 5: Reverse of denarius of L. Caesius depicting seated Lares holding spears, 112- 111 BCE. ............................................................................................................................ 68 Figure 6: Detail of a lararium painting from the House of Vetti, 1st Century CE. Pompeii. ........................................................................................................................................... 69 Figure 7: Detail of a bronze mirror depicting the birth of the Lares in the care of ferae (she-wolf and lion) overseen by Mercury (reclining), Lara (background), Faunus/Pan (left), and