Analecta Romana Instituti Danici Xxxvii
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ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XXXVII ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XXXVII 2012 ROMAE MMXII ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XXXIV © 2012 Accademia di Danimarca ISSN 2035-2506 Published with the support of a grant from: Det Frie Forskningsråd / Kultur og Kommunikation SCIENTIFIC BOARD Ove Hornby (Bestyrelsesformand, Det Danske Institut i Rom) Maria Fabricius Hansen (Ny Carlsbergfondet) Thomas Harder (Forfatter/writer/scrittore) Michael Herslund (Copenhagen Business School) Hanne Jansen (Københavns Universitet) Hannemarie Ragn Jensen (Københavns Universitet) Kurt Villads Jensen (Syddansk Universitet) Mogens Nykjær (Aarhus Universitet) Vinnie Nørskov (Aarhus Universitet) Birger Riis-Jørgensen (Den Danske Ambassade i Rom) Niels Rosing-Schow (Det Kgl. Danske Musikkonservatorium) Poul Schülein (Arkitema, København) Lene Schøsler (Københavns Universitet) EDITORIAL BOARD Marianne Pade (Chair of Editorial Board, Det Danske Institut i Rom) Patrick Kragelund (Danmarks Kunstbibliotek) Carsten Hjort Lange (Det Danske Institut i Rom) Gitte Lønstrup Dal Santo (Det Danske Institut i Rom) Gert Sørensen (Københavns Universitet) Maria Adelaide Zocchi (Det Danske Institut i Rom) Analecta Romana Instituti Danici. — Vol. I (1960) — . Copenhagen: Munksgaard. From 1985: Rome, «L’ERMA» di Bretschneider. From 2007 (online): Accademia di Danimarca ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI encourages scholarly contributions within the Academy’s research fields. All contributions will be peer reviewed. Manuscripts to be considered for publication should be sent to: [email protected] Authors are requested to consult the journal’s guidelines at www.acdan.it Contents THOMAS GRANE: Pliny and the wandering mountain. A new interpretation of Pliny’s account of the northern Barbaricum with an archaeological comment 7 CARSTEN HJORT LANGE: Constantine’s Civil War Triumph of AD 312 and the Adaptability of Triumphal Tradition 29 LUIGI SILVANO: Saltationes: A Notebook on Ancient Dance by Angelo Poliziano 55 KNUD ARNE JüRGENSEN: “Con placido sembiante….” L’opera Il Valdemaro di Domenico Sarro (Roma, 1726) 79 KAREN ASCANI: Il carteggio di Georg Zoëga (1755-1809) mediatore fra Roma e la Danimarca 151 EMMA SALLING: Relations between the Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Accademia di S. Luca in Rome during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries 159 Constantine’s Civil War Triumph of AD 312 and the Adaptability of Triumphal Tradition BY CARSTEN HJORT LANGE Abstract. There existed an ancient consensus on the awarding of triumphs, clearly apparent during the Late Republic and Early Empire: a general could expect to triumph after a civil war victory if it could also be represented as being over a foreign enemy. A triumph after a victory in an exclusively civil war was understood as being in clear breach of traditional practices. This consensus continued during the Later Roman Empire. Nevertheless, as this paper will argue, Constantine may have taken to Caesar’s final triumph, which, celebrating his victory over Pompeius’ sons at Munda in 45 BC, was only over civil opponents, as a precedent. It is clear that Constantine did not conceal the civil war aspect of his victory, which is still visible today on the arch of Constantine, in particular on its inscription. By examining dealings in the immediate aftermath of civil conflicts, with a focus on Constantine, this paper will also consider the differences and similarities between two central Roman celebrations, the triumph and the adventus. The key distinguishing feature may have been that a triumph usually involved the display of spoils, while an adventus did not; and the assumption that the distinction between the two celebrations became virtually elided is wrong. Furthermore, the sacrifice on the Capitol is not a conclusive diagnostic, as it was often a feature of the non-triumphal adventus. The triumph was part of the rhetoric of political legitimation for the victor: the rules of triumph were flexible to some extent, but significantly, the ritual itself often varied. While there has been a surge of interest in is hardly visible today, but Augustus’ arch the Roman triumph in recent years,1 those clearly belonged to this group, as Actium was of the post-Augustan period have received both a foreign and a civil war.4 The arches surprisingly little attention.2 During the Late were built to legitimise new rulers and their Republic a convention arose that a triumph dynasties by proclaiming their honorands’ could not be awarded for victories in a civil war. virtues, commemorating their achievements, Elsewhere I have examined this convention at and presenting a visual reminder of their some length, concluding that a commander success. Flaig suggests that the Principate itself usually could not expect to triumph after possessed legitimacy, whereas the individual an exclusively civil war, but only a civil war emperors received only an acceptance, and that could also be represented as foreign; it victory in war was central in the establishment was by nature of their external character of an emperor’s pre-eminence.5 This was that these conflicts qualified for a triumph.3 perhaps never more crucial than in the Significantly, the civil war aspect (victoria civilis) aftermath of a civil war, when it functioned as of the triumphs was rarely denied. a means of justification within post-civil-war The three triumphal arches still standing arrangements. in the centre of Rome all commemorate the This paper will examine these tensions victors of lengthy civil wars (Titus, Septimius within post-civil-war dealings, focusing on Severus and Constantine). The arch of Constantine in particular, and in doing so will Actium (from 19 BC: Actium-Parthian-arch) also consider the differences and similarities 30 CARSTEN HJORT LANGE between two central Roman celebrations, Further evidence includes Cicero’s Philippics the triumph and the adventus.6 Constantine’s (14.22-24; 22: “numquam enim in civili triumph can only be properly understood, bello supplicatio decreta est” [“for no public it will be claimed, if we accept that the thanksgiving has ever been voted in a civil triumph was a ritual with a history, defined by war”]; Lucan, who at the start of his poem conventions, dating to the Republican period.7 laments that the civil wars which were to The disputed triumph of Constantine in 312, be his theme were wars in which no general I suggest, must be judged in the light of the could win a triumph (1.12); and Florus Late Republican convention on civil war and (2.10.1, 9), referring to Pompeius’ Spanish triumph. triumph. Plutarch (Caes. 56.7-9) and Dio Cassius (42.18.1, 43.42.1) mention the matter in relation to Caesar’s triumphs, Dio Cassius Civil war and Triumphs during the Later Roman (51.19.5) does so also in respect to Octavian’s, Empire while Tacitus (Hist. 4.4.2) reports the grant The chief ancient source which provides an of ornamenta triumphalia to Vespasian’s overview of the rules and customary practice commanders as in breach of the rule. relating to triumphs and the question of civil There was, or so it would seem, an ancient war is the chapter which Valerius Maximus (2.8) consensus on the matter of the triumph. devotes to the topic as part of his treatment of The consensus was however flexible enough disciplina militaris.8 There can be no doubt that only to deny a commander a triumph after he used earlier sources contemporary with the an exclusively civil war: it remained possible civil wars of the Late Republic. His primary to triumph after a civil war that could also evidence is probably Varro.9 The last section of be represented as foreign. This consensus Valerius Maximus’ chapter (2.8.7) asserts that continued during the Later Roman Empire, no supplicationes, ovations or triumphs had ever and scruples regarding the celebration of been held for a civil war: triumphs after civil wars were always present. Such attitudes appear in the panegyric of 321 Verum quamvis quis praeclaras res (Nazarius), presented in Rome in Constantine’s maximeque utiles rei publicae civili absence, reflecting on the celebrations of 312 bello gessisset, imperator tamen eo (Pan. Lat. 4(10).31.1-3):10 nomine appellatus non est, neque ullae supplicationes decretae sunt, neque aut Non agebantur quidem ante currum ovans aut curru triumphavit, quia, ut vincti duces sed incedebat tandem soluta necessariae istae, ita lugubres semper nobilitas. Non coniecti in carcerem existimatae sunt victoriae, utpote non barbari sed educti e carcere consulares. externo sed domestico partae cruore. Non captiui alienigenae introitum illum honestauerunt sed Roma iam libera. No man, however, though he might Nil ex hostico accepit sed se ipsam have accomplished great things recuperavit, nec praeda auctior facta eminently useful to the commonwealth est sed esse praeda desivit et, quo nil in a civil war, was given the title of adici ad gloriae magnitudinem [maius] imperator on that account, nor were any potest, imperium recepit quae seruitium thanksgivings decreed, nor did such a sustinebat. Duci sane omnibus one triumph either in ovation or with videbantur subacta uitiorum agmina chariot, for such victories have ever quae Vrbem grauiter obsederant:… been accounted as grievous, as they were necessary, because they were won Leaders in chains were not driven by domestic not foreign blood. before the chariot, but the nobility CONSTANTINE’S CIVIL WAR TRIUMPH 31 marched along, freed at last. Barbarians were not cast into prison but ex-consuls Haec dum per eoas partes et Gallias were let out of it. Captive foreigners pro captu temporum disponuntur, did not adorn that entrance but Rome Constantius quasi cluso Iani templo now free. She received nothing of an stratisque hostibus cunctis, Romam enemy’s but recovered her own self, she visere gestiebat, post Magnenti exitium was not enriched by spoils but ceased to absque nomine ex sanguine Romano be despoiled and – nothing greater can triumphaturus. Nec enim gentem ullam be added to the magnitude of her glory bella cientem per se superavit, aut victam – she who had endured slavery got back fortitudine suorum comperit ducum, vel her command.