Pythagoras planned it. Why did the people stare?
His numbers, though they moved or seemed to move
In marble or in bronze, lacked character.
But boys and girls, pale from the imagined love
Of solitary beds, knew what they were,
That passion could bring character enough,
And pressed at midnight in some public place
Live lips upon a plummet-measured face.
(“The Statues” by William Butler Yeats)
It’s totally possible to get sick of statues in Rome. “Yep, that sure is another statue!” you nod, then walk on by. Even when one stands out for its oddity or beauty, it can be frustrating not to know the whys and wherefores of its existence. So I thought it would be interesting to ‘curate’ ten statues and to provide a bit more background information than you’d ordinarily find in a museum.
- Augustus as Pontifex Maximus
When Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, he named his great-nephew Octavian his adopted son and heir. This didn’t automatically mean that the young man inherited a position of political leadership, but it certainly helped him on that path.
For the best part of 20 years, he patiently built up his social prestige (auctoritas) by developing politically advantageous relationships, eliminating political enemies, pandering to soldiers and veterans, and scoring big military victories against Sextus Pompeiius and Antony and Cleopatra. In 27 BCE, the Senate gave him the title of ‘Augustus,’ which essentially means ‘Exalted.’ Augustus publicly rejected the formal offer of a dictatorship, knowing that the Romans hated anything that smacked of monarchy or tyranny. At the same time, he made sure the Roman people accepted him as the Princeps (first citizen) of the Empire based on his auctoritas, achieved through huge wealth, important connections, military power and an image that linked him to traditional Roman virtue.
One of the ways he did this was to interest himself in state morality. He passed laws designed to emphasize the purity and piety of Rome: for example, only the plain toga could be worn in the Forum (not fancy and dissolute Eastern dress); families would receive benefits for having a lot of children; adultery would be considered a crime.
In 2 BCE Augustus had his eldest daughter Julia arrested for adultery and treason. Although his own laws determined the punishment for this to be execution, he decided to have her banished instead and sent her to a tiny man-free island. Some people suppose that Augustus had the poet Ovid banished for writing verse that promoted adultery (Ars Amatoria), though Ovid himself attributed the banishment to ‘carmen et error’ (‘a song and a mistake’) and to accidentally seeing something.
There was quite a bit of push-back against these anti-fun laws. It did not go unnoticed, for example, that Augustus himself engaged in an extra-marital affair with a beautiful woman named Terentia.
Veiled in order to perform a religious ceremony, this statue at the Palazzo Massimo shows the mature emperor in his pure-and-priestly aspect as pontifex maxiumus (head priest).
2. Maecenas’s Dog
Terentia was the wife of Augustus’s friend Gaius Cilnius Maecenas (70 BCE-8 BCE). He was a wealthy member of the equites, the property-owning upper class from whose ranks the senior officers of the Roman Army were chosen. Although he could have opted to become a top-tier elite by entering the Senate, he chose not to do so. However, he did wield outsized influence by being a trusted friend and political advisor to Augustus. He is known for being a talented diplomat, administrator and advisor as well as a generous literary patron.
In the latter role he championed Horace, Virgil, and Propertius—three of the GOAT Roman poets—as well several more minor poets. Horace in particular mentions him in his poetry with affection and admiration.
He had a splendid villa complex on the Esquiline Hill that included a hot-water swimming pool, a free-standing dining room (now known as an auditorium), a library, riding grounds, pavilions, an aviary and several gorgeous works of art.
One of these is this an affecting portrait of a dog, carved out of green marble (serpentine moschinata), which was used by Egyptians. It seems to have been placed in front of a door, so imitating a guard dog. It is on display at the Capitonline Museums.
3. Flayed Marsyas
Another statue adorning Maecenas’ hortus (garden) is a striking statue of Marsyas, a satyr who features in two musical myths. In one, Athena attempts playing an aulos (double oboe) and gets angry at the instrument because she looks ridiculous when she plays it. She throws the instrument away, placing a curse on whoever plays it next (ie Marsyas). In the other, he challenges Apollo to a musical contest. After losing the contest, he is flayed alive.
In Rome, he was considered a symbol of the Greek figure of speech parrhesia or ‘speaking boldly,’ which is roughly equivalent to our concept of ‘free speech’ or ‘speaking truth to power’. A statue of him stood for about 300 years in the Roman forum, near the comitium, the centre of political activity, where crowds met and speeches were delivered.
This version of the myth is sculpted from Pavonazzo marble, quarried in Docimium (modern İscehisar in Turkey) and peculiarly suited to represent skinless flesh. It is so disturbingly evocative that I felt some concern that a nine-year-old boy was gazing at it appreciatively.
4. Bacchus
Dionysus, known in Rome as Bacchus or Liber Pater, was associated with wine, male fertility and virility. According to Pliny, he invented the diadem (a symbol of royalty) and the triumphal procession. He was also the ‘God that comes’ in the sense that he was the bringer of ecstasy and epiphanies.
At the Liberalia, the Roman festival dedicated to him, teenaged boys ritually celebrated reaching manhood. They removed the bulla praetexta, a kind of locket, and placed it on the altar of their household gods (the Lares). If a bulla was lacking they placed hair shaved from their cheeks. Mothers would sometimes retrieve discarded bullae and keep them on hand in case they had to ward off the evil eye from people jealous of their grown sons. The boys also exchanged the toga praetexta (a toga with a purple stripe indicating childhood) for the adult dress of a pure white toga.
Other festivals dedicated to the god were termed Bacchanalia and seem to have been rowdy affairs. Livy claims that they were an excuse for drinking, mingling, playing loud music and indulging in sexual shenanigans.
In 186 BCE, the Senate passed legislation designed to clamp down on these celebrations, limiting the number of people who could attend and forbidding men to become priests of Bacchus. This statue, showing Dionysus flanked by a diminutive Satyr and a lion. The lion may be an allusion to the myth where the god turns into a lion after being kidnapped and held for ransom as a prince. As a lion he represents liberty.
5. The Married Couple
This funeral relief in Travertine marble represents a husband-and-wife duo from the second half of the first century BCE. The man is realistically portrayed, with rugged homely features. His wife’s features are delicately modelled and her ornate hairdo, which would have needed the assistance of slaves to perfect, suggests her high social status.
This was in displayed in Museo Centrale Montemartini, a former electricity plant that has been effectively converted into an archeological museum.
6. Niobid Massacre
Niobe belonged to a pretty unlucky family. Her father was Tantalus, of Hell fame (he had to stand under a tree whose luscious ripe fruit was always just out of his reach). Niobe herself had twelve children—six girls and six boys. She was pretty chuffed about her fertility that she scoffed at Leto for having a measly two kids. Leto didn’t take kindly to this insult and sent her children, Apollo and Artemis, to go and kill all of Niobe’s children, who were subsequently known as the Niobids.
In the statue below, one of Niobe’s daughters has just been struck in the back by an arrow (it used to be gold but is no longer there). She is reaching a hand in an effort to pull it out. The Chiaramonti Niobid is another copy and seems to have been part of a complete set of Niobids at Hadrian’s Villa.
This sculpture is a Roman copy of an original by Scopas, a 4th-century BCE sculptor and architect who is most famous for a statue of Meleager, the famous host of the Calydonian boar hunt. It is on display at Palazzo Massimo.
7. Marcus Aurelius on a Horse
Marcus Aurelius was the Emperor from 161-180 CE, the last of the so-called ‘Five Good Emperors’ who presided over a period of relative peace (the others were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius). Historians now call him ‘the philosopher’ as he authored Meditations, a collection of notes to himself about thoughts and reflections on Stoicism.
This bronze statue stands 4.24 metres tall. The Emperor extends his hand in a gesture that indicates he was about to address his troops. He rides without stirrups (which hadn’t been invented yet) and with a Samartian saddlecloth, perhaps a reference to his victory over Samartians (a confederation of Eastern Iranian equestrian nomads). For a long time this statue stood in the middle of Piazza Campodoglio but it is now in a light-filled hall in the museum to protect it from the elements. At one time it was clad in gold and an old Roman belief held that it would turn completely to gold again on the Day of Judgement.
8. Statue of the Hellenistic Prince
I visited Palazzo Massimo mainly to see one of the most famous ancient sculptures ever, The Boxer. Unfortunately it was out on loan but in the hall where he usually sits was the imposing figure of the ‘Hellenistic Prince.’ Nobody knows who he really represents; there is some speculation that he may be a Roman general who has just pulled off a great victory (nudity indicating heroism).
9. Boy Extracting Thorn
Like the equestrian state of Marcus Aurelius above, and several others (including the famous she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus), this is one of the so-called Lateran Bronzes, because for a long time they were held in the Pope’s Lateran Palace. In December 1741, Pope Sixtus IV ordered that they be moved to Campodoglio for the benefit of the Roman people. They are still here, in the Capitoline Museum.
This statue is also known as ‘Spinario’ and seems to be from the first century CE. It has been copied many times. Speculation says that he is likely to represent someone who has been treading grapes to prepare them for fermentation.
10. The Dacian Prisoner
This figure wears a phrygian cap, a belted tunic, a cloak folded at the shoulder, and bracae (breeches) down to his ankles. He has long hair and a moustache. He has been sculpted from two different materials: Numidian yellow marble and black marble. It was originally an architectural decoration in the Basilica Aemilia in the Forum and was made some time during the Julian-Claudian era (so between 27 BCE and 68 CE).
In 101-106 CE the Emperor Trajan conducted a campaign against the Dacians, who lived in the area roughly covered by modern-day Romania and Moldova. Several others statues like the one above still exist (four of which are now in the Boboli Gardens in Florence). They were made in the second century CE, probably to celebrate Trajan’s victory and to adorn his residence.
