Funeral Processions, Veristic Portraiture, Gallic Coinage, and the Pax Augusta

Funeral Processions and Experiential Spatiality in the Roman Forum

• Kinetic Ceremonies and Urban Form:

  • The calendars of republican and imperial Rome were filled with religious and state parades, interspersed with melancholy funeral processions (pompa funebris) that carried deceased members of the elite from their residences through the city to burial sites outside the walls.

  • For the Roman aristocracy, the route and performance of the funeral in the Forum Romanum provided a primary stage to display, consolidate, and increase symbolic political capital.

  • Experiential analysis of these processions requires reconstructing the entire urban space—including visual, kinetic, auditory, olfactory, and thermal sensory factors—rather than analyzing isolated, static architectural remains.

  • Roman artistic representations of processions, such as the late republican or early imperial relief from Amiternum, focused heavily on the human participants and their attributes while deliberately omitting architectural backgrounds, requiring ancient viewers to complete the setting from memory.

• Visual Conventions and the Anaglypha Relicts:

  • The late second-century CE marble reliefs known as the Anaglypha (or Plutei Traiani/Hadriani) depict public events in the Forum Romanum with a continuous architectural backdrop comprising the Basilica Iulia, Temple of Saturn, Temple of Divine Vespasian, and opposing rostra.

• These reliefs demonstrate key Roman viewing conventions:

  • Frontal Perception: Structures actually standing at right angles (such as the Temples of Saturn and Vespasian) are flattened into a single frontal plane to align with cultural preferences for frontal, elevated viewing.

  • Hierarchical Elevation: The speaker or emperor is elevated atop the Rostra Augusti, with spectators looking up literally and metaphorically.

  • Social Stratification: Body language and clothing clarify social status; senators in togas occupy the foreground near the speaker, while impoverished citizens in paenulae are pushed to the rear.

  • Statuary Agency: Monuments like the statue of Marsyas (associated with libertas) and the statue group of Italia function as active visual peers to human participants.

  • Case Study 1: Mid-Republican Funerals of the Cornelii Clan ($183\text{--}145\text{ BCE}$):

• The Capitoline Detour:

  • Traditional funeral processions moved directly from the ancestral residence to the forum. Because the house of Scipio Africanus stood adjacent to the forum behind the Tabernae Veteres—a walk of under $100\,\text{m}$—the Cornelii clan instituted a unique processional extension after his death in $183\,\text{BCE}$.

  • The cortege ascended the Clivus Capitolinus to the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus to collect the wax ancestor mask (imago) of Scipio Africanus, which was permanently stored in the temple's cella rather than a domestic atrium, explicitly linking Scipio's lineage to the supreme deity.

  • An actor wearing triumphal regalia donned Scipio's imago atop the hill before leading the procession down into the forum.

• Viewshed Debates: Gjerstad vs. Stamper Models:

  • Einar Gjerstad Model: Reconstructs a massive temple podium where the pediment loomed over the city, allowing spectators in the eastern forum plaza to see the temple entablature and roof.

  • John Stamper Model: Reconstructs a smaller temple structure atop the platform, eliminating virtually all lines of sight to Jupiter's temple from the ground level of the forum plaza.

  • In both models, only spectators seated in the natural cavea of the Comitium or on the upper levels of the shops fronting the Basilica Fulvia possessed an unobstructed visual connection between the Comitium stage and the Capitoline temple.

• Oratorical Orientation Controversies:

  • Post-$145\text{ BCE}$ Orientation: Initiated by a tribune who turned his back on the Senate House to address the populace gathered in the main forum plaza.

  • Pre-$145\text{ BCE}$ Orientation: Orators atop the republican rostra faced north-northeast toward the Comitium and Curia Hostilia. This smaller, sloped, theatrical space held the magisterial elite, while the uncovered Cloaca Maxima canal separated the Comitium from the general public in the forum plaza.

  • Facing the Comitium allowed speakers and elite listeners to share direct visual reference (deictic lines of sight) to the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, enhancing the spectacle as the Cornelii cortege emerged around the Temple of Saturn.

  • Case Study 2: High Imperial Funeral of Pertinax ($193\text{ CE}$):

• Organized by Emperor Septimius Severus to legitimize his accession by divinizing his murdered predecessor.

• Choreography and Effigy Display:

  • Pertinax was represented by a wax effigy in triumphal regalia lying inside a gilded, ivory-columned shrine erected on a temporary stage before the Rostra Augusti. A slave boy operated a peacock-feather fan over the effigy to simulate a living body.

  • Septimius Severus, accompanied by mourning senators, crossed the forum to the Rostra Augusti to deliver the eulogy (laudatio funebris).

• Sensory and Spatial Stratification:

  • Male patricians in dark mourning togas (toga pulla) sat in open-air seats near the rostra, directly visible to the public. Patrician women dressed in white sat in the shaded porticos of the flanking basilicas.

  • Funeral choruses marched along the Sacra Via past the Temple of Divus Iulius singing dirges. Statues of famous ancient Romans (viri illustri) and regional personifications of the provinces were paraded before the audience.

  • Case Study 3: Imperial Funeral of Septimius Severus ($211\text{ CE}$):

• Architectural Interventions:

  • By the high empire, the forum was enclosed by the massive vertical facades of the Basilica Iulia and Basilica Aemilia, blocking outside sightlines to the Capitoline.

  • The erection of the Arch of Septimius Severus in $202\text{--}203\text{ CE}$ near the Comitium dramatically altered the physical choreography. The arch's central stairs blocked wheeled vehicles, forcing parade participants to dismount and walk uphill around the structure or utilize temporary wooden stairs to ascend the Rostra Augusti.

• Processional Routes:

  • North Route: Moved along the Basilica Aemilia past the Arch of Septimius Severus, framing the Rostra Augusti against the backdrop of the Temple of Concord and the Tabularium.

  • South Route: Entered through the Arch of Augustus, moving past the Basilica Iulia and Temple of Saturn toward the south side of the rostra.

• The Arch as Mausoleum-Tropaeum:

  • The Arch of Septimius Severus functioned as a triumphal trophy, dynastic statement, and visual res gestae echoing the spiral narrative of Trajan's Column.

  • An internal staircase led to an upper attic walkway where privileged observers enjoyed panoramic views across the forum, the Arch of Titus, and Trajan's Column, positioning elite viewers at the visual level of pedimental deities.

Forging Roman Identity: Trojan Ancestry and Veristic Portraiture

• The Mythological Model: Trojan Ancestry and Eastern Imagery:

  • Roman aristocrats traced their lineages to gods, while the Roman state linked its foundation to Aeneas and the Trojans by the late fourth century BCE.

  • Phrygian Cap and Cybele Cult:

  • The Phrygian cap initially served as a positive symbol of Trojan origins on third-century BCE Roman coinage.

  • In $205\text{ B.C.}$, the cult of the Magna Mater (Cybele) and her consort Attis was imported from Asia Minor to a temple atop the Palatine Hill. Priestly attire—consisting of eastern robes, Phrygian caps, and low-hanging metal torques—directly influenced the costume of the lusus Troiae, an equestrian parade and mock battle performed by patrician youths in the Circus Maximus below the Palatine.

  • Re-evaluation of Eastern Garb:

  • Due to the Syrian Wars, Mithridatic Wars, and the catastrophic Roman defeat at Carrhae in $53\text{ B.C.}$, eastern attire acquired strong negative connotations, becoming the visual signifier of defeated enemies (Parthians and Medes).

  • This dual symbolism required careful visual management. In the Forum of Augustus ($2\text{ B.C.}$), the statuary group of Aeneas escaping Troy depicted Aeneas in contemporary Roman armor carrying Anchises, while his son Ascanius wore trousers and a Phrygian cap—balancing ancient eastern origins with Roman military dominance.

• The Historical Model: Origins and Development of Veristic Portraiture:

  • Characteristics of Verism:

  • Veristic male portraits feature hyper-realistic markers of advanced age: deep facial furrows, wrinkled brows, sagging cheeks, receding hairlines or total baldness, prominent ears, and aquiline noses.

  • Chronological Evidence:

  • Though long dated between $60\text{ B.C.}$ and $40\text{ B.C.}$ based on coins, archaeological finds place the origin of verism near $200\text{ B.C.}$.

  • Sealed excavations at Tel Kedesh (Upper Galilee) uncovered terracotta document sealings (bullae) featuring veristic male heads with receding hairlines and facial lines dated to the first half of the second century BCE (prior to $146\text{ B.C.}$ or $150\text{ B.C.}$).

  • Delos yields veristic portraits from the Maison des Sceaux (sealings dated $166\text{--}69\text{ BCE}$) and marble busts from the Agora of the Italians, used exclusively by Italian merchants, freedmen, and aristocrats.

  • Refutation of Imagines as the Source of Old-Age Wrinkles:

  • Wax ancestral masks (imagines) were cast from plaster life-molds applied to oil-coated skin over a fabric base.

  • Crucially, imagines were produced during an elite male's lifetime upon attaining a curule office (aedile or praetor, typically between the ages of 36 and 39). They accurately recorded individual skull structure and facial features, but did not depict advanced old age or death-mask rigor mortis.

  • Appropriation of the Greek Intellectual Model:

  • The rendered wrinkles and baldness of verism were adapted from Greek portraits of philosophers, seers, and orators (e.g., Chrysippus, Demosthenes, and the seer from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia).

- Following massive influxes of looted Greek statuary in the early second century BCE ($515$ bronzes in $187\text{ B.C.}$: $250$ wagons of art in $168\text{ B.C.}$), Roman aristocrats adopted these visual markers of intellectual discipline, severe ethics, and *dignitas* to distinguish their moral gravitas from the vanquished Greeks while displaying their own fitness to govern.

• Statuary Types, Public Nudity, and Material Constraints:

  • Statuary Formats:

  • Public statues of living Roman aristocrats during the Republic were strictly clothed in either a cuirass or a toga. Heroic, semi-nude body types paired with veristic heads (e.g., the Tivoli General) emerged in Italian sanctuaries outside Rome in the early first century BCE.

• The Taboo of Nudity:

  • Public nudity for living Roman citizens was socially unacceptable and associated with slaves or prisoners. Complete statuary nudity was reserved for divine iconography or posthumous commemorations to signify a transition to a spiritual realm.

  • The over-life-size bronze Terme Ruler is not a Roman general, but a looted Hellenistic Greek king or hero brought to Rome as war booty.

• Material Mediums:

  • Public honorific portraits in republican Rome were executed in bronze (which were later melted down). Marble portraits were reserved for temple cult statues until local exploitation of the Carrara (Luna) marble quarries began under Julius Caesar.

Pre-Conquest Gallic Coinage: Cross-Cultural Entanglement

• Context and the Concept of Entanglement:

  • Independent Celtic tribes in Iron Age Gaul minted tens of thousands of gold, silver, and bronze coins from the third century BCE until the Roman conquest in the $50\text{s BCE}$.

  • Rather than viewing these coins through binary theories of "Hellenization" or "Romanization," the term entanglement captures how Gallic craftsmen actively selected, transformed, and localized foreign prototypes (such as the Macedonian gold Philippus, Tarentine Hera staters, Massaliote silver tetrobols, and Roman denarii).

  • Coinage provided a medium for preliterate communities to encode political alliances, military payments, trade agreements, and religious offerings.

• Case Study 1: Armorican Gold Staters ($\sim 150\text{ BCE}$):

  • Produced in northwestern Gaul (Brittany) by tribes such as the Veneti and Aulerci Cenomani.

• Iconographic Breakdown:

  • Obverse: A large profile head connected by sinuous, beaded cordons to four minor profile heads. Above stands a boar standard with a curlicue tail; beneath lies a decorative staff.

- *Reverse*: A charioteer extending a torque necklace atop a single-wheeled chariot drawn by a human-headed horse (*le cheval androcéphale*), above a lying winged figure and a vertical flag.

• Druidic Lore and Spatial Narrative:

  • The linked heads visualize the oral transmission of druidic knowledge from a master to his pupils. The blank field of the Greek coin prototype was adapted into a spatial plane for multi-figure storytelling, combining mythical human-animal hybrids with authentic Gallic artifacts like cast-bronze boar standards and torques.

  • Case Study 2: Parisii Gold Staters ($\sim 125\text{ BCE}$):

• Minted along the Seine River basin near modern Paris.

• Abstract Aesthetics:

  • The obverse profile head is integrated into a dynamic pattern of curvilinear arabesques, aligning with the native La Tène aesthetic seen on high-status metalwork like the Amfreville Helmet and Auvers Disk.

  • The reverse features a galloping horse beneath a stylized, lattice-like net or wing motif and above a curved contour bracket, maximizing the shimmering reflection of light when the coin moved.

• Widespread Circulation:

  • A lead weight stamped with a die from this Parisii horse series was discovered at Prahovo, Serbia, bearing a Latin inscription: L(ucius) Cesti[n]u[s] L(ucius) F(ilius) C(udit) Basili Sco(rdis)taion ("Lucius Cestinus, son of Lucius, struck [this weight] for the king of the Scordiski"), proving long-distance mercenary trade networks mediated by Roman agents.

  • Case Study 3: Aedui Silver Coinage ($\sim 50\text{s BCE}$):

• The Aedui of central Gaul shifted to a silver quinarius standard aligned with the Roman denarius.

• The Quinarius of Dubnocou and Dubnoreix:

  • Obverse: Features a diademed head paired with the legend DUBNOCOU.

  • Reverse: Depicts a standing, armored Gallic warrior holding a carnyx (zoomorphic boar trumpet), a boar military standard, and a severed human head, accompanied by the legend DUBNOREIX.

• Historical and Protoliterate Significance:

  • Dubnoreix corresponds to Dumnorix, the anti-Roman Aeduan leader described in Julius Caesar's Gallic War (Bellum Gallico). The coin represents protoliterate self-presentation, utilizing Latin script to assert political authority and ideal warrior identity among Gallic allies and foes alike.

  • Impact of Conquest and Enforced Obsolescence:

• Following Caesar's conquest, Gallic tribes briefly continued minting local coins to pay troops, but Augustus systematically suppressed provincial Gallic mints, centralizing production at Lugdunum (Lyon) in $15\text{ BCE}$.

• Emblems of Gallic power (carnyx, boar standard) were co-opted and pejoratively reframed on Roman victory monuments (e.g., the arch at Arausio / Orange) as discarded spoils beneath defeated, naked barbarians.

The Two Faces of the Pax Augusta: War and Peace

• Ideological Duality of Pax:

  • The Pax Augusta operated through an explicit duality:

  • Domestic Realm (Rome): Manifested as internal peace, order, and prosperity, symbolized by the closed doors of the Temple of Janus and the idyllic, floral imagery of the Ara Pacis ($13\text{--}9\text{ BCE}$).

  • Provincial Realm (Gallia Narbonensis & Frontiers): Manifested as brutal military subjugation, conquest, and pacification.

  • In Roman ideology, pax (derived from pacisci, meaning a pact or forced submission) did not mean an absence of conflict; it required bringing foreign nations into subduction under Roman sovereignty ("to graft tradition onto peace, to show mercy to the conquered, and to wage war until the haughty are brought low," Virgil, Aeneid VI.852).

• Frontier Trophies (Tropaea) of Gallia Narbonensis:

  • Gallia Narbonensis was declared a peaceful Senate province (provincia pacata) in $23\text{ B.C.}$, but its boundaries were fortified with aggressive victory monuments.

  • Tropaeum Alpium at La Turbie ($6\text{ BCE}$):

  • A monument standing $161\,\text{ft}$ high along the Via Julia Augusta overlooking the sea, commemorating the subjugation of $45$ Alpine tribes ($25\text{--}14\text{ BCE}$).

  • The main inscription is flanked by relief panels depicting chained male and female Alpine captives at the foot of a trophy tree trunk loaded with captured arms. The female captives feature bared breasts in the manner of defeated Amazons.

  • Triple-Trophy at Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges ($23\text{--}19\text{ BCE}$):

  • Located at Lugdunum Convenarum on the Pyrenean frontier, commemorating Spanish, Pyrenean, and Germanic victories.

  • Features three-dimensional statues of a cuirassed Augustus above kneeling, naked, bound captives (representing conquered Iberians/Germans) paired with standing, unfettered Gauls wearing torques and long robes (representing allied Narbonense Gauls).

• Municipal Triumphal Arches in Gallia Narbonensis:

  • Veterans' Colonies (Narbonne, Arles, Béziers):

  • Built for veterans of Caesar's X, VI, and VII legions between $27\text{ B.C.}$ and $25\text{ B.C.}$.

  • Decorated with relief blocks showing haphazard piles of Greek and Gallic military spoils (helmets, shields, swords, trumpets, decapitated heads), reminding veterans of their past service in the conquest of Gaul and the siege of Greek Marseilles.

  • Civilian Municipalities (Glanum, Orange, Carpentras, Vienne):

  • Eracted at civic entrances (pomerium) along major trade highways.

  • Glanum (Saint-Rémy, $14\text{ BCE}$):

    • East Face (facing native lands): Features enchained Gallic/Germanic and Alpine couples bound to trophies in postures of grief.

    • West Face (facing the city entrance): Depicts an unfettered female personification (Roma or Gallia Narbonensis) guiding a bound barbarian captive into the civilized Roman city, alongside Roma seated triumphantly on captured Greek weapons.

  • Carpentras ($9\text{ BCE}$): Features lateral reliefs of a bearded German prisoner clad in furs paired with a Dalmatian captive in a pointed cap, both chained to a massive central trophy.

  • Vienne ($16\text{ BCE}$): Displays relief blocks of sorrowful Parthian captives with hands bound behind their backs, reminding local Allobrogian Gauls of Rome's absolute power.

• The Provincial Paradigm vs. Domestic Representation:

  • While aggressive displays of chained captives and severed heads dominated the provincial landscape of Narbonensis, such imagery was strictly barred from public monuments in Rome and Italy.

  • The Prima Porta Augustus statue—found in the private setting of Livia's villa—features unchained personifications of Hispania and Gallia on its cuirass, placing its single small trophy on the unworked back of the statue, hidden from public view.