Caracalla and the later version of Nero's Colossus

[slokind]

Though the amphitheater was nicknamed 'Colosseum' after the huge statue erected by Nero in front of the Domus Aurea, it wasn't because of the huge size of either the amphitheater or the statue, which emulated Chares of Lindos famous statue of Helios.  Nero's looked like him, but the Flavians emended that problem, then Hadrian had it moved.  Commodus put his own head on it and made it look like Herakles (Dio Cassius LXXII.22.3).  But of course it was Sol, as was its famous prototype at Rhodes, Helios.  Rhodes called it Kolossos, a place name and I suppose a cult name for a Helios.**  It lay in situ, felled by an earthquake, all 32 meters of it (Pliny NH 34.41).  So Nero's emulation of it in Rome was also called Colossus.
Now, Cornelius Vermeule in his Cult Images of Ancient Rome (Bretschneider 1987) illustrates, figs. 41 and 43,  alongisde a TR POT XVIIII (AD 216) aureus of Caracalla, a marble statue of "Caracalla as Sol" in Raleigh, NC, dated 205 (I suppose from the discernible inscription on its base?).  It was supposed to be Hadrian who made the statue's head forever after  a Sol with the features of Alexander, which seems to be what the Raleigh statue represents.
Now, Cornelius Vermeule may have been puzzled, too, for on p. 41, the only place he talks about the Sol images (and the book has no index), he does not discuss the aureus and the statue at all.
So, when Forvm had the nice big Caracalla antoninianus, a TR P XVIII (of 215) with just the same Sol, I made haste to get it.  I have wanted a Caracalla Antoninianus, a Sol like that statue and aureus, and Sol's hand in that gesture for a long time.
For I am sure that the abstracted hand is not (as details, certainly, often are) merely inept.
Vermeule says that Sol raises his hand in blessing.  Where did he get that?  Not RIC (Mattingly).  Surely Carson & Hill's 2nd edition of BMCRE, then.  There it is.
For consider the Homeric epithet of Eos: rosy-fingered, rhododaktylos.  Surely it is likely that the outstretched hand of the Sun in Chares' great statue of Helios, and its emulation at Rome that gave its name to the Flavian Amphitheater (Colosseum), was golden-fingered and beneficent.  Or enlightening in several senses, even.
So these coins (there is a denarius, as well as the aurei and the antoninianus) give us the best notion that we can get of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Colossus of Rhodes.
I must write to Raleigh to find out more about their statue.  Vermeule says nothing.
The refs. for my coin are RIC  IV, 264b; RSC III, 287, BMCRE V, nos. 135-138 and pl. 71, 2 (most useful and with the 'blessing' mentioned in the text).  The ancient references are all in (and indexed in) J. J. Pollitt's Sources & Documents books, The Art of Greece and The Art of Rome.
Pat L.
** See below, Reply #11
Click antoninianus to enlarge

[Numerianus]

Though the amphitheater was nicknamed 'Colosseum' after the huge statue erected by Nero in front of the Domus Aurea, it wasn't because of the huge size of either the amphitheater or the statue, which emulated Chares of Lindos famous statue of Helios.  Nero's looked like him...  But of course it was Sol, as was its famous prototype at Rhodes, Helios.  Rhodes called it Kolossos, a place name and I suppose a cult name for a Helios.  It lay in situ, felled by an earthquake, all 32 meters of it (Pliny NH 34.41).  So Nero's emulation of it in Rome was also called Colossus.

In contrast with the tradition, I share the opinion that Nero was not an incarnation of the devil but a well-cultivated person devoted to the art. In the line with this I do not beleive that the famous statue represented him as Apollo.
No, it was Sol (feel the difference!) with face features of Nero (I think that the Roman artists adored the emperor and were happy to do this). The question is what happened afterwards with the Roman Coloss? Could the head of a colossal statue
of Constantine be a remaining part?

[Jochen]

Hi!

There is another denarius of Caracalla where he is depicted as Sol, so at least are the descriptions in RIC, BMCR and Cohen. But I think it can't be Sol!

Caracalla, AD 198 - 217
AR - denarius, 3.67g, 19mm
       Rome, AD 199 - 201
obv. ANTONINVS - AVGVSTVS
        bust draped and cuirassed, seen from behind, laureate head r., youthful portrait
rev.  RECTOR - ORBIS
        Caracalla as Sol(?), naked, standing frontal, laureate head l.,
        Chlamys over l. shoulder, wears sword in scabbard suspended from
        belt over shoulder, holding globe r. and reversed spear l.
RIC IV, 39(a); C.542; BMC 165
EF, mint luster

The rev. is usually called 'Sol' or 'Caracalla as Sol'. But there are some oddities: The figure is not radiate but it looks rather that he is wearing a lion-scalp headdress and a sword in a scubbard is hanging over the r. shoulder. That doesn't match the attributes of Sol. Referring to Curtis Clay it is Caracalla as Alexander the Great!

Was there a statue too showing him in this attitude? And what is the correct reference for this type?

Best regards

[silvernut]

I don't think that Caracalla at this age had the obsession with Alexander that he later developed, so I doubt that it represents the young augustus as such. On the other hand, it is true that it doesn't appear like a traditional representation of Sol, which is what the references describe!

Very interesting post, Pat, by the way!

Regards,
Ignasi

[slokind]

I think in a thread here (and I am sure of it in private mail) Curtis pointed out that we do not have grounds for calling the RECTOR ORBIS reverses 'Sol', and I agree, emphatically, with Numerianus that Apollo is not Sol; Helios was Sol.  It was about this time, Severan, however, that Sol began to replace Apollo (who had his own name in Latin as well as Greek)--the few later Apollos that we have are exceptions.
ORIENS, of course, whether standing or in a chariot, is Sol.  A god paired with Luna or Aurora is Sol.  A god paired with Diana is Apollo.  INVICTVS is, I think, always Sol, never Apollo.  On some special issues and medallions there are thematic pairs of that kind.  Yes, there was syncretism, but they also still knew different cults and myths and lineages for the separate gods.
It is because the Rhodes colossus was Helios, and Pliny in Latin calls it a statue of Sol, that we know that, at least until Aurelian (or thereabouts) they neither habitually confused Apollo and the Sun nor absorb the former by the latter.  Confusion is sometimes quite real in medieval manuscripts (just as it is with Nemesis and Fortuna and Aequitas).
BTW: I assume that the adolescent Caracalla's parents and their ministers were responsible for his iconography at the date of the first RECTOR ORBIS issues.  I agree that his mythic self-aggrandizement took time to develope.
Pat L.

[curtislclay]

I don't think that Caracalla at this age had the obsession with Alexander that he later developed, so I doubt that it represents the young Augustus as such.

As Pat points out, Caracalla's obsession with Alexander would not have been needed to produce the type, assuming for the moment that it does represent Caracalla as Alexander.

A youthful ruler participating in the conquest of the East could not fail to bring up comparisons to Alexander the Great, no matter how that emperor himself viewed the matter!

[Numerianus]

I am sorry to be back with my question: What is known about the fate of the Nero Colossus?

[curtislclay]

L. Richardson, New Topographical Dictionary, p. 93:

"It was still standing in the fourth century and is listed by the regionary catalogues in Regio IV, but it is not mentioned in the Einsiedeln itinerary of the late eighth-early ninth century."

[Congius]

From Rodolfo Lanciani's "The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome" :

II. THE COLOSSUS (colossal statue of the Sun) (I in plan). —
The platform of the Velia, from the "summa Sacra Via" to the
site of the amphitheatre, was occupied by the vestibule of the
Golden House of Nero, a square portico with a colossal bronze
statue in the centre. The statue had been cast in Rome by Zeno­
dorus in the likeness of Nero; but after the death of the tyrant
the head had been changed into that of the radiant Sun, the face
bearing a resemblance to that of Titus. Vespasian generously
rewarded the artist who had thus served the interests of the
Flavian dynasty. When Martial wrote the second epigram, "De
spectaculis," about A.D. 75, the Golden House had already been
pulled down, and the ground near the Colossus seems to have
been occupied by scaffoldings connected with the work of the new
amphitheatre. The statue remained in its place until 121, when
Hadrian, having chosen the site for his Temple of Venus and
Rome, caused it to be placed nearer to the Coliseum. The dis­
placement was effected by the architect De(me)trianus with the
help of twenty-four elephants, the statue remaining all the while
upright and suspended from the movable scaffolding. The diffi­
culty of the operation may be estimated by the fact that the
bronze mass was 30.5 metres high. The seven rays round the
head, each 6.68 metres long, were a later addition. The "Vita
Comm." affirms that the head was changed once more by Commo­
dus to bear his own likeness. It is represented in coins of Alexan­
der Severus and Gordianus. The last classic mention occurs in
the Chronicon of Cassiodorus; the first mediæval record (?) in a
document of A.D. 972 ("domus posita Romæ regione quarta non
longe a Colosso"). The pedestal of the Colossus (I in plan) was
discovered by Nibby in 1828. It is built of concrete with brick
facing, once covered with marble slabs.

    LITERATURE. — Antonio Nibby, Roma nell' anno 1838, part i. vol. ii. p.
    442. — Fr. Morgan Nichols, The Roman Forum, p. 294. — J. H. Parker,
    The Via Sacra in Rome, London, 1876, plate 38. — Donaldson, Architectura
    numism., n. 79. — De Rossi, Piante di Roma, p. 76, n. 1.

Ben

[Ardatirion]

Is this issue with Sol at all associated with Caracalla's issue showing the amphitheatre?

[slokind]

http://ncartmuseum.org/collections/highlights/ancient/classical/054_lrg.shtml
As for the Raleigh statue, it IS a full size statue.  It was a rather new (1984) acquisition when Vermeule obtained permission to reproduce it in his little book.  The webpage squib (link above) says nothing concrete, such as the kind of marble it is carved from.  If Luna, of course, probably carved in Italy (but not necessarily by a sculptor trained in Italy); if it is Asia Minor or other Greek marble, it could have stood in the Greek Empire or have been made for and shipped to Rome.  I suspect... but no, I won't allow myself to assume anything.  No former collection is named nor is the dealer from which it came.
As for that horse, which this photo shows plainly, yes, it surely alludes to Sol's chariot, but essentially it simply does the work of a tree stump, to strengthen and add weight to the lower part of the statue.  It doesn't really testify, one way or the other, as to part of a horse on a bronze (outdoor) statue.
Colossae didn't issue many coins (why did Paul deem it worthy of an epistle?), but the one in BMC, p. 154, no. 4 pl. XIX, 5, "time of Commodus", with Demos obverse, does show Helios in his chariot, frontal, horses to l. and r., as on, e.g., a Probus antoninianus.  Head, who authored BMC Phrygia, says that on their Helios coin he holds a globe in his left and a torch in his right hand.  That doesn't tell us anything new about the cult, even if it was particular to this homonymous town.  Thing is, Colossae and kolossos are among those west-Anatolian non-Greek words in -ssos.
Pat L.
[I'll have to see when Caracalla's amphitheater coins were issued, but Curtis or another who concentrates on Imperial Rome issues may beat me to it, since I can't find it).

[slokind]

Important revision: Although the amphitheater was called Colosseum because it was the one by the Colossus of Nero, both textbooks in general and I in particular also ought to have cited the lexicon, LSJ, which says that Herodotos (well before the Rhodian Helios colossus) used kolossos of enormous, gigantic statues, always of statues and "always of Egyptian works"--which certainly, as at the Ramasseum and in the case of the pair of statues called "Colossi of Memnon", were the ones that Greeks knew.
However, even in the Supplement provided at the back, Liddell-Scott-Jones does not suggest any etymology for the word (nor for the city of Paul's epistle, which seems surely related).  It does say, on the other hand, that it can be spelled with double tau instead of double sigma, just as thalassa in Attic is thalatta, and it really must be one of those non-Greek words.  All the derivative words, such as those meaning 'maker of gigantic statues', are later.
Did Herodotos know it because he was from Halikarnassos (itself one of the -ssos placenames, as also Termessos, for example)?
Pat L.

[curtislclay]

I think Caracalla issued coins showing the Circus Maximus, but not the amphitheater.

Coins showing the amphitheater were issued by:

Titus

Divus Titus under Domitian

Severus Alexander

Gordian III (medallions)

[Jason G]

I have a Caracalla denarius here that has sol on the reverse.  At lease I think it's sol, although he is holding a whip instead of a orb/apple. The whip might be related to the horses, chariot, etc. but i'm not sure.  Hope it helps.