| Image search results - "pantheon" |
EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius.AD 138-161Drachm (33mm, 23.58 g, 12h). Zodiac series. Dated RY 8 (AD 144/5). AVT K TAI/ AAP ANTWNEINOC CEB EVC, laureate head right / Sun in Leo: Lion leaping right; above, radiate and draped bust of Helios (Sun) and eight-rayed star; L H (date) below. Good VF, untouched dark green patina with touches of red. One of the finest known examples for the type.
Alexandria saw an immense output of coinage during the eighth year of Antoninus Pius's reign. The Zodiac drachms, mythological types, and a host of issues for the nomes appeared that year. One explanation for this activity centers on the celebration of the renewal of the Great Sothic cycle, the point when the star Sothis (Sirius) rises on the same point on the horizon as the sun. This cycle of 1461 years began early in the reign of Pius in AD 139, and apparently prompted a renewal in the ancient Egyptian religion, while the coin types also stressed the connections to the Greco-Roman Pantheon.
Private collection of Mr. B. MazehBrahim M
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ROME. temp. Hadrian-Antoninus Pius. Circa AD 120-161
Æ Quadrans (16mm, 2.94 g, 7h)
Rome mint
Petasus
Winged caduceus; S C flanking
Weigel 18; RIC II 32; Cohen 36
Weigel reconsiders the anonymous quadrantes as a cohesive group. The seriesportrays a pantheon of eleven deities: Jupiter, Minerva, Roma, Neptune, Tiber, Mars, Venus, Apollo, Mercury, Bacchus/Liber, and Hercules. Types are primarily a portrait of the god, with an attribute on the reverse and are usually influenced by (but not directly copied from) earlier designs, primarily from the Republic. He updates the series to the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus.Ardatirion
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ROME. temp. Domitian-Antoninus Pius. Circa AD 81-160
Æ Quadrans (16mm, 3.99 g, 12 h)
Rome mint
Griffin seated left, paw on wheel
Tripod; S C flanking
Weigel 15; RIC II 28; Cohen 38
Weigel reconsiders the anonymous quadrantes as a cohesive group. The seriesportrays a pantheon of eleven deities: Jupiter, Minerva, Roma, Neptune, Tiber, Mars, Venus, Apollo, Mercury, Bacchus/Liber, and Hercules. Types are primarily a portrait of the god, with an attribute on the reverse and are usually influenced by (but not directly copied from) earlier designs, primarily from the Republic. He updates the series to the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus.Ardatirion
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1ah Marcus AgrippaDied 12 BC
As, minted by Caligula.
Head left wearing rostral crownt, M AGRIPPA L F COS III
Neptune standing facing, head left, naked except for cloak draped behind him & over both arms, holding small dolphin in right hand & vertical trident in left, SC
RIC 58
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (c 63 BC–12 BC) was a close friend, and defence minister of the future emperor Augustus. He was responsible for many of his military victories, most notably Actium against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt. He was son-in-law to Augustus, maternal grandfather of the Emperor Caligula, father-in-law of the Emperors Tiberius and Claudius, and maternal great-grandfather of the Emperor Nero. He probably served in Caesar’s campaign of 46/45 BC against Pompey and Caesar regarded him highly enough to send him with Octavius in 45 BC to study at Apollonia. From then on Agrippa played a major part in Augustus’ career, as military commander and admiral, also undertaking major public works, and writing works on geography (following his survey of the Empire) and other subjects. He erected many fine buildings in Rome, including the original Pantheon on the Campus Martius (during his third consulship 27 BC). He married Claudia Marcella the Elder, daughter of Octavia the Younger in 28 BC, and Julia the Elder in 21 BC, with whom he had five children. His daughter Agrippina Vipsania the Younger the married Tiberius, and his daughter Agrippina Vipsania the Elder married Germanicus. His last campaign initiated the conquest of the upper Danube region, which would become the Roman province of Pannonia in 13 BC. Augustus had Agrippa’s remains placed in his own mausoleum. Ronald Syme offers a compelling case that Agrippa was much more co-ruler of the empire with Augustus than he was a subordinate.Blindado
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201a. JULIA DOMNALuna
In Greek mythology, Selene was an ancient lunar deity and the daughter of the titans Hyperion and Theia. She was identified with the Roman moon goddess, Luna.
Like most moon deities, Selene plays a fairly large role in her pantheon. However, Selene was eventually largely supplanted by Artemis, and Luna by Diana. In the collection known as the Homeric hymns, there is a Hymn to Selene (xxxii), paired with the hymn to Helios. Selene is described in Apollodorus 1.2.2; Hesiod's Theogony 371; Nonnius 48.581; Pausanias 5.1.4; and Strabo 14.1.6, among others.
The Roman goddess of the moon, Luna, had a temple on the Aventine Hill. It was built in the 6th century BC, but was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome during Nero's reign. There was also a temple dedicated to Luna Noctiluca ("Luna that shines by night") on the Palatine Hill. There were festivals in honor of Luna on March 31, August 24 and August 28
JULIA DOMNA, - 217 AD. Antoninianus, Rome, 215 - 217 AD Bust, no crescent, right / Luna Lucifera in biga left. Rare. RIC 379.ecoli
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204. ElagabalusElagabalus was and is one of the most controversial Roman emperors. During his reign he showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos. Elagabalus' name is a Latinized form of the Semitic deity El-Gabal, a manifestation of the Semitic deity Ēl. He replaced Jupiter, head of the Roman pantheon, with a new god, Deus Sol Invictus, which in Latin means "the Sun, God Unconquered". Elagabalus forced leading members of Rome's government to participate in religious rites celebrating Sol invictus which he personally led.
He also took a Vestal Virgin as one of a succession of wives and openly boasted that his sexual interest in men was more than just a casual pastime, as it had been for previous emperors.
Elagabalus developed a reputation among his contemporaries for eccentricity, decadence, and zealotry which was likely exaggerated by his successors. This black propaganda was passed on and as such he was one of the most reviled Roman emperors to early Christian historians and later became a hero to the Decadent movement of the late 19th century.
Elagabalus Denarius. IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, horned, laureate, and draped bust right / PM TR P IIII COS III P P, Elagabalus standing left sacrificing out of patera over lighted altar & holding branch, star left. RIC 46, RSC 196ecoli
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212 AD - JULIA DOMNA denariusobv: IVLIA PIA FELIX AVG (draped bust to the right, her braided hair nicely arranged in waves and in a long bun behind the head)
rev: MATRI DEVM (Cybele, towered, standing front, head left and legs crossed, leaning left elbow on column while holding scepter and drum {Tympanum}; at feet, left, a lion)
ref: RIC IVi 382(Caracalla) (S), RSC137 (4frcs)
mint: Rome
3.6gms, 19mm
Scarce
Cybele in the Roman pantheon was the mother of several figures, including Zeus. She is often depicted with her attributes, one of which is a lion. This association with Cybele, and the inscription "MATRI DEVM", or "mother of the gods", is a clear reference to Domna's imperial status as mother of the divine Augustii.berserker
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5713 EGYPT, Alexandria. Hadrian Tetradrachm 127-28 AD Mummiform OsirisReference.
Emmett 883.12; RPC III, 5713; Köln 982; Dattari (Savio) 1445; K&G 32.458.
Issue L ΔWΔƐΚΑΤΟΥ = year 12
Obv. ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙ - ΤΡΑΙAN ΑΔΡ CΕΒ
Laureate, draped, cuirassed bust right, seen from back.
Rev. LΔωΔΕ ΚΑΤΟV
Mummiform Osiris (Ptah-Sokar-Osiris) standing right, holding scepter tipped with jackal-head (Was-sceptre)
12.66 gr
24 mm
6h
Note.
Giovanni Dattari summarizes the unusual reverse type seen on this billon tetradrachm of Hadrian. The image of the Ptah-Sokar-Osiris divinity belongs to Egyptian theology, and in particular to funeral worship. It brings together three famous members of the Pharaonic Pantheon through their respective symbols: the headdress and scepter for Ptah, the solar disk for Osiris, and the mummiform wrappings for Sokar – the “Lord of the Necropolis.” These three associated divinities call upon the concepts of “mourning” and “life”, evoking at the same time the pain associated with death and the hope of resurrection. The main sanctuaries of Ptah, Sokaris, and Osiris were at Memphis and Abydos.okidoki
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5823 EGYPT, Alexandria. Hadrian Tetradrachm 132-33 AD Mummiform SokarReference.
Emmett 883.17; RPC III, 5823/5; Dattari (Savio) 1446
Issue L IZ = year 17
Obv. ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙС ΤΡΑΙΑΝ - ΑΔΡΙΑΝΟС СƐΒ
Laureate draped and cuirassed bust of Hadrian, r., seen from rear
Rev. L ΙΖ
Mummiform Sokar (Ptah-Sokar-Osiris) standing right, holding sceptre tipped with falon (Horus?)
13.00 gr
27 mm
12h
Note.
Giovanni Dattari summarizes the unusual reverse type seen on this billon tetradrachm of Hadrian. The image of the Ptah-Sokar-Osiris divinity belongs to Egyptian theology, and in particular to funeral worship. It brings together three famous members of the Pharaonic Pantheon through their respective symbols: the headdress and scepter for Ptah, the solar disk for Osiris, and the mummiform wrappings for Sokar – the “Lord of the Necropolis.” These three associated divinities call upon the concepts of “mourning” and “life”, evoking at the same time the pain associated with death and the hope of resurrection. The main sanctuaries of Ptah, Sokaris, and Osiris were at Memphis and Abydos.okidoki
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702a, Augustus, 16 January 27 B.C. - 19 August 14 A.D.Augustus, 27 BC - 14 AD. AE 19mm (5.98 gm). Lydia, Sardeis. Diodoros Hermophilou. Obverse: head right. Reverse: Zeus Lydios standing facing holding scepter and eagle. RPC I, 489, 2986; SNG von Aulock 3142. aVF. Fine portrait. Ex Tom Vossen.
De Imperatoribus Romanis:
An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers
AUGUSTUS (31 B.C. - 14 A.D.)
Garrett G. Fagan
Pennsylvania State University
In the course of his long and spectacular career, he put an end to the advancing decay of the Republic and established a new basis for Roman government that was to stand for three centuries. This system, termed the "Principate," was far from flawless, but it provided the Roman Empire with a series of rulers who presided over the longest period of unity, peace, and prosperity that Western Europe, the Middle East and the North African seaboard have known in their entire recorded history. Even if the rulers themselves on occasion left much to be desired, the scale of Augustus's achievement in establishing the system cannot be overstated. Aside from the immense importance of Augustus's reign from the broad historical perspective, he himself is an intriguing figure: at once tolerant and implacable, ruthless and forgiving, brazen and tactful. Clearly a man of many facets, he underwent three major political reinventions in his lifetime and negotiated the stormy and dangerous seas of the last phase of the Roman Revolution with skill and foresight. With Augustus established in power and with the Principate firmly rooted, the internal machinations of the imperial household provide a fascinating glimpse into the one issue that painted this otherwise gifted organizer and politician into a corner from which he could find no easy exit: the problem of the succession.
(For a very detailed and interesting account of the Age of Augustus see: http://www.roman-emperors.org/auggie.htm)
Death and Retrospective
In his later years, Augustus withdrew more and more from the public eye, although he continued to transact public business. He was getting older, and old age in ancient times must have been considerably more debilitating than it is today. In any case, Tiberius had been installed as his successor and, by AD 13, was virtually emperor already. In AD 4 he had received grants of both proconsular and tribunician power, which had been renewed as a matter of course whenever they needed to be; in AD 13, Tiberius's imperium had been made co-extensive with that of Augustus. While traveling in Campania, Augustus died peacefully at Nola on 19 August, AD 14. Tiberius, who was en route to Illyricum, hurried to the scene and, depending on the source, arrived too late or spent a day in consultation with the dying princes. The tradition that Livia poisoned her husband is scurrilous in the extreme and most unlikely to be true. Whatever the case about these details, Imperator Caesar Augustus, Son of a God, Father of his Country, the man who had ruled the Roman world alone for almost 45 years, or over half a century if the triumviral period is included, was dead. He was accorded a magnificent funeral, buried in the mausoleum he had built in Rome, and entered the Roman pantheon as Divus Augustus. In his will, he left 1,000 sesterces apiece to the men of the Praetorian guard, 500 to the urban cohorts, and 300 to each of the legionaries. In death, as in life, Augustus acknowledged the true source of his power.
The inscription entitled "The Achievements of the Divine Augustus" (Res Gestae Divi Augustae; usually abbreviated RG) remains a remarkable piece of evidence deriving from Augustus's reign. The fullest copy of it is the bilingual Greek and Latin version carved into the walls of the Temple of Rome and Augustus at Ancyra in Galatia (for this reason the RG used to be commonly referred to as the Monumentum Ancyranum). Other evidence, however, demonstrates that the original was inscribed on two bronze pillars that flanked the entrance to the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome. The inscription remains the only first-person summary of any Roman emperor's political career and, as such, offers invaluable insights into the Augustan regime's public presentation of itself.
In looking back on the reign of Augustus and its legacy to the Roman world, its longevity ought not to be overlooked as a key factor in its success. People had been born and reached middle age without knowing any form of government other than the Principate. Had Augustus died earlier (in 23 BC, for instance), matters may have turned out very differently. The attrition of the civil wars on the old Republican aristocracy and the longevity of Augustus, therefore, must be seen as major contributing factors in the transformation of the Roman state into a monarchy in these years. Augustus's own experience, his patience, his tact, and his great political acumen also played their part. All of these factors allowed him to put an end to the chaos of the Late Republic and re-establish the Roman state on a firm footing. He directed the future of the empire down many lasting paths, from the existence of a standing professional army stationed at or near the frontiers, to the dynastic principle so often employed in the imperial succession, to the embellishment of the capital at the emperor's expense. Augustus's ultimate legacy, however, was the peace and prosperity the empire was to enjoy for the next two centuries under the system he initiated. His memory was enshrined in the political ethos of the Imperial age as a paradigm of the good emperor; although every emperor adopted his name, Caesar Augustus, only a handful earned genuine comparison with him.
Copyright © 1999, Garrett G. Fagan.
Published: De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families http://www.roman-emperors.org/startup.htm. Used by permission.
Augustus (the first Roman emperor, in whose reign Jesus Christ was born) is without any doubt one of the most important figures in Roman history.
It is reported that when he was near death, Augustus addressed those in attendance with these words, "If I have played my part well, applaud!"
Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr Cleisthenes
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9. Juno Sospita, goddess of LavuniumÆ Sestertius, 28,89g, Ø 31mm, 12h, minted AD 140, Rome
Obv.: ANTONINVS AVG PI-VS P P TR P COS III, laurate head right
Rev.: IVNONI SISPITAE around, S C in field, Juno Sospita with goat skin head dress, advancing right preceded by snake, brandishing javelin and holding shield, pinched in the middle.
RIC 608 (scarse); BMCRE 1248; Cohen 473; Foss 56
This issue is part of a series of coins struck between 140 and 144 figuring scenes from ancient Roman legends. Juno Sospita was the godess of Lanuvium, the birthplace of Pius, and one of the most ancient figures in the Roman pantheon.
Charles S
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Antoninus Pius, RIC 608, Sestertius of AD 140-144 (Juno Sospita)Æ sestertius (26.6g, 32mm, 12h) Rome, AD 140-144.
Obv.: ANTONINVS AVG PI[-]VS P P TR P COS III laureate head of Antoninus Pius facing right
Rev.: IVNONI SISPITAE (around) S C (in field) Juno Sospita wearing goat skin advancing right preceded by a snake, brandishing javelin and holding shield which is pinched in the middle.
RIC 608 (scarce), Cohen 473, BMC 1248, Strack 837; Banti (I Grandi Bronzi Imperiali II-3) 201 (7 spec.); Sear (Roman Coins and their Values II) 4186
ex Künker Auction 153 (March 2009)
This issue is part of a series of coins struck in preparation of the 900th anniversary of Rome, figuring scenes from Ancient Roman legends. Juno Sospita was the goddess of Lanuvium, the birthplace of Pius, and one of the most ancient figures in the Roman pantheon.
Charles S
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Antoninus Pius, RIC 608, Sestertius of AD 140-144 (Juno Sospita)Æ Sestertius (28.89g, Ø31mm, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 140-144.
Obv.: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P COS III laureate head of Antoninus Pius facing right
Rev.: IVNONI SISPITAE (around edge) S C (in field) Juno Sospita wearing goat skin advancing right preceded by a snake, brandishing javelin and holding shield which is pinched in the middle.
RIC 608 (Scarce), Cohen 473, BMC 1248; Strack 837; Banti (I Grandi Bronzi Imperiali II-3) 201 (7 spec.); Sear (Roman Coins and their Values II) 4186
ex iNumis, Paris, March 2009
This issue is part of a series of coins struck in preparation of the 900th anniversary of Rome, figuring scenes from Ancient Roman legends. Juno Sospita was the goddess of Lanuvium, the birthplace of Pius, and one of the most ancient figures in the Roman pantheon.Charles S
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Carrhae in Mesopotamia, Septimius Severus, AE 24, Lindgren 2557Carrhae in Mesopotamia, Septimius Severus, AE 24, 193-211 AD
Av.: CEΠTIMIOC [CE]OY.... , naked (laureate?) bust of Septimius Severus right
Rv.: ..Λ]OY KAPPH ΛKA... , front view of a tetrastyle temple, the temple of the moon god Sin, in the middle a sacred stone on tripod, on top of stone: crescent, standards (with crescents on top) on both sides inside the building; another crescent in the pediment.
Lindgren 2557 ; BMC p. 82, #4
The city and the region played an important role in roman history.
Carrhae / Harran, (Akkadian Harrânu, "intersecting roads"; Latin Carrhae), an ancient city of strategic importance, an important town in northern Mesopotamia, famous for its temple of the moon god Sin, is now nothing more than a village in southeastern Turkey with an archeological site.
In the Bible it is mentioned as one of the towns where Abraham stayed on his voyage from Ur to the promised land. Abraham's family settled there when they left Ur of the Chaldeans (Genesis 11:31-32).
Inscriptions indicate that Harran existed as early as 2000 B.C. In its prime, it controlled the point where the road from Damascus joins the highway between Nineveh and Carchemish. This location gave Harran strategic value from an early date. It is frequently mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions about 1100 BC, under the name Harranu, or "Road" (Akkadian harrānu, 'road, path, journey' ).
During the fall of the Assyrian Empire, Harran became the stronghold of its lasts king, Ashur-uballit II, being besiged and conquered by Nabopolassar of Babylon at 609 BC. Harran became part of Median Empire after the fall of Assyria, and subsequently passed to the Persian Achaemenid dynasty.
The city remained Persian untill in 331 BC when the soldiers of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great entered the city.
After the death of Alexander on 11 June 323 BC, the city was claimed by his successors: Perdiccas, Antigonus Monophthalmus and Eumenes. These visited the city, but eventually, it became part of the Asian kingdom of Seleucos I (Nicator), the Seleucid empire, and capital of a province called Osrhoene (the Greek term for the old name Urhai).
The Seleucids settled Macedonian veterans at Harran. For a century-and-a-half, the town flourished, and it became independent when the Parthian dynasty of Persia occupied Babylonia. The Parthian and Seleucid kings both needed the buffer state of Osrhoene which was part of the larger Parthian empire and had nearby Edessa as its capital. The dynasty of the Arabian Abgarides, technically a vassal of the Parthian "king of kings" ruled Osrhoene for centuries.
Carrhae was the scene of a disastrous defeat of the Roman general Crassus by the Parthians. In 53 BC. Crassus, leading an army of 50.000, conducted a campaign against Parthia. After he captured a few cities on the way, he hurried to cross the Euphrates River with hopes of receiving laurels and the title of “Emperor”. But as he drove his forces over Rakkan towards Harran, Parthian cavalry besieged his forces in a pincers movement. In the ensuing battle, the Roman army was defeated and decimated. The battle of Carrhae was the beginning of a series of border wars with Parthia for many centuries. Numismatic evidence for these wars or the corresponding peace are for instance the "Signis Receptis" issues of Augustus and the “Janum Clusit” issues of Nero.
Later Lucius Verus tried to conquer Osrhoene and initially was successful. But an epidemic made an annexation impossible. However, a victory monument was erected in Ephesus, and Carrhae/Harran is shown as one of the subject towns.
Septimius Severus finally added Osrhoene to his realms in 195. The typical conic domed houses of ancient Harran can be seen on the Arch of Septimius Severus on the Forum Romanum.
Harran was the chief home of the moon-god Sin, whose temple was rebuilt by several kings. Sin was one of the great gods of the Assurian-Babylonian pantheon.
Caracalla gave Harran the status of a colonia (214 AD) and visited the city and the temple of the moon god in April 217. Meanwhile the moon god (and sacred stones) had become a part of the Roman pantheon and the temple a place to deify the roman emperors (as the standards on both sides of the temple indicate).
Caracalla was murdered while he was on his way from Temple to the palace. If this had been arranged by Macrinus - the prefect of the Praetorian guard who was to be the new emperor – is not quite clear. On the eighth of April, the emperor and his courtiers made a brief trip to the world famous temple of the moon god. When Caracalla halted to perform natural functions, he was assassinated by one of his bodyguards, Julius Martialis, who had a private grudge against the ruler, because he had not been given the post of centurion.
In 296 AD Roman control was again interrupted when nearby Carrhae the emperor Galerius was defeated by the king Narses / the Sasanid dynasty of Persia. The Roman emperor Julianus Apostata sacrificed to the moon god in 363 AD, at the beginning of his ill-fated campaign against the Sassanid Persians. The region continued to be a battle zone between the Romans and Sassanids. It remained Roman (or Byzantine) until 639, when the city finally was captured by the Muslim armies.
At that time, the cult of Sin still existed. After the arrival of the Islam, the adherents of other religions probably went to live in the marshes of the lower Tigris and Euphrates, and are still known as Mandaeans.
The ancient city walls surrounding Harran, 4 kilometer long and 3 kilometer wide, have been repaired throughout the ages (a.o. by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the sixth century), and large parts are still standing. The position of no less than 187 towers has been identified. Of the six gates (Aleppo gate, Anatolian, Arslanli, Mosul, Baghdad, and Rakka gate), only the first one has remained.
A citadel was built in the 14th century in place of the Temple of Sin. This lies in the south-west quarter of the ancient town. Its ruin can still be visited.
my ancient coin database
Arminius
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Cilicia. Nagidos AR StaterCirca 400-385/4 BC. (24mm, 10.76 g, 11h). Casabonne Type 6; Lederer 23; SNG France 25 (same dies); SNG Levante –. Obverse: Aphrodite seated left, holding phiale, left arm around the shoulders of Eros, who stands left behind her, with his arms extended. Reverse: Dionysos standing left, holding grape bunches on vine and thyrsos; Î in exergue. Superb EF, lightly toned, a touch of die wear on obverse.
Ex CNG Inventory 93935 (c. Jan 1990-Jan 1993)
Ex CNG Electronic Auction 347, Lot 252
The prominence of Aphrodite on coins of Nagidos indicates that an important sanctuary must have existed in that ancient colony of Samos. It must be noted that there were two forms of Aphrodite in the ancient Greek pantheon (or at least in literature). The first was Aphrodite Ourania signifying the “heavenly” or “spiritual” as opposed to the more “earthly” aspect of her, better known as Aphrodite Pandemos “for all the people.” On the coins of Nagidos, she is paired with her son Eros, the god of earthly passion. The representation of the two deities together on the coins of Nagidos denotes that, even in ancient times, the Greeks already categorized the earthly, physical and carnal type of love (represented by Eros) to that of the celestial love of body and soul (Aphrodite Ourania). The subordination of Eros in the iconography of the coin, represented as a juvenile winged figure, under the guidance and protection of the goddess, tells us the superiority of the spiritual aspect of love over the physical representations of it.
Jason T
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Emmett 1530 - Antoninus Pius drachm alexandria Zodiac Helios (Sun) in LeoEGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (34mm, 26.86 g, 1h). Dated RY 8 (AD 144/5). Laureate head right / Head of Helios right and star above lion (Leo) springing right; L H (date) below. Köln 1495-6; Dattari (Savio) -; K&G 35.278. Near VF, brown surfaces.
Alexandria saw an immense output of coinage during the eighth year of Antoninus Pius. The Zodiac drachms, unique mythological types and a host of issues for the nomes appeared that year. One explanation for this activity centers on the celebration of the renewal of the Great Sothic Cycle, the point when the star Sothis (Sirius) rises on the same point on the horizon as the sun. This cycle of 1461 years began again in AD 139, and apparently prompted a renewal in the ancient Egyptian religion, and its connections with the Greco-Roman Pantheon.
mattpat
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Interior of the PantheonInterior view of the Pantheon's dome. An engeneering masterpiece the concrete gets thinner as it rises. The open occular in the center allows light to flood into this massive ancient space. The walls at the bottom are about 12 feet thick. Origianlly dedicated to all the god's it is now a Catholic church. Jay GT4
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Iran, The Anahita temple in Kangavar (Kermanshah)or what is left of it. It dates back to Sasanian times (around 500 AD) and was dedicated to the goddess of water and fertility, Anahita, the only female in the Old Persian pantheon. Originally built on a square base, the temple must have been an impressive structure. As late as 1840, a traveler reported having seen 8 massive intact columns.
Schatz
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Italy, Pompeii - bathInside the public bathhouse. Much like the "Occulus" in the Pantheon, the window to the upper left is the only light source in the room.Mark Z
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Italy, Rome, PantheonM AGRIPPA COS TERTIVM FECIT
The original Pantheon was built by Marcus Agrippa and later restored and rebuilt by Hadrian added and engineered the worlds largest unsupported domed roof. He kept the original dedication to Agrippa. A marvel of engineering and a sight to see.Jay GT4
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Italy, Rome, Pantheonbuilt by Agrippa 27 BC
rebuilt by Hadrian into present shape in 123 AD
remains of Neptune's basilicaJ. B.
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Italy, Rome, Pantheonbuilt by Agrippa 27 BC
rebuilt by Hadrian into present shape in 123 AD
M AGRIPPA L F COS TERTIVM FECIT
In 609 panteon was converted into church of St. Mary and the Martyrs.J. B.
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Italy, Rome, PantheonJ. B.
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Italy, Rome, Pantheon insideInterior view of Hadrian's dome and ocular center. An engeneering masterpiece, the concrete gets thinner as it rises. The open ocular in the center allows light to flood into this massive ancient space. The walls at the bottom are about 12 feet thick. The interior is completely ancient from the marble floors to the walls and dome. Origianlly dedicated to all the god's it is now a Catholic church.Jay GT4
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Italy- Forum Romanum- The basilica of Majencius front and backThe Basilica of Maxentius (Basilica Maxentii) or the Basilica of Constantine (Basilica Constantini) was the last of the great civilian basilicas on the Roman Forum. The ruins of the basilica is located between the Temple of Amor and Roma and the Temple of Romulus, on the Via Sacra.
The construction of the basilica was initiated by Maxentius in 308 CE, and finished by Constantine after he had defeated Maxentius in the battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE. As other similar buildings, it was destined for commercial and administrative activities. It is likely that the basilica housed the offices of the Prefect of the City, the highest imperial official in late antiquity.
The site chosen for the basilica was on the Velia, a low ridge connecting the Esquiline Hill and the Palatine Hill. Large parts of the Velia was levelled in preparation for the construction of the basilica. Literary sources tell that earlier the site was occupied by the Horrea Piperatica, the central market and storage facility for pepper and spices, built in the time of Domitian. Also on the site was a sanctuary of the penates publici which had to be moved.
The Basilica of Maxentius is built with arches, which is very atypical. All the other public basilicas had flat ceilings supported by wooden beams. The construction techniques used borrowed more from the great imperial baths than from the traditional basilica.
The basilica is one of the most impressive buildings on the Forum Romanum. The ground plan is rectangular, oriented E.-W., covering an area of 100×65m divided into a central nave and to lateral aisles and an atrium on the E. side where the original entrance was.
The central nave measured 80×25m and was covered by three groin vaults with a maximum height of 35m, supported by eight monolithic Corinthian columns of 14.5m. Each of the two aisles was made up of three interconnected coffered vaults, 20.5m wide and 24m high, communicating with the central nave by three huge openings.
Light was provided by two rows of three large windows in five of the six lateral vaults, and by windows in the sides of the now collapsed cross vaults over the central nave. The windows in two of the vaults in the surviving N. side of the building give a good idea of the amount of light inside the building.
The floor in both the central and the lateral spaces were a geometric pattern of squares with circles and lozenges of multi-coloured marble, similar to the floor in the Pantheon.
The walls were in opus latericium, originally with a marble veneer. The vaults were in opus caementicium with a gilded stucco finish. The roof was covered with gilded bronze tiles.
The entrance of the original project of Maxentius was to the east, from a branch of the old Via Sacra behind the Temple of Amor and Roma. It lead into an elongated atrium, connected to the central nave and the lateral aisles by five gateways.
In the W. end was a huge apse, 20m in diameter, where a colossal seated statue of Maxentius stood. This statue was later changed to look like Constantine. The statue was an acrolith (the head, hands and feet were of marble, while the rest was of other materials), and the remains of the statue were found in 1486 in the apse.
Constantine changed the plan when he took over the unfinished basilica. He had a another entrance added on the S. side, on the Via Sacra, where a monumental stairway led to a porch of four porphyry columns and via three double doorways into the central part of the S. aisle. In front of this new entrance, in the central vault of the N. aisle, another apse was added, smaller than the apse in the W. end. In back of this apse a niche held a standing statue of Constantine, and smaller, square-headed niches, two rows of four niches on each side, which might have housed a gallery of Constantine's relatives and lieutenants. This room could be closed by wooden doors, and it is likely the central part of the office of the Prefect of the City was there.
Of the original building only the three vaults of the N. aisle remain, devoid of all decorations. The vaults of the S. and central nave probably collapsed under an earthquake in c. 847. The floor plan is clearly visible, however, and the remaining structures give a vivid impression of the grandeur of the original edifice.
The remains of the Colossal Statue of Constantine I are in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Campidoglio, and one of the columns from the central nave was moved to the Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore in 1614. The remaining columns have disappeared. The bronze tiles from the roof were reused for the first Basilica of Saint Peter.
Peter Wissing
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Italy- Rome- Forum Romanum and the Basilica of MajencioThe Basilica of Maxentius (Basilica Maxentii) or the Basilica of Constantine (Basilica Constantini) was the last of the great civilian basilicas on the Roman Forum. The ruins of the basilica is located between the Temple of Amor and Roma and the Temple of Romulus, on the Via Sacra.
The construction of the basilica was initiated by Maxentius in 308 CE, and finished by Constantine after he had defeated Maxentius in the battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE. As other similar buildings, it was destined for commercial and administrative activities. It is likely that the basilica housed the offices of the Prefect of the City, the highest imperial official in late antiquity.
The site chosen for the basilica was on the Velia, a low ridge connecting the Esquiline Hill and the Palatine Hill. Large parts of the Velia was levelled in preparation for the construction of the basilica. Literary sources tell that earlier the site was occupied by the Horrea Piperatica, the central market and storage facility for pepper and spices, built in the time of Domitian. Also on the site was a sanctuary of the penates publici which had to be moved.
The Basilica of Maxentius is built with arches, which is very atypical. All the other public basilicas had flat ceilings supported by wooden beams. The construction techniques used borrowed more from the great imperial baths than from the traditional basilica.
The basilica is one of the most impressive buildings on the Forum Romanum. The ground plan is rectangular, oriented E.-W., covering an area of 100×65m divided into a central nave and to lateral aisles and an atrium on the E. side where the original entrance was.
The central nave measured 80×25m and was covered by three groin vaults with a maximum height of 35m, supported by eight monolithic Corinthian columns of 14.5m. Each of the two aisles was made up of three interconnected coffered vaults, 20.5m wide and 24m high, communicating with the central nave by three huge openings.
Light was provided by two rows of three large windows in five of the six lateral vaults, and by windows in the sides of the now collapsed cross vaults over the central nave. The windows in two of the vaults in the surviving N. side of the building give a good idea of the amount of light inside the building.
The floor in both the central and the lateral spaces were a geometric pattern of squares with circles and lozenges of multi-coloured marble, similar to the floor in the Pantheon.
The walls were in opus latericium, originally with a marble veneer. The vaults were in opus caementicium with a gilded stucco finish. The roof was covered with gilded bronze tiles.
The entrance of the original project of Maxentius was to the east, from a branch of the old Via Sacra behind the Temple of Amor and Roma. It lead into an elongated atrium, connected to the central nave and the lateral aisles by five gateways.
In the W. end was a huge apse, 20m in diameter, where a colossal seated statue of Maxentius stood. This statue was later changed to look like Constantine. The statue was an acrolith (the head, hands and feet were of marble, while the rest was of other materials), and the remains of the statue were found in 1486 in the apse.
Constantine changed the plan when he took over the unfinished basilica. He had a another entrance added on the S. side, on the Via Sacra, where a monumental stairway led to a porch of four porphyry columns and via three double doorways into the central part of the S. aisle. In front of this new entrance, in the central vault of the N. aisle, another apse was added, smaller than the apse in the W. end. In back of this apse a niche held a standing statue of Constantine, and smaller, square-headed niches, two rows of four niches on each side, which might have housed a gallery of Constantine's relatives and lieutenants. This room could be closed by wooden doors, and it is likely the central part of the office of the Prefect of the City was there.
Of the original building only the three vaults of the N. aisle remain, devoid of all decorations. The vaults of the S. and central nave probably collapsed under an earthquake in c. 847. The floor plan is clearly visible, however, and the remaining structures give a vivid impression of the grandeur of the original edifice.
The remains of the Colossal Statue of Constantine I are in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Campidoglio, and one of the columns from the central nave was moved to the Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore in 1614. The remaining columns have disappeared. The bronze tiles from the roof were reused for the first Basilica of Saint Peter.
Peter Wissing
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Italy- Rome- Forum Romanum The Basilica of Majencio and the temple of CastorsThe Basilica of Maxentius (Basilica Maxentii) or the Basilica of Constantine (Basilica Constantini) was the last of the great civilian basilicas on the Roman Forum. The ruins of the basilica is located between the Temple of Amor and Roma and the Temple of Romulus, on the Via Sacra.
The construction of the basilica was initiated by Maxentius in 308 CE, and finished by Constantine after he had defeated Maxentius in the battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE. As other similar buildings, it was destined for commercial and administrative activities. It is likely that the basilica housed the offices of the Prefect of the City, the highest imperial official in late antiquity.
The site chosen for the basilica was on the Velia, a low ridge connecting the Esquiline Hill and the Palatine Hill. Large parts of the Velia was levelled in preparation for the construction of the basilica. Literary sources tell that earlier the site was occupied by the Horrea Piperatica, the central market and storage facility for pepper and spices, built in the time of Domitian. Also on the site was a sanctuary of the penates publici which had to be moved.
The Basilica of Maxentius is built with arches, which is very atypical. All the other public basilicas had flat ceilings supported by wooden beams. The construction techniques used borrowed more from the great imperial baths than from the traditional basilica.
The basilica is one of the most impressive buildings on the Forum Romanum. The ground plan is rectangular, oriented E.-W., covering an area of 100×65m divided into a central nave and to lateral aisles and an atrium on the E. side where the original entrance was.
The central nave measured 80×25m and was covered by three groin vaults with a maximum height of 35m, supported by eight monolithic Corinthian columns of 14.5m. Each of the two aisles was made up of three interconnected coffered vaults, 20.5m wide and 24m high, communicating with the central nave by three huge openings.
Light was provided by two rows of three large windows in five of the six lateral vaults, and by windows in the sides of the now collapsed cross vaults over the central nave. The windows in two of the vaults in the surviving N. side of the building give a good idea of the amount of light inside the building.
The floor in both the central and the lateral spaces were a geometric pattern of squares with circles and lozenges of multi-coloured marble, similar to the floor in the Pantheon.
The walls were in opus latericium, originally with a marble veneer. The vaults were in opus caementicium with a gilded stucco finish. The roof was covered with gilded bronze tiles.
The entrance of the original project of Maxentius was to the east, from a branch of the old Via Sacra behind the Temple of Amor and Roma. It lead into an elongated atrium, connected to the central nave and the lateral aisles by five gateways.
In the W. end was a huge apse, 20m in diameter, where a colossal seated statue of Maxentius stood. This statue was later changed to look like Constantine. The statue was an acrolith (the head, hands and feet were of marble, while the rest was of other materials), and the remains of the statue were found in 1486 in the apse.
Constantine changed the plan when he took over the unfinished basilica. He had a another entrance added on the S. side, on the Via Sacra, where a monumental stairway led to a porch of four porphyry columns and via three double doorways into the central part of the S. aisle. In front of this new entrance, in the central vault of the N. aisle, another apse was added, smaller than the apse in the W. end. In back of this apse a niche held a standing statue of Constantine, and smaller, square-headed niches, two rows of four niches on each side, which might have housed a gallery of Constantine's relatives and lieutenants. This room could be closed by wooden doors, and it is likely the central part of the office of the Prefect of the City was there.
Of the original building only the three vaults of the N. aisle remain, devoid of all decorations. The vaults of the S. and central nave probably collapsed under an earthquake in c. 847. The floor plan is clearly visible, however, and the remaining structures give a vivid impression of the grandeur of the original edifice.
The remains of the Colossal Statue of Constantine I are in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Campidoglio, and one of the columns from the central nave was moved to the Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore in 1614. The remaining columns have disappeared. The bronze tiles from the roof were reused for the first Basilica of Saint Peter.
Peter Wissing
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Italy- Rome- Pantheon and the old street level besideThe inscription on the architrave of the portico "M. Agrippa L. F. Cos tertium fecit" refers to a temple erected by Agrippa in 27 B.C. to the tutelary divinities of the Julia family. In reality Agrippa's building was destroyed by a great fire in A.D. 80. Recent studies have proven that the present Pantheon is a reconstruction of the temple from the time of Hadrian. The interior measures 43.40 meters in diameter, and the same in height. Light and air still enter through the opening at the top (a circle of 8m, 92cms in diameter).
Peter Wissing
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Italy- Rome- Part of the city wallRome is the city in the world with the longest set of ancient walls still partly standing.
This unique relic of roman history, though, is somewhat neglected by the thousands of tourist who visit the city every day: very few of them pay attention to these massive structures, as their interest is mainly caught by famous buildings and sites such as the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, or the Colosseum.
Certainly less beautiful than these gems, the walls proved more useful to the city than any other well-known monument or building. And still today they stand as an important memory of the city's ancient boundaries.
The several restoration works carried out through the ages, in order to keep them strong and steady, give reason for the good state of preservation of the set of walls built in the 3rd century AD: unlike other ancient buildings, they mantained their original function until the end of the 1800s. Many of the original gates are still in place, as well, and some of them have witnessed important historical facts.
Besides their importance during wartime, the city walls enabled the local authorities to keep under control the many people who every day entered or left Rome, as the only way in or out was through the gates: the doors were usually kept under sentry during daylight, and closed after dusk. And since a tax was usually imposed on people and goods entering the city, the gates yielded also a considerable income for the municipality.
Since its foundation, Rome has always adopted defensive means, to prevent the several populations surrounding the original nucleus from invading the city.
They are not one single structure, but several walls belonging to many periods. They were built with different techniques, according to the different weapons they had to face, from early enemies' stones, to catapults, to more powerful cannon balls.
Each of them will be therefore dealt with separately, as individual structures.
All of them are conventionally named after the ruler (king, emperor or pope) who had them built.
ROMULUS' WALLS
We know little about the very first defensive structures that protected Rome's original nucleus, over 2700 years ago; the top of two adjoining hills, the Capitolium and the Palatine, was enclosed by two separate walls; the one on the Palatine was probably rebuilt over a pre-roman structure, and protected Romulus's House, claimed to be the dwelling site of the mythical founder and first king of Rome.
Only few visible traces, both of the Palatine's and of the Capitolium's wall, now survive (the latter is shown on the left). Therefore, these are the only walls not dealt with by the following pages.
SERVIAN WALLS
(or REPUBLICAN WALLS)
They are named after Rome's sixth king Servius Tullius: by tradition, he was the first ruler to order the construction of an early defensive structure around the city. Also in this case it is impossible to state a precise date. According to reliable sources, by the 6th century BC the city of Rome could indeed rely on some sort of protection; nevertheless, there is enough proof that an actual wall was not built until the late 4th century BC (during Rome's republic, whence the other name). And a further extension, beyond the left banks of the river Tiber up to the top of the Janiculum hill, was built two centuries later.
Therefore, the evolution of this set of walls must have been rather complicated.The older defensive technique probably consisted of a sort of mound dug in the ground; the earth coming from the latter was simply used to make a long heap on the inside, as a further protection.
Later in time, a real set of walls was built in place of this primitive boundary. But along the north-eastern part of its perimeter, a deep mound with earth and stones piled by the inner base of the wall was still in use: this structure was called an agger (from the Latin ad gerere, "to bring, move towards").
The actual wall was built according to the dry-stone technique, i.e. without any mortar, large blocks were piled one on top of the other, in multiple rows. The porous stone is tufa (which in Rome was used for the making of buildings up to the early 1930s!).
Unfortunately, of these walls no more than a few fragments scattered in various parts of the city is now left.
Further data based on historical sources and archaeological excavations have enabled to define more or less precisely their full perimeter: by the end of the 4th century BC, the city boundaries enclosed the famous seven hills, or Septimontium, over which the city was originally built: the Capitolium and the Palatine (i.e. the early nucleus), the Aventine, the Esquiline, the Quirinal, the Viminal and the Coelian.
Peter Wissing
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Italy- Rome- Part of the city wall 2Rome is the city in the world with the longest set of ancient walls still partly standing.
This unique relic of roman history, though, is somewhat neglected by the thousands of tourist who visit the city every day: very few of them pay attention to these massive structures, as their interest is mainly caught by famous buildings and sites such as the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, or the Colosseum.
Certainly less beautiful than these gems, the walls proved more useful to the city than any other well-known monument or building. And still today they stand as an important memory of the city's ancient boundaries.
The several restoration works carried out through the ages, in order to keep them strong and steady, give reason for the good state of preservation of the set of walls built in the 3rd century AD: unlike other ancient buildings, they mantained their original function until the end of the 1800s. Many of the original gates are still in place, as well, and some of them have witnessed important historical facts.
Besides their importance during wartime, the city walls enabled the local authorities to keep under control the many people who every day entered or left Rome, as the only way in or out was through the gates: the doors were usually kept under sentry during daylight, and closed after dusk. And since a tax was usually imposed on people and goods entering the city, the gates yielded also a considerable income for the municipality.
Since its foundation, Rome has always adopted defensive means, to prevent the several populations surrounding the original nucleus from invading the city.
They are not one single structure, but several walls belonging to many periods. They were built with different techniques, according to the different weapons they had to face, from early enemies' stones, to catapults, to more powerful cannon balls.
Each of them will be therefore dealt with separately, as individual structures.
All of them are conventionally named after the ruler (king, emperor or pope) who had them built.
ROMULUS' WALLS
We know little about the very first defensive structures that protected Rome's original nucleus, over 2700 years ago; the top of two adjoining hills, the Capitolium and the Palatine, was enclosed by two separate walls; the one on the Palatine was probably rebuilt over a pre-roman structure, and protected Romulus's House, claimed to be the dwelling site of the mythical founder and first king of Rome.
Only few visible traces, both of the Palatine's and of the Capitolium's wall, now survive (the latter is shown on the left). Therefore, these are the only walls not dealt with by the following pages.
SERVIAN WALLS
(or REPUBLICAN WALLS)
They are named after Rome's sixth king Servius Tullius: by tradition, he was the first ruler to order the construction of an early defensive structure around the city. Also in this case it is impossible to state a precise date. According to reliable sources, by the 6th century BC the city of Rome could indeed rely on some sort of protection; nevertheless, there is enough proof that an actual wall was not built until the late 4th century BC (during Rome's republic, whence the other name). And a further extension, beyond the left banks of the river Tiber up to the top of the Janiculum hill, was built two centuries later.
Therefore, the evolution of this set of walls must have been rather complicated.The older defensive technique probably consisted of a sort of mound dug in the ground; the earth coming from the latter was simply used to make a long heap on the inside, as a further protection.
Later in time, a real set of walls was built in place of this primitive boundary. But along the north-eastern part of its perimeter, a deep mound with earth and stones piled by the inner base of the wall was still in use: this structure was called an agger (from the Latin ad gerere, "to bring, move towards").
The actual wall was built according to the dry-stone technique, i.e. without any mortar, large blocks were piled one on top of the other, in multiple rows. The porous stone is tufa (which in Rome was used for the making of buildings up to the early 1930s!).
Unfortunately, of these walls no more than a few fragments scattered in various parts of the city is now left.
Further data based on historical sources and archaeological excavations have enabled to define more or less precisely their full perimeter: by the end of the 4th century BC, the city boundaries enclosed the famous seven hills, or Septimontium, over which the city was originally built: the Capitolium and the Palatine (i.e. the early nucleus), the Aventine, the Esquiline, the Quirinal, the Viminal and the Coelian.
Peter Wissing
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Italy- Rome- The Pantheon of Marco V Agripa and HadrianPantheon
The Pantheon is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to all the gods of the Roman state religion, but has been a Christian church since the 7th century AD. It is the only building from the Greco-Roman world which is completely intact and which has been in continuous use throughout its history.
History
The original Pantheon was built in 27 BC under the Roman Republic, during the third consulship of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and his name is inscribed on the portico of the building. The inscription reads M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIUM·FECIT, "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, consul for the third time, built this."
In fact, Agrippa's Pantheon was destroyed by fire in AD 80, and the Pantheon was completely rebuilt in about AD 125, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, as date-stamps on the bricks reveal. It was totally reconstructed, with the text of the original inscription (referring to Agrippa) added to the new facade, a common practice in Hadrian's rebuilding projects all over Rome.
Hadrian was a cosmopolitan emperor who travelled widely in the east and was a great admirer of Greek culture. He seems to have intended the Pantheon, a temple to all the gods, to be a sort of ecumenical or syncretist gesture to the subjects of the Roman Empire who did not worship the old gods of Rome, or who (as was increasingly the case) worshipped them under other names.
In AD 609 the Byzantine emperor Phocas gave the building to Pope Boniface IV, who reconsecrated it as a Christian church, the Church of Mary and all the Martyr Saints (Santa Maria ad Martyres), which title it retains.
The building's consecration as a church saved it from the abandonment and spoliation which befell the majority of ancient Rome's buildings during the early mediaeval period. The only loss has been the external sculptures, which adorned the pediment above Agrippa's inscription. The marble interior and the great bronze doors have survived, although the latter have been restored several times.
During the reign of Pope Urban VIII, the Pope ordered the bronze ceiling of the Pantheon's portico melted down. Most of the bronze was used to make bombards for the fortification of Castel Sant'Angelo, with the remaining amount used by the Apostolic Chamber for various other works. (It is also said that the bronze was used by Bernini in creating the baldachin above the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica, but according to at least one expert, the Pope's accounts state that about 90% of the bronze was used for the cannon, and that the bronze for the baldachin came from Venice.[1]) This led to the Latin proverb, "Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini" ("What the barbarians did not do, the Barberinis [family name of Urban VIII] did").
Since the Renaissance the Pantheon has been used as a tomb. Among those buried there are the painters Raphael and Annibale Caracci, the architect Baldassare Peruzzi and two kings of Italy: Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I, as well as Vittorio Emanuele's Queen, Margharita.
Although Italy has been a republic since 1946, volunteer members of Italian monarchist organisations maintain a vigil over the royal tombs in the Pantheon. This has aroused protests from time to time from republicans, but the Catholic authorities allow the practice to continue, although the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage [2] is in charge of the security and maintenance. The Pantheon is still a church and Masses are still celebrated in the church, particularly for weddings.
Structure
The building is circular with a portico of three ranks of huge granite Corinthian columns (8 in the first rank and 16 in total) under a pediment opening into the rotunda, under a coffered, concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus), open to the sky. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same (43 metres), so the whole interior would fit exactly within a cube (alternatively, the interior could house a sphere 43 metres in diameter). The dome is the largest surviving from antiquity, and was the largest dome in western Europe until Brunelleschi's dome of the Duomo of Florence was completed in 1436.
It may well be noted that the proportions of the building are in discord with respect to the classical ideal. Most evident is the rather large pediment, which appears far too "heavy" for the columns supporting it. The reason for this was the expectation that the building would be much taller than it actually is, which would effect larger columns. However, by the time the pediment was built, it was realised that the proposed height was unrealistic, and so the builders had to settle with a building somewhat out of proportion.
The composition of the Roman concrete used in the dome remains a mystery. An unreinforced dome in these proportions made of modern concrete would hardly stand the load of its own weight, since concrete has very low tensile strength, yet the Pantheon has stood for centuries. It is known from Roman sources that their concrete is made up of a pasty hydrate lime; pozzolanic ash from a nearby volcano; and fist-sized pieces of rock. In this, it is very similar to modern concrete. The high tensile strength appears to come from the way the concrete was applied in very small amounts and then was tamped down to remove excess water at all stages. This appears to have prevented the air bubbles that normally form in concrete as the material dries, thus increasing its strength enormously.
As the best preserved example of monumental Roman architecture, the Pantheon was enormously influential on European and American architects from the Renaissance to the 19th century. Numerous city halls, universities and public libraries echo its portico-and-dome structure. Examples of notable buildings influenced by the Pantheon include Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda at the University of Virginia, Low Library at Columbia University, New York, and the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.
Peter Wissing
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Juno Regina, the Queen of the Gods.Salonina, wife of Gallienus. Augusta, 254-268 CE.
Silvered Æ antoninianus (21.1 mm), Uncertain Eastern mint, 260-268 CE.
Obv: SALONINA AVG, diademed & draped bust right on crescent.
Rev: IVNO REGINA, Juno standing left, holding patera and scepter, peacock at her feet.
RIC-92; Cohen-67.
Juno was the chief female divinity in the Roman pantheon. She was the wife of Jupiter and a member of the Capitoline Triad. She had many different aspects, such as Juno Moneta, Juno Sospita and Juno Lucina, but here she is depicted as Juno Regina, "Juno the Queen." Juno is usually shown hoding a patera, scepter or a statuette of Athena, and is often accompanied by a peacock.
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Juno Sospitaorichalcum sestertius (26.6g) Rome mint. Struck AD 140-144.
ANTONINVS AVG PI[-]VS P P TR P COS III laureate head of Antoninus Pius facing right
IVNONI SISPITAE (around edge) S C (in field) Juno Sospita wearing goat skin advancing right preceded by a snake, brandishing javelin and holding shield which is pinched in the middle.
RIC 608 (Scarce), Cohen 473, BMC 1248
Juno Sospita was the goddess of Lanuvium, the birthplace of Pius, and one of the most ancient figures in the Roman pantheon.Charles S
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Licinius I IOVI CONSERVATORI AntiochJupiter
In Roman mythology, Jupiter held the same role as Zeus in the Greek pantheon. He was called Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Jupiter Highest, Greatest) as the patron deity of the Roman state, in charge of laws and social order. Jupiter is, properly speaking, a derivation of Jove and pater (Latin for father)
This article focuses on Jupiter in early Rome and in cultic practice. For information on mythological accounts of Jupiter, which are heavily influenced by Greek mythology, see Zeus.
The name of the god was also adopted as the name of the planet Jupiter, and was the original namesake of the weekday that would come to be known in English as Thursday (the etymological root can be seen in various Romance languages, including French jeudi, Castillian jueves, and Italian jovedi all from Jovis Dies). Linguistic studies identify his name as deriving from *dyēus ph2ter ("god-father"), the Indo-European deity who also evolved into the Germanic *Tiwaz (after whom Tuesday was named), the Greek Zeus, and Dyaus Pita of the Vedic religion. Jove is a vocative form of the name, evolved from Dyeus.
Licinius I Follis. 313-4 AD. IMP C VAL LICIN LICINIVS P F AVG, laureate head right / Jupiter standing left holding Nike & scepter, eagle at feet, (wreath) S III right, ANT in ex.
RIC VII Antioch 8 R3
ecoli
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Metapontion, Lucania, Italy, c. 330 - 290 B.C.Silver stater, HN Italy 1581; SGCV I 416 var; Noe-Johnston 3, class C 1.2-72, VF, obverse off center, weight 7.851g, maximum diameter 20.2mm, die axis 150o, c. 330 - 290 B.C.; obverse head of Demeter right; reverse head of grain, META on left, plough above leaf on right, M[AX] lower right; ex CNG; ex FORVM
Demeter in Greek mythology is the goddess of grain and fertility, the pure; nourisher of the youth and the green earth, the health-giving cycle of life and death; and preserver of marriage and the sacred law. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, dated to about the seventh century B.C. she is invoked as the "bringer of seasons," a subtle sign that she was worshipped long before she was made one of the Olympians. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that also predated the Olympian pantheon. Philoromaos
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Pantheon M AGRIPPA COS TERTIVM FECIT
Originally built by Marcus Agrippa and later completely restored by Hadrian, who eventually added and engineered the largest unsupported concrete domed roof. A marvel of engineering and a sight to see. Jay GT4
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PantheonITALY, Papal States. Benedict XIV Lambertii, 1740-1758 AD. Æ38 Medal (22.09 gm) by Hamerani, 1757, possible original strike. Capped robed bust / Interior of the Pantheon. Maz.479. Ancient Aussie
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Pantheon of Greek GodsHere are some of the Greek gods depicted in full length form. As you might expect Athena seems to be a favorite deity as attested by these ancient coins. All are found on the reverse side except the stater coin from Tarsos.
Top Row: Zeus on Alexander III Tetradrachm; Apollo on Myrina Stephanophoric Tetradrachm; Dionysos on Maroneia Tetradrachm; Baal on Tarsos Stater.
Middle Row: Zeus on Bactrian Drachm; Athena Itona on Thessalian League Stater; Nike on Side Tetradrachm; Apollo on Seleukid Drachm; Athena on Cappadocian Drachm.
Bottom Row: Athena on Pergammon Tetradrachm; Athena on Seleukid Tetradrachm; Athena on Lysimachos Tetradrachm; Athena on Aigeaian Tetradrachm.
Jason T
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Phoenicia, Berytos, Elagabal, BMC 216Elagabal, AD 218-222
AE 23, 10.72g
obv. IMP CAES M [AVR AN - TONINVS] AVG
Bust, draped and cuirassed, seen from behind, laureate, r.
rev. COL IV - L - AVG FE[L] / [BER]
Eshmoun, naked with chlamys behind, stg. frontal, head r., holding wreath(?)
in raised r. hand, between two coiled snakes
ref. BMC 216; Lindgren II, 120, 2270; SNG Copenhagen 120 (same rev. die)
very rare, VF, brown surfaces
Pedigree:
ex CNG Electronic Auction 179, lot 176
Eshmoun was the healing-god of the Phoenician pantheon, later equated with the Greek Asklepios. For more informations please look at te thread 'Mythological interesting coins'
Jochen
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Roman Empire, Agrippa, AsObv. M AGRIPPA L F COS III, Head left, wearing rostral crown.
Rev. S C, Neptune standing left, holding small dolphin and trident.
Mint: Rome, 37-41 AD.
29mm 11.34g
RIC Gaius 58; BMC Tiberius 161; RCV 1812.
Provenance:
Ex Dr. Eugen Merzbacher, Auction 15th November 1910, lot 1339.
Ex Münzen & Medaillen AG, Auction 43, 12th November 1970, lot 282.
Ex Frank Sternberg AG, Auction 3, 30th November 1973, lot 48.
Ex Sotheby's, Auction 7th March 1996, lot 151.
Ex Collection M.F. Price
Ex Stack's, Auction 3rd December 1996, lot 114.
Ex Noonans, Auction 5th December 2023, lot 253.
The very talented and ambitious Agrippa held high state positions at a young age. In his lightning career, he won important victories at the age of 27 as fleet chief for his closest friend Augustus. In the year 21 B.C. He married Julia, daughter of Augustus, who then declared him his co-regent and successor. Through his designated buildings - e.g. B. water pipes and thermal baths - Agrippa contributed significantly to the infrastructure of ancient Rome. The Pantheon in Rome is still admired today. At the age of only 51, he died due to an injury, a well-respected man in Campania.kc
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ROMAN EMPIRE, Antoninus Pius Sestertius, RIC 608Æ Sestertius (28.89g, Ø31mm, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 140-144.
Obv.: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P COS III laureate head of Antoninus Pius facing right
Rev.: IVNONI SISPITAE around, S C across field, Juno Sospita wearing goat skin advancing right preceded by a snake, brandishing javelin and holding shield which is pinched in the middle.
RIC 608; Cohen 473; BMCRE 1248; Strack 837; Banti (I Grandi Bronzi Imperiali II-3) 201 (7 spec.); Sear (Roman Coins and their Values II) 4186
ex iNumis, Paris, March 2009
This issue is part of a series of coins struck in preparation of the 900th anniversary of Rome, figuring scenes from Ancient Roman legends. Juno Sospita was the goddess of Lanuvium, the birthplace of Pius, and one of the most ancient figures in the Roman pantheon.Charles S
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SALONINA AVG / VESTA antoninianus (close to 258-264 A.D.) Obv.: SALON[INA AVG], Bust of Salonina, diademed, draped, right, on crescent
Rev.: VESTA, Vesta, draped, seated left, holding patera in right hand and sceptre transverse in left hand. Q in exergue.
d oval 18-20+mm, 3.14g, die axis 1h (medal alignment), material: bronze/copper-based alloy supposedly with some silver.
Portrait: Cornelia Salonina (Augusta in 253-268), wife of Gallienus
Authority: Gallienus (joint reign 253-, sole reign 260-268).
Mint: Rome.
AVG = Augusta. VESTA is the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion. Vesta was among the Dii Consentes, twelve of the most honored gods in the Roman pantheon. She was the daughter of Saturn and Ops, and sister of Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Juno, and Ceres. Her Greek equivalent is Hestia. She was rarely depicted in human form, and was often represented by the fire in the hearth of her temple in the Forum Romanum, tended by her priestesses, the Vestal Virgins. As she was considered a guardian of the Roman people, her festival, the Vestalia (7–15 June), was regarded as one of the most important Roman holidays. She was of special significance to Roman married women. Patera was round shallow dish or bowl (similar to the Greek phiale) used by the Romans in religious ceremonies, either in offering libations of wine to the gods, or in receiving the blood of sacrificial animals. On coins, the patera is placed in the hands of the deities, as a symbol of the divine honors rendered to them, or in that of their ministers as an attribute of their functions. Scepters, often two to three foot ivory rods topped with a globe or an eagle, were introduced by Augustus as a symbol of Rome's power. They would be carried by emperors while riding in chariots to celebrate military victories. Thus a scepter is a symbol of emperor's leadership and victory. In this case it, as well as the seated position of the goddess, may symbolize the special governing significance of Vesta to Rome and Romans. It also might signify the leadership of empress in virtues and grace among Roman matrons. Q probably means the 4th officina.
RIC V-1 Rome 32; Göbl 365dd; Cohen 139; RSC 143; Sear 10665. (some catalogues list it as joint reign)
There is a discrepancy in estimates of the time of its minting, some put it to 258-260, others to 263-264.
ID straightforward. Many examples of 21-22mm, consistent with larger size of this coin and its origin in earlier period.Yurii P
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Shekel Tyre Civic Year 4 (123/2 BC)PHOENICIA. Tyre. AR shekel (30mm, 14.09 gm, 12h). Dated Civic Year 4 (123/1222 BC).
O: Laureate head of Melqart right
R: TYPOY IEPAΣ KAI AΣYΛOY (Tyre the Holy and Inviolable), Eagle standing left on prow, palm frond over wing; to left, LΔ (date) above club, M and Phoenician bet between legs.
- DCA Tyre 9. DCA 921. ex ClassicalCoins.Com 2005
Note the unusual placement of the monogram. From years 1-4 the placement of the monogram varies, after which it became standardized to the right of the eagle.
A development which encouraged the wealth of Tyre seems to have been a religious revolution in the city under the reigns of Abibaal and Hiram which elevated the god known as Melqart (a deified version of Hercules) over the traditional divine couple of the Phoenicians, Baal (also known as El) and Astarte (Asherah). The primacy of Melqart (whose name means `King of the City') drew power away from the priests of the traditional pantheon of the gods and placed it at the disposal of the palace. Richard Miles notes, "It seems that a desire to bring the temples to heel lay behind the royal decision to replace the traditional chief deities of Tyre with a new god, Melqart"(32). The result was not only an increase in the wealth of the palace but, through a more efficient distribution of that wealth, increased prosperity for the whole of the city.Nemonater
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Syria, Dekapolis, Dium, Geta, BMC 1Geta as Caesar, AD 209-211
AE 23, 11.37g
struck AD 205/6 (year 268)
obv. POYP C - GETAC K
Bust, draped and cuirassed, bare-headed, r.
rev. HZC - DEIHN - WN (Jahr 268)
Baal, in scaly garment, wearing kalathos (and bull-horns?), stg. facing, holding
eagle-tipped sceptre in r. hand and Nike holding wreath in l. hand, at his feet l.
and r. the fore-part of a bull looking outwards.
Spijkerman p.118, 6, pl.24, 6; Rosenberger IV, p.34, 5; Meshorer 244; Lindgren 2202; BMC 1; SNG 6, 1281; SNG ANS 1281-2
very rare, VF, brown patina
Baal, here as Zeus-Heliopolites, was the highest god in the Syrian pantheon. Originally called Hadad he was worshipped in the monumental temple of Heliopolis (Baalbek). Actually Hadad holds a whip, grain-ears and a thunderbolt. With Nike and eagle in his hand we see the usual equalization with Zeus.
For more information please look at the thread 'Coins of mythological interest'.Jochen
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Troas, Birytis, Cabirus Wearing PilusTROAS, Birytis, AE18, 300 BC, 5.6g, 18mm, SNG Copenhagen 247, BMC Troas pg. 40, 1ff, Laffaille 447, SNG von Aulock 1502-1503, SEAR Greek 4056
OBV: Beardless Cabirus left, wearing pileus, star on either side
REV: B-I/P-Y either side of club, within laurel wreath
RARE
Among the Thessalonian pantheon was an interesting figure called Cabirus. The cult of Cabirus was centered in Macedonia and Thrace. It focused on a legendary young man who was murdered by his two brothers. It was said that Cabirus would return one day to aid the powerless of the city. His symbol was the hammer, and he easily became associated with and worshipped by the working class in Thessalonica. Although no one knows why, at some point the Cabirus cult was taken over by the ruling elite and included in the official cult. Since it was common belief in those days that the gods listened more attentively to the wealthy than to the poor, the powerless of Thessalonica felt as though their hope had been taken from them.
In the light of the Cabirus cult, it is easy to understand how Paul’s preaching of Jesus could have easily gained traction in Thessalonica. After all, Jesus himself, like Cabirus, was a young man wrongly murdered who had indeed risen from the dead to bring good news to the poor and downtrodden. (Murphy-O’Connor, 74-75)SRukke
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[18H451] Judaean Kingdom, John Hyrcanus I (Yehohanan), 134 - 104 B.C., for the Seleukid King Antiochos VIIJohn Hyrcanus [for Antiochos VII]; Lily, AE, Hendin 451, 15mm, 2.92 grams; VF, Jerusalem; 182-180 B.C. This interesting coin was the precursor to the "prutah" which would subsequently be minted in Israel. Struck by John Hyrcanus, King of Judaea, in the name of the Seleukid King Antiochos VII, Euergetes (Sidetes). Ex Zuzim Judaea.
Johanan [John] Hyrcanus
(d. 104 BCE)
Grandson of Mattathias of Modein and chief architect of Judean dominance of Palestine. The youngest and only surviving son of Simon Thassi succeeded his father as high priest in 134 BCE. He was the fourth Hasmonean to rule Jerusalem. But his tenure began with a year-long Syrian siege that forced him to agree to tear down the city's fortifications and renew a tribute to the Greek emperor [133 BCE].
Within a few years, however, he took advantage of political turmoil in Syria following the death of Antiochus VII [129 BCE] to rebuild his forces, reclaim independence and extend Judean control over Palestine and Jordan. On the southern front he forced Judah's neighbors in Idumea [descendents of the Edomites] to accept Judaism and on the northern front he destroyed the rival temple at Shechem in Samaria.
Such triumphs made him the probable subject of messianic tributes by his fellow Judeans. But his own preference for Greek culture made him controversial in Jerusalem. When Pharisees challenged his right to be high priest, he switched his allegiance to the aristocratic Sadducee [Zadokite] party. Still, the Dead Sea Scrolls suggest that other Zadokites probably rejected his leadership and left Jerusalem, labeling him the "wicked priest," who persecuted the priest whom they regarded as the "Teacher of Righteousness."
Copyright 2007, The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Published on The Jewish Virtual Library; http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/index.html
John Hyrcanus
John Hyrcanus (Yohanan Girhan) (reigned 134 BCE - 104 BCE, died 104 BCE) was a Hasmonean (Maccabeean) leader of the 2nd century BC. Apparently the name "Hyrcanus" was taken by him as a regnal name upon his accession to power. His taking a Greek regnal name was a significant political and cultural step away from the intransigent opposition to and rejection of Hellenistic culture which had characterised the Maccabaen revolt against Seleucid rule, and a more pragmatic recognition that Judea had to maintain its position among a millieu of small and large states which all shared the Hellenistic culture and communicated in Greek.
Life and work
He was the son of Simon Maccabaeus and hence the nephew of Judas Maccabaeus, Jonathan Maccabaeus and their siblings, whose story is told in the deuterocanonical books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees, and in the Talmud. John was not present at a banquet at which his father and his two brothers were murdered, purportedly by his brother-in-law Ptolemy. He attained to his father's former offices, that of high priest and king (although some Jews never accepted any of the Hasmoneans as being legitimate kings, as they were not lineal descendants of David).
His taking a Greek regnal name - "Hyrcanus" - was a significant political and cultural step away from the intransigent opposition to and rejection of Hellenistic culture which had characterised the Maccabaen revolt against Seleucid rule. It reflected a more pragmatic recognition that Judea, once having attained independence, had to maintain its position among a milieu of small and large states which all shared the Hellenistic culture. All subseqent Hashmonean rulers followed suit and adopted Greek names in their turn.
Achievements
John Hyrcanus apparently combined an energetic and able style of leadership with the zeal of his forebears. He was known as a brave and brilliant military leader. He is credited with the forced conversion of the Idumeans to Judaism, which was unusual for a Jewish leader; Judaism was not typically spread by the sword. He also set out to resolve forcibly the religious dispute between the Jews and the Samaritans; during his reign he destroyed the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim (although their descendants still worship among its ruins), which served further to deepen the already-historic hatred and rivalry between the two groups. Many historians believe that the apocryphal book of Jubilees was written during his reign; some would suggest even at his behest. Some writers, particularly Christian ones, have dated the division of Judaism into the parties of Pharisees and Sadducees to his era; most Jewish writers and some Christian ones suggest that this split actually well predates him. Some historians would go so far as to identify him, as a priest, predominantly with the Sadducee party, which was closely associated with the Temple worship and the priestly class.
Peak and decline of the kingdom
John Hyrcanus represented in some ways the highest point of the Hasmonean Dynasty. The restored Jewish "kingdom" approached its maximum limits of both territory and prestige. Upon his death, his offices were divided among his heirs; his son Aristobulus succeeded him as high priest; his wife as "Queen regnant". The son, however, soon came to desire the essentially unchecked power of his father; he shortly ordered his mother and his brothers imprisoned. This event seems to mark the beginning of the decline of the Hasmonean Dynasty; in just over four decades they were removed from power by the Roman Republic and none of them ever began to approach the level of power or prestige that had pertained to John Hyrcanus or his predecessors.
Modern Commemoration
Tel Aviv has a Yochanan Hyrcanus Street (רחוב יוחנן הורקנוס), as do several other cities in contemporary Israel. In the ealy decades of the 20th century, the Zionist historical perception of the Jewish past tended to approve of and revere strong warrior kings of both Biblical and later periods, and Hyrcanus' exploits earned him a place in that pantheon.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hyrcanus
John Hyrcanus was the son of Simon the Maccabee and nephew of the folk hero Judah Maccabee. Not long after Hyrcanus assumed power, the Seleukid kingdom marched on Jerusalem. The Seleukid king, Antiocus VII, and Hyrcanus I negotiated a treaty that left Hyrcanus a vassal to the Syrian king. Joseph Sermarini, FORVM.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=922&pos=0
Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
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[2470] Asclepios AE16, Pergamon (Mysia), 133 BC - Imperial Times. Mysia, Pergamon. 133 BC - Imperial Times. SNG BN Paris 1828. AE 16mm (3.76 gm). Very fine. Obverse: head Asclepios right. Reverse: [A]ΣKΛHΠIO[Y] - [ΣΩ]THP[OΣ], Serpent curled around scepter of Asclepios. Ex Tom Vossen.
Asclepius
by Ron Leadbetter
Asclepius was a Greek hero who later become the Greek god of medicine and healing. The son of Apollo and Coronis, Asclepius had five daughters, Aceso, Iaso, Panacea, Aglaea and Hygieia. He was worshipped throughout the Greek world but his most famous sanctuary was located in Epidaurus which is situated in the northeastern Peloponnese. The main attribute of Asclepius is a physician's staff with an Asclepian snake wrapped around it; this is how he was distinguished in the art of healing, and his attribute still survives to this day as the symbol of the modern medical profession. The cock was also sacred to Asclepius and was the bird they sacrificed as his altar.
The mother of Asclepius, Coronis, was a mortal, the daughter of Phlegyas, a king of Thessaly. Coronis was unfaithful to Apollo, and Artemis, Apollo's twin sister, killed her for her unfaithfulness. Coronis was placed upon a funeral pyre. (One version says that Apollo cast her into the fires of his own anger.) As her body started to burn, Apollo felt sorrow for his unborn son and snatched the child Asclepius from his mother's corpse, saving him from death. Apollo then handed Asclepius to the Centaur Chiron who became his tutor and mentor.
Chiron taught Asclepius the art of healing. According to Pindar (Pythian Odes), Asclepius also acquired the knowledge of surgery, the use of drugs, love potions and incantations, and according to Apollodorus (the Library), Athena gave Asclepius a magic potion made from the blood of the Gorgon. Legend tells that the blood of the Gorgon has a different effect depending from which side the blood was taken. If taken from the right side of the Gorgon, it has a miraculous effect and is said to be able to bring the dead back to life, but taken from the left side it is a deadly poison.
With these gifts Asclepius exceeded the fringes of human knowledge. However, he offended the great god Zeus by accepting money in exchange for raising the dead. (In one version it was the goddess Artemis who implored Asclepius to resurrect Hippolytus, a favourite of hers.) In the eyes of Zeus, Asclepius' action upset the natural order of the universe - a mere mortal helping man evade death. With one swift action, the great Zeus sent down a thunderbolt killing both men. (In some versions Zeus only killed Asclepius.)
Realising the good Asclepius had brought to man, the great Zeus made him into a god, placing him among the stars, transforming Asclepius into the constellation Ophiuchus (the serpent-bearer). The snake was used in the healing ritual; non-poisonous snakes were left in the dormitory where the sick slept overnight on the bare ground.
The cult of Asclepius became very popular during the 300s BCE and the cult centres (known as an Asclepieion) were used by priests to cure the sick. Invalids also came to the shrines of Asclepius to find cures for their ailments (in the same fashion pilgrims visit Lourdes today.) The process of healing was known as incubation. The patient would spend the night in a dormitory. During the night they would supposedly be visited by the god in a dream. Priests would interpret the dreams and then recommend a remedy or give advice on how they could be cured with perhaps a recommended visit to the baths and gymnasiums. There were many centres and schools of medicine, from Trikkis in Thessaly to the island of Cos. It is believed that Hippocrates, a great doctor of antiquity, plied his trade on the island of Cos. It is also said that Hippocrates was a descendant of Asclepius.
The Romans adopted the cult of Asclepius, but changed his name to Latin; they called him Aesculapius.
"Asclepius." Encyclopedia Mythica. 2008. Encyclopedia Mythica Online.
10 Apr. 2008 .
The Asklepion of Pergamon dates from the 4th century BC. This therapeutic center was of the same type as the one in Kos- a large health center. Most of the remains today of this center belong to the changes that were carried out by Emperor Hadrian.
Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
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[603a] Octavian, 16 January 27 B.C. - 19 August 14 A.D.AR denarius; BMC 461; struck at Lugdunum between 15-13 BC , C 1411, RIC 171a; Date: 17.8 mm, 3.5 grams; F+; Obverse: AVGVSTVS [DI]VI F, Bare head right; Reverse: IMP X, Apollo standing facing, holding plectrum in right hand and lyre in left, ACT in exergue. A decent denarius commemorating The Battle of Actium against Antony in 31 BC. Ex McSorley Westchester Stamp and coin show 1970. Ex Ancient Imports.
De Imperatoribus Romanis:
An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers
AUGUSTUS (31 B.C. - 14 A.D.)
Garrett G. Fagan
Pennsylvania State University
In the course of his long and spectacular career, he put an end to the advancing decay of the Republic and established a new basis for Roman government that was to stand for three centuries. This system, termed the "Principate," was far from flawless, but it provided the Roman Empire with a series of rulers who presided over the longest period of unity, peace, and prosperity that Western Europe, the Middle East and the North African seaboard have known in their entire recorded history. Even if the rulers themselves on occasion left much to be desired, the scale of Augustus's achievement in establishing the system cannot be overstated. Aside from the immense importance of Augustus's reign from the broad historical perspective, he himself is an intriguing figure: at once tolerant and implacable, ruthless and forgiving, brazen and tactful. Clearly a man of many facets, he underwent three major political reinventions in his lifetime and negotiated the stormy and dangerous seas of the last phase of the Roman Revolution with skill and foresight. With Augustus established in power and with the Principate firmly rooted, the internal machinations of the imperial household provide a fascinating glimpse into the one issue that painted this otherwise gifted organizer and politician into a corner from which he could find no easy exit: the problem of the succession.
(For a very detailed and interesting account of the Age of Augustus see: http://www.roman-emperors.org/auggie.htm)
Death and Retrospective
In his later years, Augustus withdrew more and more from the public eye, although he continued to transact public business. He was getting older, and old age in ancient times must have been considerably more debilitating than it is today. In any case, Tiberius had been installed as his successor and, by AD 13, was virtually emperor already. In AD 4 he had received grants of both proconsular and tribunician power, which had been renewed as a matter of course whenever they needed to be; in AD 13, Tiberius's imperium had been made co-extensive with that of Augustus. While traveling in Campania, Augustus died peacefully at Nola on 19 August, AD 14. Tiberius, who was en route to Illyricum, hurried to the scene and, depending on the source, arrived too late or spent a day in consultation with the dying princes. The tradition that Livia poisoned her husband is scurrilous in the extreme and most unlikely to be true. Whatever the case about these details, Imperator Caesar Augustus, Son of a God, Father of his Country, the man who had ruled the Roman world alone for almost 45 years, or over half a century if the triumviral period is included, was dead. He was accorded a magnificent funeral, buried in the mausoleum he had built in Rome, and entered the Roman pantheon as Divus Augustus. In his will, he left 1,000 sesterces apiece to the men of the Praetorian guard, 500 to the urban cohorts, and 300 to each of the legionaries. In death, as in life, Augustus acknowledged the true source of his power.
The inscription entitled "The Achievements of the Divine Augustus" (Res Gestae Divi Augustae; usually abbreviated RG) remains a remarkable piece of evidence deriving from Augustus's reign. The fullest copy of it is the bilingual Greek and Latin version carved into the walls of the Temple of Rome and Augustus at Ancyra in Galatia (for this reason the RG used to be commonly referred to as the Monumentum Ancyranum). Other evidence, however, demonstrates that the original was inscribed on two bronze pillars that flanked the entrance to the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome. The inscription remains the only first-person summary of any Roman emperor's political career and, as such, offers invaluable insights into the Augustan regime's public presentation of itself.
In looking back on the reign of Augustus and its legacy to the Roman world, its longevity ought not to be overlooked as a key factor in its success. People had been born and reached middle age without knowing any form of government other than the Principate. Had Augustus died earlier (in 23 BC, for instance), matters may have turned out very differently. The attrition of the civil wars on the old Republican aristocracy and the longevity of Augustus, therefore, must be seen as major contributing factors in the transformation of the Roman state into a monarchy in these years. Augustus's own experience, his patience, his tact, and his great political acumen also played their part. All of these factors allowed him to put an end to the chaos of the Late Republic and re-establish the Roman state on a firm footing. He directed the future of the empire down many lasting paths, from the existence of a standing professional army stationed at or near the frontiers, to the dynastic principle so often employed in the imperial succession, to the embellishment of the capital at the emperor's expense. Augustus's ultimate legacy, however, was the peace and prosperity the empire was to enjoy for the next two centuries under the system he initiated. His memory was enshrined in the political ethos of the Imperial age as a paradigm of the good emperor; although every emperor adopted his name, Caesar Augustus, only a handful earned genuine comparison with him.
Copyright © 1999, Garrett G. Fagan.
Published: De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families http://www.roman-emperors.org/startup.htm. Used by permission.
Augustus (the first Roman emperor, in whose reign Jesus Christ was born) is without any doubt one of the most important figures in Roman history.
It is reported that when he was near death, Augustus addressed those in attendance with these words, "If I have played my part well, applaud!"
Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr
Cleisthenes
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[903a] Hadrian, 11 August 117 - 10 July 138 A.D.Silver denarius, RIC II 228 var (bust type), gVF, Rome, 2.849g, 17.8mm, 180o, 134 A.D.; Obverse: HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P, head right; Reverse: AEQVITAS AVG, Aequitas standing left, scales in right, scepter in left; excellent portrait; scarce. Ex FORVM. Photo courtesy of FORVM.
De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families
Hadrian (A.D. 117-138)
Herbert W. Benario
Emory University
Introduction and Sources
"During a happy period of more than fourscore years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. It is the design of this and of the two succeeding chapters to describe the prosperous condition of their empire, and afterwards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most important circumstances of its decline and fall, a revolution which will ever be remembered and is still felt by the nations of the earth."
So Edward Gibbon concluded the first paragraph of his massive The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, referring to a period which he also styled the happiest of mankind's history. Hadrian was the central figure of these "five good emperors," the one most responsible for changing the character and nature of the empire. He was also one of the most remarkable and talented individuals Rome ever produced.
The sources for a study of Hadrian are varied. There is no major historian for his reign, such as Tacitus or Livy. The chief literary sources are the biography in the Historia Augusta, the first surviving life in a series intended to continue Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars. Debate about this collection of imperial biographies has been heated and contentious for more than a century. The most convincing view is that which sees the whole as the work of a single author writing in the last years of the fourth century. The information offered ranges from the precisely accurate to the most wildly imaginative.
Cassius Dio, who wrote in the decade of the 230s, produced a long history of the empire which has survived, for the Hadrianic period, only in an abbreviated version. Fourth century historians, such as Aurelius Victor and Eutropius, occasionally furnish bits of information. Contemporaries or near-contemporaries of Hadrian, such as Arrian, Fronto, Pausanias, and Plutarch, are also useful. Papyri, inscriptions, coins, and legal writings are extremely important. Archaeology in all its aspects contributes mightily to any attempt to probe the character of a man and emperor whose personality and thoughts defy close analysis and understanding.
Early Life and Career
Hadrian was born on January 24, 76. Where he saw the light of day was, even in antiquity, matter for debate. Italica, in Hispania Baetica, was the birthplace of Trajan and was also considered that of Hadrian. But the HA reports that he was born in Rome, and that seems the more likely choice, since it is the more unexpected. The actual place of one's birth was, however, unimportant, since it was one's patria which was crucial. Hadrian's ancestors had come to Spain generations before, from the town of Hadria in Picenum, at the end of the Second Punic War. Italica's tribus, to which Hadrian belonged, was the Sergia. His father, P. Aelius Afer, had reached the praetorship by the time of his death in 85/86, his mother, Domitia Paulina, came from a distinguished family of Gades, one of the wealthiest cities in the empire. His sister Paulina married Servianus, who played a significant role in Hadrian's career. Trajan was the father's cousin; when Afer died, Trajan and P. Acilius Attianus, likewise of Italica, became Hadrian's guardians.
At the age of about ten, Hadrian went to Italica for the first time (or returned, if he had been there earlier in his childhood), where he remained for only a brief time. He then returned to the capital and soon began a rapid rise through the cursus honorum; he was a military tribune of three different legions in consecutive years, a series of appointments which clearly marked him for a military career, and reached the consulate as a suffect at the age of 32, the earliest possible under the principate. At Trajan's death, he was legate of the province of Syria, with responsibility for the security of the east in the aftermath of Trajan's Parthian War.
(For a detailed and interesting discussion of Hadrian's reign please see: http://www.roman-emperors.org/hadrian.htm])
Literary and artistic achievements
Hadrian was a man of extraordinary talents, certainly one of the most gifted that Rome ever produced. He became a fine public speaker, he was a student of philosophy and other subjects, who could hold his own with the luminaries in their fields, he wrote both an autobiography and poetry, and he was a superb architect. It was in this last area that he left his greatest mark, with several of the empire's most extraordinary buildings and complexes stemming from his fertile mind. The anonymous author of the Historia Augusta described Hadrian as Fuit enim poematum et litterarum nimium studiosissimus. Arithmeticae, geometriae, picturae peritissimus.
He rebuilt Agrippa's Pantheon into the remarkable building that survives today, reconstructing the accustomed temple facade, with columns and pediment, but attaching it to a drum which was surmounted by a coffered dome. The latter was pierced by an oculus nine meters in diameter, which was the main source of illumination. Height and diameter were identical, 43.3 meters. The dome remained the largest in the world until the twentieth century. As was his custom, he replaced the original inscription of Agrippa on the architrave; seldom did he put his own name on a monument.
He also left his mark on almost every city and province to which he came. He paid particular attention to Athens, where he completed the great temple of Olympian Zeus, some six centuries after construction had begun, and made it the centerpiece of a new district of the city.
Hadrian's relationship with philosophers and other scholars was generally fractious. He often scorned their achievements while showing his own superiority. An anecdote about an argument which he had with the eminent philosopher and sophist Favorinus revealed the inequity of such disagreement. Although Favorinus was correct, he gave way to Hadrian, and when rebuked by friends, replied, "You advise me badly, friends, since you do not permit me to believe that he who commands thirty legions is the most learned of all."
Hadrian's literary taste inclined toward the archaic and the odd. He preferred Cato to Cicero, Ennius to Vergil, Coelius Antipater to Sallust, and disapproved of Homer and Plato as well. Indeed, the epic writer Antimachus of Colophon supplanted Homer in Hadrian's estimation. The biographer Suetonius held office under Hadrian but was discharged in 122 for disrespect to the empress. The historian Tacitus, who may have lived into Hadrian's reign, seems to have found no favor with the emperor.
His best known literary work is the short poem which he is said to have composed shortly before his death. These five lines have caused commentators much interpretative woe.
animula vagula blandula
hospes comesque corporis
quae nunc abibis in loca
pallidula rigida nudula
nec ut soles dabis iocos! (25.9)
"Little soul, wandering and pale, guest and companion of my body, you who will now go off to places pale, stiff, and barren, nor will you make jokes as has been your wont."
. . .
Reputation
Hadrian died invisus omnibus, according to the author of the Vita. But his deification placed him in the list of "good" emperors, a worthy successor to the optimus princes Trajan. Hadrian played a significant role both in developing the foreign policies of the empire and in its continuing centralization in administration. Few would disagree that he was one of the most remarkable men Rome ever produced, and that the empire was fortunate to have him as its head. When Aelius Aristides delivered his oration To Rome in 143, he had Hadrian's empire in mind when he said,
"But there is that which very decidedly deserves as much attention and admiration now as all the rest together. I mean your magnificent citizenship with its grand conception, because there is nothing like it in the records of all mankind. Dividing into two groups all those in your empire - and with this word I have indicated the entire civilized world - you have everywhere appointed to your citizenship, or even to kinship with you, the better part of the world's talent, courage, and leadership, while the rest you recognized as a league under your hegemony. Neither sea nor intervening continent are bars to citizenship, nor are Asia and Europe divided in their treatment here. In your empire all paths are open to all. No one worthy of rule or trust remains an alien, but a civil community of the World has been established as a Free Republic under one, the best, ruler and teacher of order; and all come together as into a common civic center, in order to receive each man his due.”
Scholarly work on the emperor, above all biographies, has been varied in quality. Much the best, as the most recent, is by A.R. Birley, who presents all that is known but underscores how much is conjecture, nay even guesswork. We still do not really know the man. An enigma he was to many while alive, and so he remains for us. Semper in omnibus varius; omnium curiositatum explorator; varius multiplex multiformis: these are descriptions of him from antiquity. They are still valid more than 1900 years after the emperor's death.
Copyright (C) 2000, Herbert W. Benario.
Published: De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families http://www.roman-emperors.org/startup.htm. Used by permission.
Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
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[904a] Antoninus Pius, August 138 - 7 March 161 A.D.Antoninus Pius, AD 138 to 161. Silver denarius. Sear-4053; gVF; Rome;16.4 x 17.9 mm, 3.61 g; issue of AD 138; Obverse : Head of Antoninus Pius right, with IMP T AEL CAES HADRI ANTONINVS around; Reverse : Aequitas standing left, holding scales and a cornucopiae, with AVG PIVS P M TR P COS DES II around. This is an interesting part of the Antoninus Pius series, struck in the first year of his reign, using his adoptive name of Hadrianus, and with the reverse inscription a continuation from the obverse.
De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families
Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161)
Richard D. Weigel
Western Kentucky University
Introduction
The long reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius is often described as a period of peace and quiet before the storm which followed and plagued his successor, Marcus Aurelius. In addition to the relative peacefulness, this emperor set the tone for a low-keyed imperial administration which differed markedly from those of his two immediate predecessors, Trajan and Hadrian. Antoninus managed to govern the empire capably and yet with such a gentle hand that he earned the respect, acclaim, and love of his subjects.
Early Life
The future emperor was born T. Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus on September 19, A.D. 86 at Lanuvium, an old Latin city southeast of Rome. His father's family had originally migrated to Rome from Nemausus (Nîmes) in Narbonese Gaul, but his paternal grandfather, T. Aurelius Fulvus, had served twice as Roman consul and also as city prefect and his father, Aurelius Fulvus, also held the consulship. The future emperor's mother was Arria Fadilla and her father, Arrius Antoninus, had also been consul twice. Young Antoninus was raised at Lorium, on the via Aurelia, where he later built a palace.
Career Under Hadrian
Very little is known about Antoninus' life before he became emperor. The brief biography in the Scriptores Historiae Augustae credited to Julius Capitolinus refers to his services as quaestor, praetor, and consul and P. von Rohden's entry in Pauly-Wissowa dates his tenure of these offices to A.D. 112, 117, and 120 respectively. At some point between A.D. 110 and 115, Antoninus married Annia Galeria Faustina, the daughter of M. Annius Verus. Hadrian later appointed Antoninus as one of his consular administrators of Italy and between A.D. 130 and 135 Antoninus served as proconsul of Asia.
Antoninus had achieved a distinguished career under Hadrian. and could have retired from imperial service with great pride, but events in A.D. 138 changed Antoninus' future quite radically. Early in the year, the death of Aelius Verus, whom Hadrian had previously adopted and named Caesar, opened a new path. Hadrian met with the Senate and announced his decision to adopt Antoninus as his son and heir and to share both proconsular and tribunician power with him. After giving this offer careful thought, Antoninus accepted and agreed in return to adopt as his heirs his wife's nephew, M. Antoninus, the future Marcus Aurelius, and L. Verus, the son of Aelius Verus.
Imperial Reign
When Hadrian died in the following summer, Antoninus oversaw the conveyance of his body from Baiae to Rome for interment in the new imperial tomb (now Castel Sant' Angelo). To honor his adoptive father, Antoninus set up a magnificent shield, established a priesthood, and, against serious opposition in the Senate, requested and bargained for senatorial confirmation of Hadrian's deification. Antoninus' devotion to Hadrian's memory is one of the reasons cited for the Senate's bestowal upon the new emperor of the name "pius". After initially refusing the Senate's recognition of Antoninus as "pater patriae", the new emperor accepted the honor with thanks. He declined, however, the Senate's decree authorizing the renaming of the months of September and October after the new emperor and empress. The Senate did honor the new empress with the title of "Augusta". On her death only a few years later in A.D. 141, the Senate deified Faustina and voted her a temple and priestesses. In memory of his wife, Antoninus also instituted an alimentary program, similar to those of his immediate predecessors, which combined loans to Italian farmers with funds, generated by interest on those loans, set aside for the care of orphaned girls. On coins these orphans are designated as puellae Faustinianae.
Antoninus returned all of Italy's share of the aurum coronarium, the money raised in honor of his accession, and one-half of that contributed from the provinces. His economic policy in general was relatively conservative and avoided luxurious waste while supporting public works of practical application. His procurators were told to keep provincial tribute reasonable and they were held accountable for exceeding fixed bounds. The provinces in general prospered under his administration and the use of informers was ended. Julius Capitolinus summarizes the excellence of Antoninus' administration when he says: "With such care did he govern all peoples under him that he looked after all things and all men as if they were his own." In spite of his caution in raising imperial revenues, however, Antoninus provided regular gifts of money to the people and to the soldiers and produced spectacular public games with a great variety of animals on display. The emperor also used his own funds to distribute oil, grain, and wine free in a time of famine and helped relieve the devastation caused in Rome by fire, flood, and a collapse of stands in the Circus Maximus and by fires and earthquakes in the provinces.
Although the reigns of his two immediate predecessors, Trajan and Hadrian, had seen prolific building activity in Rome and throughout the empire, Antoninus chose to be less lavish in his public works projects. He felt an obligation to complete work begun or promised by Hadrian. Antoninus completed the Mausoleum of Hadrian along the Tiber and built the temples of the Divine Hadrian in the Campus Martius and of Faustina in the Forum. He also restored the oldest bridge in Rome, the Pons Sublicius, the Graecostadium, and the Colosseum. He may even have put some finishing touches on the Pantheon because Julius Capitolinus mentions restoration of a templum Agrippae, but the text may be corrupt and the temple of the Divine Augustus, the restoration of which is recorded on some of Antoninus' coins, may be the intended reference here. Outside Rome, Antoninus repaired several roads and renovated ports in Alexandria, Caieta, and Terracina, a bath at Ostia, an aqueduct at Antium, and the temples in his birthplace, Lanuvium.
Although some sources suggest that Antoninus went in person to Egypt and Syria to put down a revolt of peoples along the Red Sea, Julius Capitolinus says that Antoninus made his home in Rome where he could receive messages from all parts of the empire equally quickly . He also states that to avoid burdening the provinces with the expenses of housing an emperor and his associates Antoninus took expeditions out of Rome only to his estates in Campania. If correct, these actions marked a decided break with the visibility of his two predecessors in the provinces and recreated a more Rome- and Italy-centered empire. Wilhelm Weber commented on this policy: "As if, perhaps, in criticism of Hadrian's conception of his task, he sat like a beneficent spider at the centre of his web, power radiating steadily from him to the farthest bounds of the empire and as steadily returning to him again. For the last time in Imperial history the Emperor was wholly one with Rome and its centralization."
During his third consulship (A.D. 140-144), Antoninus issued a series of unusual coins and medallions which featured entirely new or modified religious/mythological images. Jocelyn Toynbee correctly pointed out that these types were issued to prepare for the celebration of Rome's nine hundredth birthday in A.D. 147/148 and she also discussed two images which represent the emperor's reaction against Hadrian's "cosmopolitanism" and his attempt to restore Rome and Italy to a superior position over the provinces. This unusual series, issued especially in bronze, commemorated Rome's connection to her distant roots from Trojans, Latins, and Sabines and honored gods who had protected the city in the past. Themes associated with Aeneas, Romulus, Numa Pompilius, and Augustus by implication tied in Antoninus as successor to these four model Roman leaders. Although the death of Faustina may have motivated Antoninus' display of public piety to some degree on these coins and medallions, the series also set the tone for the games and rituals of the birthday celebration in 147/148, renewed religious values, and restored Rome's proper relationship with protective gods who had brought the city past success both in war and in peace. Another series of coins, the "anonymous quadrantes", combines a portrait of a god or goddess on the obverse with a reverse symbol of an animal associated with the same deity. The absence of an imperial portrait or any inscription aside from the S.C. authorization of the Senate makes it especially difficult to date this series. However, the similarity of the Jupiter and Venus portraits to images of Antoninus and Faustina and other links to Antoninus' coin-types make it probable that several of these types were issued in Antoninus' reign, perhaps again in connection with Rome's birthday celebration in A.D. 147/148.
Although Antoninus' reign was generally peaceful, Capitolinus says that he fought wars, through legates, against the Britons, Moors, Germans, Dacians, and the Alans and suppressed revolts in Achaea, in Egypt, and among the Jews. The war in Britain was fought around A.D. 142 against the Brigantes and led to the construction of the Antonine Wall across the island as a second line of defense north of Hadrian's Wall. In foreign relations, the emperor's authority was respected among peoples bordering on the empire. Antoninus approved the appointment of kings for the Armenians, for the Lazi, and for the Quadi and he successfully prevented a Parthian attack on Armenia by sending the Parthian king a letter of warning.
Antoninus did continue his predecessor's interest in law and his imperial legislation is cited frequently in Justinian's Digest. Several lawyers served in the emperor's consilium and presumably advised him on legal matters. Antoninus' legislation included protections for slaves, freedmen, and for illegitimate children and further defined family and inheritance law, including consideration of a daughter's wishes in marriage arrangements.
In preparation for the succession, Antoninus' daughter Faustina married Marcus Aurelius in A.D. 145 and she soon became Augusta in place of her deceased mother. Marcus Aurelius was associated in imperial powers and he and L. Verus both held the consulship multiple times in preparation for their accession. Antoninus made sure that he would leave the Empire secure and in sound financial condition and his adopted sons inherited a large surplus (reportedly 675 million denarii) in the Treasury .
Antoninus Pius died in March of A.D. 161, after giving the appropriate imperial watchword which so typified his reign, "equanimity". He was soon afterward deified by the Senate. His adopted sons and successors, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, erected a column of red granite in his honor in the Campus Martius. The marble base for this column, which is preserved in the Vatican, includes a sculpted image of the apotheosis of Antoninus and Faustina. In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius expressed his enduring love and respect for his adoptive father: "Do all things as a disciple of Antoninus. Think of his constancy in every act rationally undertaken, his invariable equability, his piety, his serenity of countenance, his sweetness of disposition, his contempt for the bubble of fame, and his zeal for getting a true grasp of affairs." In many ways Antoninus Pius was a model emperor who justifiably earned comparison with his own model, Numa Pompilius, and provided the Empire with a period of fortune, religious piety, and security perhaps unmatched in imperial annals.
Copyright (C) 1998, Richard D. Weigel.
Published: De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families http://www.roman-emperors.org/startup.htm. Used by permission.
Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
Cleisthenes
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[904z] Antoninus Pius, August 138 - 7 March 161 A.D.Antoninus Pius, August 138 - 7 March 161 A.D. Silver denarius, RIC 232, RSC 271, F, Rome, 1.699g, 17.3mm, 0o, 153 - 154 A.D. Obverse: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XVII, laureate head right; Reverse: COS IIII, Fortuna standing right, cornucopia in left, long rudder on globe in right.
De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families
Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161)
Richard D. Weigel
Western Kentucky University
Introduction
The long reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius is often described as a period of peace and quiet before the storm which followed and plagued his successor, Marcus Aurelius. In addition to the relative peacefulness, this emperor set the tone for a low-keyed imperial administration which differed markedly from those of his two immediate predecessors, Trajan and Hadrian. Antoninus managed to govern the empire capably and yet with such a gentle hand that he earned the respect, acclaim, and love of his subjects.
Early Life
The future emperor was born T. Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus on September 19, A.D. 86 at Lanuvium, an old Latin city southeast of Rome. His father's family had originally migrated to Rome from Nemausus (Nîmes) in Narbonese Gaul, but his paternal grandfather, T. Aurelius Fulvus, had served twice as Roman consul and also as city prefect and his father, Aurelius Fulvus, also held the consulship. The future emperor's mother was Arria Fadilla and her father, Arrius Antoninus, had also been consul twice. Young Antoninus was raised at Lorium, on the via Aurelia, where he later built a palace.
Career Under Hadrian
Very little is known about Antoninus' life before he became emperor. The brief biography in the Scriptores Historiae Augustae credited to Julius Capitolinus refers to his services as quaestor, praetor, and consul and P. von Rohden's entry in Pauly-Wissowa dates his tenure of these offices to A.D. 112, 117, and 120 respectively. At some point between A.D. 110 and 115, Antoninus married Annia Galeria Faustina, the daughter of M. Annius Verus. Hadrian later appointed Antoninus as one of his consular administrators of Italy and between A.D. 130 and 135 Antoninus served as proconsul of Asia.
Antoninus had achieved a distinguished career under Hadrian. and could have retired from imperial service with great pride, but events in A.D. 138 changed Antoninus' future quite radically. Early in the year, the death of Aelius Verus, whom Hadrian had previously adopted and named Caesar, opened a new path. Hadrian met with the Senate and announced his decision to adopt Antoninus as his son and heir and to share both proconsular and tribunician power with him. After giving this offer careful thought, Antoninus accepted and agreed in return to adopt as his heirs his wife's nephew, M. Antoninus, the future Marcus Aurelius, and L. Verus, the son of Aelius Verus.
Imperial Reign
When Hadrian died in the following summer, Antoninus oversaw the conveyance of his body from Baiae to Rome for interment in the new imperial tomb (now Castel Sant' Angelo). To honor his adoptive father, Antoninus set up a magnificent shield, established a priesthood, and, against serious opposition in the Senate, requested and bargained for senatorial confirmation of Hadrian's deification. Antoninus' devotion to Hadrian's memory is one of the reasons cited for the Senate's bestowal upon the new emperor of the name "pius". After initially refusing the Senate's recognition of Antoninus as "pater patriae", the new emperor accepted the honor with thanks. He declined, however, the Senate's decree authorizing the renaming of the months of September and October after the new emperor and empress. The Senate did honor the new empress with the title of "Augusta". On her death only a few years later in A.D. 141, the Senate deified Faustina and voted her a temple and priestesses. In memory of his wife, Antoninus also instituted an alimentary program, similar to those of his immediate predecessors, which combined loans to Italian farmers with funds, generated by interest on those loans, set aside for the care of orphaned girls. On coins these orphans are designated as puellae Faustinianae.
Antoninus returned all of Italy's share of the aurum coronarium, the money raised in honor of his accession, and one-half of that contributed from the provinces. His economic policy in general was relatively conservative and avoided luxurious waste while supporting public works of practical application. His procurators were told to keep provincial tribute reasonable and they were held accountable for exceeding fixed bounds. The provinces in general prospered under his administration and the use of informers was ended. Julius Capitolinus summarizes the excellence of Antoninus' administration when he says: "With such care did he govern all peoples under him that he looked after all things and all men as if they were his own." In spite of his caution in raising imperial revenues, however, Antoninus provided regular gifts of money to the people and to the soldiers and produced spectacular public games with a great variety of animals on display. The emperor also used his own funds to distribute oil, grain, and wine free in a time of famine and helped relieve the devastation caused in Rome by fire, flood, and a collapse of stands in the Circus Maximus and by fires and earthquakes in the provinces.
Although the reigns of his two immediate predecessors, Trajan and Hadrian, had seen prolific building activity in Rome and throughout the empire, Antoninus chose to be less lavish in his public works projects. He felt an obligation to complete work begun or promised by Hadrian. Antoninus completed the Mausoleum of Hadrian along the Tiber and built the temples of the Divine Hadrian in the Campus Martius and of Faustina in the Forum. He also restored the oldest bridge in Rome, the Pons Sublicius, the Graecostadium, and the Colosseum. He may even have put some finishing touches on the Pantheon because Julius Capitolinus mentions restoration of a templum Agrippae, but the text may be corrupt and the temple of the Divine Augustus, the restoration of which is recorded on some of Antoninus' coins, may be the intended reference here. Outside Rome, Antoninus repaired several roads and renovated ports in Alexandria, Caieta, and Terracina, a bath at Ostia, an aqueduct at Antium, and the temples in his birthplace, Lanuvium.
Although some sources suggest that Antoninus went in person to Egypt and Syria to put down a revolt of peoples along the Red Sea, Julius Capitolinus says that Antoninus made his home in Rome where he could receive messages from all parts of the empire equally quickly . He also states that to avoid burdening the provinces with the expenses of housing an emperor and his associates Antoninus took expeditions out of Rome only to his estates in Campania. If correct, these actions marked a decided break with the visibility of his two predecessors in the provinces and recreated a more Rome- and Italy-centered empire. Wilhelm Weber commented on this policy: "As if, perhaps, in criticism of Hadrian's conception of his task, he sat like a beneficent spider at the centre of his web, power radiating steadily from him to the farthest bounds of the empire and as steadily returning to him again. For the last time in Imperial history the Emperor was wholly one with Rome and its centralization."
During his third consulship (A.D. 140-144), Antoninus issued a series of unusual coins and medallions which featured entirely new or modified religious/mythological images. Jocelyn Toynbee correctly pointed out that these types were issued to prepare for the celebration of Rome's nine hundredth birthday in A.D. 147/148 and she also discussed two images which represent the emperor's reaction against Hadrian's "cosmopolitanism" and his attempt to restore Rome and Italy to a superior position over the provinces. This unusual series, issued especially in bronze, commemorated Rome's connection to her distant roots from Trojans, Latins, and Sabines and honored gods who had protected the city in the past. Themes associated with Aeneas, Romulus, Numa Pompilius, and Augustus by implication tied in Antoninus as successor to these four model Roman leaders. Although the death of Faustina may have motivated Antoninus' display of public piety to some degree on these coins and medallions, the series also set the tone for the games and rituals of the birthday celebration in 147/148, renewed religious values, and restored Rome's proper relationship with protective gods who had brought the city past success both in war and in peace. Another series of coins, the "anonymous quadrantes", combines a portrait of a god or goddess on the obverse with a reverse symbol of an animal associated with the same deity. The absence of an imperial portrait or any inscription aside from the S.C. authorization of the Senate makes it especially difficult to date this series. However, the similarity of the Jupiter and Venus portraits to images of Antoninus and Faustina and other links to Antoninus' coin-types make it probable that several of these types were issued in Antoninus' reign, perhaps again in connection with Rome's birthday celebration in A.D. 147/148.
Although Antoninus' reign was generally peaceful, Capitolinus says that he fought wars, through legates, against the Britons, Moors, Germans, Dacians, and the Alans and suppressed revolts in Achaea, in Egypt, and among the Jews. The war in Britain was fought around A.D. 142 against the Brigantes and led to the construction of the Antonine Wall across the island as a second line of defense north of Hadrian's Wall. In foreign relations, the emperor's authority was respected among peoples bordering on the empire. Antoninus approved the appointment of kings for the Armenians, for the Lazi, and for the Quadi and he successfully prevented a Parthian attack on Armenia by sending the Parthian king a letter of warning.
Antoninus did continue his predecessor's interest in law and his imperial legislation is cited frequently in Justinian's Digest. Several lawyers served in the emperor's consilium and presumably advised him on legal matters. Antoninus' legislation included protections for slaves, freedmen, and for illegitimate children and further defined family and inheritance law, including consideration of a daughter's wishes in marriage arrangements.
In preparation for the succession, Antoninus' daughter Faustina married Marcus Aurelius in A.D. 145 and she soon became Augusta in place of her deceased mother. Marcus Aurelius was associated in imperial powers and he and L. Verus both held the consulship multiple times in preparation for their accession. Antoninus made sure that he would leave the Empire secure and in sound financial condition and his adopted sons inherited a large surplus (reportedly 675 million denarii) in the Treasury .
Antoninus Pius died in March of A.D. 161, after giving the appropriate imperial watchword which so typified his reign, "equanimity". He was soon afterward deified by the Senate. His adopted sons and successors, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, erected a column of red granite in his honor in the Campus Martius. The marble base for this column, which is preserved in the Vatican, includes a sculpted image of the apotheosis of Antoninus and Faustina. In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius expressed his enduring love and respect for his adoptive father: "Do all things as a disciple of Antoninus. Think of his constancy in every act rationally undertaken, his invariable equability, his piety, his serenity of countenance, his sweetness of disposition, his contempt for the bubble of fame, and his zeal for getting a true grasp of affairs." In many ways Antoninus Pius was a model emperor who justifiably earned comparison with his own model, Numa Pompilius, and provided the Empire with a period of fortune, religious piety, and security perhaps unmatched in imperial annals.
Copyright (C) 1998, Richard D. Weigel.
Published: De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families http://www.roman-emperors.org/startup.htm. Used by permission.
Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
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