The Buildings and the Images of
the Imperial Cult
X The Antonines
Antoninus Pius (86 – 161)
- married Faustina the Elder, had 4 children, 3
died, Faustina the Younger survived
- adopted Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus
Cult:
- deified Hadrian - difficult
- own cult – not expressed
- after his death – deified
Lucius Verus (130 – 169 AD)
-a co-ruler with Marcus Aurelius (adopted by
Antoninus Pius)
-much time abroad
- married Lucilla
- deified by the Roman Senate after death
Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180)
- married Faustina the Younger (his adopted
sister)
- at least 13 children, one of them Commodus
- not interested in the cult
- a little about Marcus’ cult in his writings
Commodus (161 – 192)
- married Bruttia Crispina, no children
- Saoterus, Cleander
- a sole ruler
- Roman Hercules
- wanted to show his “divine powers” in the
amphitheatre
Funeral and apotheosis
- two funerals:
a) private
b) public
- what caused this change?
Death
Private burial
(cremation or inhumation)
Divine honors
awarded by the Senate
(cremation or inhumation)
Public burial Symbolic apotheosis
– eagle released from the pyre
ROMEROME
The Column of Antoninus Pius
- Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus for Antoninus Pius and Faustina
- red granite column and a marble base
- location
- two panels – decursio
- dedicatory inscription
The Column of Antoninus Pius - apotheosis
- classicizing style
The temple of Antoninus and Faustina
- north of the Regia
- an inscription:
Divo Antonino et / Divae Faustinae ex S(enatus) c(onsulto)
- the temple
- the cella
- statues
- grooves
- the central column on the left
Commodus as Hercules
- on the Esquiline (1874)
- a portrait type known from about 12 other
copies – 191 – 192 AD
- bare chest including arms and hands
- an Amazon pelta, cornucopiae and an orb
- kneeling Amazon
- Herculanean subject
- meaning – victory
- the bust originally flanked by 2 tritons
- original position – not known
PROVINCESPROVINCES
Characteristics:
- about 35 cities – neokoroi for the temples of emperors (11 temples known from its ruins)
Temples
Statues
Koinon
- association of cities
- several koina within one province
- an association to govern the cult of emperors
- concilia- concilia
Officials:
- chief priest – agonothetes, hierophantes, or “the chief priest of ….”
- hymmodoi
- theologoi
- thesmodoi
- grammateis
- neopoioi
Laodikeia
Sagalassos
Sardis, Lydia
Laodikeia, Phrygia (Lydia or Caria?)
Amaseia, Pontus
Sagalassos, Pisidia
Nikomedia, Bithynia
Sardis – The temple of Artemis
-Antoninus Pius
- in the the temple of Artemis
- 3 male and 3 female colossal statues
- Artemis and the Antonines
The temple
The statues:
Antoninus Pius
Faustina the Elder
Marcus Aurelius
Faustina the Younger
Lucius Verus (or Commodus?)
organization:
- scale differs, seated and standing
1. male statues and female statues – separated
2. male and female statues in pairs
Lucilla
Sagalassos (Pisidia)
- excavation campaigns 2003-2004, Belgium, Turkey
- the temple of divine Hadrian and Antoninus Pius
- the temple, a large temenos, propylon
- paved courtyard
- pronaos almost as deep as the cella
Amaseia (Pontus)
- Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus - concord
- capital of Pontic kingdom
Laodikeia (Phrygia)
- Commodus made Laodikeia neokoros-
inscriptions
-the same reason as Nikomedia – but
through Cleander
Nikomedia (Bithynia)
- Saoteros of Nikomedia (180 – 182), Commodus’ chamberlain – very influential
- Saoteros (officially Commodus and the Senate) gave the right to build a temple of Commodus
(Cassius Dio), withdrew at Saoteros’ fall
- citizens asked for festival and the temple (soon cancelled)
- no sign it was ever celebrated, the temple was built but later used as the temple of the
imperial cult, not the temple of Commodus
through Cleander
- early in his reign, but damnatio
memoraie
- rehabilitated by Septimius Severus
(festivals) and Caracalla (neokoria)
- 1993 – 1999 – a survey – large
colonnaded temenos near the city’s
eastern gate
- low podium at the back wall –
monumental building
- probably a temple with spiral-fluted columns set on square bases (no excavations done there)
- only measures – the temple 30 x 65 m, mid. 2nd c. AD (unsure until the excavations)
- how many times neokoros? – Commodus, Caracalla, Elagabalus
The Great Antonine Altar at Ephesus
- location: ancient Ephesus
- now in Vienna
- date: highly controversial
140 – to glorify Hadrian
169 – death of Lucius Verus
- U-shaped altar based on Hellenistic
prototypes
- slabs
- the order – numbers, chronology
- styles: motionless, active
- two decorated podia
Topics:
1. Lucius Verus – adoption
2. Campaign in Parthia in 163 – 166 AD
3. Apotheosis of Lucius Verus
4. Divine sphere
1. Lucius Verus – adoption
- Sabina, Faustina the Elder
- near the adoption scene – sacrifice
2. Parthian campaign
personifications of cities of the empire
3. Apotheosis
4. Divine sphere