Cultural depictions of Augustus

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Augustus of Prima Porta, one of the best-preserved examples of a standard type of official portrait

Caesar

Roman Emperors
. As such, he has frequently been depicted in literature and art since ancient times.

In many of these works, Augustus appears as the main character, but he also frequently features as a supporting character in depictions of prominent contemporaries, most notably in those of his

history by several different names, however he is most commonly referred to as either Octavian, Caesar or Augustus in popular culture, depending on the stage of his life that is being depicted.[1]

Augustus' most visible impact on everyday culture is the eighth month of the year, which, having been previously known as Sextilis, was renamed in Augustus' honor in 8 BC because several of the most significant events in his rise to power, culminating in the fall of Alexandria, occurred during this month.[2] Commonly repeated lore has it that August has thirty-one days because Augustus wanted his month to match the length of Julius Caesar's July, but this is an invention of the thirteenth-century scholar Johannes de Sacrobosco. Sextilis in fact had thirty-one days before it was renamed, and it was not chosen for its length.[3][4]

Roman sculpture

See also: Augustan and Julio-Claudian art

Augustus was one of the most widely depicted individuals in ancient times,[5] appearing in coins, sculptures, cameos, plaques, and other media (no contemporary paintings of him survive, though many no doubt existed). Numerous arches and temples were dedicated to Augustus both during his lifetime and after his death, as the Roman imperial cult developed during his reign. His images were clearly controlled by the state, and consistently show a serene figure, who never shows signs of approaching old age, even in images dated to the last years before his death aged 75.

His dominant portrait, introduced in 27 BC to visually express the title

Pontifex Maximus
.

D. Boschung

Divi Filius; Smith describes it as "a youthful portrait with thick hair and probably some expression of vigour and energy".[7] Different scholars have argued whether the Forbes type, "with distinctive short forehead hair," preceded or followed the Prima Porta type.[10]

Cameos

There is a small group of spectacular imperial engraved gems, cameos carved in contrasting colours of stone. These are sometimes called "State Cameos",[11] that presumably originated, and were probably only seen, in the inner court circle of Augustus, as they show him with divine attributes that were still politically sensitive, and in some cases have sexual aspects that would not have been exposed to a wider audience.[12]

These include the Gemma Augustea in Vienna (which also has the Gemma Claudia showing the Emperor Claudius and his brother with their wives), the Great Cameo of France in Paris, the Blacas Cameo in the British Museum, and the portrait now re-used in the Cross of Lothair. The existence of a "State workshop" producing these gems has been inferred, probably staffed by artists of Greek origin.[13] Unlike larger sculpted portraits, these seem to have remained above ground since antiquity.

  • Augustus of Prima Porta
    Augustus of Prima Porta
  • Meroë Head, dated to 30–25 BCE[14]
    Meroë Head, dated to 30–25 BCE[14]
  • Portrait of the dominant ('Prima Porta') type[6]
    Portrait of the dominant ('Prima Porta') type[6]
  • Augustus on the altar to Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste, based on the 'Alcúdia' or 'Actium' type but showing greater age[7]
    Augustus on the altar to Fortuna Primigenia at
    Praeneste, based on the 'Alcúdia' or 'Actium' type but showing greater age[7]
  • Portrait of the 'Forbes' type (Louvre MA 1280)[15]
    Portrait of the 'Forbes' type (Louvre MA 1280)[15]
  • Bust of Augustus in Spoleto, one of the two examples of the 'Béziers-Spoleto' portrait type[9]
    Bust of Augustus in Spoleto, one of the two examples of the 'Béziers-Spoleto' portrait type[9]
  • Augustus in the Villa Chiragan. This portrait is based on the Alcúdia and Prima Porta types but shows greater age[7]
    Augustus in the Villa Chiragan. This portrait is based on the Alcúdia and Prima Porta types but shows greater age[7]
  • Augustus, then named Caesar Divi Filius, in 36 BCE; his beard symbolizes that he is in mourning[16]
    Augustus, then named Caesar
    Divi Filius, in 36 BCE; his beard symbolizes that he is in mourning[16]
  • Egyptianized statue of Augustus. Roman Period. State Museum of Egyptian Art, Munich
    Egyptianized statue of Augustus. Roman Period. State Museum of Egyptian Art, Munich
  • Head of Augustus from Bergama, in modern-day Turkey. Museum of Archaeology, Istanbul
    Head of Augustus from Bergama, in modern-day Turkey. Museum of Archaeology, Istanbul
  • The Via Labicana statue of Augustus, closeup
    The Via Labicana statue of Augustus, closeup
  • The Blacas Cameo, dated from shortly after his death in 14 AD, British Museum
    The Blacas Cameo, dated from shortly after his death in 14 AD, British Museum
  • The Gemma Augustea in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
    The Gemma Augustea in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
  • The Great Cameo of France
    The Great Cameo of France

Literature

Augustan

Main articles: Augustan literature (ancient Rome) and Gaius Maecenas
Manuscript of Virgil's masterpiece, the Aeneid, circa 1470, Cristoforo Majorana

In

Golden Age of Latin literature, a period of stylistic classicism.[17]

In the wars following Julius Caesar's assassination, a generation of Republican literary figures was lost. Cicero and his contemporaries were replaced by a new generation who spent their formative years under the old constructs and were forced to make their mark under the watchful eye of a new emperor and his quasi-culture minister, Gaius Maecenas, who was a prolific patron of the arts. The demand for great orators had ceased,[18] shifting to an emphasis on poetry. Other than the historian Livy, the most remarkable writers of the period were the poets Virgil, Horace, and Ovid.

Augustan literature produced the most widely read, influential, and enduring of Rome's poets. Although Virgil has sometimes been considered a "court poet", his

monumental history of Livy is preeminent for both its scope and stylistic achievement. The multi-volume work On Architecture by Vitruvius also remains of great informational interest.[19]

In 1737, British writer Alexander Pope, who had been imitating Horace, wrote an Epistle to Augustus that was in fact addressed to George II of Great Britain and seemingly endorsed the notion of his age being like that of Augustus, when poetry became more mannered, political and satirical than in the era of Julius Caesar.[20] Later, Voltaire and Oliver Goldsmith (in his History of Literature in 1764) used the term "Augustan" to refer to the poetry and literature of the 1720s and the 1730s in Britain.[21]

Biblical

  • In the
    King David
    , who was born in Bethlehem, and, as such, Joseph was required to register his family in Bethlehem.
  • The
    Render unto Caesar..." speech, is usually thought to be a Roman denarius with the head of Tiberius, Augustus' successor.[23] The inscription reads "Ti[berivs] Caesar Divi Avg[vsti] F[ilivs] Avgvstvs" ("Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus"), claiming that after death Augustus had become a god. However, it has been suggested by some scholars that denarii were not in common circulation in Judaea during Jesus' lifetime and that the coin was more probably an Antiochan tetradrachm bearing the head of Tiberius, with Augustus on the reverse.[24] Another suggestion often made is the denarius of Augustus with Gaius and Lucius on the reverse, while coins of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Germanicus are all considered possibilities.[25]

Medieval

A page from a fifteenth-century Middle English manuscript of Octavian, found in the British Library
  • In the Golden Legend, among other works from the Middle Ages, a legendary meeting between Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl is recounted. According to the story, Augustus inquires of the Sibyl whether he should be worshipped as a god. In response, the Sibyl reveals to Augustus a vision of the Virgin and the Christ Child, who will eclipse all Roman gods.[26][27]
  • Augustus is mentioned several times in Dante Alighieri's epic poem, the Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321):
    • He is called "the good Augustus" by Virgil, a Roman poet of the Augustan period, who appears as the author's guide through Hell and Purgatory. Inf. I, 71.
    • Augustus is said to have taken charge of Virgil's physical and literary remains after his death. "My bones were buried by Octavian." Purg. VII, 6.
    • His triumphant chariot is compared to the chariot in the
      Pageant of the Church Triumphant
      . Purg. XXIX, 116.
  • Augustus (as Octavian) appears in two of Geoffrey Chaucer's fourteenth-century works: The Book of the Duchess and The Legend of Good Women.
  • Augustus (as
    romance of the same name by an unknown author.[28] The story describes a trauma that unfolds in the household of Octavian, whose own mother deceives him into sending his wife and his two newborn sons into exile and likely death. After many adventures, the family are at last reunited and the guilty mother is appropriately punished.[29][30]
Augustus and the Sibyl, by Antoine Caron, Louvre

Modern

Augustus listening to the reading of The Aeneid by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1812, later reworked). Over the course of 53 years, Ingres revisited this scene from antiquity in over 100 drawings and watercolours and three oil paintings.

Later art

The Age of Augustus, the Birth of Christ, c. 1852–1854, Musée de Picardie

Temples and monuments

The Romans celebrated Augustus on a variety of honorific monuments; he was also worshipped as a divine or semi-divine figure in temples in many parts of the Roman Empire.[34]

The Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome was long a neglected and ruined structure, buried beneath a hill. It has been excavated in recent years. It formed part of a large garden complex, with other buildings including the Ara Pacis.

Theater

The first page of Antony and Cleopatra from the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623

Opera

Film

Original theatrical release poster of the 1963 film Cleopatra

Portrayals of Octavian/Augustus in film:

Television

Radio

Military

Postcard of the MS Augustus (1950)

Video games

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Ronald Syme, "Imperator Caesar: A Study in Nomenclature", Historia, vol. 7, no. 2 (Apr. 1958), pp. 176, 179, 181–183, 185
  2. Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12.35
    .
  3. Bibcode:1919PA.....27..579P
    . Sacrobosco's theory is discussed on pages 585–587.
  4. ISBN 9780198799559
    .
  5. ^ Goldsworthy (2014), p. 256.
  6. ^ a b Smith (1996), p. 38.
  7. ^ a b c d Smith (1996), p. 46.
  8. ISBN 3786116954
    .
  9. ^ a b c Smith (1996), p. 39.
  10. ^ Smith (1996), pp. 38–39.
  11. ^ As by Henig, 156
  12. ^ Highlights; Williams, 296
  13. ^ Henig, 155-157; Strong, 93-94; Boardman, 274
  14. ^ Smith (1996), p. 40.
  15. ^ Smith (1996), p. 37.
  16. ^ Goldsworthy (2014).
  17. ^ Fergus Millar, "Ovid and the Domus Augusta: Rome Seen from Tomoi," Journal of Roman Studies 83 (1993), p. 6.
  18. ^ Teuffel 1873, p. 385, "Public life became extinct, all political business passed into the hands of the monarch..."
  19. ^ a b Joseph Farrell, "The Augustan Period: 40 BC–AD 14," in A Companion to Latin Literature (Blackwell, 2005), pp. 44–57.
  20. ^ Thornton 275)
  21. ^ Newman and Brown 32
  22. ^ Lk. 2:1
  23. ^ Akerman, John Y. (1855). The Numismatic Chronicle. Vol. 17. Royal Numismatic Society. p. 52.
  24. ISBN 1-86254-562-6
    .
  25. ^ Michael E. Marotta (2001). "Six Caesars of the Tribute Penny". Archived from the original on 12 October 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  26. ^ Hall, 282; Murrays, 41
  27. ^ "The Tiburtine Sibyl Showing the Virgin and Child to Augustus | RISD Museum".
  28. ^ Hudson, Harriet (Ed). 1996. Four Middle English Romances. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Western Michigan University for TEAMS.
  29. ^ Hudson, Harriet (Ed). 1996.
  30. ^ Mills, Maldwyn (Ed). 1972.
  31. ^ "The Shards of Heaven by Michael Livingston". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  32. ^ "Review: The Shards of Heaven by Michael Livingston". Kirkus Reviews. 3 September 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  33. ^ "Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus, Livia, and Octavia". Retrieved 20 July 2021.
  34. ISBN 0-691-05890-3
    .
  35. ^ Ivo van Hove, interview in The Globe and Mail, 27 May 2010, p. R2.
  36. ^ "Augustus Caesar (Character) from Rome (2005)," The Internet Movie Database.
  37. ^ "Life of Caesar Podcast" Accessed 2 September 2015

References

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