6.2 Identity and Power in Rome
Despite the transition from Republic to Principate, the transformation of the Roman state did not reflect in a massive institutional change: while losing in importance, the Senate was never abolished and the same titles and functions (the consulate, the pontificate and so on) were gradually hollowed of their role or simply assumed by the emperor himself.
The relationship between the emperor and his subjects varied over the centuries, with some emperors promoting a relatively collaborative relationship with the Senate and others attempting a more authoritarian approach to Government. But one element that never changed in imperial policy was the huge investment in promoting the image of the emperor as the legitimate ruler, destined to rule thanks to his divine ascendance and to his ability to guarantee the never-ending expansion of the Roman empire, the complete subjugation of Rome’s enemies and the provision of food and entertainment to the masses of Rome.
EPQ Suggested Questions
In your EPQ project you may want to focus on one of the following questions:
- What is propaganda? And how far can the modern notion of propaganda be applied to the ancient world?
- How far can literary evidence and material culture help our understanding of the role imperial propaganda in the Roman era?
- How far were images important in Roman expression of power? You can look at different categories of objects, such as coins, sculpture, paintings and look at their different role in different contexts (religious, political, funerary, domestic, private and public)
Sources
Sources: the nature of Roman power
- Polybius, The Histories The nature of the Roman state
- Cicero, De Re Publica Concept of authority, the notion of justice, incl. bellum iustum
- Livy, The Histories Notion of aternitas imperii (see also Vergil)
- The nature of imperial power seen by Greeks
- Tacitus, Agricola 30-34; Germania The point of view of subjugated people
Sources: the nature of the emperor’s power
- Plutarch, Lives, on the relationship between the emperor and his subjects
- Seneca, De Clementia, a vision of the principate under Nero
- Tacitus, Histories, 69 AD (the period of the 4 emperors), on the role of the army in electing the emperor
- Tacitus, Annals. Dialogue of Cato, on the nature of monarchy as tyrannical power
- Cassio Dio, Roman histories, Book 52 (Dialogue between Agrippa and Maecenas), on the role of imperial power in the Severan period
- Eusebius of Caesarea, Triakontaeterikos, on imperial power as divine power in Constantinian period
- Look out for the Lex de Imperio Vespasiani and its role in defining the authority and the role of the emperor.
Material culture
Architecture
- Look at buildings such as the Colosseum in Rome and discuss the role of buildings for spectacle in Roman imperial propaganda.
Visual culture
Look at the following statues and monuments: when were they made? Who commissioned them and why? What role did they have in defining the emperor’s status and his relationship with people in Rome and across the Roman empire?
- Statue of Augustus from Prima Porta, Vatican Museums, Rome (http://www.museivaticani.va)
- Reliefs on the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias, Turkey (http://aphrodisias.classics.ox.ac.uk)
- Relief on Trajan’s Column, Rome (http://www.trajans-column.org)
- Reliefs on the Arch of Septimius Severus at Leptis Magna, Lybia
- Reliefs on the Arch of Constantine, Rome
- Missorium of Theodosius, Madrid
Look at the electoral inscriptions found in Pompeii and what they tell us about the political role of citizens during the empire
- Cooley, A.E. and Cooley, M.G.L., 2013. Pompeii and Herculaneum: a sourcebook. Routledge.
Artefacts from the Great North Museum, Newcastle
- Roman imperial coin (open link) representing the goddess Pietas (Piety) on the obverse and the divinised emperor Caligula celebrating a sacrifice, flanked by two attendants and in front of a temple on the reverse. The inscriptions on the coin celebrate the emperor’s pietas, a quality deemed indispensable for an emperor during the Roman empire. Being pious (therefore able to perform all the necessary sacrifices in the appropriate moments) meant that the emperor was able to guarantee the protection of the Gods over the Romans and, especially in war, their support for victory.
- Roman republican coin (open link) of Sulla. Sulla claimed he had the divine protection of the goddess Venus, often with the epithet of Felix (happy, lucky). He dedicated a temple to Venus Felix in Rome, Venus became a goddess frequently associated with military victory during the Republican period and her name was often associated by Roman victorious generals to the celebration of their victories (as is the case of Sulla) or to the celebration of their ancestors (families such as those of the Memmians and of the Julians claimed her as their ancestress on their coins). The coin perfectly illustrates the role of religion in Roman political propaganda and how coins acted as effective means to spread political messages across the Roman world. To know more about Venus, check this work: Smith, A.C. and Pickup, S. eds., 2010. Brill's companion to Aphrodite. Brill.
- Roman imperial coin (open link) issued by Domitian to celebrate his divinised brother and former emperor Titus. The obverse features the Colosseum at the centre and the Meta Sudans (a nearby Augustan fountain) to the left.
References
- Ando, C., 2013. Imperial ideology and provincial loyalty in the Roman Empire (Vol. 6). Univ of California Press.
- Lobur, J.A., 2008. Consensus, concordia and the formation of Roman imperial ideology. Routledge.
- Mattingly, D.J., 2013. Imperialism, power, and identity: Experiencing the Roman Empire. Princeton University Press.
- Newby, Z., 2016. Greek Myths in Roman Art and Culture: Imagery, Values and Identity in Italy, 50 BC–AD 250. Cambridge University Press.
- Peachin, M. ed., 2011. The Oxford handbook of social relations in the Roman world. Oxford Handbooks in Classics.
- Pitts, M. and Versluys, M.J. eds., 2014. Globalisation and the Roman world: world history, connectivity and material culture. Cambridge University Press.
- Rosillo-López, C., 2017. Public Opinion and Politics in the Late Roman Republic. Cambridge University Press.
- Whitby, M. ed., 1998. The propaganda of power: the role of panegyric in late antiquity (Vol. 183). Brill.
- Zanker, P., 1990. The power of images in the age of Augustus. University of Michigan Press.
Online resources
- Livius.org: https://www.livius.org/
- Beazley Archive: http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/index.htm
- Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/
- British Museum Collection Database https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx
- Ancient world mapping centre http://awmc.unc.edu/wordpress/
- The Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations https://darmc.harvard.edu/
- Omnes Viae https://omnesviae.org/
- Digital Sculpture project http://www.digitalsculpture.org/
- Marcadé-Donnay Database of Classical Sculptors' Signatures http://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/XDB/ASP/searchSignatures.asp
- Epigraphic Database Heidelberg https://edh-www.adw.uni-heidelberg.de/home
- Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby http://db.edcs.eu/epigr/epi.php?s_sprache=en
- Online Coins of the Roman empire http://numismatics.org/ocre/
- Archaeology Data Service https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/
- Perseus digital library: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
- The Grove Art Online: http://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/