| 1. Homer, Odyssey, 8.83-8.88, 12.212 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 106, 108 |
2. Polybius, Histories, 6.53 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 106 | 6.53. 1. Whenever any illustrious man dies, he is carried at his funeral into the forum to the soâcalled rostra, sometimes conspicuous in an upright posture and more rarely reclined.,2. Here with all the people standing round, a grown-up son, if he has left one who happens to be present, or if not some other relative mounts the rostra and discourses on the virtues and successful achievements of the dead.,3. As a consequence the multitude and not only those who had a part in these achievements, but those also who had none, when the facts are recalled to their minds and brought before their eyes, are moved to such sympathy that the loss seems to be not confined to the mourners, but a public one affecting the whole people.,4. Next after the interment and the performance of the usual ceremonies, they place the image of the departed in the most conspicuous position in the house, enclosed in a wooden shrine.,5. This image is a mask reproducing with remarkable fidelity both the features and complexion of the deceased.,6. On the occasion of public sacrifices they display these images, and decorate them with much care, and when any distinguished member of the family dies they take them to the funeral, putting them on men who seem to them to bear the closest resemblance to the original in stature and carriage.,7. These representatives wear togas, with a purple border if the deceased was a consul or praetor, whole purple if he was a censor, and embroidered with gold if he had celebrated a triumph or achieved anything similar.,8. They all ride in chariots preceded by the fasces, axes, and other insignia by which the different magistrates are wont to be accompanied according to the respective dignity of the offices of state held by each during his life;,9. and when they arrive at the rostra they all seat themselves in a row on ivory chairs. There could not easily be a more ennobling spectacle for a young man who aspires to fame and virtue.,10. For who would not be inspired by the sight of the images of men renowned for their excellence, all together and as if alive and breathing? What spectacle could be more glorious than this? |
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| 3. Cicero, In Verrem, 2.2.158, 2.2.160 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 108 |
| 4. Cicero, Letters, 1.8.2 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 108 |
5. Lucretius Carus, On The Nature of Things, 2.1-2.6 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 108| 2.1. Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis 2.2. e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem; 2.3. non quia vexari quemquamst iucunda voluptas, 2.4. sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suavest. 2.5. per campos instructa tua sine parte pericli; 2.6. suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri | |
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| 6. Asconius Pedianus Quintus, In Milonianam, 32-33 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 106 |
| 7. Sallust, Iugurtha, 4 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 106 |
| 8. Seneca The Elder, Controversies, 8.2 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 108 |
9. Plutarch, Aemilius Paulus, 28.5 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 109| 28.5. ἐν δʼ Ὀλυμπίᾳ, τοῦτο δὴ τὸ πολυθρύλητον ἐκεῖνόν ἀναφθέγξασθαί φασιν, ὡς τὸν Ὁμήρου Δία Φειδίας ἀποπλάσαιτο. | 28.5. And at Olympia, as they say, he made that utterance which is now in every mouth, that Pheidias had moulded the Zeus of Homer. |
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| 10. Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, 2.39 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 109 |
| 11. Tacitus, Agricola, 46 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 106 |
| 12. Plutarch, Moralia, None (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 105 |
| 13. Suetonius, Caligula, 5 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 105 |
| 14. Suetonius, Augustus, 16.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 105 |
15. Dio Chrysostom, Orations, 12.52-12.53, 31.43, 31.47-31.53, 31.71, 31.99, 31.105-31.106, 31.112, 31.155 (1st cent. CE - missingth cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 105, 109 | 12.52. Such a wondrous vision did you devise and fashion, one in very truth a Charmer of grief and anger, that from men All the remembrance of their ills could loose! So great the radiance and so great the charm with which your art has clothed it. Indeed it is not reasonable to suppose that even Hephaestus himself would criticize this work if he judged it by the pleasure and delight which it affords the eye of man." "But, on the other hand, was the shape you by your artistry produced appropriate to a god and was its form worthy of the divine nature, when you not only used a material which gives delight but also presented a human form of extraordinary beauty and size; and apart from its being a man's shape, made also all the other attributes as you have made them? that is the question which I invite you to consider now. And if you make a satisfactory defence on these matters before those present and convince them that you have discovered the proper and fitting shape and form for the foremost and greatest god, then you shall receive in addition a second reward, greater and more perfect than the one given by the Eleans. 12.53. For you see that the issue is no small one, nor the danger, for us. Since in times past, because we had no clear knowledge, we formed each his different idea, and each person, according to his capacity and nature, conceived a likeness for every divine manifestation and fashioned such likenesses in his dreams; and if we do perchance collect any small and insignificant likenesses made by the earlier artists, we do not trust them very much nor pay them very much attention. But you by the power of your art first conquered and united Hellas and then all others by means of this wondrous presentment, showing forth so marvellous and dazzling a conception, that none of those who have beheld it could any longer easily form a different one. 31.43. "Yes," you say, "for the majority of them are Romans and who would think of touching them? But those who stand beside them here are Macedonians, while these over here are Spartans, and by heavens, it is these we touch." And yet all that stood here formerly, or the most of them at any rate, you will admit were erected in acknowledgement of a benefaction, whereas of those now receiving honour many are being courted owing to their political power. Now the question which of the two classes has the greater right to be held in higher regard I will pass over; but this further question, which of the two classes â assuming that the honours granted are not to belong rightfully to all â can more reasonably be expected to take them on the basis of so uncertain a title, this question, I say, even these men themselves know well how to answer. For all know how much more permanent a benefaction is than power, for there is no strength which time does not destroy, but it destroys no benefaction. 31.47. Now perhaps some one will say that the statues belong to the city. Yes, and the land also belongs to the city, but none the less every one who possesses any has full authority over what is his own. Speaking in a political sense, if anyone inquires who owns the Island or who owns Caria, he will be told that the Rhodians own it. But if you ask in a different sense about this specific estate here or this field, it is clear that you will learn the name of the private owner. So also with the statues; in a general sense men say that they belong to the people of Rhodes, but in the particular or special sense they say that this or that statue belongs to So-andâso or to So-andâso, naming whatever man it has been given to. And yet, whereas in the case of estates, houses, and other possessions, you cannot learn who owns them unless you inquire, the statue has an inscription on it and preserves not only the name but also the lineaments of the man to whom it was first given, so that it is possible to step near and at once know whose it is. I refer to those on which the truth is still given. 31.48. Moreover, the plea that they stand on public property is most absurd, if this is really held to be an indication that they do not belong to those who received them, but to the city. Why, if that be true, it will be possible to say that also the things which are on sale in the centre of the market-place belong to the commonwealth, and that the boats, no doubt, do belong, not to their possessors, but to the city, just because they are lying in the harbours. Then, too, an argument which I heard a man advance, as a very strong one in support of that position, I am not disposed to conceal from you: he said that you have made an official list of your statues. What, pray, is the significance of that? Why, the country lying opposite us, Carpathos yonder, the mainland, the other islands, and in general many possessions can be found which the city has listed in its public records, but they have been parcelled out among individuals. 31.49. And in fine, even if each man who has been honoured does not in this sense 'possess' his statue as he would possess anything else he has acquired, it cannot for that reason be said that it belongs to him any the less or that he suffers no wrong when you give his statue to another. For you will find countless senses in which we say that a thing 'belongs' to an individual and very different senses too, for instance, a priesthood, a public office, a wife, citizenship, none of which their possessors are at liberty either to sell or to use in any way they like. 31.50. But certainly a common principle of justice is laid down in regard to them all, to the effect that anything whatsoever which any one has received justly â whether he happens to have got it once for all or for a specified time, just as, for instance, he obtains public offices â that is his secure possession and nobody can deprive him of it. How, then, is it possible to have anything more justly, than when a man who has proved himself good and worthy of gratitude receives honour in return for many noble deeds? Or from whom could he receive it that has fuller authority and is greater than the democracy of Rhodes and your city? For it is no trifling consideration that it was not the Calymnians who gave it, or those ill-advised Caunians; just as in private business the better and more trustworthy you prove the man to be from whom you obtain any possession, the stronger your title to it is, and by so much more no one can dispute it. Yet any city which one might mention is in every way better and more trustworthy than one private citizen, even if he has the highest standing, and arrangements made by the state are more binding than those which are negotiated privately. 31.51. Then consider, further, that all men regard those agreements as having greater validity which are made with the sanction of the state and are entered in the city's records; and it is impossible for anything thus administered to be annulled, either in case one buys a piece of land from another, a boat or a slave, or if a man makes a loan to another, or frees a slave, or makes gift to any one. How in the world, then, has it come to pass that these transactions carry a greater security than any other? It is because the man who has handled any affair of his in this way has made the city a witness to the transaction. 31.52. In heaven's name, will it then be true that, while anything a person may get from a private citizen by acting through the state cannot possibly be taken from him, yet what one has received, not only by a state decree, but also as a gift of the people, shall not be inalienable? And whereas an action taken in this way by anybody else will never be annulled by the authority of the state, yet shall the state, in the offhand way we observe here, cancel what it has itself done? â and that too, not by taking it away in the same manner in which it was originally given, that is, by the commonwealth officially, but by letting one man, if he happens to be your chief magistrate, have the power to do so? 31.53. And besides, there are official records of those transactions of which I have spoken; for the decrees by which honours are given are recorded, I take it, and remain on public record for all time. For though repaying a favour is so strictly guarded among you, yet taking it back from the recipients is practised with no formality at all. Then, while the one action cannot be taken except by a decree passed by you as a body, yet the other comes to pass by a sort of custom, even though it is the will of only one person. Note, however, that, as I said, these matters have been recorded officially, not only in the decrees, but also upon the statues themselves, on which we find both the name of the man who received the honour and the statement that the assembly has bestowed it, and, again, that these statues are set up on public property. 31.71. Come, then, if any one were to question the magistrate who is set over you, who commands that the inscription be erased and another man's name engraved in its place, asking: "What does this mean? Ye gods, has this man been found guilty of having done the city some terrible wrong so many years after the deed?" In heaven's name, do you not think that he would be deterred, surely if he is a man of common decency? For my part I think that even the mason will blush for shame. And then if children or kinsmen of the great man should happen to appear, what floods of tears do you think they will shed when some one begins to obliterate the name? 31.99. Neither can we be so sure, moreover, that such treatment might not be brought about by some persons through hatred, I mean if it so happens that one of your chief magistrates has a grudge against any of his predecessors. You have heard how the Theagenes incident, at any rate, grew out of political envy and jealousy. For even if they urge that now they follow this practice only in the case of the old statues, yet as time goes on, just as ever happens in the case of all bad habits, this one too will of necessity grow worse and worse. The reason is that it is utterly impossible to call the culprit to account because the whole business from first to last lies in his hands. "Yes, by heavens," you say, "but the kinsmen will certainly put a stop to it." Well then, if the kinsmen happen to be absent or to have had no knowledge of the matter, what do we propose to do when they do learn of it? Will it be necessary to chisel out again the man's name which someone has been in a hurry to insert? 31.105. So much for that. Well then, neither can it be said that the persons you honour are more numerous; for the mere number of the statues standing which date from that time reveals the truth. And apart from that, who would say that those who are zealous to serve the state are now more numerous than then? Oh yes! you may say, "but we simply must honour the commanders who rule over us, one and all." What of it? Do not also the Athenians, Spartans, Byzantines, and Mytilenaeans pay court to these same? But nevertheless, whenever they decide to set up in bronze one of these, they do so, and they manage to find the cost. 31.106. Indeed I once heard a certain Rhodian remark â "The position of those people is not comparable to ours. For all that they, the Athenians excepted, possess is liberty and the Athenians have no great possessions either; but our city is the envy of all because it is the most prosperous, and consequently it needs a greater number of loyal friends. Furthermore, none of the Romans particularly cares to have a statue among those peoples, but they do not despise that honour here." 31.112. Then again, whereas the Eleans, who are not superior in other respects to any of the other Peloponnesians, put so high a value upon their own position, are you Rhodians so afraid of all your casual visitors that you think if you fail to set up some one person in bronze, you will lose your freedom? But if your freedom is in so precarious a state that it can be stripped from you on any petty pretext, it would in every way be better for you to be slaves forthwith. So too when men's bodies are so dangerously ill that there is no longer hope for their recovery, death is better than life. 31.155. For instance, many people assert that the statues of the Rhodians are like actors. For just as every actor makes his entrance as one character at one time and at another as another, so likewise your statues assume different rôles at different times and stand almost as if they were acting a part. For instance, one and the same statue, they say, is at one time a Greek, at another time a Roman, and later on, if it so happens, a Macedonian or a Persian; and what is more, with some statues the deception is so obvious that the beholder at once is aware of the deceit. For in fact, clothing, foot-gear, and everything else of that kind expose the fraud. |
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16. Tacitus, Annals, 1.8, 1.73-1.74, 3.36, 3.76, 16.7 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 105, 106, 108, 109| 1.8. Nihil primo senatus die agi passus est nisi de supre- mis Augusti, cuius testamentum inlatum per virgines Vestae Tiberium et Liviam heredes habuit. Livia in familiam Iuliam nomenque Augustum adsumebatur; in spem secundam nepotes pronepotesque, tertio gradu primores civitatis scripserat, plerosque invisos sibi sed iactantia gloriaque ad posteros. legata non ultra civilem modum, nisi quod populo et plebi quadringenties tricies quinquies, praetoriarum cohortium militibus singula nummum milia, urbanis quingenos, legionariis aut cohortibus civium Romanorum trecenos nummos viritim dedit. tum consultatum de honoribus; ex quis qui maxime insignes visi, ut porta triumphali duceretur funus Gallus Asinius, ut legum latarum tituli, victarum ab eo gentium vocabula anteferrentur L. Arruntius censuere. addebat Messala Valerius renovandum per annos sacramentum in nomen Tiberii; interrogatusque a Tiberio num se mandante eam sententiam prompsisset, sponte dixisse respondit, neque in iis quae ad rem publicam pertinerent consilio nisi suo usurum vel cum periculo offensionis: ea sola species adulandi supererat. conclamant patres corpus ad rogum umeris senatorum ferendum. remisit Caesar adroganti moderatione, populumque edicto monuit ne, ut quondam nimiis studiis funus divi Iulii turbassent, ita Augustum in foro potius quam in campo Martis, sede destinata, cremari vellent. die funeris milites velut praesidio stetere, multum inridentibus qui ipsi viderant quique a parentibus acceperant diem illum crudi adhuc servitii et libertatis inprospere repetitae, cum occisus dictator Caesar aliis pessimum aliis pulcherrimum facinus videretur: nunc senem principem, longa potentia, provisis etiam heredum in rem publicam opibus, auxilio scilicet militari tuendum, ut sepultura eius quieta foret. 1.8. Prorogatur Poppaeo Sabino provincia Moesia, additis Achaia ac Macedonia. id quoque morum Tiberii fuit, continuare imperia ac plerosque ad finem vitae in isdem exercitibus aut iurisdictionibus habere. causae variae traduntur: alii taedio novae curae semel placita pro aeternis servavisse, quidam invidia, ne plures fruerentur; sunt qui existiment, ut callidum eius ingenium, ita anxium iudicium; neque enim eminentis virtutes sectabatur, et rursum vitia oderat: ex optimis periculum sibi, a pessimis dedecus publicum metuebat. qua haesitatione postremo eo provectus est ut mandaverit quibusdam provincias, quos egredi urbe non erat passurus. 1.73. Haud pigebit referre in Falanio et Rubrio, modicis equitibus Romanis, praetemptata crimina, ut quibus initiis, quanta Tiberii arte gravissimum exitium inrepserit, dein repressum sit, postremo arserit cunctaque corripuerit, noscatur. Falanio obiciebat accusator, quod inter cultores Augusti, qui per omnis domos in modum collegiorum habebantur, Cassium quendam mimum corpore infamem adscivisset, quodque venditis hortis statuam Augusti simul mancipasset. Rubrio crimini dabatur violatum periurio numen Augusti. quae ubi Tiberio notuere, scripsit consulibus non ideo decretum patri suo caelum, ut in perniciem civium is honor verteretur. Cassium histrionem solitum inter alios eiusdem artis interesse ludis, quos mater sua in memoriam Augusti sacrasset; nec contra religiones fieri quod effigies eius, ut alia numinum simulacra, venditionibus hortorum et domuum accedant. ius iurandum perinde aestimandum quam si Iovem fefellisset: deorum iniurias dis curae. 1.74. Nec multo post Granium Marcellum praetorem Bithyniae quaestor ipsius Caepio Crispinus maiestatis postulavit, subscribente Romano Hispone: qui formam vitae iniit, quam postea celebrem miseriae temporum et audaciae hominum fecerunt. nam egens, ignotus, inquies, dum occultis libellis saevitiae principis adrepit, mox clarissimo cuique periculum facessit, potentiam apud unum, odium apud omnis adeptus dedit exemplum, quod secuti ex pauperibus divites, ex contemptis metuendi perniciem aliis ac postremum sibi invenere. sed Marcellum insimulabat sinistros de Tiberio sermones habuisse, inevitabile crimen, cum ex moribus principis foedissima quaeque deligeret accusator obiectaretque reo. nam quia vera erant, etiam dicta credebantur. addidit Hispo statuam Marcelli altius quam Caesarum sitam, et alia in statua amputato capite Augusti effigiem Tiberii inditam. ad quod exarsit adeo, ut rupta taciturnitate proclamaret se quoque in ea causa laturum sententiam palam et iuratum, quo ceteris eadem necessitas fieret. manebant etiam tum vestigia morientis libertatis. igitur Cn. Piso 'quo' inquit 'loco censebis, Caesar? si primus, habebo quod sequar: si post omnis, vereor ne inprudens dissentiam.' permotus his, quantoque incautius efferverat, paenitentia patiens tulit absolvi reum criminibus maiestatis: de pecuniis repetundis ad reciperatores itum est. 3.36. Exim promptum quod multorum intimis questibus tegebatur. incedebat enim deterrimo cuique licentia impune probra et invidiam in bonos excitandi arrepta imagine Caesaris; libertique etiam ac servi, patrono vel domino cum voces, cum manus intentarent, ultro metuebantur. igitur C. Cestius senator disseruit principes quidem instar deorum esse, sed neque a diis nisi iustas supplicum preces audiri neque quemquam in Capitolium aliave urbis templa perfugere ut eo subsidio ad flagitia utatur. abolitas leges et funditus versas, ubi in foro, in limine curiae ab Annia Rufilla, quam fraudis sub iudice damnavisset, probra sibi et minae intendantur, neque ipse audeat ius experiri ob effigiem imperatoris oppositam. haud dissimilia alii et quidam atrociora circumstrepebant, precabanturque Drusum daret ultionis exemplum, donec accitam convictamque attineri publica custodia iussit. 3.76. Et Iunia sexagesimo quarto post Philippensem aciem anno supremum diem explevit, Catone avunculo genita, C. Cassii uxor, M. Bruti soror. testamentum eius multo apud vulgum rumore fuit, quia in magnis opibus cum ferme cunctos proceres cum honore nominavisset Caesarem omisit. quod civiliter acceptum neque prohibuit quo minus laudatione pro rostris ceterisque sollemnibus funus cohonestaretur. viginti clarissimarum familiarum imagines antelatae sunt, Manlii, Quinctii aliaque eiusdem nobilitatis nomina. sed praefulgebant Cassius atque Brutus eo ipso quod effigies eorum non visebantur. 16.7. Mortem Poppaeae ut palam tristem, ita recordantibus laetam ob impudicitiam eius saevitiamque, nova insuper invidia Nero complevit prohibendo C. Cassium officio exequiarum, quod primum indicium mali. neque in longum dilatum est, sed Silanus additur, nullo crimine nisi quod Cassius opibus vetustis et gravitate morum, Silanus claritudine generis et modesta iuventa praecellebant. igitur missa ad senatum oratione removendos a re publica utrosque disseruit, obiectavitque Cassio quod inter imagines maiorum etiam C. Cassi effigiem coluisset, ita inscriptam 'duci partium': quippe semina belli civilis et defectionem a domo Caesarum quaesitam; ac ne memoria tantum infensi nominis ad discordias uteretur, adsumpsisse L. Silanum, iuvenem genere nobilem, animo praeruptum, quem novis rebus ostentaret. | 1.8. The only business which he allowed to be discussed at the first meeting of the senate was the funeral of Augustus. The will, brought in by the Vestal Virgins, specified Tiberius and Livia as heirs, Livia to be adopted into the Julian family and the Augustan name. As legatees in the second degree he mentioned his grandchildren and great-grandchildren; in the third place, the prominent nobles â an ostentatious bid for the applause of posterity, as he detested most of them. His bequests were not above the ordinary civic scale, except that he left 43,500,000 sesterces to the nation and the populace, a thousand to every man in the praetorian guards, five hundred to each in the urban troops, and three hundred to all legionaries or members of the Roman cohorts. The question of the last honours was then debated. The two regarded as the most striking were due to Asinius Gallus and Lucius Arruntius â the former proposing that the funeral train should pass under a triumphal gateway; the latter, that the dead should be preceded by the titles of all laws which he had carried and the names of all peoples whom he had subdued. In addition, Valerius Messalla suggested that the oath of allegiance to Tiberius should be renewed annually. To a query from Tiberius, whether that expression of opinion came at his dictation, he retorted â it was the one form of flattery still left â that he had spoken of his own accord, and, when public interests were in question, he would (even at the risk of giving offence) use no man's judgment but his own. The senate clamoured for the body to be carried to the pyre on the shoulders of the Fathers. The Caesar, with haughty moderation, excused them from that duty, and warned the people by edict not to repeat the enthusiastic excesses which on a former day had marred the funeral of the deified Julius, by desiring Augustus to be cremated in the Forum rather than in the Field of Mars, his appointed resting-place. On the day of the ceremony, the troops were drawn up as though on guard, amid the jeers of those who had seen with their eyes, or whose fathers had declared to them, that day of still novel servitude and freedom disastrously re-wooed, when the killing of the dictator Caesar to some had seemed the worst, and to others the fairest, of high exploits:â "And now an aged prince, a veteran potentate, who had seen to it that not even his heirs should lack for means to coerce their country, must needs have military protection to ensure a peaceable burial!" 1.73. It will not be unremunerative to recall the first, tentative charges brought in the case of Falanius and Rubrius, two Roman knights of modest position; if only to show from what beginnings, thanks to the art of Tiberius, the accursed thing crept in, and, after a temporary check, at last broke out, an all-devouring conflagration. Against Falanius the accuser alleged that he had admitted a certain Cassius, mime and catamite, among the "votaries of Augustus," who were maintained, after the fashion of fraternities, in all the great houses: also, that when selling his gardens, he had parted with a statue of Augustus as well. To Rubrius the crime imputed was violation of the deity of Augustus by perjury. When the facts came to the knowledge of Tiberius, he wrote to the consuls that place in heaven had not been decreed to his father in order that the honour might be turned to the destruction of his countrymen. Cassius, the actor, with others of his trade, had regularly taken part in the games which his own mother had consecrated to the memory of Augustus; nor was it an act of sacrilege, if the effigies of that sovereign, like other images of other gods, went with the property, whenever a house or garden was sold. As to the perjury, it was on the same footing as if the defendant had taken the name of Jupiter in vain: the gods must look to their own wrongs. 1.74. Before long, Granius Marcellus, praetor of Bithynia, found himself accused of treason by his own quaestor, Caepio Crispinus, with Hispo Romanus to back the charge. Caepio was the pioneer in a walk of life which the miseries of the age and effronteries of men soon rendered popular. Indigent, unknown, unresting, first creeping, with his private reports, into the confidence of his pitiless sovereign, then a terror to the noblest, he acquired the favour of one man, the hatred of all, and set an example, the followers of which passed from beggary to wealth, from being despised to being feared, and crowned at last the ruin of others by their own. He alleged that Marcellus had retailed sinister anecdotes about Tiberius: a damning indictment, when the accuser selected the foulest qualities of the imperial character, and attributed their mention to the accused. For, as the facts were true, they were also believed to have been related! Hispo added that Marcellus' own statue was placed on higher ground than those of the Caesars, while in another the head of Augustus had been struck off to make room for the portrait of Tiberius. This incensed the emperor to such a degree that, breaking through his taciturnity, he exclaimed that, in this case, he too would vote, openly and under oath, â the object being to impose a similar obligation on the rest. There remained even yet some traces of dying liberty. Accordingly Gnaeus Piso inquired: "In what order will you register your opinion, Caesar? If first, I shall have something to follow: if last of all, I fear I may inadvertently find myself on the other side." The words went home; and with a meekness that showed how profoundly he rued his unwary outburst, he voted for the acquittal of the defendant on the counts of treason. The charge of peculation went before the appropriate commission. 3.36. Now came the disclosure of a practice whispered in the private complaints of many. There was a growing tendency of the rabble to cast insult and odium on citizens of repute, and to evade the penalty by grasping some object portraying the Caesar. The freedmen and slaves, even, were genuinely feared by the patron or the owner against whom they lifted their voices or their hands. Hence a speech of the senator, Gaius Cestius:â "Princes, he admitted, were equivalent to deities; but godhead itself listened only to the just petitions of the suppliant, and no man fled to the Capitol or other sanctuary of the city to make it a refuge subserving his crimes. The laws had been abolished â overturned from the foundations â when Annia Rufilla, whom he had proved guilty of fraud in a court of justice, could insult and threaten him in the Forum, upon the threshold of the curia; while he himself dared not try the legal remedy because of the portrait of the sovereign with which she confronted him." Similar and, in some cases, more serious experiences, were described by a din of voices around him; and appeals to Drusus, to set the example of punishment, lasted till he gave orders for her to be summoned and imprisoned, after conviction, in the public cells. 3.76. Junia, too, born niece to Cato, wife of Caius Cassius, sister of Marcus Brutus, looked her last on life, sixty-three full years after the field of Philippi. Her will was busily discussed by the crowd; because in disposing of her great wealth she mentioned nearly every patrician of note in complimentary terms, but omitted the Caesar. The slur was taken in good part, and he offered no objection to the celebration of her funeral with a panegyric at the Rostra and the rest of the customary ceremonies. The effigies of twenty great houses preceded her to the tomb â members of the Manlian and Quinctian families, and names of equal splendour. But Brutus and Cassius shone brighter than all by the very fact that their portraits were unseen. 16.7. To the death of Poppaea, outwardly regretted, but welcome to all who remembered her profligacy and cruelty, Nero added a fresh measure of odium by prohibiting Gaius Cassius from attendance at the funeral. It was the first hint of mischief. Nor was the mischief long delayed. Silanus was associated with him; their only crime being that Cassius was eminent for a great hereditary fortune and an austere character, Silanus for a noble lineage and a temperate youth. Accordingly, the emperor sent a speech to the senate, arguing that both should be removed from public life, and objecting to the former that, among his other ancestral effigies, he had honoured a bust of Gaius Cassius, inscribed:â "To the leader of the cause." The seeds of civil war, and revolt from the house of the Caesars, â such were the objects he had pursued. And, not to rely merely on the memory of a hated name as an incentive to faction, he had taken to himself a partner in Lucius Silanus, a youth of noble family and headstrong temper, who was to be his figure-head for a revolution. |
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| 17. Seneca The Younger, Letters, 7.64.9-7.64.10 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 108 |
| 18. Pliny The Elder, Natural History, 34.73, 34.77, 34.80, 34.89-34.90, 35.4, 35.6-35.11, 35.66, 35.131, 35.144, 37.4, 37.8 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 105, 106, 107, 108 |
| 19. Gellius, Attic Nights, 3.10.1 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 106 |
20. Pliny The Younger, Letters, 1.17, 3.7.8 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 108 | 1.17. To Cornelius Titianus. Faith and loyalty are not yet extinct among men 0 |
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21. Pliny The Younger, Letters, 1.17, 3.7.8 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 108 | 1.17. To Cornelius Titianus. Faith and loyalty are not yet extinct among men 0 |
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22. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 40.48-40.49, 55.8.2, 55.9.6 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 105, 106 | 40.48. 1. Such being the state of things in the city at that time, with no one in charge of affairs, murders occurred practically every day, and they could not hold the elections, although men were eager to win the offices and employed bribery and assassination to secure them.,2. Milo, for instance, who was seeking the consulship, met Clodius on the Appian Way and at first simply wounded him; then, fearing he would avenge the deed, he slew him, hoping that after he had immediately freed all the servants concerned in the affair, he would be more easily acquitted of the murder, once the man was dead, than he would be of assault, in case he should survive.,3. The people in the city heard of this toward evening and were thrown into a terrible uproar; to the factions it served as an incentive to war and misdeeds, while those who were neutrals, even though they hated Clodius, yet on account of humanity and because on this excuse they hoped to get rid of Milo also, showed indignation. 40.49. 1. While they were in this frame of mind Rufus and Titus Munatius Plancus took them in hand and excited them to greater wrath. As tribunes they conveyed the body into the Forum just before dawn, placed it on the rostra, exhibited it to all, and spoke appropriate words over it with lamentations.,2. So the populace, as a result of what it both saw and heard, was deeply stirred and no longer showed any regard for things sacred or profane, but overthrew all the customs of burial and burned down nearly the whole city. They took up the body of Clodius and carried it into the senate-house, laid it out properly, and then after heaping up a pyre out of the benches burned both the corpse and the building.,3. They did not do this under the stress of such an impulse as often takes sudden hold of crowds, but with such deliberate purpose that at the ninth hour they held the funeral feast in the Forum itself, with the senate-house still smouldering; and they furthermore undertook to apply the torch to Milo's house.,4. It was not burned, however, because many defended it. But Milo, in great terror because of the murder, was meanwhile in hiding, being guarded not only by ordinary citizens but also by knights and some senators; and when this other deed occurred, he hoped that the wrath of the senate would shift to the outrage of the opposing faction.,5. The senators, indeed, did at once assemble on the Palatine for this very purpose, and they voted that an interrex should be chosen, and that he and the tribunes and Pompey should look after the guarding of the city, so that it should suffer no harm. Milo, accordingly, made his appearance in public, and pressed his claims to the office as strongly as before, if not more strongly. 55.8.2. After assigning to himself the duty of repairing the temple of Concord, in order that he might inscribe upon it his own name and that of Drusus, he celebrated his triumph, and in company with his mother dedicated the precinct called the precinct of Livia. He gave a banquet to the senate on the Capitol, and she gave one on her own account to the women somewhere or other. 55.9.6. He made the journey as a private citizen, though he exercised his authority by compelling the Parians to sell him the statue of Vesta, in order that it might be placed in the temple of Concord; and when he reached Rhodes, he refrained from haughty conduct in both word and deed. |
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| 23. Aelius Aristides, Sacred Tales, 3.47 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 109 |
24. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5.11.9 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 109| 5.11.9. μέτρα δὲ τοῦ ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ Διὸς ἐς ὕψος τε καὶ εὖρος ἐπιστάμενος γεγραμμένα οὐκ ἐν ἐπαίνῳ θήσομαι τοὺς μετρήσαντας, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ εἰρημένα αὐτοῖς μέτρα πολύ τι ἀποδέοντά ἐστιν ἢ τοῖς ἰδοῦσι παρέστηκεν ἐς τὸ ἄγαλμα δόξα, ὅπου γε καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν θεὸν μάρτυρα ἐς τοῦ Φειδίου τὴν τέχνην γενέσθαι λέγουσιν. ὡς γὰρ δὴ ἐκτετελεσμένον ἤδη τὸ ἄγαλμα ἦν, ηὔξατο ὁ Φειδίας ἐπισημῆναι τὸν θεὸν εἰ τὸ ἔργον ἐστὶν αὐτῷ κατὰ γνώμην· αὐτίκα δʼ ἐς τοῦτο τοῦ ἐδάφους κατασκῆψαι κεραυνόν φασιν, ἔνθα ὑδρία καὶ ἐς ἐμὲ ἐπίθημα ἦν ἡ χαλκῆ. | 5.11.9. I know that the height and breadth of the Olympic Zeus have been measured and recorded; but I shall not praise those who made the measurements, for even their records fall far short of the impression made by a sight of the image. Nay, the god himself according to legend bore witness to the artistic skill of Pheidias. For when the image was quite finished Pheidias prayed the god to show by a sign whether the work was to his liking. Immediately, runs the legend, a thunderbolt fell on that part of the floor where down to the present day the bronze jar stood to cover the place. |
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| 25. Plotinus, Enneads, 5.8.1 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 109 |
26. Augustine, The City of God, 8.23 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 109 | 8.23. The Egyptian Hermes, whom they call Trismegistus, had a different opinion concerning those demons. Apuleius, indeed, denies that they are gods; but when he says that they hold a middle place between the gods and men, so that they seem to be necessary for men as mediators between them and the gods, he does not distinguish between the worship due to them and the religious homage due to the supernal gods. This Egyptian, however, says that there are some gods made by the supreme God, and some made by men. Any one who hears this, as I have stated it, no doubt supposes that it has reference to images, because they are the works of the hands of men; but he asserts that visible and tangible images are, as it were, only the bodies of the gods, and that there dwell in them certain spirits, which have been invited to come into them, and which have power to inflict harm, or to fulfil the desires of those by whom divine honors and services are rendered to them. To unite, therefore, by a certain art, those invisible spirits to visible and material things, so as to make, as it were, animated bodies, dedicated and given up to those spirits who inhabit them - this, he says, is to make gods, adding that men have received this great and wonderful power. I will give the words of this Egyptian as they have been translated into our tongue: And, since we have undertaken to discourse concerning the relationship and fellowship between men and the gods, know, O Æsculapius, the power and strength of man. As the Lord and Father, or that which is highest, even God, is the maker of the celestial gods, so man is the maker of the gods who are in the temples, content to dwell near to men. And a little after he says, Thus humanity, always mindful of its nature and origin, perseveres in the imitation of divinity; and as the Lord and Father made eternal gods, that they should be like Himself, so humanity fashioned its own gods according to the likeness of its own countece. When this Æsculapius, to whom especially he was speaking, had answered him, and had said, Do you mean the statues, O Trismegistus? - Yes, the statues, replied he, however unbelieving you are, O Æsculapius - the statues, animated and full of sensation and spirit, and who do such great and wonderful things - the statues prescient of future things, and foretelling them by lot, by prophet, by dreams, and many other things, who bring diseases on men and cure them again, giving them joy or sorrow according to their merits. Do you not know, O Æsculapius, that Egypt is an image of heaven, or, more truly, a translation and descent of all things which are ordered and transacted there, that it is, in truth, if we may say so, to be the temple of the whole world? And yet, as it becomes the prudent man to know all things beforehand, you ought not to be ignorant of this, that there is a time coming when it shall appear that the Egyptians have all in vain, with pious mind, and with most scrupulous diligence, waited on the divinity, and when all their holy worship shall come to nought, and be found to be in vain. Hermes then follows out at great length the statements of this passage, in which he seems to predict the present time, in which the Christian religion is overthrowing all lying figments with a vehemence and liberty proportioned to its superior truth and holiness, in order that the grace of the true Saviour may deliver men from those gods which man has made, and subject them to that God by whom man was made. But when Hermes predicts these things, he speaks as one who is a friend to these same mockeries of demons, and does not clearly express the name of Christ. On the contrary, he deplores, as if it had already taken place, the future abolition of those things by the observance of which there was maintained in Egypt a resemblance of heaven, - he bears witness to Christianity by a kind of mournful prophecy. Now it was with reference to such that the apostle said, that knowing God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, Romans 1:21 and so on, for the whole passage is too long to quote. For Hermes makes many such statements agreeable to the truth concerning the one true God who fashioned this world. And I know not how he has become so bewildered by that darkening of the heart as to stumble into the expression of a desire that men should always continue in subjection to those gods which he confesses to be made by men, and to bewail their future removal; as if there could be anything more wretched than mankind tyrannized over by the work of his own hands, since man, by worshipping the works of his own hands, may more easily cease to be man, than the works of his hands can, through his worship of them, become gods. For it can sooner happen that man, who has received an honorable position, may, through lack of understanding, become comparable to the beasts, than that the works of man may become preferable to the work of God, made in His own image, that is, to man himself. Wherefore deservedly is man left to fall away from Him who made Him, when he prefers to himself that which he himself has made. For these vain, deceitful, pernicious, sacrilegious things did the Egyptian Hermes sorrow, because he knew that the time was coming when they should be removed. But his sorrow was as impudently expressed as his knowledge was imprudently obtained; for it was not the Holy Spirit who revealed these things to him, as He had done to the holy prophets, who, foreseeing these things, said with exultation, If a man shall make gods, lo, they are no gods; Jeremiah 16:10 and in another place, And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered. Zechariah 13:2 But the holy Isaiah prophesies expressly concerning Egypt in reference to this matter, saying, And the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence, and their heart shall be overcome in them, Isaiah 19:1 and other things to the same effect. And with the prophet are to be classed those who rejoiced that that which they knew was to come had actually come - as Simeon, or Anna, who immediately recognized Jesus when He was born, or Elisabeth, who in the Spirit recognized Him when He was conceived, or Peter, who said by the revelation of the Father, You are Christ, the Son of the living God. Matthew 16:16 But to this Egyptian those spirits indicated the time of their own destruction, who also, when the Lord was present in the flesh, said with trembling, Have You come here to destroy us before the time? Matthew 8:29 meaning by destruction before the time, either that very destruction which they expected to come, but which they did not think would come so suddenly as it appeared to have done, or only that destruction which consisted in their being brought into contempt by being made known. And, indeed, this was a destruction before the time, that is, before the time of judgment, when they are to be punished with eternal damnation, together with all men who are implicated in their wickedness, as the true religion declares, which neither errs nor leads into error; for it is not like him who, blown here and there by every wind of doctrine, and mixing true things with things which are false, bewails as about to perish a religion, which he afterwards confesses to be error. |
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27. Vergil, Aeneis, 1.202-1.206 Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 108 | 1.202. till rocks and blazing torches fill the air 1.203. (rage never lacks for arms)—if haply then 1.204. ome wise man comes, whose reverend looks attest 1.205. a life to duty given, swift silence falls; 1.206. all ears are turned attentive; and he sways |
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| 28. Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds And Sayings, 8.15.2 Tagged with subjects: •impietas against, veneration of Found in books: Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 108 |
