Ancestor Masks and Aristocratic Power in Roman Culture

by Flower, Harriet I.

• ISBN13: 9780199240241
• ISBN10: 0199240248
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-01-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In the first comprehensive study of Roman ancestor masks in English, Harriet Flower explains the reasons behind the use of wax masks in the commemoration of politically prominent family members by the elite society of Rome. Flower traces the functional evolution of ancestor masks, from theirfirst attested appearance in the third century BC to their last mention in the sixth century AD, through the examination of literary sources in both prose and verse, legal texts, epigraphy, archaeology, numismatics, and art. It is by putting these masks, which were worn by actors at the funerals ofthe deceased, into their legal, social, and political context that Flower is able to elucidate their central position in the media of the time and their special meaning as symbols of power and prestige.

Table of Contents

List of Plates	xii
List of Figures	xiv
Abbreviations	xvi
Introduction	1	(2)
Sources	3	(2)
Representations of the Imagines in Art	5	(4)
Methodology	9	(7)
The Significance of Imagines	16	(16)
Defining the Imagines?	32	(28)
What were the Imagines?	32	(21)
The Imagines in Roman Law: Was There a `Ius Imaginum'?	53	(6)
Conclusion: The Definition of an Imago	59	(1)
Ancestors at the Elections: Ancestral Portraits and Magisterial Office	60	(31)
Imagines and the Concept of Nobilitas	61	(9)
Portraits of Ancestors in Public Places	70	(9)
Ancestors on Coins and Gems	79	(9)
Brutus and his Ancestors	88	(1)
Conclusion	89	(2)
Ancestors at the Funeral: The Pompa Funebris	91	(37)
Before the Funeral	93	(4)
The Funeral Procession	97	(10)
The Relationship between Funerals and other Processions	107	(2)
Virgil and the Funeral Procession	109	(5)
Imagines and Theatrical Masks	114	(1)
Organizing an Aristocratic Funeral: Practical Matters and Sumptuary Legislation	115	(7)
The Evolution of Aristocratic Funerals during the Republic	122	(4)
Conclusion	126	(2)
Praising the Ancestors: Laudationes and other Orations	128	(31)
The Context of the Laudatio	129	(4)
Laudationes and Rhetorical Theory	133	(3)
Ideology and Structure in the Laudatio	136	(9)
Published Laudationes and the Roman Historical Tradition	145	(5)
Imagines in Rhetoric outside the Funeral Oration	150	(7)
Conclusion	157	(2)
Ancestors and Inscriptions: Elogia and Tituli	159	(26)
The Tomb of the Scipios	160	(20)
Republican Tomb Inscriptions and the Labels of the Imagines	180	(4)
Conclusion	184	(1)
Ancestors at Home: Imagines in the Atrium	185	(38)
The Atrium: Its History, Furnishings, and Function	186	(17)
The Tablinum	203	(3)
Imagines in the Atrium: Setting up and Opening the Armaria	206	(3)
The Imagines and the Cult of the Ancestors	209	(2)
Family Trees and other Representations of Ancestors in the Home	211	(6)
Imagines and Visitors to the House: The Salutatio	217	(3)
Imagines and the Aristocratic Family	220	(2)
Conclusion	222	(1)
Imagines and the New Principate: Augustus and Tiberius	223	(33)
Augustus and the Imagines	224	(22)
Imperial Funerals under Tiberius	246	(8)
Conclusion	254	(2)
Imagines in the Later Empire: The Last Imagines	256	(14)
Imagines under the Julio-Claudians	257	(3)
Imagines in the Struggle for Empire: AD 69-70	260	(3)
The Second and Third Centuries AD	263	(1)
Imagines in the Later Roman Empire	264	(6)
Conclusions	270	(92)
Appendices
A. Literary Testimonia	281	(45)
B. Inscriptions and Laws	326	(7)
C. Moneyers using Ancestral Themes on their Coins	333	(6)
D. Etruscan Statues of Ancestors and the Origins of the Imagines	339	(14)
E. Trees of the Caecilii Metelli, Cornelii Scipiones, and Augustus' Family	353	(9)
Bibliography	362	(31)
Index of Persons	393	(4)
Index of Ancient Sources	397	(12)
General Index	409