#antonines

[omniatlas]

Poll Results: Trajan Wins! Trajan has won Omniatlas’ November poll on Patreon! Voting is now closed. Thank you to everybody who voted. I’ll start releasing maps of Europe in the 2nd century to Iron Tier members on 13 December 2019. The maps will start reaching the public on 24 January 2020. #omniatlas #patreon #polls #ancient #ancientrome #ancienthistory #trajan #antonines #romanemperor #2ndcentury #ancienteurope #europe #classical #roman #rome #romanempire #emperor #parthia #dacia #maps #map #history #worldhistory (at Rome, Italy) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5iiA4Jgmyq/?igshid=1snobfc1a0cz5

[lionofchaeronea]

A coin of the Roman emperor Hadrian, issued in 138 CE - the final year of his reign - and depicting his adoptive son and heir Antoninus Pius (r. 138-161 CE) as Caesar.  On the obverse, a bust of Pius; on the reverse, clasped hands holding a winged caduceus and ears of grain.  Photo credit: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com

[lostprofile]

IMPERIAL ROMAN PORTRAITURE III: Hadrian and the Antonines

Hadrian is the most frequently portrayed emperor, with over 130 surviving sculpted images. Categorization of the portraits relies heavily on hair style and beard length. A Spaniard by birth, Hadrian sported a mop-top of thick curly hair and wore a beard, a sign of his philhellenism. Due to these traits, his portraits resemble none of representations of the previous closely-cropped, clean shaven emperors. 

The official portraits of the Julio-Claudians and Trajan self-consciously made visual allusion to the portraits of Augustus as a way of expressing a dynastic and/or ideological connection with his reign. Flavian portraiture consciously avoided the hellenism of the Augustus type to distance its subjects from their predecessors. The individuality of Hadrian’s portrait may have been a calculated attempt to differentiate his rule from that of his adoptive father, Trajan, whose imperial policies were antithetical to his own. 

 As Trajan had done with him, Hadrian adopted the reliable Antoninus Pius and named him his successor on the condition that Antoninus adopt Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as his sons and then name them his successors. Thus, four unrelated men created the Antonine dynasty de novo. To transform this purely legal arrangement into an authentic gens antonia, portraitists constructed a fictitious family resemblance based largely on “grandfather” Hadrian’s hair and beard, on which the public images of subsequent emperors would be based. 

 The portraits of Antoninus are very pius in their fidelity to their prototype. The apotheosis of the imperial coiffure takes place under the diarchy of “brothers” Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. The very full heads of tightly-curled hair and precisely trimmed, luxurious beards, which contrast with the smooth skin, are masterpieces of carving, drilling and contrastive polishing. Underneath the lion skin, the unfortunate Commodus sports the now authentically ancestral hairstyle. 

The Hadrian Look even outlived the Antonines. To legitimate his regime, Septimius Severus associates himself with the most recent successful dynasty by continuing their portrait type. 

In the third century there was no question of maintaining the appearance of philosophical urbanity.

IMPERIAL ROMAN PORTRAITURE 

I. The Julio-Claudians

II. The Flavians

III. Hadrian and the Antonines 

Further reading:

Wolfgang Schindler, Römische Kaiser: Herrscherbild und Imperium (1986).

[lostprofile]

CONVERSIONS II: The Temple of the Divine Antoninus Pius and Faustina

Following her death in A.D. 140, the empress Faustina the Elder was deified by the Senate and a temple erected in her honor in the Roman Forum. When the emperor Antoninus Pius died in A.D. 161, he, too, was deified and the temple rededicated to the divine couple. The pedestal of the porphyry column placed near the temple by their adoptive sons, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, depicts their joint apotheosis on the back of a winged Victory.

The building itself is a straight-forward Roman temple, with a deep porch with freestanding monolithic columns, a tall podium, and a façade orientation. As early as the seventh century the cella was used as a church, dedicated to St Lawrence. By the 11thc, the chruch is referred to a San Lorenzo in Miranda, the latter designation usually indicating the name of the donor of the land on which the church was built. The church was awarded to the Collegio degli Speziali, or herbalist guild, in the 15th century and it remains in their custody today.

The projectng chapels of the  church were demolished in an attempt to restore the temple for Charles V’s state visit in 1536. Orazio Torriani re-organized the interior into its present configuration with the confines of the cella in 1602. As the placement of the western entrance shows, at that time the ground line was some 16 feet higher than in antiquity. The entire podium and the lower parts were of the columns were completely buried until 20thc. excavations of the Forum revealed them and the original entrance to the temple. The broken segmented pediment of the later 17th-century baroque façade is a common feature of second century Roman architecture.

The imperial cult was particularly repugnant to Christians, making the destruction of its temples an urgent priority. Despite the large, clearly-legible dedicatory inscription, the temple of the Deified Antoninus Pius and Faustina is the single surviving example of the genre and it owes thst survival entirely to the fact that it was converted very early on into a church.

[archaeologicalnews]

Mini-Colosseum of 'Gladiator' Emperor Found

The Roman emperor Commodus might have cultivated the skills showcased in Ridley Scott’s blockbuster film “Gladiator” in a personal miniature Colosseum on his estate near Rome.

Archaeologists from Montclair State University, in New Jersey, believe that a large oval area with curved walls and floors made of marble is, in fact, the arena where the emperor killed wild beasts, earning the nickname “the Roman Hercules,” as recorded in historical writings.

Found in Genzano, a village southeast of Rome which overlooks Lake Nemi, a crater lake in the Alban Hills, the oval structure measures 200 feet by 130 feet and dates to the 2nd century.

It was found by the U.S. team as they excavated thermal baths at an estate known as the Villa of Antonines. Read more.

[thecrankyprofessor]

Looking at you looking at us. on Flickr.

[archaeologicalnews]

Archaeologists Uncover Ancient Roman Villa of the Antonines

For many years, the ruins of this ancient Roman villa retreat for the family and guests of four Roman emperors remained unnoticeable, far from the limelight of scholarly research and exploration. Now, it is the focus of new excavations and research by a team of archaeologists and other specialists who aim to resurrect what lies beneath the surface near a picturesque Italian town 18 miles from present-day Rome, Italy. What remains may say something about emperors Antoninus Pius, Lucius Verus, Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus, all major players, for better or worse, in ancient Rome's illustrious 138-192 A.D. Antonine Dynasty. Read more.