Anthony Majanlahti
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anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
Anthony Majanlahti
@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
940 followers 82 following 860 posts
Historian living in Rome. 🏳️‍🌈Author of "The Families who Made Rome, a history and a guide" (Chatto, 2004). Currently writing a single-volume urban history of Rome for OUP.
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anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday takes us into a corridor with linear #fresco decoration and an intact geometric #mosaic floor, c. 150 CE, in the stupendous #VilladeiQuintili along the #Appia south of #Rome. The villa was the cause of its builders' death: #Commodus had them killed and took it. #AncientBluesky 🏺
MOSAIC FLOOR, C. 150-182 CE. VILLA DEI QUINTILI This massive suburban villa was built by the rich senatorial brothers Sextus Quintilius Valerius Maximus and Sextus Quintilius Condianus, who were held in such high regard by Antoninus Pius that he made them both consuls in 151 CE. Unfortunately their service and loyalty did not protect them from the envy of the last of the Antonines, Caracalla, who so badly wanted this luxurious property that he trumped up treason charges against them and put them to death in 182. He immediately took possession of the villa and adapted it to his own use; it remained an imperial property until the C6 and underwent many restorations and alterations. Here we have a short, semi-basement corridor with a simple geometric pattern of rows of black alternating triangles to create white hexagons between them, framed with a wide black mosaic border.
November 10, 2025 at 9:52 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For a belated #SpoliaSunday, this wall holds the collection of antiquities owned by #AntonioCanova, the great C18-C19 sculptor of #neoclassicism, now set into the wall of his studio. Many pieces of sarcophagi, and part of a C1 CE #funerary #statue found in and around #Rome. #AncientBluesky 🏺
FRAGMENTS OF ANCIENT SCULPTURE, C1-C3 CE. VIA ANTONIO CANOVA These pieces of ancient reliefs, statues, and architectural elements were gathered by the sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822) for inspiration in this house, or rather series of houses, he bought in 1803 as a residence and workshop. Through various phases of its life, the workshop has been much altered and part of it has been sold off to make a small emergency medical centre replacing the huge, now closed, hospital of S. Giacomo in Augusta across the street. Pieces of Canova's collection have been stolen from off the façade but what remains is a testament to his fascination with ancient art.
November 10, 2025 at 9:08 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SarcophagusSaturday returns us to the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome with this box from #OstiaAntica of the earlier C2 CE, made for a Greek shoemaker from #Ephesus. At left we see him at work, seated with a shoe in his hands, next to a ropemaker. At right, two musicians play. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SARCOPHAGUS OF TITUS FLAVIUS TROPHIMAS, C. 1OO-140 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This interesting sarcophagus shows that artisans could have bespoke sarcophagi, which were not exclusively for the rich. At centre is a tabula with an inscription in Greek explaining that this is the coffin of T. Flavius Trophimas, a Greek Roman citizen (perhaps an imperial freedman) from Ephesus, "panmousas" or a cultivator of every art. It was commissioned by his friends Lucius Atilius Artemas and Claudia Apphias, both also of clear Greek origin. To the right of the tabula is a scene with two musicians, the one at far right beating a tambourine, the other in only a loincloth, playing a double flute and holding another flute. Both musicians are dancing in time with each other. On the other side of the tabula, a man is winding a rope from hanging skeins of fibre, while at far left is the deceased, seated as he makes a shoe, with a cupboard topped with wooden shoe-forms suggests his workshop. The inclusion of music in this sarcophagus relief suggests that the deceased, and/or his friends, were devotees of Isis, as the instruments being played frequently form part of representations of Isaic ceremonies.
November 8, 2025 at 11:09 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#FrescoFriday at the #Praedia of #JuliaFelix in #Pompeii (though the #fresco is now in #Naples) gives us a floating scene of a #satyr holding a bucket of #grapes on one shoulder and carrying off a #maenad with his other arm. He seems cannibalistically interested in her forearm. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SATYR AND MAENAD, 62-79 CE. MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DI NAPOLI This centrepiece of a wall (MANN inv. 8598) in the tablinum of the Prædia of Julia Felix shows two floating figures against a yellow background, though there are hints that an Eros was once holding two wreaths above the heads of the figures. The female figure is a Maenad, a Dionysiac devotee, and her natural male counterpart in art is, as here, the male figure of a satyr. He is carrying her off, but she has a devil-may-care manner in her expression, her bare torso, and her right arm flung up into the air as if to say, "Go ahead. Take me to the bed." But is that the satyr's intention? He seems more likely to take her to the kitchen, with his glass bucket on his shoulder and what I would call an unnatural, even hungry interest in her forearm.
November 7, 2025 at 5:14 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
This #funerary #altar for #EpigraphyTuesday and #ReliefWednesday is of late #JulioClaudian date. It names one T. Apusulenus Alexander and his slaves, and the delicate #relief shows a seated woman releasing a dove, helped by an #Eros, while a little girl at left is doing the same. #AncientBluesky 🏺
FUNERARY ALTAR OF T. APUSULENUS ALEXANDER, 41-68 CE. CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS D(is) M(anibus). / T(itus) Apusulenus Alexander / v(ixit) a(nnis) LXXIIX. T(itus) Apusulenus Lucrio, / T(itus) Apusulenus Ianuarius, / T(itus) Apusulenus Iucundus, Apusulena Methe fec(erunt) patr(ono) suo / bene de se merenti. "To the departed shades. Titus Apusulenus Alexander lived 78 years. (His slaves) Lucrio, Ianuarius, Iucundus, and Methe made this for their master, good in himself." Oddly, the rote phrase "et benemerenti", "and well-deserving", seems to have been scratched out. They must have bought a pre-made urn, because the scene doesn't show a man, but a woman at right seated on a klismòs or chair, either releasing or holding onto a dove that is offered her by an Eros. At right, a little girl with a dog leaping up onto her also releases a dove. Alexander must have been a Greek freedman of someone called T. Apusulenus, and his slaves took his former master's name too. The scene and inscription are framed by a Lesbian kymation, the top one having been cut away to make a field on which to belatedly inscribe "D M", "to the departed shades". Is it just me, or does this Alexander not seem to have been truly mourned?
November 5, 2025 at 10:21 PM
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#MosaicMonday takes us back to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome, this time to look at the dazzling #opussectile floor of the #domus of #PortaMarina from #OstiaAntica, 385-388 CE. Its complex #geometric design makes it the most perfect floor of its kind in #LateAntiquity. #AncientBluesky 🏺
OPUS SECTILE FLOOR, 385-388 CE. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This extraordinary opus sectile pavement only finds comparisons in the House of Cupid and Psyche in Ostia and in the Diocletianic opus sectile floor of the Curia Senatus, which has been heavily restored. Here we have a background of giallo antico and a complex pattern of polygonal shapes with three recurrent themes, the circle, the four-pointed star, and the strange pelta or C-shaped shield. At the centre of each four-pointed star is a circle of alternating porphyry and serpentino set inside a round frame, or a circle of those marbles inset with a square of giallo antico or brecciated white marble. Within the octagons created between the stars, on a background of pavonazzetto, are circles framed with porphyry, with four peltæ in serpentino. This is a sophisticated and expensive floor, and the room must have had a public or ceremonial function.
November 3, 2025 at 11:23 PM
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#SpoliaSunday gives us a #sarcophagus from 200-225 CE decorated with the #Muses but recarved on three sides for reuse as the tomb of Jacopa dei Prefetti di Vico in 1398, sister-in-law of the reigning pope #Boniface IX #Tomacelli, a prestige coffin for a powerful woman. #Rome #AncientBluesky 🏺
SARCOPHAGUS WITH MUSES, 200-225 CE, REUSED AND RECARVED IN 1398. CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS This early C3 sarcophagus was recycled as a water basin and then was taken and recarved to serve as the tomb of Jacopa dei Prefetti di Vico, from an old medieval noble family whose name is recalled in via de' Prefetti. Crosses are carved on the short sides of the sarcophagus and on the new front, formerly the back, are two crests and the inscription "Here rests the body of the magnificent and powerful domina lacopa dei Prefetti di Vico, marchioness of the March of Ancona, once wife of the magnificent and powerful dominus Andrea Tomacelli knight marquess of the March of Ancona, who died in the year of our Lord 1398 in the sixth indiction on 15 October. May her soul rest in peace, amen".
November 3, 2025 at 12:56 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
A C3 CE child's #sarcophagus for #SarcophagusSaturday, this one from the Altemps collection in #PalazzoAltemps in #Rome. Two #Erotes hold up a central #clipeus with a sad inscription on it, and on either side are two more, the other four representing the seasons. #AncientBluesky 🏺
CHILD'S SARCOPHAGUS WITH EROTES, C. 240-250 CE. PALAZZO ALTEMPS This tiny sarcophagus of Luni marble was able to be replaced here in the courtyard fountain of palazzo Altemps, after the family had removed it when they sold the palace. Now it is dry, but it once had a jet of water pouring into it, and emerging from the hole at bottom centre to fall into a lower basin, also now dry. The inscription says "D. M. FYRMIUS METRAS ET AELIA CHRYSOTYCHE C. FYRMI METRAE FILIO DULCISSIMO FEC(ERUNT)", "to the departed shades. Fyrmius Metras and Ælia Chrysotyche made this for their sweetest son C. Fyrmius Metras." The central clipeus bearing the epitaph is held by two Erotes and supported by two winged sphinxes. At right and left are four other Erotes which represent the seasons, of which I can only identify one, Winter, at far right, because he's wearing a tunic and cloak instead of just a cloak. The seasons evoke circular time and the hope of rebirth.
November 1, 2025 at 10:16 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
Costume suggestions for #FrescoFriday #Halloween from a #fresco from the #domus of the #Farnesina, 30-20 BCE: this odd pair of women in long chitons, one in front with a shield on her head topped with olive branches, and another taller woman behind, holding a menacing little saw. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SCENE FROM A CORRIDOR IN THE DOMUS OF THE FARNESINA, 30-20 BCE. PALAZZO MASSIMO ALLE TERME A baffling scene from a myth or a ritual. Against a blue-green background, two women are walking toward the right. Both are wearing long plain chitons with red lines along the sides going from shoulder to hem. The shorter woman in the front seems to be wearing a shield on her head, convex side out, which is covered with leafy branches of laurel or olive. She holds another branch in her left hand and steadies the shield with her right. She looks a bit downtrodden. Behind her, at left, is a taller woman (?) whose face is missing, dressed identically. In both hands she holds a very strange tool in black, a straight diagonal line which expands upward like 3 sides of a rectangle before returning to its original line. A dotted line closes off the bottom of this shape, and I've interpreted this as a sort of jigsaw, possibly for cutting the branches the woman in front is carrying. I have no idea what is going on here. The internet offers no clues. But I *can* say with confidence that if you wear these outfits for Halloween, absolutely no one will guess who you are.
October 31, 2025 at 12:40 PM
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A magnificent #statue of a #priestess of #Isis, from the #Serapeum of #Tauromenium, today's #Taormina, from around 200 CE. The knot in her dress identifies her. She's holding a cista or container indicating that she is about to initiate a believer into the Isaic mystery cult. #AncientBluesky 🏺
STATUE OF A PRIESTESS OF ISIS, C. 200 CE. PALAZZO CIAMPOLI, TAORMINA Ancient Tauromenium was the centre of a major cult centre of the Roman Egyptian gods Isis and Serapis, one of the most important centres in the Mediterranean. None of the Serapeum survives today, but this statue and various other pieces of decoration have been found in excavations near the church of S. Pancrazio. This statue has a particular delicacy and grace in its carving. The priestess of Isis is identifiable by the famous Isaic knot in her dress, between her breasts. Her broken right arm would have held a sistrum or ceremonial rattle, and her left hand holds a rounded cista which contained items and substances used in the initiation of new members into the mystery cult of Isis.
October 30, 2025 at 10:19 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#ReliefWednesday gives us a #market scene from #OstiaAntica, a bustling stall where clients on the left argue, while two women are selling fruit from full baskets on their counter. A huge wicker container holds snails, a delicacy. But what are the two monkeys? Pets or meat? #AncientBluesky 🏺
MARKET SCENE, C. 100 CE. MUSEO DI OSTIA ANTICA. This relief in Proconnesian marble is from via della Foce in Ostia Antica. It shows a busy market scene, with customers arguing with each other at left, while, below some butchered fowl, another man is buying fruit from one of the two women behind the counter, which has two heaping baskets of fruit on it. A large wicker container next to the fruit evidently contains snails, as an oversized one is trying to make a break for it. At right, two monkeys are sitting on the counter, waiting for something to happen. Are they for sale or are they the pets of the women? If they are for sale, are they meant to be killed and eaten? Is this the ancient equivalent of the wet market at Wuhan?
October 29, 2025 at 2:53 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
Floating up from the darkness of late antiquity is this #opussectile #octopus from the #domus of #PortaMarina in #OstiaAntica, now in the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome. This sea creature in giallo antico comes from somewhere in the famous opus sectile room, dating from 385-388 CE. #MosaicMonday 🏺
This delightful cephalopod in giallo antico was found in a pile of similar loose pieces of cut stone on the floor of the opus sectile hall of the domus of Porta Marina. Evidently they had never been installed, as they had no trace of the adhesive material (bitumen) that held such pieces to the wall. Was this house abandoned before it was finished, or did the design plans change midway? It is certainly hard to place this octopus in the decorative program of the room. On the tentacles, the suckers are clearly indicated, and there are two eyes on the main body, with a rather irregularly inscribed line within the main body, outlining most of it but creating a concave curve between the eyes, giving this octopus a worried frown.
October 28, 2025 at 1:02 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#EpigraphyTuesday shows us ideal formal #epigraphy, with this fragmentary base from the #Forum of #Augustus dated to 2 BCE of a statue of #Aeneas: "AEN[E]A[S PRIMVS]/LATIN[ORVM REX] / REGNAV[IT ANNOS III]", Aeneas, first king of the Latins, ruled three years". #AncientBluesky 🏺
Here we see a single block of Luni white marble, which shows signs of being broken intentionally for the lime kilns, on display in the Museum of the Imperial Fora in Trajan's Markets. There are still traces of red paint in the inscription, of which little remains. This piece comes from one of the exedræ in the Forum of Augustus, probably the central part of the northern exedra which was dedicated to the ancestors of Augustus, the legendary Trojan hero Aeneas being the essential one. Son of Venus and the lucky Trojan royal Anchises, his adventures were recorded, and embellished, in Augustan poetry, specifically the epic Aeneid by the poet Virgil.
October 27, 2025 at 11:44 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
On 9 September 1349 a devastating #earthquake shook #Rome. The façades of the eastern buildings of #TrajansMarkets fell into the street below, and the last house had to be completely rebuilt in what I would call opus incertissimum, including a #cipollino column for #SpoliaSunday. #AncientBluesky 🏺
This photo shows the end of the series of Trajanic buildings rising over Trajan's Markets, with an ancient paved road beside it and the colossal Torre delle Milizie (c. 1200) visible at the end. The 1349 earthquake tilted the tower, and the tilt is still visible: the tremor also brought down the upper third of the tower. The side of the house we see here is built on the foundations of its Trajanic predecessor, and further along, other rooms still have their ancient brick interiors but have needed rebuilt medieval façades. Two spolia columns are embedded in this wall on the upper level, one at the front (to the right) and the other, of green Carystian cipollino, toward the street façade.
October 26, 2025 at 10:10 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SarcophagusSaturday takes us into #palazzoBarberini in #Rome to see this beautiful tub #sarcophagus in white marble surrounded by continuous #strigillation. This is an elegant #Dionysiac coffin: here the wave forms represent wine as well as the circular nature of time, and more. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SARCOPHAGUS A LENOS, C2-C3 CE. PALAZZO BARBERINI The sarcophagus a lenos, "tub-shaped", allowed wealthier people a showier coffin without corners, capable of being put on a base and admired from all sides. Three notches on the far rim show where the heavy lid would have been attached. The form is that of an elegant tub, complete with lion heads holding marble rings in their mouths, alluding to the portability of the real tub, which would be used for stomping grapes to make wine. The strigillation is continuous, alluding simultaneously to the river Styx, the river Oceanus that was thought to gird the world, as well as the cyclical nature of time, and the ripples in the wine that brings sleep, a metaphor for death.
October 25, 2025 at 11:58 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#FrescoFriday gives us this #Pan holding a #thyrsus, a #Dionysiac symbol, in this #fresco fragment from the Evan Gorga collection now in #PalazzoAltemps. This is of possibly #Neronian date and is all about fun and revels, rather Saturnalian, with Pan wearing the crown of #Serapis.
Pan, against a black background, holds a thyrsus in his left arm horizontally over his head. A red jewel dangles from the pointed end of the thyrsus. Pan himself looks fun, not dangerous, despite his goat horn and ears. He's wearing a yellow tunic and may be holding a wine jug in his other hand. Atop his head is the golden flowerpot-shaped crown we usually associate with the syncretic Roman/Egyptian god Serapis, husband to the Roman version of Isis.
October 24, 2025 at 7:05 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#ReliefWednesday shows us the rich #relief work of the #cinerary #urn of one C. Iulius Saecularis, from c. 90 CE. The nude youth, a bit chubby, holds a #butterfly in his right hand, symbol of the #spirit. He doesn't want to let go of his earthly life. #Dionysiac symbols abound. #AncientBluesky 🏺
This white rectangular cinerary urn front was first noted in the Villa Giulia in its heyday, and found its way into the Borghese collection from which it was acquired by the National Roman Museum in 1893. It's a densely carved, rather beautiful relief crammed full of imagery. The youth, unfortunately emasculated by time, stands in a scallop-shell niche, which is usually an allusion to Venus, when the figure is female. He's wearing a lacerna or half cloak but is otherwise heroically nude. He is dressed for his trip to the Underworld. He's looking to his right (our left), his hands raised to chest level. In his right hand he holds a butterfly, symbol of the spirit, and in his left a tiny bird, possibly a peacock or even a parrot. At his feet are a dog and a monkey, symbols of attachment to earthly life. The vegetation on either side of the niche allude to the Underworld: olive, vine, and pine. At right a tall candelabrum culminates in a plaque with a Gorgoneion, an apotropaic protector.
October 22, 2025 at 7:12 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For #EpigraphyTuesday I was forced to go back to my original posting style, but here's the short version: this #inscription was found in the #necropolis of Villa #Pamphilj and records a wealthy eye doctor and his dear wife, who has the singularly unpoetic name of Ogulnia Prepusa. #AncientBluesky 🏺
FUNERARY INSCRIPTION OF AN EYE DOCTOR, C1-C2 CE. GALLERIA DORIA PAMPHILJ [--/ medicus ocu[larius] / fecit sib[i et] / Ogulniae Prepuslae coniugil / suae carissimae [et libertis] / et libertabusque sulis posterisque] / eorum. Hoc monimentum alio / nomine heredem n[on sequetur] An unknown eye doctor (medicus ocularius) leaves this proud inscription on his tomb: "--, eye doctor, made this (tomb) for himself, his dearest wife Ogulnia Prepusa, and his freedmen and freedwomen and their descendants. This monument does not pass to other heirs of the same name." So we can surmise that this eye doctor was prosperous, and that other heirs having his nomen had to keep their hands off the tomb. A hint of familial acrimony.
October 21, 2025 at 9:15 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday brings us to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome for these two faces in #opussectile from the #domus of #PortaMarina in #OstiaAntica, dating to 385-388 CE. This splendid house had a mysteriously short life, and these faces seem to be reacting to imminent destruction. #AncientBluesky 🏺
Two partial faces in opus sectile, made in a very simple, almost childlike style, with round open eyes in white marble, open mouths without lips (missing or never made) and skin in giallo antico. They seem to be watching the approaching disaster, whether by sea or by earthquake, that shattered the structure possibly even before it was finished.
October 20, 2025 at 12:57 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SpoliaSunday leads into the vicolo dell'Atleta in #Trastevere in #Rome, where a piece of #sarcophagus front with the familiar #strigilate curves that represent the ripples of the river #Styx was reused in the C14 as the side wall of an entrance, now walled up. #AncientBluesky 🏺
October 19, 2025 at 11:07 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For #SarcophagusSaturday, what does the story of #Oedipus and the #Sphinx have to do with the story of #Polyphemus and #Galatea? As far as I can tell, nothing! But both stories appear on this #sarcophagus front in the #androne of #PalazzoMattei di #Giove in #Rome. #AncientBluesky 🏺
GARLAND SARCOPHAGUS WITH EROTES, 125-140 CE. PALAZZO MATTEI DI GIOVE From the vast Mattei collection of sarcophagus fronts comes this finely-carved specimen with three Erotes holding up two garlands laden with autumn fruit. But there's something strange about it: the two scenes above the curves of the garlands seem to have nothing to do with each other. At left is a very delicate relief of Œdipus and the sphinx, the former attended by a servant. At right, the scene is of the lovestruck Cyclops Polyphemus trying to win over the uninterested Nereid Galatea by offering her a sheep, which, dude, come on.
October 18, 2025 at 8:05 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#FrescoFriday brings us to somewhere in #Herculaneum where a scene of #sacrifice is underway in the wall #fresco, now in #Naples. This beautiful young woman wearing an olive-branch wreath is seen in 3/4 view, looking down to the right with her lips parted apprehensively. "Dad?" #AncientBluesky 🏺
FRESCO WITH FEMALE HEAD, 20-10 BCE. MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DI NAPOLI This detached fresco comes from an unidentified findspot in Herculaneum but is identified either as Akte, one of the Horæ or Hours, or as one of the Peliades, the daughters of king Pelias. The scant information available says that this head comes from a scene of sacrifice, which suggests one of the Peliades. The witch Medea tricked Pelias' daughters into killing him. She slit the throat of a ram and flung the dead animal into a boiling cauldron of potion, and out leapt the ram again, not only alive but rejuvenated. The Peliades, with the intention of rejuvenating their father, cut his throat and put him in the pot, but all they got was a dense broth of fatherly juices, and the mocking laughter of Medea.
October 17, 2025 at 8:44 PM
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This splendid terracotta #antefix in medium #relief is my offering for #ReliefWednesday this week. It shows #JunoSospita, a terrifying huntress divinity of the Latial peoples, and comes from the ruins of #Antemnæ, one of the #Sabine towns whose women were taken by #Romulus. #AncientBluesky 🏺
TERRACOTTA ANTEFIX, С. 480 ВСЕ. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN The Sabine town of Antemnæ stood at the point where the Anio river flowed into the Tiber. It was thought by the ancient Romans to be older than Rome itself, and its main religious building was a temple to the goddess Juno Sospita, a quite different and bloodier divinity than the Greek Hera and effectively a different goddess than Juno Regina, wife of Jupiter. She is often depicted wearing a goatskin cloak with its horned hood and ears, rather as Hercules is shown wearing a lionskin or leonté. In this broken antefix from her temple at Antemnæ we can see these characteristics, as well as the painted decoration that shows a red and black checkerboard pattern on the curve between the horns of her cloak. This comes from a cast and closely resembles a similar antefix found on the Palatine.
October 15, 2025 at 7:56 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#EpigraphyTuesday offers us a shattered and recomposed slab of Luni marble from the #Forum of #Augustus in #Rome. Its #inscription has been somewhat devoured by the human termites who ran the lime kilns but is easily legible as a statue dedication to #Drusus #Germanicus. #AncientBluesky 🏺
STATUE BASE FROM THE FORUM OF AUGUSTUS, 2 BCE. TRAJAN'S MARKETS [Nero] Cl[a]udiu[s], Ti(beri) f(ilius), / [Dru]sus German[i]cus, / [co(n)s(ul)], pr(aetor) urb(anus), q(uaestor), aug(ur), imp(erator)/[app]ellatus in Germania "Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, son of Tiberius, consul, urban praetor, quaestor, augur, acclaimed as commander in Germany". This is the fragmented statue base of a member of the Claudian gens absorbed into the family of Augustus, the great military hero Drusus, second son of Livia, wife of Augustus, by her first marriage to Tiberius Claudius. Drusus had a hugely successful military career and held civil office. He was acclaimed as imperator by his troops after they defeated the German tribe of the Cherusci in 11 BCE. He died two years later and was commemorated in the part of the Forum of Augustus dedicated to his family.
October 14, 2025 at 12:16 PM
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#MosaicMonday presents us with a #floor #mosaic from a #tomb of the "middling sort", which is the class below the rich but above the artisanate, a significant commissioner of funerary art in #Rome and the provinces. Here we are in a #necropolis along the ancient #viaPortuensis. #AncientBluesky 🏺
MOSAIC FLOOR, TOMB A, 130-170 CE. DRUGSTORE MUSEUM This black and white mosaic pavement shows a broad black band around the exterior, then a frame of guilloches and two narrow black bands on either side against a white background. The mosaic is not especially sophisticated and the subject is familiar from other middle-class tombs of the C2 CE. Four kantharoi in the corners sprout grapevines, and four figures, one per side, are harvesting the grapes. The vines overlap a central circular frame containing a male figure with a double axe, about to hack at a separate vine. This is Lycurgus, king of Thrace, who is attacking what had been, a moment before, the nymph Ambrosia, but she had been compassionately turned into a vine by Dionysus and is about to wrap around the frustrated Lycurgus and trap him. This transformation represents the consoling rebirth of the natural world, and the circular frame evokes Aeon, god of cyclical time.
October 13, 2025 at 8:24 PM