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Achilleae Comae: hair and heroism according to Domitian1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Llewelyn Morgan
Llewelyn Morgan
Affiliation:
University College Dublin
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Extract

For a homicidal tyrant Domitian was disconcertingly droll. A number of examples of is ‘sardonic wit’ survive. One of them was so good that Marcus Aurelius supposedly repeated it, and attributed it to Hadrian rather than Domitian on the grounds that good sayings had no moral force if they came from tyrants.3 Domitian also possessed a talent for writing. Suetonius (Dom.2.2, 20) and Tacitus (Hist.4.86.2) claim that his interest in literature was merely a pretence, but Domitian′s contemporaries claim for him genuine ability, and here for once they seem much closer to the mark, as Coleman argues.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , May 1997 , pp. 209 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1997

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References

1 Thanks are due to Stephen Heyworth, William Lavelle, Peter Heslin, Andrew Erskine, and CQsanonymous referee for their insightful criticism.

2 Coleman, K.M. ‘The Emperor Domitian and literature’, ANRWll.32.5,3087–115 (on which these first paragraphs are closely based), esp. 3091–2, 3094–5. Suetonius (Dom.20) grudgingly concedes that Domitian was dictorum interdum etiam notabilium.Google Scholar

3 Condicio principum miserrima, quibus de coniuratione comperta non crederetur nisi occisis:see Coleman, art. cit., 3092, n. 22; Suet. Dom.21; S.H.A. Avid. Cass.2.5–6. All this pace Jones, B.W.The Emperor Domitian(London, 1992), according to whom Domitian was ‘completely lacking a sense of humour’ (198).Google Scholar

4 Quint. Inst.10.1.91; Pliny, H.N.Praef. 5; Stat. Ach.1.16–17; Val. Flac. 1.7–20; Coleman, art. cit., 3088–91.

5 For Suetonius′ ‘concealed’ invective see T. Barton, ‘The inventioof Nero: Suetonius’, in J. Eisner and J. Masters (edd.), Reflections of Nero: Culture, History and Representation(London, 1994), 48–63.

6 Bardon, H., Les Empereurs et les lettres latines d′Auguste a Hadrien(Paris, 1940), 281.Google Scholar

7 Men. Rhet. 414.4ff.; Nisbet, R.G.M. and Hubbard, M., A Commentary on Horace, Odes_Book 1(Oxford, 1970), ad 1.28.7; R. Lattimore, Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs(Urbana, 1962), 250–1.Google Scholar

8 RE s.v. ‘Consolatio ad Liviam’, 939.48ff. B. Lier, ‘Topica carminum sepulcralium latinorum’, Phttologus62 (1903), 445–77, 563–603, 576f; Lattimore, op. cit., 254. See, for example, Ov. Am.3.9.1; Prop. 3.18.27; W Peek, Griechische Vers-Inschriften I(Berlin, 1955), 1804.10.

9 Mallet, F., Quaestiones Propertianae(Diss. Gottingen, 1882), 65; Lier, art. cit., 576, n. 23. Compare N. Richardson, The Iliad: A Commentary, vol. VI (books 21–24)(Cambridge, 1993) ad 21.106–7.Google Scholar

10 See Nisbet and Hubbard, loc. cit.; H. J. Botschuyver Scholia in Horatium )(Amsterdam, 1935), 61: ‘OCCIDIT ET] Haec ad consolationem mortuorum inculcat’; Porphyrio ad loc: ‘haec autem ad solacium mortis dicuntur’.

11 Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit., ad 1.28.8. Compare also me quoque(21) and Il. 21.110.

12 E. J. Kenney Lucretius, De Rerum Natura_Book III(Cambridge, 1971), 31–1.

13 R. Heinze, T. Lucretius Cams, De Rerum Natura_Buch III(Leipzig & Berlin, 1897), ad 1026; Kenney, op. cit., ad locc.

14 The rest of the passage also consists of commonplaces. On nee gratius quicquam decore nee breuius,for example, see G. W. Mooney C. Suetoni Tranquilli de Vita Caesarum Libri VII-VIII(Dublin, 1930), 595.

15 W. H. Roscher (ed.), Ausfuhrliches Lexicon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie(Leipzig, 1884–1937), vol. 1, 63.

16 Compare Plaut. Mil. Glor.61–4.

17 J. Maillon, Heliodore, Les Ethiopiques, vol. 1 (Paris, 1935), 95.

18 E. Post, Selected Epigrams of Martial (Norman, OK, 1967), ad loc.

19 Stat. Silv.3.4.85 (compare Ach.1.628–9). On this poem see below, n. 35.

20 H. Kurschner, P. Papinius Statins quibus in Achilleide componenda usus esse videaturfontibus(Diss. Marburg, 1907), 39, n. 5; O. A. W Dilke, Statius: Achilleid(Cambridge, 1954), ad 1.162. For further references to his hair in the Achilleid see1.328, 855f.

21 On this see E. Berger, ‘Der Neue Amazonenkopf im basler Antikenmuseum–ein Beitrag zur hellenistischen Achill-Penthesileagruppe’, in M. Rohde-Liegle, H. A. Cahn & H. Chr. Ackermann (edd.), Gestalt und Geschichte: Festschrift Karl Schefold(Bern, 1967), 61–75. For the head of Achilles see pis. 26–8. For a reconstruction of the sculpture see LIMC1.2 s.v. ‘Achilleus’, no. 746.

22 A. Stewart, Faces of Power Alexander′s Image and Hellenistic Politics(California, 1993), 78–86.

23 Berger, art. cit., 70.

24 See R. R. R. Smith Hellenistic Royal Portraits(Oxford, 1988), 47,111.

25 Stewart, op. cit., 76–8.

26 Smith, op. cit., 47. In particular, Apollo and Bacchus: for their long hair see F. Bomer, P. OvidiusNaso: Metamorphosen,vol. 1 (Heidelberg, 1969), ad Met.3.421.

27 J. J. Pollitt Art in the Hellenistic age(Cambridge, 1986), 21.

28 D. E. Strong Roman Art(London2, 1988), 137.

29 Ibid., 135f.

30 J. D. Breckenridge, ‘Roman Imperial Portraiture from Augustus to Gallienus’, ANRWII.12.2, 477–512, 495; G. Daltrop, U. Hausmann and M. Wegner, Die Flavier Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Julia Titi, Domitilla, Domitia, Das romische HerrscherbildII. 1 (Berlin, 1966), pis. 24,25. Compare Stat. Silv.1.1.84–7, which asserts the superiority of the equestrian statue of Domitian as Hercules in the forum over a statue of Alexander by Lysippus. For comparison of Domitian with Alexander see further K. M. Coleman Statius, Silvae IV(Oxford, 1988), ad 4.1.40–1.

31 Caligula, for example (Suet. Cal.35.2, 50.1). The toupee worn by Otho (Suet. Otho12.1), who also seemingly cultivated an Alexandrian image, is visible in his coin-portraits: Breckenridge, art. cit., 491–2.

32 Suet. Jul.45.2; Dio 43.43.1. See S. Weinstock, Dims Julius(Oxford, 1971), 23–6. Caesar′s anxiety about his hair must in part have been because he was another aspirant Alexander (Suet. Jul.7): compare Strong, op. cit. (n. 27), 77 and Breckenridge, art. cit., 479f. on imitation of Alexander in the portraiture of Pompey the Great, and possibly also Sulla. But a lack of hair was of course a particular handicap to a Caesar: see Weinstock, loc. cit., on the etymology of Caesarfrom caesaries.

33 Bardon, loc. cit. (n. 5); Coleman, art. cit. (n. 1), 3088, n. 5, 3090, 3095.

34 The many poems of Martial which satirize baldness (e.g. 6.12, 6.57, 10.83) might imply a continued readiness on the emperor′s part to be amused by the subject. Epigram 5.49, in particular, is from a book dedicated to Domitian which apparently goes to some lengths not to upset the emperor: see P. Howell, Martial: EpigramsF(Warminster, 1995), 3–5.

35 Compare, for example, the extraordinary series of poems by Statius (Silv.3.4) and Martial (9.16,17, 36) commemorating the dedication of his lover Earinus′ hair to Asclepius at Pergamum. In Statius′ poem Earinus′ dedication of his long hair, a token of his youthfulness, in order to secure ‘lasting youth’ not for himself but for Domitian (Silv.3.4.101), rather suggests that Earinus here substitutes for Domitian, and his copious hair for the hair Domitian lacked. The themes of the poem–Earinus′ youth, beauty and hair–correspond strikingly to important themes in the representation of the emperor himself, further complicating any attempt clearly to distinguish Earinus and Domitian. For Domitian′s youthfulness see, for example, Silv.4.1.46C, 4.3.148f. (compare Mart. 4.1.3–4). Reference is often made to Domitian′s role in the conflict with Vitellius at Rome (69 A.D.), at the early age of eighteen: see Stat. Silv.1.1.79–81, 5.3.195ff.; Theb.1.21–4; Mart. 9.101.14; Joseph. BJ7.85; Tac. Hist.3.74 (compare Mart. 2.2.4; Sil. Pun.3.608). For Domitian′s beauty see 5i7v. 3.4.44f., 4.2.38–56; Mart. 9.65. On this poem and the awkwardness of its theme see D. Vessey, Statius and the Thebaid(Cambridge, 1973), 28–36.