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The Severan Commemorative Relief at Cyrene. The portraiture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

A. Bonanno
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Extract

On my first visit to Cyrene in summer 1972 I was so intrigued by the figurative relief standing on the south side of the so-called Valley Street, immediately to the east of the modern village of Shahat, that I decided to include it in my doctoral thesis. I visited the site in the distinguished company of the late Prof. D. E. Strong, who was then my research supervisor, and Mr. Philip Kenrick. We spent together some hours in front of this fascinating monument discussing a number of points concerning the architecture of the building to which it belonged, the identification of the figures, the iconography of the then hypothetical portraits, and the reading of the inscription. A full description and discussion of the monument were given by Professor Strong in a lecture delivered at the British Museum on the occasion of the opening of the Exhibition of Libyan Antiquities on 14th June, 1973, and later published in the Society for Libyan Studies Report. I returned to Cyrene in summer 1973 in order to make a more thorough examination of the relief and to produce a number of detailed photographs of the heads. The contents of this article are the result of these observations and the stimulating discussions I had with Professor Strong on the subject.

For a comprehensive description of the relief I refer the reader to Strong's contribution in the Fourth Annual Report, but it is appropriate to recapitulate briefly. The relief in question constituted the figured frieze of the entablature of a monumental gateway resting on Corinthian columns. Beneath the frieze, which must have been more than 11m long, ran an inscription in two lines of standard monumental Greek letters. All the architectural elements, including the frieze, are carved on a very gritty and shelly limestone. The state of preservation is very poor: the figures on the right hand block are almost completely lost and elsewhere heads and limbs have fallen off, in some cases being cemented back. The best preserved are the central figures, but even here the sugary limestone has eroded to some extent (Fig.Ia).

Type
Research Article
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 8 , 1977 , pp. 19 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 1977

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References

Notes and References

1. Later published as Bonanno, A., Portraits and other Heads on Roman Historical Relief up to the Age of Septimius Severus (BAR, Oxford 1976)Google Scholar.

2. Strong, D. E. “Septimius Severus at Lepcis Magna and Cyrene”, The Society for Libyan Studies, Fourth Annual Report (1972–1973), 27–35, pls.VII-XGoogle Scholar.

3. I am grateful to the personnel of the Antiquities Department of Benghazi and Cyrene for their kind help and permission to photograph the relief.

4. For a description of the relief and the building to which it belonged see, besides Strong, Sichtermann, H., AA (1959), 284–91, Figs. 25–28Google Scholar; Kraus, T., Das römische Weltreich (Berlin 1968) 238, no.233 (H. von Heintze)Google Scholar; Vermeule, C. C., Roman Imperial Art in Greece and Asia Minor (Cambridge, Mass. 1968) 79–80, 93Google Scholar; Goodchild, R. G., Kyrene und Apollonia (Zurich 1971) 138 ff., Figs. 84-87Google Scholar.

5. It records the erection of a statue of Septimius Severus in a chariot by a group of citizens from their own private funds (ΤΩΝ ΙΔΙΩΝ). The text as reproduced by Strong in Fig. 1, p.29 needs one or two slight corrections. Instead of ΕΥΣΕΒΗ ΙΤΕΡΤΙΝΑΚΑ read ΕΥΣΕΒΗ ΠΕΡΤΙΝΑΚΑ. Instead of ΦΙΑΟΤΕΙ (or ΦΛΑΟΤΕΙ, as on p.30) read ΦΙΛΟΤΕΙ.

6. Similar caps are worn by the Parthians on the Severan Arch in the Roman Forum: Brilliant, R., The Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum, MAAR 29 (Rome 1967) pls.46c, 48, 50–9, 78, 81Google Scholar.

7. Ibid. 167 ff. pls. 60 ff.

8. Pallottino, M., “Il grande fregio di Traiano”, Bull-Comm 66 (1938) 17–56Google Scholar. Gauer, W., “Ein Dakerdenkmal Domitians. Die Trajanssäule und das sogenannte grosse trajanische Relief”, Jdl 88 (1973) 318–50Google Scholar.

9. Lehmann-Hartleben, K., Die Traianssäule (Berlin & Leipzig 1926)Google Scholar; Rossi, L., Trajan's Column and the Dacian Wars (London 1971)Google Scholar.

10. Strong, op. cit. 33.

11. Ibid. pl. IX.

12. Ibid. 33.

13. E.g. the sarcophagus portraying a battle against Galatians in the Capitoline Museum and the sarcophagus of one of Marcus Aurelius' generals from Via Casilina in the Museo Nazionale, Rome: Bandinelli, R. Bianchi, Rome, the Centre of Power (London 1970), Figs. 341, 345Google Scholar.

14. Such as the Lagina frieze: Schober, A., Der Fries des Hekateions von Lagina (Istanbuler Forschungen, 2 1933) pl. XIGoogle Scholar. See also EAA VII (1966) 996–8Google Scholar s.v. “Trofeo” (Mansuelli). For the Arch of Severus in Lepcis see Brilliant op. cit. Fig. 51, and Bartoccini, R., “L'arco quadrifronte dei Severi a Lepcis” Afrit 4 (1931) Fig. 32Google Scholar. Two such trophies carved in the round now stand on the Capitol: Bianchi Bandinelli op. cit. Fig.247.

15. Bonanno, op. cit. pl. 28

16. Bianchi Bandinelli, op. cit. Fig. 341.

17. For Severus' iconography see McCann, A. M., The Portraits of Septimius Severus, MAAR 30 (Rome 1968)Google Scholar; Soechting, D., Die Porträts des Septimius Severus (Bonn 1972)Google Scholar.

18. For Marcus Aurelius' portraiture see Wegner, M., Die Herrscherbildnisse in Antoninischer Zeit, Das Römische Herrscherbild II 4 (Berlin 1939)Google Scholar.

19. Bonanno, op. cit. pls. 281, 284, 286, 291–2, 301, 303.

20. Strong, op. cit. 34.

21. Alfoldi, A., “Insignen und Tracht”, RM 50 (1935) 121Google Scholar; Mattingly, H., Coins of the Roman Empire III, xxiiiGoogle Scholar; Babelon, E., Catalogue des camées antiques (Paris 1897) pl. XXXIVGoogle Scholar.

22. Vermeule, C. C., “Commodus, Caracalla and the Tetrarchs. Roman Emperors as Hercules”, Festschrift für Frank Brommer (Mainz 1977)Google Scholar.

23. See Budde, L., Jugendbildnisse der Caracalla und Geta (Münster 1951)Google Scholar; Wiggers, H. B.—Wegner, M., Caracalla bis Balbinus. Das Römische Herrscherbild III 1 (Berlin 1971)Google Scholar.

24. Ibid. 17-22.

25. Musée Saint Rymond 30156: Ibid. 87, pl. 3b.

26. Sala dei Busti 347: Ibid. 83, Budde op. cit. pls. 15a, 17a.

27. No.641: Wiggers, op. cit. 79–80, pls. 1a–b, 5a; Budde, op. cit. pl. 18.

28. Wiggers op. cit. 14–6, 88, pls. 6, 7c; Budde op. cit. 9, pl. 6b.

29. Caracalla was born in 186. Strong is wrong in saying he was 13 years of age in A.D. 202.

30. Brilliant, op. cit. 171–82; Bonanno, op. cit. 143–4.

31. Strong, op. cit. 33–4.

32. See note 30.

33. Haynes, D. E. L.—Hirst, P. E. D., Porta Argentariorum (London 1939) 20–2, Figs. 11–2, 22–3Google Scholar; Bonanno, op. cit. 148.

34. Ibid. 150–5 pls. 285, 307.

35. Ibid. 150–5 pls. 290–1, 300.

36. Brilliant, op. cit. 91–5; Haynes, op. cit. 3–11.