The Parthians in Augustan Rome

Abstract

This article considers the conception and commemoration of foreigners, especially Parthians, as diagrammed in the triumphal imagery of Augustan Rome. The interaction of Trojan and Parthian iconography during the Augustan period is analyzed, as is the new attitude toward the representation of foreigners that developed in Rome during the early Empire, when barbarians were presented as contributors to peace rather than its opponents. The focus is the general topographical context of the Parthian Arch on the east side of the Roman Forum, but the article also includes new iconographic readings of the Primaporta cuirass, the Ara Pacis, the Basilica Aemilia Parthians, and the altar from the Vicus Sandaliarius, as well as triumphal monuments in Athens, Corinth, and Antioch-in-Pisidia. The cuirassed figure facing the Parthian on the Primaporta breastplate is identified as Roma, and the Eastern woman and child on the south frieze of the Ara Pacis are linked to the Parthian royal family resident in Rome during the Augustan period. A triumphal arch celebrating Gaius Caesar's success over the Parthians is reconstructed between the Basilica Aemilia and the temple of Divus Julius, and its decoration was clearly designed to complement that of the adjacent Parthian Arch and the Temple of the Dioscuri. The imagery on the eastern side of the Roman Forum can be read as a program outlining the Julian dynasty's involvement with the Parthians, and suggesting that the East had finally been domesticated.

The Augustan Senate and the Reconfiguration of Time on the Fasti Capitolini

“…34 Östenberg 2009 has an excellent treatment of the Fasti Triumphales and Parthian Arch as a central plank of Augustus' new ideological repertoire of peace; cf. Rose 2005;Rich 1998;Schäfer 1998;Chioffi 1996 45-7; and for a different perspective see Havener in this volume. behind, say, the Forum of Augustus.…”

“…Rose 2005 23 has argued that the specific decree that resulted in the Parthian Arch was circulated speedily to the provinces. He cites as evidence coins that appeared both in Spain and in Pergamum very soon after the honour of an arch was voted.…”

A Pártia e os Partos nos Anais de Tácito

“…Do arco de Severo, no Fórum Romano, à estátua de Prima Porta, 2 no Museu do Vaticano, constata-se que os discursos de sujeição dos arsácidas tiveram um destaque especial na propaganda política dos imperadores de Roma. A evidência numismática, com suas múltiplas referências às vitórias contra o vizinho oriental, não é menos expressiva (Rose, 2005). Nada mais natural, portanto, do que a crescente produção historiográfica sobre a Pártia e os partos na documentação latina.…”

Trajan's Column and Mars Ultor

“…14; Zanker 1990: 121 and fig. 101 (Zanker interprets the younger male as either Lucius or Gaius); Rose 2005: 47–50. My thanks to J. Pollini for bringing this relief to my attention.…”