Dear all,

The last numismatic books (<http://www.moneta.be>www.moneta.be) for 2009
are now available: Greek, Roman, Byzantine, modern coins and coinage,
hoards, etc.
In 2009 Moneta published 17 volumes, about 4500 pages of numismatics and
monetary history.

The two first volumes for 2010 are already in press and will be available
in January.

Best wishes

Georges Depeyrot

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to inform you that the next publications are now on the
website Moneta (<http://www.moneta.be>www.moneta.be)

Volume 97, R. Abdy, E. Ghey, C. Hughes, I. Leins, Coin hoards from Roman
Britain, XII, 436 pages.
Volume 98, D. Flynn, A price theory of monies, Collected papers, 284 pages.
Volume 99, A. Vîlcu, Les monnaies d'or de la Bibliothèque de l'Académie
roumaine, II. Monnaies Byzantines, 184 pages.

Best wishes

Georges Depeyrot

Dear colleagues,

You will find on the Moneta web site
<http://www.moneta.be>http://www.moneta.be the list of the first group of
books published or to be published in spring 09 (a second group will be
published by summer).

G. Depeyrot, Les trésors et les invasions (Les enfouissements d'or et
d'orfèvrerie de 379 à 491),
Moneta volume # 85, I. Introduction, l'Europe orientale et centrale, 2009,
300 pages € 70
Moneta volume # 86, II. Europe centrale et occidentale, 2009, 444 pages € 70
Moneta volume # 87, III. Le bassin méditerranéen, 2009, 376 pages € 70



Do not forget to leave your email address if you want to receive the next
information from Moneta.
The E-paper section contains new documents to download and new links.
(sorry for crossposting)

Best wishes

Georges Depeyrot

Dear All,

In 2008, Moneta published 13 volumes, more than 4.000 pages of numismatics.
Five volumes are already in press for 2009!

The e-paper section has been updated this month with about 150 new links to
scholarly papers, books, periodicals, free to download.

Have a look to the last volumes and do not forget to leave your email to
receive direct information.

Georges Depeyrot



Georges Depeyrot
CNRS - Paris
-----
http://www.moneta.be

Just printed:

Moneta 82, Roman Coins outside the Empire, Ways and Phases, Contexts and
Functions, Proceedings of the ESF/SCH Exploratory Workshop Radziwi Palace,
Nieborów (Poland), 3-6 September 2005

Papers in English, German


Next volume (next week)

Moneta 83, Renata Cio ek, Die Fundmünzen der Römischen Zeit in Polen, Schlesien


Moneta (Moneta bvba <http://www.moneta.be>)

Georges Depeyrot

Dear colleagues,

The Moneta website (Wetteren, Belgium) (numismatic and economic
publications) is modified and updated.
The address is changed for a more friendly site, www.moneta.be.

You will find the new publications and new links to pdf or scholarly
publications in the e-paper section.
New links are just added to this section.

Since January, 10 books are published and 1 is in press. Last publications
or in press:
Moneta 80, J. Maucourant, Pour une économie historique de la monnaie,
Recueil de travaux, 2008, 192 pages (available september 10th) (Text in
French).

Moneta 81, J.-M. Doyen, Gallia Belgica, Germania Inferior & Moesia
Superior, Trésors monétaires anciens et nouveaux (IIe-Ve siècles), 2008,
396 pages (available september 10th) (Text in French).

Moneta 82, Roman Coins Outside the Empire, Ways and Phases, Contexts and
Functions, Proceedings of the Exploratory Workshop, Nieborow (Poland),
2008, 424 pages (available in October) (Texts in English and German).

The Moneta 83 and 84 will be announced very soon.

Georges Depeyrot

Hi guys,

I'm an amateur archaeologist. To cut a long story short I recently
noticed this interesting crop mark in an aerial photo of an area close
to where I live. All I am prepared to say at this stage is that it is
in southern England. A roman temple has been found approx 400 meters
from this site (and excavated in detail) however no Roman domestic
buildings have ever been found in the surrounding area. Nearest
confirmed building is approx 3-4 miles away. Im wondering if this is a
possible villa? Perhaps one wing of the villa showing up well?
Archaeological and historical buildings records/maps have no trace of
a building of any sort ever standing here. I am yet to speak to the
land owner but wanted some more opinions on the matter before i proceed.

Dimensions are as follows: 113 meters in length, 23.5 meters width

can anyone offer any clues or ideas?

Link to image:

http://img396.imageshack.us/my.php?image=82873143oq7.jpg

Many thanks in advance,

Sam

Dear listmembers,

The "e-papers" section of the website Moneta
<http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta>http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta is
updated.

The Revue numismatique (1958-2003) is available on internet. Go to the
"e-papers" section and use the link in "Generalites". The texts of the
Revue numismatique are in various languages.

Two new volumes of the "Collection Moneta" are announced in the
"nouveautes" section.
- The inventory of Roman silver coin hoards in Romania (Gordian III/
Aurelianus) in French (272 pages)
- An inventory of the publications of the main Roman hoards (IIIrd c.
BC/Vth c. AD) (142 pages)
These books will be published in August.

Moneta has published 8 books since January 08. A new group of books will be
announced in autumn.

Do not forget to leave your email address on the Moneta website
("newsletter") and to bookmark the site.

Georges Depeyrot

With moderator`s permission,

Hi everyone,

I`m from IRAN and I`ve created a new group about my beautiful
country, it`s culture of 6000 years and the history of mysterious
PERSIAN EMPIRE era. in this group you can read about PERSIAN
EMPIRE, Kings of IRAN and also you may find many many pictures of
IRAN`s magnificent tourist attractions, from PERSEPOLIS to stunning
view of SHOMAL.we also have good discussions about everything.

If you`d like to join us ,you can have the access to the group with
this link:

http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/Persian_empire/



I`m looking forward to see you in the group.

NOTE: IF YOU HAVE STRONG FEELINGS AGAINST IRAN , PLEASE DO NOT JOIN
OR REPLY.

Dear All,

A group of new books is now available on Celtic and Roman coinage, hoard of
Roman jewelry (Moneta, Wetteren, Belgium).
Two other volumes will be available in May (actually in press).

Have a look to the pre-2008 volumes concerning all the periods and coinages.

Moneta (Moneta bvba <http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta>)

Best wishes

Georges Depeyrot

Dear colleagues,

In 2006, Moneta (Moneta bvba <http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta>) published
11 volumes (2714 pages, 37 plates of drawings and 138 plates of photos).

This year, Moneta (Moneta bvba <http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta>)
published 10 volumes (2880 pages, 26 plates of drawings and 80 plates of
photos)

In 2008, about 11 or 12 new books will be published on coins, numismatics,
and monetary economy. The first ones will be devoted to the medieval and
modern coinage of Stavelot (Belgium), to the ancient coin finds in France,
Romania and in Poland, etc.

Moneta publishes books in various languages French, English, German, etc.

The "e-papers" sections contents pdf documentation to be downloaded (Cohen,
old publications, informations, coin finds, etc.).

You can order via Paypal or send a fax with Visa or Mastercart: the book
will be sent immediately. Otherwise, the book will be sent after payment.

Best wishes.

Georges Depeyrot

The Moneta bvba website (Wetteren, Belgium) is updated with new publications.

The section of "e-papers" is also updated and reorganised with a lot of new
files ready to be freely downloaded (studies, references, publications,
documentation, etc.).

<http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta>

Georges Depeyrot

Hello Everyone,

August's catalogue of newest arrivals includes over a hundred titles.
As usual, The attached list of titles have been posted for sale under
the Recent Acquisitions link at out website, www.ancientworldbooks.com
.  All titles are offered on a first come, first served basis. Feel
free to browse our website.  For further descriptions regarding the
condition and contents of any book on the list, feel free to click on
the link to the recent acquisitions: http://tinyurl.com/sjnhd

Orders may be placed by phone, fax, email, or mail. It is quickest to
confirm availability and order through our secure website at
www.ancientworldbooks.com - you can locate the book and add it to your
shopping cart by a keyword search or by browsing the Recent
Acquisitions section: http://tinyurl.com/sjnhd

If you would like to leave a list of wants, you may do so at our
website under 'Offline Search Service'.

Regards,
Shalender Jolly
Ancient World Books
1057 Steeles Ave. W., PO Box 81668
Toronto, Ont., M2R 3X1 Canada
www.ancientworldbooks.com
info@...
1-888-666-9105 (tel. & fax)

There is a" NEW" article by Prof. John Pollini at the Julio Claudian
Iconographic Yahoo Site under Files (Pollini-Article on Death Masks)
The Article is called:  Ritualizing Death in Rebublican Rome: Memory
Religion, Class Struggle, and the Wax Ancestral Mask Tradition's
Origin and Influence on Veristic Portraiture.  New Exclusive article
with Permission by Prof. John Pollini.  This article can be found
under files on the JCIA Site listed below.  By Prof. John Pollini.
This article is used with the permission of Prof. Joh Pollini.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/julioclaudian/

This is not spam, but is of interest to any group who values portrait
studies and numimatics.

Joe Geranio- Julio Claudian Iconographic Association
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/julioclaudian/

I have recently finished work on a major pipeline that will run from
Brecon to Tirley (Glos). In the course of evaluation last year, a
probable Roman fort was located. That this was a fort - or ay least a
military site - was determined largely on the presence of a ditch with
an ankle breaker in the base.

It would have been nice if it was a fort.

The site went to excavation a few months back and proved to a Romano-
British farm. The site was chokka with local wares but not a lot else.
The site was on fairly gentle hillside, overlooking the River Wye.
Features,in the main consisted of boundary ditches, some which had been
badly truncated by later agricultural practices.

In truth, a fairly typical farmstead - and not a fort :-(
Not much to report really, but then knowledge not shared is knowledge
lost.

Taff

First half of the year is finished.
The collection Moneta <http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta> published 5
volumes, that is to say 1400 pages and 60 plates.
The section "e-papers" contains 4 links and 9 numismatic texts to be
downloaded.
By the end of the year, another group of books will be published.

Le premier semestre est terminé.
La collection Moneta <http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta>  a publié 5
volumes, soit 1400 pages et 60 planches photographiques.
La section "e-papers" contient 4 liens et 9 textes numismatiques à télécharger.
D'ici la fin de l'année, un autre groupe d'ouvrages sera publié.

Georges Depeyrot

We are trying to collect opinions and ideas in order to set a web event
related to the Lecture: The Foundation of Rome, held by professor Paolo
Carafa (Associate Professor of Greek and Roman Archaeology at
University La Sapienza in Rome).

All the details are on www.ciceronline.it/eng_survey.html

Thanks for your feedback!

CiCERO
(Rome, Italy)

In a message dated 5/21/2007, terryandkaralee@... writes:


I have  significant knowledge of Britain during this
timespan, and will do my best  to answer any questions that anybody has
about Roman  Britain.

Hello Chris and thank you for this opportunity!

My question concerns the degree of control exercised by Rome between the
Walls of Hadrian and Antonious. The latter wall receives scant mention in
newspapers and magazines these days.

If control was total then over half of Caledonia had been conquered leaving
just the northern portion to complete the conquest of Britain. As we known,
this  never happened, probably saving Hibernia in the process.

Steve S.





************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi, I am Chris, a new member since May 20. I joined this group to
exchange any possible information about Roman Britain with any member
of members. I have significant knowledge of Britain during this
timespan, and will do my best to answer any questions that anybody has
about Roman Britain. Thanks again, and have a great day.

New publications / nouvelles publications

Moneta 65 Jean-Luc Dengis
Les monnaies de la principauté de Liège, IV, Monnaies particulières,
jetons, médailles, méreaux, trébuchets
MONETA 65, 236 pages, 26 planches dessins, 31 planches photos, 70 euros
Moneta 66 Peter Guest, Nick Wells
Iron Age & Roman Coins from Wales
MONETA 66, 440 pages, 70 euros
www.cultura-net.com/moneta

Georges Depeyrot

Julio Claudian Art, Roman Portraiture and Coins


For over 1,450 photos of Julio Claudian Portraits, Sculptures,
Numismatics and Archaeological sites all from the Julio Claudian
Dynasty go to:

http://flickr.com/groups/93273909@N00/

We discuss most of the photos and Julio Claudian Iconography at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/julioclaudian/

Dear colleague,

The new section of the website Moneta <http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta>
is now in construction (a part is visible).

It will receive scholarly texts that are not to be published on paper, or
useful documentation concerning coins, coin finds or concerning our
cooperation programs in Europe.
It will be updated each month.
Everyone can send text to be included in the "E-paper" section.
The main languages are accepted (actually the texts are in French, English,
German and Romanian).

If you want to be informed of the updates, leave your email to "newletter".


Cordialement

Georges Depeyrot

The web site Moneta <http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta/content.htm> is
updated with the last publications (spring 2007):

Moneta 66 Peter Guest  Nick Wells, Iron Age & Roman Coins from Wales

Moneta 65 Jean-Luc Dengis, Les monnaies de la principauté de Liège, IV.
Monnaies particulières, jetons, médailles, méreaux, trébuchets

Moneta 64 Jan Iluk, Aspects économiques et politiques de la circulation de
l'or au Bas-Empire

Moneta 63 Jean-Marc Doyen, Trésors romains d'Occident et d'Orient (IIe  Ve
siècles), Recueil de travaux (1980-2005)

Moneta 62 Medea Sherozia, Jean-Marc Doyen, Les monnaies parthes du musée de
Tbilissi (Géorgie)

Information and order <http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta/content.htm>

Julio Claudian Exclusive Photos of Rare Maxentius Scepter
Only at  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/julioclaudian/
Go to:
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/julioclaudian/photos/browse/e855
To see the archaeological evidence and Actual implements of the
scepter
To see 9 exclusive Photos of the RARE scepter belonging to
Maxentius.  These photos include the Findspot and 3-4 globes that
were used for the top of the scepter.  These were sent to me from
one of my friends that teaches Roman Portrait study and Iconography

ROME, Italy, Feb. 24, 2007 (UPI) -- An insignia believed to have
belonged to Rome's last pre-Christian emperor, Maxentius, went on
display for the first time in Italy's capital on Saturday.
A scepter adorned with a carved flower and a globe, as well as a
number of separate glass spheres which are thought to be a symbolic
representation of Earth, are the centerpiece of the spring show at
the National Roman Museum in Rome, the Italian news agency ANSA
reported.

Emperor Maxentius is believed to have hidden the scepter on the eve
of his battle with Constantine in 312 AD, which paved the way for
Christianity to become Rome's official religion, archaeologists said.
"These artifacts clearly belonged to the emperor, especially the
scepter," said Clementina Panella, the researcher who made the
discovery.

"It's very elaborate -- not an item you would let someone else go
around with," she added.
If this is your bag Join The Julio Claudian Iconographic
Association  220 Member Strong!!

The Ara Pacis Museum Site!!

Museo dell'Ara Pacis

http://en.arapacis.it/percorsi/esterno

This is a great resource for all those interested in the greatest of
all Julio Claudian Art.

Posting from The Julio Claudian Iconographic Association
   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/julioclaudian/

Yes, know that one, goes right through the pond on Gunn's farm. Used
to know the Gunn brothers, and they said that the pavement is still
there at the bottom of the pond!

I'm really, really interested in what's going on in the
Wettenhall/Cholmondeston area. If ypu've been on the road which runs
from Reaseheath to those villages, it's dead straight for about a
mile, very wide between hedges, and could mate up with the road
through Eaton above the villa, or head through Winsford. Could be an
enclosure road though.

Was on Ryknild Street myself today, coming out of Littleover towards
the A38.



-- In romanbritain@yahoogroups.com, Equinoxe <tim@...> wrote:
>
> Ey up Dave.
>
> In Crewe here.
>
> My nearest Roman Road is t'other side of Leighton Hospital, which
> intersects the road on the way to Church Minshull
>
> No text with this pic yet, but the route directly cuts across this road
> shown in the picture on my website:
> http://www.equinoxe.org.uk/?p=225
>
> IIRC, it's the Whitchurch (Mediolanum) to Northwich (Condate) route,
and
> cuts across fields, largely invisble, but occasional crop marks, and
> some hedge lines, especially towards Nantwich, show it up.
>
> The pond in the centre of this image on Flash Earth
> http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=53.125407&lon=-2.48147&z=17.1&r=0&src=msl
> has the Roman Road going through it, then through Minshull Garden
Centre
> to the south.
>
> Cheers
>
> Tim (who'll be on Ryknild St for a while tomorrow around Alrewas)
>
> --
>
>
> www.equinoxe.org.uk
> PO Box 448
> CREWE
> CW1 9DF
>
> *Ancient Tours
> *Megalithic Meets
> *Places to see in Crewe & South Cheshire
>
> ....and a lot more, with additions almost daily
>

Ey up Dave.

In Crewe here.

My nearest Roman Road is t'other side of Leighton Hospital, which
intersects the road on the way to Church Minshull

No text with this pic yet, but the route directly cuts across this road
shown in the picture on my website:
http://www.equinoxe.org.uk/?p=225

IIRC, it's the Whitchurch (Mediolanum) to Northwich (Condate) route, and
cuts across fields, largely invisble, but occasional crop marks, and
some hedge lines, especially towards Nantwich, show it up.

The pond in the centre of this image on Flash Earth
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=53.125407&lon=-2.48147&z=17.1&r=0&src=msl
has the Roman Road going through it, then through Minshull Garden Centre
to the south.

Cheers

Tim (who'll be on Ryknild St for a while tomorrow around Alrewas)

--


www.equinoxe.org.uk
PO Box 448
CREWE
CW1 9DF

*Ancient Tours
*Megalithic Meets
*Places to see in Crewe & South Cheshire

....and a lot more, with additions almost daily

Good evening, I'm new here so be gentle with me.

For as long as I can remember I've been fascinated, nay obssessed with
Roman roads. As often as possible while delivering the stuff I
deliver, I'll drive those roads which are still in use, look at roads
which aren't, and generally try to work out where roads mat have been,
(I look at maps a lot as well).

I'm based in Stoke on Trent. Not many known roads round here, only
that from Derventio through Rocester to Chesterton, nr. Newcastle
under Lyme. We have several forts though, Chesterton as mentioned,
Hollywood nr. Hilderstone, and a possible at Trent Vale, now under
Michelin, guarding the ford at Hanford.

Anyone who has any thoughts on roads round Stoke, Nantwich, Newport or
from Wroxeter to Chesterton, Chesterton to Deva, or anywhere within a
30mile radius of Stoke, I'd be happy to discuss.


Regards,

Dave Withington

A correspondent on another list writes:

"An insight into the Roman Invasion of Britain will feature in my weekly
programme on Angel Radio to be broadcast tomorrow at about 10:00am.

   Well a sort of insight to be more precise. OK more related to my quirky sense
of humour perhaps.

   For those local to Havant, Portsmouth, Gosport and Chichester you can find
Angel Radio at 101.1 FM.

   Otherwise via the webcast at:

   www.angelradio.co.uk

"


Cheers

Tim

--


www.equinoxe.org.uk
PO Box 448
CREWE
CW1 9DF

*Ancient Tours
*Megalithic Meets
*Places to see in Crewe & South Cheshire

....and a lot more, with additions almost daily

If you love Julio-Claudian Iconography or Roman Iconography,
Numismatics, and Julio Claudian history talk betweeen the reigns of
Augustus-Nero join at:   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/julioclaudian/

Foreward from Roman Portraits - Phaidon Edition-Oxford University
Press: 1940 (Public Domain)
By L. GOLDSCHEIDER

Other nations likewise earlier peoples seperated from the Romans by
hundreds or thousands of years, were aquainted with the art of
portraiture. The Eygyptians made likenesses of their kings,
officials,priests and court ladies, magical harbourage for the soul
which had become homeless after the death of the body; structures of
hard stone, composed of seperate facets, of signs commemorating what
was thought essential. Besides this there was a minor art, which
worked with soft fabrics, producing portraits more natural and less
stylized, likenesses of peasants, slaves, prisoners and barbarians.
The Greeks had their art of portraiture, in which a victorious youth
would lend his features to images of the gods, while the portrait of
the general, the philosopher, or the poet was fashioned like a sttue
of the divine, and was given superhuman touches. And just as, for
the hellenes, the divine remained a generaliation and
intensification of the human, so did hellenic art retain the
generalisation of human bodily phenonmena in their quasi-divinity.
The Greeks did not endeavour to reproduce particualr details, but to
present a picture in which had been elaborated the idea they
embodied. Hence arose the contradiction, that the Eygptians, who
regarded the body as no more than a temporary domicile for the soul,
and the soul as the only true reality, tried, in their art, to keep
close to the aspects of the body, whereas the Greeks, for whom the
body was the only reality and the soul nothing more than a transient
breath that inspired the body, did not attempt to reproduce a
fugitive similarity, but to depict an eteranl identity.(1) The
Greeks idealised the body; the Egyptions the soul.
In the past two centuries before Christ, upon Asiatic and African
soil, and especailly in Alexandria, Greek art arrived at its
satryric drama. The naturalism which the Hellenes had been unable to
combine with beauty, became now allied to ugliness. They depicted
old age with its wrinkles and its turgidity, showed withered dryness
or obesity, deformity and disease, the stages of the struggle with
death, without poesy and with all repulsive details, its vulgar lack
of charm, even when their work had sunk to parody and caricature.
But all these statues and statuettes of street arabs, hunbacked
beggars, fat a dwarfed women, dropsical persons, elderly drunkards,
worn out fishermen, have only the physiognamy of their vices and
sorrows, being embodiments of poverty and senility; they have the
characteristics of types not of individuals.-The original home of
true portraiture is the Apennine peninsula; the Etruscans had made
likenesses by following the style of the East and the eastern
Mediterranean, the Hellenic and the quasi-Hellenic style; and,
without undue titvation, they depicted nature in all her whimsies
and irregularities. The sarcophagus-figures with sharply-cut
Cypriote features retained an individual character, however much
distorted. The obese bald men, wearing rings on their podgy fingers
and garlands round their thick, soft necks, assembled on decorations
on cinerary urns and reminding us of Trimalchio at his meal, make us
specualte curiously upon their lives; the terracotta heads of women
and children are packed with the peculiarities of an individual
destiny as if they were little biographies. But the Etruscans
ventured even closer to nature, or did not depart it so far. We see
this in their terracotta masks, whose precision in respect of chance
details can only be explained by supposing them to have been
elaboated from death-masks or modified from casts taken from nature.
(2) But casts from nature were also one of the roots of Roman
Portraiture. Every aristocratic or well-to-do middle class Roman
house in its drawing room, the atrium, a collection of family
statues, likenesses of ancestors; a museum of " sculptured photos"
if one may use the term, to distinguish them from intentional workd
of art-casts in wax, death masks. These wax family portraits were
kept in cupboards, to be opened on feast days, or when the head of
the house died. As the dead man lay in state, his face was promplty
covered with a waxen mask (promptly because of the rapidity with
which putrefaction sets in a hot southern climate), and a waxen cast
was prepared portraying the featrures of the deceased. In the
funeral procession, this would be borne in front of the bier,
preceded by the crowd of dancers and mimes. The actor who wore the
recently prepared wax mask represented the dead man, and moved
onward amid a number of professional mourners. When the processin
reached the forum, this actor would make a funeral oration, as if it
had been made by the deceased himself. The crowd of accompanying
mimes wore the masks of the ancestors(1), which were taken from the
cupboards, so that athe whole series of ancestors of the deceased
accompanied the procession and seemed to be listening to adulatory
oration. Thus, among the Romans, was the art of the portraiture
combined with that of the mystery play, in which the deceased and
his fore-fathers appeared in the dress of life, to represent the
living. Complete statues of the dead were somtimes present, with
head, hands, and feet made of wax, but the body, made of other
material, was shown in the rough, though fully clothed.(2) At the
funeral of Julius Caesar there was a complete wax figure, rotating
on a pivot, with the face and body showing the three-and-twenty
stabs. At the funeral procession of Emperor Pertinax, there was a
borne upon a bier the wax figure of a sleeper representing death as
sleep-an idea shich recurs in the mortuary monuments of the
renaissance. To make such wax plastics imperishiable it was needful
to have bronze casts made of them, and the technique of bronze
founding was already perfected by the Greeks and Etruscans. In this
the way the first Roman bronze heads originated as imitations of
nature, and little scope was left for the scupltor's art with the
chisel. Imitations in terracotta were likewise an easy substitute.
(1) Throughout, for the Romans, the mask representing a man's face
remained of the uttermost importance. In the Flavian period, when
natualism in sculpture had reached its climax, this still only
applied to the face, the body being formed in accordance with the
conventional fourth century types. In contradistintion to this, the
Greeks always treated the face as part of the whole body; and in the
spirit they depicted the elevations and depressions of a back and
prominences of a knee with as much attention to detail as if they
had been portraying a face. That is why we, trained in another
school, that of christian art (the heiress of roman art), find the
heads of Greek statues poor in detatil, whereas the bodies of these
statues are so packed with detatils that our eyes cannot discover
them all, but only an exploring finger. This is why, moreover, to us
Roman statues that have lost their heads seem to lack artistry, and
we often consider that the most beautiful Greek statues are those
which remain merely as torsos. The Eygptians, also, in so far as
they elaborated detatils, gave them only in the face, whereas the
body was treated diagrammatically.(2) But in their mummy masks, made
of painted plaster and papier-mache, the Eygptians, from the
ptolemaic period onward, achieved a verism which can give us an idea
of that of the lost Roman death-masks. The ruthlessly naturalistic
marble heads of the republican period, the earliest Roman portraits
which have come down to us, were obviously direct reproductions of
wax masks.(3) In the course of four centuries, plastic portariture
among the Romans underwent many changes in style, but throughout ,
the realistic trend was preserved. There were two great classicist
epochs, one in the days of Augustus and the other in the days of
Trajan. The Greeks were considered their masters by the Romans, who
collected the works of the Hellenes in the flowering season,
exhibited them, and often copied them. (1) Greek sculptors worked to
satisfy the demand of the imperial court, they had their studios in
Rome and in the provinces, and they took Roman pupils. Their style
was suited to the wishes of their patrons. Nevertheless Franz
Wickhoff could write: " The Greeks in Rome would never have shaken
off this imitative naturalism. It was only when Roman amateurs gave
up their exclusive patronage of Greek artists and began to give
commissions to people of their own race, that a change of style
could take place" (Roman Art, London, 1900, p.46). As an example of
the Greek share in Roman Portrariture may be mentioned the bust of
Pompey at Copenhagen (see web. for this photo), which A.W. Lawerence
(in his Classical Scupture, London, 1923, p. 316) describes
as "purely Greek". But, for the Romans, realism was not a mere
popular fashion, as their Graecism was an aristocrataic fashion; it
suited the tendencies of the national art. THey soon discovered in
what respect their painted busts of wax and stone fell behind
nature. In so far as these plastics were based upon wax masks, they
gave the features a stiffness (no matter whetehr death-masks or life
masks had been the sources). They reproduced proportions and the
underlying bony structure with a harsh exactitude, and even
reproduced chance perculiarities of the surface, such as warts and
scars; but they failed to reproduce the texture of the skin, the
mobility of the surfaces, or to disclose the breathing vitality of
the originals. The Antonine artists (about 160 A.D.), however,
discovered how to reproduce the texture of the skin. They had
developed the the technique of impressionism, a deliberate
inaccuracy and sketchiness, in great measure an indifference to
detatils of form, so that the onlooker is compelled to fill in
imaginatively the details shich the artist's chisel and polishing
have left incomplete. Their sense for the value rough and smooth
increased. They contrasted the polished marble of the flesh with the
roughness of the hair, and they left the depth of the mouth rough so
that shadows might collect there. They worked, indeed, with
intensified shadows, to produce something intended to be viewd from
a distance, in accordance with the principles of the illusionist
style. The black-and -white effects became so powerful, that the
sculptor often expressly renounced naturalistic tinting.(2) After
the Flavian epoch, the drill came to be used more and more as a
tool, for the depiction of mouth and ears, and especially of the
hair. The fantastic Rococo hair -dressing of women could be
reproduced by the use of the drill, the tresses being picked out by
the boring of the holes which cast deep shadows. Since fashions in
hair-dressing changed rapidly, some busts were provided with
removable marble wigs. (This begins with Julia Domna, about 200
A.D.) Towards the middle so the second century A.D., or perhaps even
earlier, about 130 A.D., during the reign of Hadrian, the expression
began to be indicated plastically by drilling out he pupils.(1) The
iris was represented as a segment of a sphere, with depressed
parallel rings; the pupils were hollows, or sometimes a mere notch.
Light and shade replaced colour in these representations of the
eyes. In the later development of the art, the lids were gouged, and
the pupils were drilled. From the third century onward, the eye
became more and more the chief feature in representation; it was
surrealistically enlarged, and borings where made which had the
desired effect. These various ways of representing the iris, the
hair, and the beard enable archaeoligists to date a portrait bust;
but in this matter the shape of the bust is also a help. In the
course of the imperial epoch the amount of the busts increased. In
the Julian-Claudian epoch, it was shown only as far down as the
collarbone; and in the Flavian epoch , it represented shoulders and
the top of the chest; in the Hadrian and Antonine epochs, it has
gone so far as to include the greater part of the thorax and the
upper arms; in the third century, it gave the complete thorax. The
modern form of plastic portratiure, showing no more than head and
neck, did not exist in the days of antiquity. The antique heads of
this sort that we find in our museums were only made to be affixed
to headless busts or statues. Such partial statues were turned out
by the mass, the artist in portraiture being commisssioned to add
the head, and sometimes also the hands and the feet. This practice
was very general in the middle of the imperial epoch, when it became
fashionable for the great to have themselves depicted as gods, as
Apollo and Mars, as Venus and Ceres, as Ariande and Maia. If this is
an obvious exemplification of Roman vanity, we see vanity still more
in the eagerness to have as many portraits of oneself as possible.
The well-to-do had busts made of their friends as presents, or
promised them as bribes. A rich gentlemen in the third century paid
for the portrait bust of a vestal virgin, this being given to her in
return for her patronage when he was elevated to the equestrian
order. Portrait bust would be given to a man who had spent money
upon public purposes; because he had entertained the citizens;
because he had financed plays, animal-baiting, gladatorial shows,
and chariot races; because he had paid for the sending of the
embassies. The right to the public exhibition of a statue was
purchasable in Rome, just as in some countries during the nineteenth
century titles of nobility were purchasable. But, apart from
corruption and the conferring of honour, statues and busts were
multiplied by the thousand. THe guilds gave commissions for the
portraits of their patrons and patronesses; the towns for musicians,
pantomimists, athletes, and circus stars; the bronze busts of
scholars, playwrights, sophists, and leading doctors were placed in
public libraries and in the market-places. No site was thought
unworthy of this mark of appreciation nor any considere too good, so
that the likenesses of gladiators, courtesans, and minions stood in
the temples among the images of the gods. The number of the statues
amd busts of the emperors was legion. The erection of these
memorials began directly a man mounted the throne, so that we have
numerous likenesses even of caesars whose reign lated no more than a
few months. Wickhoff remarks that we should make a mistake if we
should try to study the Roman art of portraiture by looking only at
the imperial busts, for most of these were produced in dozens of
replicas by the copyists. Statues and busts of the emperors were
erected in the temples, and there received divine honours; and there
were other busts in the exchanges, the shops, and the workshops.
Medallions with their portraits were placed on the walls of
goverment buildings and law courts. (1) Ohers were found to be in
schools, barracks, and prisons. These likenesses were multipled in
routinist fashion and sent to all the provinces, so that there were
almost as many if them among the Romans as there are colour prints
of sovereigns in our own days. Augustus had in Rome eighty statues
of silver, a good many of gold, equestrian statues, and likenesses
of him driving a four-in-hand, Thousands were sent to every town of
the empire. No doubt when a detested ruler died, many of these
scuptures were destroyed during an outburst of popular wrath, as
happened after the death of Domitian. Often to save time, or from
thrift, earllier statues were retouched. Pausanias reports how a
statue of Orestes was renamed "Augustus"; while Philo informs us
that event the statues of women were transformed into statues of the
emperors. Pliny speaks of the refurbishing of old statues by fitting
them with new heads and writing new inscriptions; and Cicero refers
to the giving of false names to earlier statues by effacing the old
names and chiselling new ones.(2) On the other hand, we have to
remember that not all statues were made during the lifetime of those
whom they represent, but some of them even centuries later. Thus
Herodianus informs us that Caracalla had statues of Alexander,
Sulla, and Hannibal put up. Coins bearing the head of Augustus were
minted during the time of Tiberius. As material for making the
statues the Romans used not only marble(3) but also softer
materials, such as basalt, porpyry, ebony,ivory-besides bronze,
precious metals, and gold alloyed with silver (which was called
electron, the word also used for amber). Pausanias, speaks of an
electron bust of Augustsus at Olympia, but it is not clear from what
he writes whether this bust was made of amber or of metallic
electron.-A love of art seems to have been widespread among the
Romans, so that there were a great many amateur artists, and some of
these amateurs were emperors. Heliogabalus (HerodianusX,5) sent a
self-portrait to Rome; Nero, Marcus Aurelius, and Alexander Severus
were amateur painters; and Valentinian I was a scuptor. The
paintings of the days of Roman antiquity should be used to throw a
comparative light upon the sculptured portraits of those days.
Portraits from El-Fayum, most of them belonging to the second
century A.D., have little to do with the matter, for, though they
date from the Roman epoch, they were not painted by Romans. More
useful, therrefore, are the portraits of Proculus, the baker and his
wife, and certain mosaics (see Roman portraits-Phaidon Edition).
Though few portraits have survived , we know that a great many were
painted, especially for use as the title-pages of books, but also
other portraits of poets, scholars, and artists. Varro made a
collection of 700 portraits. We read of a colossal portrait of Nero
(Pliny XXV,51), which was 120 ft. high; also of portraits of
courtesans and of betrothed princesses. Lucian tells us that ladies
insisted upon flattering portraits. In the days of Pliny there were
galleries filled with painted portraits. Still, so few of these
remain that for the pictorial history of the Roman people and its
rulers during four centuries we depend almost exclusively upon
sculptures. Between Hellenic portraiture and Roman portraiture
therre is as wide a gap as between the Acanthian capital and the
plant sculptures of the Ara Pacis. The Romans tried to make fidelity
to nature a part of their art. Portraiture is always regarded as the
highest peculiar development of Roman art-with the proviso that
modern "classicism" from the renaissance on into the eighteenth
century clung to Hellenising and Baroque statues of the emperore,
whereas the close of the nineteenth century , which was the period
of impressionism (and of Wickhoff), preferred the illusionist
portraits of the Flavian epoch and of the barbarian emperors; until
our own time (since Riegl), when expressionism developed or art
became unnatural and the portraits of the latest epoch of ancient
Rome were more in vouge. Two recent writers may be quoted to show
their estimates of Roman portraitrue. Wickhoff writes; "One merit
has never been denied to Roman art, and that is the excellence of
its portraiture. Who has not seen, in its collection of antiques,
heads from the period of Vespasian to Trajan whose striking
lifelikeness and apparently superficial technique, adopted for a
distinct purpose, puts one in mind of the best portraits of
Velazquez and Frans Hals" (op. cit. pp. 17-18). In another place
Wickhoff writes that portraits whose boldness in technique outdoes
that of the early painters of the Netherlands and Spain are
described in the catalouges as "hasty work" because the critics
failed to recognise the touch of an experienced master who, thus
showing his vast experience, with broad strokes of the chisel
created vivid pictures in shich his genius manifested itself so
easily that he almost seemed to be at play. Gisela Richter describes
Roman portrariture as "the natural expression of the Roman genius";
and in another place she says, " In one branch art, however, their
own native qualities helped the Romans to achieve real greatness,
viz. that of portraiture". LONDON, JULY 1940- L. GOLDSCHEIDER.