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Roman Ambassador Asks The Sabine Numa Pompilius to Reign over Rome, By Felice Giani (c. 1758–1823)

By
thehistorianshut
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This drawing, by the Italian artist Felice Giani (c. 1758–1823), was inspired by ancient Roman myths and legends about Numa Pompilius. According to Rome’s origin tales and tradition, the city’s founder, Romulus (reign traditionally dated to 753-717 BCE), obscurely disappeared, died, or transcended to the heavens following his founding of Rome. After about a year of coming to terms with Romulus’ sudden departure, the Romans reportedly decided to hold an election to select a new king. During the election, as the origin myth goes, the Romans searched for the wisest, noblest, and best educated man in the region. With that criterion in mind, the Roman inquiry for the best candidates interestingly led them not to the city of Rome, but to the nearby Sabine town of Cures. There, the Romans found Numa Pompilius, who had the ideal qualities they wanted in a king. Back in Rome, despite some disgruntlement over him being a Sabine, Numa’s name was officially introduced into the election and a vote was held. Livy (59 BCE-17 CE), a Roman historian, recorded the tale:

“[T]hey passed a resolution that the election should be decided by a decree of the senate. Numa Pompilius had a great reputation at this time for justice and piety. He lived in the Sabine town of Cures, and was, by the standards of antiquity, deeply learned in all the laws of God and man….Numa’s noble qualities were all his own; it was not foreign learning that made him what he was, but the harsh, austere discipline of the ancient Sabines, most incorruptible of men. Numa’s name was put forward as successor to the throne…nobody ventured to put forward as a rival candidate either himself or another of his faction, or, indeed, any man at all, either senator or citizen, with the result that there was a unanimous decision to offer Numa the crown” (Livy, The History of Rome, 1.17-18).

Felice Giani’s illustration re-creates this tale from ancient Roman folklore and legend. His drawing depicts Rome’s decision to elect Numa Pompilius as king and the monarch-elect’s subsequent assent to the decision. Following the election, Numa traveled to Rome and immediately called for Rome’s augures to survey auspices and omens to check if the gods would be happy with him as king. When the divination produced positive signs in response, King Numa (traditionally dated r. 716-674 BCE) formally accepted his position as the second ruler of Rome.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

Sappho

By
thehistorianshut
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Sappho
(said to have flourished in the late 7th and early 6th centuries BCE)

“Some say ships, infantry or horsemen
The greatest beauty earth can offer;
I say it is whatever a person
Most lusts after.”

  • From a poem fragment commonly known as Fragment 16, translated here by Aaron Poochigian for Sappho, Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments (Penguin Classics, 2009).

 

An alternative translation is:
“Some say the most beautiful thing on the dark Earth is a host of cavalry, and some claim a host of foot soldiers, and others say a fleet of ships; but for me it is my lover.”
(Poetic fragment in Sappho: Complete Works (Delphi Classics, 2015), translated by Peter Russell, 2011).

Another:
“Some say an army of horsemen,
some of footsoldiers, some of ships,
is the fairest thing on the black earth,
but I say it is what one loves.”
(Julia Dubnoff via University of Houston).

or

“The most beautiful thing on the face of dark
earth? Some say it’s a host of cavalry, others of
infantry, still others of ships. But as for me, I
say, it is whatever you love.”
(Western University translation).

Clitumnus—An Ancient Roman River God—And His Watery Sanctuary In Umbria

By
thehistorianshut
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In ancient Rome, the Clitumnus lake and river was considered to be a place with sacred waters. Ancient Clitumnus is associated with the modern Clitunno river in Umbria, which originates from a large spring near Trevi and Spolleto. Its flow joins with other regional rivers and tributaries, eventually feeding water into the imperial city of Rome’s own River Tiber. White cattle were known to be raised and left to graze by Clitumnus’ banks, and from those flocks, bulls were chosen to be sacrificed to the gods. Virgil (c. 70-19 BCE), the famous Roman poet, wrote of the river and the white livestock. He stated:

“From here, Clitumnus, came the washed-white flocks and the bull that was
primed for the sacrifice, those animals that often bathed in your holy waters
and drew to the temples of the gods throngs who celebrated Roman triumph.”
(Virgil, Georgics, 2.146-149).

Like many other important rivers in the Greco-Roman world, Clitumnus was believed by the ancients to have been the home and territory of a river god that shared a common name with the body of water. Near the source of the river, a sacred sanctuary site was constructed. There, the sacred waters were marked by bridges that served as a boundary, beyond which humans were prohibited from bathing in the river. Boating, however, was still permissible. On and within the structures of the sanctuary complex, religious writings and oracles were inscribed in abundance, and numerous statuary artworks were present at the site, depicting the river-god, Clitumnus, as well as other local deities of nearby tributary streams. This was all witnessed by the avid letter-writing Roman, Pliny the Younger (c. 61/62-113), who recommended the site to his friend, Voconius Romanus. Pliny wrote:

“Close by is a holy temple of great antiquity in which is a standing image of the god Clitumnus himself clad in a magistrate’s bordered robe; the written oracles lying there prove the presence and prophetic powers of his divinity. All round are a number of small shrines, each containing its god and having its own name and cult, and some of them also their own springs, for as well as the parent stream there are smaller ones which have separate sources but afterwards join the river. The bridge which spans it marks the sacred water off from the ordinary stream: above the bridge boats only are allowed, while below bathing is permitted” (Pliny the Younger, Letters, 8.8).

Although the sanctuary site had reportedly been worshipped since great antiquity, Emperor Augustus (r. 32/27 BCE-14 CE) was involved with developing the religious site and cultivating the industry of pilgrimage and tourism that bloomed in the region. It was during his reign, and with the emperor’s encouragement, that the nearby city of Hispellum (Spello) began to provide the services of inns and bathing facilities to pilgrims who were travelling to and from the sanctuary.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: The Bathing Pool, by Hubert Robert (c. 1733–1808), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the MET.

 

Sources:

  • Georgics by Virgil, translated by Peter Fallon. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 2006, 2009
  • The Letters of Pliny the Younger, translated by Betty Radice. New York: Penguin Classics, 1963, 1969.
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion, edited by Simon Price and Emily Kearns. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  • https://www.britannica.com/place/Clitunno-River

Hercules and Omphale, By Theodoor van Thulden (c. 1606-1669)

By
thehistorianshut
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This painting, by the Flemish artist Theodoor van Thulden (c. 1606-1669), depicts a curious scene involving the storied figure of Hercules (known as Heracles to the Greeks). In particular, the art is inspired by ancient descriptions of the time that the warrior of legend and myth spent with Queen Omphale of Lydia. In the prelude to the tale of Hercules and Omphale, Hercules had wrongfully killed a man named Iphitus and, while consulting with the Oracle of Delphi about how to absolve himself of the killing, he worsened the situation by sacrilegiously trying to steal from the temple. After these unruly antics, the angered gods decided to inflict a humbling punishment on Hercules. According to their sentence, proud Hercules would have to atone by living for three years as a slave of Queen Omphale of Lydia. Hermes, the messenger god, saw to the arrangements and successfully sold Hercules into servitude. Proceeds from the sale were sent to the family of Iphitus, the man that Hercules had killed.

Hercules’ reported behavior during his stay with Omphale varies greatly depending on the storyteller. Some narratives, such as that of Pseudo-Apollodorus (c. 1st and 2nd century), had Hercules acting the way he usually did, slaying monsters and villains, and generally adventuring, when he was not working the queen’s fields. On this, Apollodorus wrote, “While serving Omphale as a slave, Heracles captured and bound the Cercopes at Ephesus, and at Aulis he killed Syleus—who compelled strangers to dig [in his vineyard]—and also his daughter, Xenodice, and burned his vines to their roots” (Apollodorus, Library, 2.6.3). Other storytellers emphasized and amplified the dominant role that Omphale had over Hercules during the divinely-imposed punishment. Poking fun at these accounts that painted Hercules in an overly-subservient manner, the satirist Lucian of Samosata (c. 120-180) wrote:

“[If you] season your history unreasonably with fictions and eulogies and other sorts of flattery, you’ll very soon make it look like Heracles in Lydia. You must have seen him portrayed as a slave to Omphale, dressed in a most extraordinary fashion, while she is wearing his lion’s skin and holding his club. She is Heracles, you see, and he is clad in saffron and purple, carding wool and getting slapped with Omphale’s sandal. It’s a truly shameful sight: his clothes don’t fit and fall off him, and a god’s masculinity has become shockingly effeminate” (Lucian, How to Write History, section 10).

It is this second account, by Lucian, that Theodoor van Thulden re-creates in his painting. His artwork shows Hercules being surrounded and ganged up on by courtly women, as well as a small dog. Queen Omphale stands above him, tugging on the great warrior’s ear. Following the descriptions from Lucian, Theodoor’s Omphale has confiscated the legend’s iconic lion pelt and she wears it proudly as she domineers over Hercules.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

James Fenimore Cooper

By
thehistorianshut
-

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)

“The first point to be obtained is to know one’s own mind.”

  • From James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans (chapter 2), originally published in 1826. The reprinted edition used here is from the De Luxe Editions Club / The Country Life Press (New York, 1950s?).

Rome’s Self-Interested Augures And Their Dillydallying Augury

By
thehistorianshut
-

Ancient Rome was an incredibly superstitious place, where omens and other signs of heavenly favor were usually consulted before any great occasion, task, or endeavor. Such divination and auspices-reading was a specialty of a priestly order known as the augures in Rome. Augury is mainly associated with interpreting divine favor or displeasure from the patterns of birds, but augures were also known to consult other types of omens during their surveying of supernatural signs. Augur diviners reportedly dated back to Rome’s earliest history—they were said to have existed in the Roman Kingdom period, and the Romans may have adopted the practice from their Etruscan neighbors. Whatever the case, the augures in Rome became an advisory body that instructed the Roman Senate and magistrates on matters of omens and rituals. Becoming an augur was a lifetime appointment, and by the time of Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE), the college of augures was sixteen members in number. Most interestingly, the augures had the power to suspend public business in Rome at times when the auspices were not ideal. This impressive power, however, would later lead to a great tarnishing of their reputation.

By the final centuries of the Roman Republic, the masses in Rome began to hold the opinion that the augures too often abused their pause powers for irreligious and self-interested reasons. Critics of the group suspected that they were shutting down public business at times when the pause benefited an augur. This poor reputation was so bad that it became a stereotype and fodder for jokes. Many ancient Romans imagined that the augures, themselves, grinned and laughed at their own unseriousness and their religious gamesmanship whenever they congregated or met in chance encounters. On this reputation, the Roman statesman, Cicero (106-43 BCE), wrote, “It seems remarkable that one augur can look another in the eye without grinning” (The Nature of the Gods, 1.71), and Cicero also attributed the same notion to Cato the Elder (c. 234-149 BCE), writing, “But indeed, that was quite a clever remark which Cato made many years ago: ‘I wonder,’ said he, ‘that a soothsayer doesn’t laugh when he sees another soothsayer’” (On Divination, 2.51). Interestingly, the augures were well aware of these stereotypes and reputational problems—Cicero, who wrote down the aforementioned quotes for posterity, was, himself, a member of the college of augures.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Two Augurs by Jean-Léon Gérôme, reproduced by Goupil & Cie (19th century), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the Getty Museum).

Sources:

Vignette, From “The Battle of Milvian”, Drawn by Bernard Picart (c. 1673–1733) after Charles Le Brun (c. 1619–1690)

By
thehistorianshut
-

Bernard Picart (c. 1673–1733) based this ink vignette study on a pre-existing work by the master painter, Charles Le Brun (c. 1619–1690). Featured in Charles Le Brun’s artwork and Picart’s study are depictions of ancient Roman cavalrymen engaging in battle. As the title of the artwork gives away, the scene is meant to portray fighting that occurred at the ancient Battle of Milvian Bridge. This was a key military achievement from the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great (r. 306-337), and the battle served as a milestone for both political and religious reasons. The Battle, which occurred in 312, was the final showdown between Constantine and a rival named Maxentius (r. 306-312) that would determine which Roman ruler was dominant in the Western Roman Empire. It was also the moment that Constantine began to more clearly present the Christian God as his personal patron deity.

According to legend, Constantine saw a miraculous Christian symbol, called a labarum, floating in the sky during the prelude to the battle at Milvian Bridge and he had the impression that adopting this symbol as his battle standard would help his odds at the upcoming fight. This legend was recorded by the emperor’s biographer, Eusebius (c. 260-339), who described the memorable episode in his Life of Constantine, writing, “He [Constantine] said that about mid-day, when the sun was beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription, CONQUER BY THIS. At this sight he himself was struck by amazement, and his whole army also, which happened to be following him on some expedition, and witnessed the miracle” (Eusebius, Life of Constantine, I.28). As for how this religious labarum symbol looked—or at least Constantine’s spruced up iterations of it— Eusebius described the symbol in great detail. He wrote:

“A long spear, overlaid with gold, formed the figure of the cross by means of a piece transversely laid over it. On top of the whole was fixed a crown, formed by the intertexture of gold and precious stones; and on this, two letters indicating the name of Christ, symbolized the Saviour’s title by means of its first characters, the letter P being intersected by X exactly in its center…From the transverse piece which crossed the spear was suspended a kind of streamer of purple cloth, covered with a profuse embroidery of most brilliant precious stones; and which, being also richly interlaced with gold, presented an indescribable degree of beauty to the beholder” (Life of Constantine, I.31).

After adopting this new symbol and placing it on his army’s battle standards and shields, Constantine would go on to defeat Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge and consequently became master of the Western Roman Empire. Meanwhile, in the eastern section of the empire, Constantine’s ally, Licinius (r. 308-324), overthrew another rival named Maximinus (r. 310-313). Finally, Constantine went on to conquer Licinius’ realm in 324, reunifying the Roman Empire under one emperor.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

Franz Kafka

By
thehistorianshut
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Franz Kafka (c. 1883-1924)

“Official decisions are as shy as young girls.”

  • From The Castle (chapter 16) by Franz Kafka. The translation used here is by John R. Williams (Wordsworth Editions, 2009).

YouTube Shorts: Art in Focus—Sirens, By Hans Thoma (c. 1839-1924)

By
thehistorianshut
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This video features a painting called Sirens, by the German artist Hans Thoma (c. 1839-1924). Thoma’s artwork was inspired by the Sirens of ancient Greek mythology. Sirens were formidable monsters who were known to use beautiful singing to lure seafarers to their deaths. These creatures of myth were described in ancient Greek literature as far back as the time of Homer, who featured these mythical entities in The Odyssey. In ancient art, Sirens were depicted with birdlike qualities. Artworks from ancient times showed Sirens having avian bodies and wings. Hans Thoma’s painting gives the Sirens a much more humanoid shape, but he alludes to the ancient artistic design by leaving his Sirens with bird-like feet. The deadly nature of the mythological monsters is hinted at by the skill that the painter left displayed at the bottom of the canvas. Read more about this painting and the mythology that inspired it, HERE.


Check out all of our YouTube quote videos HERE.

Check out all of our YouTube shorts HERE.

Browse the Art in Focus series HERE.

How A Marriage Rejection Contributed To The Athenian Conquest Of Mytilene

By
thehistorianshut
-

In the late 5th century BCE, a wealthy and influential man named Timophanes died in Mytilene, Lesbos, leaving behind two daughters among his heirs. These two women caught the interest of another powerful man named Dexander, who was an official in Mytilene with close ties to Athens. Dexander sought to arrange a marriage between his two sons and the daughters of Timophanes. Yet, this arrangement was refused by Timophanes’ daughters or their relatives. Whatever the case, Dexander took the rejection poorly and he held a grudge against the family of the heiresses. According to the famous philosopher and scholar, Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE), Dexander was still embittered by his grudge at the time when the Peloponnesian War (c. 431-404 BCE) broke out between Athens, Sparta, and their respective allies. Lesbos was within the Athenian sphere of influence, but leadership figures in Mytilene led a faction that successfully raised all of the major cities in Lesbos (except Methymna) in a rebellion against Athenian influence. Timophanes’ heiresses and Dexander could have been on opposite sides of the political divide on Lesbos, or perhaps the marriage rejection led Dexander to act irrationally. Aristotle’s wording is vague, but it can be interpreted that Dexander may have chosen to side against his city and his island, or was generally an instigator. Aristotle wrote of the event, stating:

“At Mytilene, too, faction arising out of heiresses was at the root of many troubles, including that war with the Athenians in which Paches captured their state. Timophanes, one of the wealthy, died and left two daughters. A certain Dexander wanted them for his two sons, but was rejected and came away empty-handed. Then, being local commissioner for Athenian affairs, he started the faction which spurred Athens into action” (Aristotle, Politics, Bekker page 1304a, translated by T. A. Sinclair and Trevor Saunders (Penguin Classics, 1962, 1981)).

An alternative translation of the same passage reads:

“And also at Mitylene a faction that arose out of some heiresses was the beginning of many misfortunes, and of the war with the Athenians in which Paches captured the city of Mitylene: a wealthy citizen named Timophanes left two daughters, and a man who was rejected in his suit to obtain them for his own sons, Doxander, started the faction and kept on stirring up the Athenians, whose consul he was at Mitylene” (Aristotle, Politics, Bekker page 1304a, translated by H. Rackham (Harvard University Press, 1944)).

This curious conflict was described by the famous historian, Thucydides (460-400 BCE), in the third book of his History of the Peloponnesian War. He wrote that diplomats from Methymna, as well as loyalists of Athens from Mytilene—possibly including Dexander—warned Athens about the rebellion on Lesbos that Mytilene was stirring. Thucydides stated, “the Methymnians, and a certain group of individuals in the city itself, people who represented Athenian interests in Mytilene, informed the Athenians that the Mytilenians were forcibly making the whole of Lesbos into one state under the control of Mytilene, and that the various activities on which they were so busy were planned in cooperation with the Spartans…” (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, III.2). Athens was suffering from an outbreak of plague at the time, so they were slow to respond, but they eventually began sending fleets of ships to blockade and besiege Mytilene between 428 and 427 BCE.

Athens initially sent 40 ships to Mytilene, and then increased the number of the besieging force as time went on. The Athenian commander, Paches—who was mentioned by Aristotle—joined the Mytilene siege with a force of heavily armored hoplites in one of the later waves of Athenian reinforcements. His arrival and the subsequent tightening of the siege and blockade against Mytilene was described by Thucydides, who wrote, “[Athens] sent out at the beginning of the autumn Paches, the son of Epicurus, with 1,000 citizen hoplites under his command. The hoplites rowed the ships themselves, and when they arrived at Mytilene they built a single wall completely surrounding the place, with forts, garrisoned by soldiers, placed at various strong points. Thus Mytilene was now firmly blockaded both from the land and from the sea, and winter was approaching” (History of the Peloponnesian War, III.18).

Sparta tried to mobilize reinforcements for Mytilene, but their fleet was not able to arrive before the besieged city ran out of supplies. Mytilene was forced to let Paches’ Athenian forces occupy the city, prompting a famous debate in Athens on how severe the punishment should be for the rebellious Mytilenians.  At first, the Athenians decided to massacre the men and enslave the women and children, but they soon changed their minds to instead only execute leadership figures. Even so, more than 1,000 Mytilenians were executed. Thucydides wrote:

“The other Mytilenians whom Paches had sent to Athens as being the ones chiefly responsible for the revolt were, on the motion of Cleon, put to death by the Athenians. There were rather more than 1,000 of them. The Athenians also destroyed the fortifications of Mytilene and took over their navy. Afterwards, instead of imposing a tribute on Lesbos, they divided all the land, except that belonging to the Methymnians, into 3,000 holdings, 300 of which were set apart as sacred for the gods, while the remainder was distributed by lot to Athenian shareholders, who were sent out to Lesbos” (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, III.50).

It is this historical background that is alluded to in Aristotle’s story of Dexander and the heiresses of Timophanes. Curiously, even though Aristotle clearly believed that the rejection of Dexander’s marriage proposal contributed to the subsequent Athenian conquest of Mytilene, Thucydides’ own famous historical account of the period made no mention of those curious figures. Consequently, the fates of Dexander and the heiresses of Timophanes are vague. Dexander, if he helped spur the Athenians to action against the rebellion, likely fared ok in the aftermath of the siege. If, on the other hand, he had been an instigator on the side of the anti-Athenian faction, then his fate would have been much more bleak. The heiresses of Timophanes also may have had a poor fate depending on how intertwined they were with the rebels. At the very least, whatever property they had inherited from their father was likely seized by the Athenians.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Two Pupils in Greek Dress, photographed by Thomas Eakins (1844–1916), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the MET).

Sources:

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