Anda di halaman 1dari 23

Sic Exempla Parantur: Livia's Shrine to Concordia and the Porticus Liviae Author(s): Marleen Boudreau Flory Reviewed

work(s): Source: Historia: Zeitschrift fr Alte Geschichte, Bd. 33, H. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1984), pp. 309-330 Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4435892 . Accessed: 22/02/2012 11:08
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Franz Steiner Verlag is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Historia: Zeitschrift fr Alte Geschichte.

http://www.jstor.org

SIC EXEMPLAPARANTUR: LIVIA'SSHRINE TO CONCORDIA AND THE PORTICUS LIVIAE VediusPollio, who died in 15 B. C., bequeathed to Augustusa largepartof his estate,his villa PausilyponbetweenNeapolis and Puteoli, and his house in Rome on the Clivus Suburanus. Dio Cassius,our sourcefor this information (54.23.1-6), further reports that Vedius, in a testamentaryrequest, asked Augustus to build some public work of great beauty with a portion of the estate: Tn TE 6i-jtp nE(cLxaaXXE; yov xFXaRoag (54.23.5). oExoboX00T'J"vaL The house in Rome Augustus proceededto raze and in its place erected a porticus in the name of his wife Livia (54.23.6).Of this porticusno physical traces survive. Ovid (Fast. 6.637-48), our other importantsource for this porticus, closely connects it with a shrine (aedes) to Concordiaerected by Livia, for under June 11 Ovid first mentions the dedication of the Aedes Concordiae, and then a description of the Porticus Liviae immediately follows: te quoque magnifica,Concordia,dedicataede Livia, quamcaro praestititipsa viro. disce tamen,veniens aetas:ubi Liviaenuncest porticus,immensaetecta fuere domus. (637-40)1 Dio tells us that Tiberiuswith his mother Livia dedicatedthe porticus in Januaryof 7 B. C. in celebration of his triumph (55.8.1), but the Aedes Concordiae,as Ovid's text establishes, had a separate day of dedication. While the porticusbore Livia'snamebut includedherson in the celebratory opening events, the Fasti show that Livia alone sponsored ("praestititipsa") and dedicatedthe shrine("dedicatLivia").Ovid's few words on the shrine,which
' The plan of the porticus is preserved on the Forma Urbis Romae on four joining fragments. It was on the north slope of the Oppius and approached from the Clivus Suburanus by a wide stairway. See G. Carettoni, A. M. Colini, L. Cozza, G. Gatti, Lapianta marmorea diRoma antica (Rome 1960) tav. 18. For references to the Porticus Liviae (as it is called on the Marble Plan), see, in addition to works cited in the text of this paper, Ov., Ars Am. 1.71-72; Pliny, Ep. 1.5.9; Pliny, HN 14.11 ; Suet., Aug. 29.4; Strab. 5.236. Discussion in S. B. Platner and T. Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Oxford 1929) 423; H. Jordan and C. Hulsen, Topographie der Stadt Rom im Alterthum (Berlin 1871-1907) 1.3.315-16; G. Lugli, I Monumenti Antichi di Roma e Suburbio (Rome 1938) 3.384-86. L. Richardson, Jr. ("The Evolution of the Porticus Octaviae," AJA 80 [1976] 62) argues that Suetonius (Aug. 29.4) is wrong to claim that Augustus built the porticus; rather, he provided the land. But see Dio Cass. 54.23.6. Throughout this article I use the abbreviations for periodicals found in L'Annee Philologique. For the text of Ovid's Fasti I use the edition of E. H. Alton,' D. E. W. Wormell, and E. Courtney (Leipzig 1978).
Historia, Band XXXIII/3 (1984) ? Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH, Stuttgart

310

MARLEENBOUDREAU FLORY

has left no physicaltraceof its existence,areprecious,for they constituteour only survivingreferenceto it. The versesfrom the Fastido not makeclearthe physicalrelationship of the Aedes Concordiaeto the porticus,whetherthe shrineis insidethe porticusor merelyclose enoughto it for Ovid naturally to mentionthe one in conjunction with the other. Ovid's magnifica does not appearto Platnerand Ashbyto suit the small, rectangular structurevisible at the center of the porticus,whose layout is preserved on the MarblePlan.This buildinghas also beententatively identified as a fountain.2Coarelli, however, has pointed out the striking resemblanceof the plan of this rectangularstructure to the Ara Pacis If Livia'sshrinewere of the sameartisticsignificance, Augustae.3 then Ovid's adjectiveis explained. The termaedes,of course,does not imply a buildingof any particularsize and can refer to modest shrines as well as to imposing temples.4Since the passage begins by flatteringLivia and culminatesin a accolade to Augustus for destroying his own inheritance to show his of the opulencesymbolized by Vedius'house, we cannotwholly disapproval discount rhetorical exaggerationin Ovid's choice of language.Although doubts may still linger in the absence of conclusive evidence, the shrine mentioned by Ovid is now generallyacceptedas the building seen on the MarblePlan.5 of the evidence,thattherehasbeen It is not surprising, giventhe meagerness little consideration paid to this shrinebeyond very briefnotices.6 Yet, evenso, thereexist divergentopinions about its purpose.Ovid says that Liviabuiltthe shrine as a public testimonialto her harmoniousmarriedlife with Augustus.
2 So the editors of the Marble Plan suggest with reservations (above, n. 1, 69).

Guida archeologica di Roma (Verona 1974) 206: "Al centro della piazza, un edificio rettangolare, probabilmente un recinto, che contiene un altro elemento, mostra singolari somiglianze con la pianta dell' Ara Pacis." 0 Prinz in ThLL, s.v. aedes, 911, 51-53: "aedificium sacris usibus destinatum, tamquam dei O. deaeve cuiusdam domicilium exstructum, sive parvulum (i. q. aedicula, lararium, sacellum), sive maius," etc. Platner and Ashby (above, n. 1, 138) are looking for a temple: "The small rectangular structure marked on the Marble Plan can hardly have been a temple deserving of the epithet magnifica." Coarelli (above, n. 2, 206) calls it an ara. 5 See, for this identification, Jordan-Hulsen (above, n. 1) 315; Lugli (above, n. 1) 385; Coarelli (above, n. 3) 206; J. G. Frazer, The Fasti of Ovid (London 1929) 4.305. F. Bomer (P. Ovidius Naso. Die Fasten [Heidelberg 1957] 2.379) does not believe the location is certain, while L. Richardson, Jr. ("Concordia and Concordia Augusta, Rome and Pompeii," PP33 [1978] 269), on the basis of the parallel structure of Eumachia's porticus to Concordia at Pompeii, believes: "We do not need to hunt for a temple or altar for the Porticus Livia when there was none in its counterpart in Pompeii." But this statement ignores Ovid's evidence that a shrine existed. 6 The only extensive consideration I know is by Richardson (above, n. 5) 260-72. I disagree, however, with his conclusion that the Porticus Liviae was itself dedicated to Concordia (270) and intended to stress dynastic harmony (266). I have tried to bring out these and other points of disagreement in my paper.

Sic exemplaparantur: Livia'sShrineto Concordiaand the PorticusLiviae

311

Some take Ovid's words at face value,but many readinto the constructionof this shrine to Concordia by a member of the Imperialfamily a political or difficultiesof the era: message emanatingfrom the dynastic propaganda "Liviabuilt her [Concordia]anothershrinein the PorticusLiviaein 7 B. C., her concord with her son Tiberius." "'There seems to have demonstrating been some threatof troublein the imperial Gaius family.Augustus'grandsons and Lucius were now adolescent,and Tiberius'marriage to Juliain 11 B. C. seems not to have been a happy one. After the death of Drusus, Tiberius' position may well have been an awkward one .... Livia may well have decided a show of family solidarity was in order .... "8 Bomer, in his commentary on the Fasti, sees the ideas of marital and family unity as interrelated and essentiallypolitical in origin and purpose: "Das Kaiserhaus legte aus propagandistischen Grunden Wert auf eine m6glichst weite Verbreitung des Glaubens an die Concordia zwischen Augustus und Livia, die tatsachlich bestand, und die zwischen Livia und Tiberius zumindest spater nicht mehr bestand."9 Beranger, citing Bomer, cautions against reading too much political significance into our extant evidence and recalls us to Ovid's words: "La Concorde ... devait ... symboliser uniquement l'union conjugale du couple imperial."10 One reason for this divergence of opinion, I believe, arises from a failure to remember that the dedication of the porticus in January of 7 B. C. by Tiberius and Livia was a separate occasion and act from the consecration on June 11 of the shrine to Concordia, with which Livia's name alone is connected, even
' S. Weinstock, Divus Julius (Oxford 1971) 266. See too G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Romer2 (Munich 1912) 328. 8 Richardson (above, n. 5) 265-66. B. Levick sees the shrine at the beginning of the long history of "Concordia Augusta [which] became the harmony between the Princeps and his wife (or mother), who embodied the deity as the female link between the Princeps and his male kinsman." See "Concordia at Rome" in Scripta Nummaria Romana: Essays presented to Humphrey Sutherland (London 1978) 227. H. F. Rebert and H. Marceau ("The Temple of Concord in the Roman Forum", MAAR 5 [1925] 55) see a shift of meaning of Concordia in this period to the harmony of the Empire under Augustus and contemporary monuments subservient to that significance. 9 See above, n. 5, 2.379. 10 "Remarques sur la CONCORDIA dans la propaganda monetaire imperiale et la nature du principat", in Principatus (Geneva 1973) 371 and n. 37. Beranger stresses the absence of references to Concordia as a political slogan on coins during Augustus' rule and Augustus' continuity with Republican usage. Only at the end of Nero's rule did Concordia "prendre de l'envergure en multipliant ses emplois" (371). Beranger makes penetrating observations on the use of Concordia as a form of marriage announcement on some Imperial coins (377-78). Others, like Beranger, also distinguish between political Concordia and the domestic idea, see, e. g., E. Aust, "Concordia," RE 4 (1901) 833, but discussion amounts to less than one sentence. The overwhelming emphasis in secondary literature is on Concordia as a political concept, and that, I believe, has influenced interpretation of Livia's shrine.

312

MARLEENBOUDREAU FLORY

though the two buildings were in the same location on the Oppius." Ovid makes clear Livia's sole responsibility for financing and dedicating the shrine. There is no evidence to link Tiberius with this shrine, and to do so,we must ignore Ovid's statement that the aedes commemorated the marriage of Livia and Augustus. A passage in book 1 of the Fasti(637-50), in which Ovid describes Tiberius' restoration of the temple of Concordia in the Roman Forum in his own name and that of his dead brother Drusus and, at the end of the passage, introduces Livia's name, a matter to which we will turn later, has helped to encourage the idea that Tiberius and Livia were jointly involved with the shrine on the Oppius by apparently associating Livia in this essentially political act vowed in the same year as the dedication of the Porticus Liviae (Dio Cass. 55.8.1-2). But Livia's involvement in the restoration, attested nowhere else, hinges on an uncertain text. Since the two shrines are contemporaneous, Livia's supposed role in the restoration of the temple to Concordia in the Forum has perhaps unduly and wrongly influenced views of the purpose of her own shrine to Concordia. The dedication by Tiberius of the restored temple in A. D. 10 as "Aedes Concordiae Augustae," as well as the later, widespread development of this theme in Imperial propaganda, have led too easily to identifying Livia's shrine with dynastic motives.'2 While family troubles were in the air in 7 B. C., we do not know when the idea for the shrine was conceived, but if as early as 15 B. C. when the land became available, different motives may well have played a role. But most important, I believe, we have not paid adequate attention to Concordia's long-established role as a guardian of family and conjugal life, the aspect to which Ovid's own words turn us. In addition, those who regard Livia's shrine as a monument to her married life have not taken the next step to see how that kind of monument fitted the important ideological role Livia played in Augustan society. Any discussion of the shrine should consider how the dedication, identified with her alone, suited her public position during Augustus' rule. Thus my aim in this paper is to re-examine the purpose of Livia's shrine by considering three categories of evidence: (1) the dies natalis of the shrine, (2) evidence about Concordia as a traditional ideal of Roman family life, and (3) Livia's ideological role during her husband's rule. This paper will then consider the significance of the location of the shrine in the Porticus
Liviae. See, e. g., Richardson (above, n. 5) 270. Weinstock (above, n. 7, 266) closely connects Tiberius' restoration and Livia's shrine as does Richardson (above, n. 5) 270. On the meaning of "Concordia Augusta" in relation to Tiberius' temple, see Levick (above, n. 8) 224. See too J. R. Fears, "The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Propaganda," ANRW 2.17.2 (1981) 889-939, for the development of Concordia, among other virtues, during the Imperial period and Beranger (above, n. 10) 372-82.
12

Livia'sShrineto Concordiaand the PorticusLiviae Sic exemplaparantur:

313

Recently Gros has restated and re-emphasizedthe value of the date of consecrationof a temple, its dies natalis, for assessingthe significanceand purpose of temples built or restored during Augustus' rule.'3 To my knowledge,the dedicationdate of June 11 for the Aedes Concordiaehas not been consideredin referencesto Livia's shrine, yet this importantevidence clarifiesthe purpose of her shrine. Once we recognizethe religiousassociations of this day with which Livia linked her shrine, a day on which were annuallycelebratedreligiousrites focused on women and family life, we can also trace the inspirationfor the shrine's constructionin two interrelated moralvaluesandthe symbolic concernsof Augustus:the revivalof traditional role of Livia in Romansociety. tell us, occurred On June 11, as Ovid (Fast.6.475) and survivingcalendars
the Matralia, a festival in honor of Mater Matuta. The same day was the dies natalis of her temple in the Forum Boarium (Fast. 6.479-807). Ovid begins a description of the rites and history of the Matralia with an invocation to mothers, whose feast day it was - "ite, bonae matres (vestrum Matralia festum),/flavaque Thebanae reddite liba deae" (475-76) - but aunts rather than mothers played the central role in the rather odd rites of this cult, for the prayers women offered to the goddess were not for their own children but for their nephews and nieces: "non tamen hanc pro stirpe sua pia mater adoret" (559). The festival honored an old Italic goddess, whose worship was confined to married women and to the perpetually monogamous (univirae). The rites were connected with childbearing and rearing, nursing, and family life through a focus on children whom the women cuddled and petted. The cult was one of great antiquity, for Servius Tullius was said to have established the goddess' temple in Rome (Fast.6.480). 4 June 11 was also the dies natalis of the temple of Fortuna Virgo, whose dedication day is attested in the pre-Julian calendar of Antium and in Ovid: "Lux eadem, Fortuna, tua est, auctorque locusque" (Fast. 6.569). There existed a number of close connections between the temple of Mater Matuta and Fortuna Virgo besides the shared day of consecration. Tradition attributed the foundation of both temples to Servius Tullius, and both were burned in 213
3 Aurea Templa: Recherches sur l'architecture religieuse de Rome a l'epoque d'Auguste (Rome 1976) 31-34. M. Guarducci, "Enea e Vesta," MDAI(R) 78 (1971) 73-118, in her discussion of the dedication date of a shrine to Vesta on the Palatine, has much of interest to say about the dies natalis of Roman temples, esp. 104-109. See too D. R. Stuart, "The Reputed Influence of the Dies Natalis in Determining the Inscription of Restored Temples," TAPhA 36 (1905) 52-63. 14 On the Matralia and the temple to Mater Matuta: Ov., Fast. 6.475-568; CIL 12, 320; Varro, Ling. 5.106; Plut., Quaest. Rom. 267E.; Cam. 5.1-2; De frat. amor. 492D; Festus 297 M; Tert., De Monog. 17. Other sources and discussion of controversial points in Q. F. Maule and H. R. W. Smith, "Votive Religion at Caere: Prolegomena," Cal. Publ. C/ass. Arch. 4 (1959) 74-87; K. Latte, Romische Religionsgeschichte (Munich 1960) 97-98; Bomer (above, n. 5) 2.371-73.

314

MARLEENBOUDREAU FLORY

B. C. and rebuilt the following year. Archaeological excavations in 1937 in the area of Sant' Omobono fronting the Forum Boarium revealed two temples side by side which are now usually identified as the temples of Mater Matuta and Fortuna Virgo. The temples were so close together that our sources constantly connect them and this fact the excavations confirm. But no evidence has been found to establish a certain link between the two cults, which apparently were unconnected. This cult, however, like that of Mater Matuta, was centered on marriage and the lives of women. There existed in the temple a mysterious cult statue, identified as Servius Tullius himself, Fortuna, or Pudicitia, to which girls gave little togas and thereby marked their passage from childhood to puberty and the advent of marriage or from maidenhood to married life. Thus these two long-standing cults emphasized traditional female roles and marked important aspects of womens' lives: marriage, motherhood, childbearing, and the care and rearing of children."5 The feast of the Vestalia occurred on June 9, but some days before and after were consecrated to Vesta. The storehouse (penus), the inner sanctum of the temple, was open to matronae on the 7th and shut again on the 15th after the refuse had been swept and removed.'6 Although the Matralia on June 11 was not included in the sacred service of the Vesta, "its inclusion in the celebration of the Vestalia," argues Gjerstad, "shows that it had a sacred connection with Vesta."'7 The closeness of the two festivals in the religious calendar, the participation in both of matronae, and the ties of both cults with traditional Roman concepts of womanhood and family life may well have linked them in the Romans' minds even if no cult practices joined them. The period which Livia chose for the consecration of her shrine was one in which rites and cults of women and the family crowded together. The date of consecration in conjunction with Livia's sponsorship of the shrine and Ovid's emphasis on married love ("viro caro ipsa praestitit") shows that Livia, by closely associating Concordia with long-established deities of marriage and family life, honored Concordia as a presiding goddess of married life. Concordia, as a symbol of political accord, had a long history in Roman

'5 Ov., Fast. 6.569-636; Varro ap. Non. 278 L; Arn., Adv. Nat. 2.67; Pliny, HN8.194, 197; Livy 24.47.15; 25.7.6. Other evidence collected and discussed by H. Lyngby, Die Tempel der Fortuna und der Mater Matuta am Forum Boarium in Rom (Munich 1939) 22-34; Bomer (above, n. 5) 2.377; Latte (above, n. 14) 180-81 and esp. n. 4. Latte views the two cults as independent. On the location of the two temples, A. M. Colini, "Ambiente e storia dei tempi piu antichi," PP 32 (1977) 9-19. Bibliography on excavations in E. Nash, A Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome (rev. ed., London 1968) 411-12. On Fortuna in the Antiate calendar, G. Mancini, NSA (1921) 98-99. I have not seen F. Castagnoli, "II Culto della Mater Matuta e della Fortuna nel Foro Boario," StudRom 27 (1979) 145-52. 16 Ov., Fast. 6.249-468, 713-14. 17 Early Rome (Lund 1973) 5.261.

Livia'sShrineto Concordiaand the PorticusLiviae Sic exemplaparantur:

315

political life and had been the object of a number of public dedications and shrines, but Livia's shrine on the Oppius is the first we know built to honor Concordia as a symbol of women's lives. Yet Concordia, as we know from references in literary sources, was a regular object of appeal, prayers, and offerings in cults or celebrations focused on married life and family relationships, even if, in studies of Concordia, the political aspect has wholly overshadowed the domestic."8 A late notice in lohannes Lydus' De mensibus records that on April 1, during the rites of the Veneralia, highborn women invoked Venus bniLct 6iiovo(ag, "on behalf of the ideal of family life."'9 Valerius Maximus writes of another divinity connected with domestic harmony, Viriplaca, a goddess of great antiquity, to whose sacellum on the Palatine came disputatious spouses, who, in a bit of highly modern-sounding therapy, could air their grievances and, their tempers cooled, return home in new accord: Quotiens vero inter virum et uxorem aliquid iurgi intercesserat, in sacellum deae Viriplacae, quod est in Palatio, veniebant et ibi invicem locuti quae voluerant contentione animorum deposita concordes revertebantur. (2.1.6)20

So Viriplaca functioned, as Valerius' text continues, as the "cotidianae ac domesticae pacis custos." Both cults, we may note, show that the wife bore the responsibility for ensuring domestic peace by her bearing and conduct.2" Ovid writes that on February 22, the family feast of Caristia or Cara Cognatio, Concordia was particularly invoked: "Concordia fertur/illa praecipue mitis adesse die" (Fast.2.631-32). One aspect of this holiday bears a notable resemblance to Valerius Maximus' description of the rites at the shrine of Viriplaca: an opportunity for grudges and quarrels to be aired, resolved, and forgotten as Harmony ruled once more over family relationships: Convivium etiam sollemne maiores instituerunt idque caristia appellaverunt, cui praeter cognatos et adfines nemo interponebatur, ut, si qua inter
18 See my comment in n. 10. The concept of Concordia as a political idea both in the Republican and Imperial periods has been thoroughly studied. See, in particular, P. Jal, "Pax Civilis" - "Concordia," REL 39 (1961) 230-31; Weinstock (above, n. 7) 260-66; Beranger (above, n. 10) 367-82; A. Momigliano, "Camillus and Concord," CQ 36 (1942) 111-20; E. Skard, "Concordia," in Romische Wertbegriffe, ed. H. Oppermann (Darmstadt 1967) 173-208. Bibliography in Fears (above, n. 12) 841, n. 67 and Levick (above, n. 8) 229. " Ed. R. Wuensch (Stuttgart 1898; repr. 1967) 4.65. The translation is my version of L. Preller, Romische Mythologie (Berlin 1858) 624. A good summary of sources and discussion of other rites on April 1 in H. H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (London 1981) 96-97. 20 Wissowa (above, n. 7) 243; W. Eisenhut, "Viriplaca," RE9A (1961) 233-34; G. Radke, Die Gotter Altitaliens (Munster 1965) 340. 21 See Val. Max. 2.1.6 for the etymology of the goddess' name. Cf.Columella, Rust. 12 pr. 7- 10 where the author describes the wife's reverentia and diligentia as the basis of concordia.

316

MARLEEN FLORY BOUDREAU

necessarias personas querella esset orta, apud sacra mensae et inter hilaritatem animorum et fautoribus concordiae adhibitis tolleretur. (Val. Max. 2.1.8) Ovid (Fast. 2.617) connects the feast day's name with cari, "dear kinsfolk."22 A family meal to which all brought contributions of food and wine marked the day, gifts were exchanged, and sacrifices were made to the Lares. Since this celebration followed right after the Parentalia,when the family remembered its dead, it was above all a day for family members to turn their thoughts, says Ovid (Fast. 2.619-20), back to the living - "scilicet a tumulis et qui periere propinquis/protinus ad vivos ora referre iuvat" - and from sad and sorrowful memories to present good cheer and hilanitas (Val. Max. 2.1.8).23 When Romans wrote about good or successful marriages, they often cited the concordia of a husband and wife as an enviable ideal. Cicero commented on the auspicious start to an ultimately ill-starred match by remarking that the marriage was an honorable one and there was goodwill on both sides - "cum essent eae nuptiae plenae dignitatis, plenae concordiae. . ." (Clu. 12) - while Pliny, on his marriage to Calpurnia, desired his and her "mutual happiness:" "His ex causis in spem certissimam adducor perpetuam nobis maioremque in dies futuram esse concordiam" (Ep. 4.19.5). The ideal, in its most perfect expression, appears in Tacitus' description of the marriage of Agricola and Domitia: "vixeruntque mira concordia, per mutuam caritatem et in vicem se anteponendo" (Agr. 6. 1).24 Such sentiments suggest the high regard for marriage among the Romans, who conceived of the spouses as partners in the marriage, although the success of the union depended on the compliance of the wife and her willingness to yield to her husband's wishes.25 Still more widespread is the sentiment on tombstones. Here a wide variety of formulae eulogize like-minded spouses. In Rome one grieving husband wrote: "mecum vixit tan [sic] concorde ad fatalem diem" (CIL VI.7579), while a wife, also from Rome, dedicated an altar to her husband with these words: "digno meritoque marito cum quo concordem vitam multosque per annos
22 "Carus" was a particularly appropriate word to describe the feelings of family members, e. g., Cic., Off. 1.17-57; Cat. 4.3; Catull. 66.22. Ovid (Fast. 6.638) uses it of Livia's relationship with Augustus and as her motive for building her shrine. On tombstones carissimusla (the superlative is usual) is found with great frequency of family relationships. See E. J. Jory and D. G. Moore, Indices Vocabulorum: CIL VI (Berlin 1974) 960-73. 23 On Caristia: Ov., Fast. 2.617-38; gifts expected: Mart. 9.54.5; 9.55.1; CIL VI.10234.13. Other sources and discussion in G. Wissowa, "Caristia," RE 3 (1899) 1592-93. 24 See too Cic., Att. 8.6.4; Catull. 64.336; Tac., Ann. 3.33.1. Other examples, ThLL, s.v.

concordia, 85, 5-27. 25 G. Williams, "Some Aspects of Roman Marriage Ceremonies and Ideals," JRS 48 (1958) 16-29 on traditional expectations that wives be dutiful and obedient. Two anecdotes told by Dio Cassius (54.16.4-5; 58.2.5) about Augustus and Livia focus on her compliance with her husband's wishes.

Sic exemplaparantur: Livia'sShrineto Concordiaand the PorticusLiviae

317

vixit" (CIL VI.26926). An epitaph of another Roman couple begins with a statement of their loving unanimity: "heis [sic] sunt duo concordes" (CIL 1.1071 =VI.23137). A wide variety of related phrases ("sine discordia," "sine stomacho," "sine offensa") includes a very common and conventional tag: "sine ulla querella." Epitaphs, as we might expect, conservatively keep to traditional and idealistic sentiments. But the insistence on devoted spouses and a happy homelife reflects the times too and suggests a pride in family happiness and stability no longer so much taken for granted. Palmer notes, in addition, that Augustus' renewed focus on family values may find reflection in sepulchral encomia and that not only tradition but contemporary society shaped the text of these epitaphs.26 The evidence of tombstones and literature and the role of Concordia in cults and celebrations centered on married life shows Concordia was a traditional ideal and aspect of marriagein Roman society. Concordia might mean no more than domestic peace, unmarred by quarrels, but on a higher level suggests a partnership within the home based on mutual esteem and goodwill in the interests of the family. Livia did not develop a new aspect of Concordia; rather, she focused renewed attention on an old ideal. The dedication of a public shrine to the goddess of harmonious married life fits into the building program attested for Livia and suits the portrait left for us in literature, inscriptions, and on coins of her public identification, encouraged by Augustus,27 as the pre-eminent benefactor of family life, the first wife and mother in the state, and the exemplar of chaste and old-fashioned Roman womanhood. Although we do not know the dates, we have evidence to show that Livia undertook the reconstruction of two temples which were associated with deities and cults of women and family life. Ovid (Fast. 5.157-58) tells us that Livia restored the temple of the Bona Dea Subsaxana28 and that her motive was to imitate her husband, a model of piety in his repair and rebuilding of temples: "Livia restituit, ne non imitata maritum/esset et ex omni parte secuta + virum +." The rites of the Bona Dea, generally associated with female

26 A wide variety of examples collected by R. Lattimore, Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs (Urbana, Ill. 1942) 279, n. 107, 108. These sentiments predominate in Rome and Italy. For the portrait of women on epitaphs as conservative and traditional, see Lattimore, 299-300; also, L. Friedlander, Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms'0 (Leipzig 1922) 1.314-17; R. E. A. Palmer, "Roman Shrines of Female Chastity from the Caste Struggle to the Papacy of Innocent I," RSA 4 (1974) 140. 27 Two anecdotes (Dio Cass. 54.16.4-5; Macrob., Sat. 2.5.6) show how Augustus sought to make Livia a model for others. 28 Bomer questions Ovid's reliability in Untersuchungen uber die Religion der Sklaven in Griechenland und Rom (Mainz 1957) 1.155, but see Latte (above, n. 14) 229, n. 3; Platner and Ashby (above, n. 1) 85.

318

MARLEEN BOUDREAU FLORY

fertility, were undertaken for the publicbenefitby chosenmatronae underthe

directionof the VestalVirgins.29 Architectural remains,discoveredat the fourthmilestoneon the Via Latina, have been identified as belonging to a temple of FortunaMuliebris,whose location literary sources confirm.30 An inscription found there records a reconstructionby "Livia Drusi f uxs [or CaesarisAugusti]" (CIL VI.883). Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who lived and taught at Rome for many years in 7 B. C., writes from 30 B. C., andwhose RomanAntiquitieibeganto appear aboutthe originof the cult andthe temple.Dionysiustells the story of how the Senate honored the women who had accompanied the wife and mother of Coriolanus and succeeded in dissuadinghim from his attackon Rome by giving them, at their request,a temple to FortunaMuliebris(8.55-56). The author, however, goes into so much detail that he in fact apologizesfor his comments:"ThefactthatDionysiuswrote at lengthabout digression.Scullard the cult (thoughapologizingfor the digression) mightsuggestthatinterestin it was still lively in the Augustanperiod. ."X3 If Dionysius were cateringto contemporary interest,curiosityabout the originsof the cult may havearisen from the first lady of Rome's personalinterestin the temple,and Dionysius' detailed attention to the cult may thus constitute his personalsupport of Augustanpropaganda.32 Accordingto Dionysius (8.56.4),no womanwho had but a second time could touch or crown the cult statuewith garlands, married only newly married women (vE6ya[Lot) or univirae should worship the goddess. Hence her cult was linked to the Romanideal of pudicitia.3 RecentlyPalmer,in an articleon shrinesto Pudicitiain Rome,hasproposed that Livia was responsiblefor the restorationof a third temple in Rome
connected with the religious lives of women. Palmer, citing literary evidence,

to revivethe arguesthat Augustussponsoreda law depudicitiaandundertook Sinceno mancould traditional cults of PudicitiaPlebeiaand PudicitiaPatricia. be involved in the cult of Chastity,a womanhad to be found to carryout the restoration,and Livia and her daughterJulia, Palmersuggests,were obvious choices to sponsor the rebuildingof the two shrines. Palmer cites a late
29 The evidence for the rite and cult collected and discussed by G. Wissowa, "Bona Dea," RE 3 (1899) 686-94. T. P. Wiseman (Cinna the Poet [Leicester 1974] 130, n. 3) suggests the matronae had to be univirae. 30 Val. Max. 1.8.4.; cf. 5.2.1. Discussion of location by T. Ashby, "The Classical Topography of the Roman Campagna," PBSR 4 (1907) 79. 31 Above, n. 19, 161. 32 On this point, convincingly demonstrated for other cults which Dionysius describes in detail, see P. M. Martin, "La Propaganda Augusteenne dans les Antiquites Romaines de Denys d'Halicarnasse," REL 49 (1971) 162-79. 33 On univirae in the cult: Tert., De Monog. 17; Festus 282 L; Serv., Aen. 4.19. See too Latte (above n. 14) 181 and n. 1. Other sources on the cult collected by I. Kajanto, "Fortuna," ANRW

2.17.1 (1981) 511-12.

Sic exempla parantur: Livia's Shrine to Concordia and the Porticus Liviae

319

reference to a basilicabearingLivia'snamein the areaof the shrineto Pudicitia Plebeiato supporthis suggestion.34 Livia'sphilanthropy extendedbeyond restoration of religioussanctuaries to bequeststo familiesunableto raisetheir childrenor providedowriesfor their to marry.Accordingto Dio Cassius,our sourcefor this information daughters (58.2.2-3), her generosityand interestin subsidizingfamilylife was a primary reasonfor an exceptionalvote by the Senateafterher deathto buildan archin her honor and name her "motherof her country:" xac tQO(oTL xcai C9'i4eaaftt, a [1'rE[Utg 6aklj
yuvaLxi, tVA94LqtLavTo, &TLTr ovUx6X(you; oGwv ?tGO'XEL, xca OT6ntaia; 7oXkkXOV ftcTQ6PEL x6Qctg
TE to0XX6OL OVEOE&6OXEL, &P' o' yE Xai acTflv PC; 3TaTQi6o;g TtvEg Ew:v6itaov. TQa

Livia'sbenevolenceclearlywas not privateandunpublicized but philanthropy public, widespread,and well-known as she, in a very practicalway, helped carryout some of the goals of Augustus'legislationto encourage and marriage the birthrate. out neitherof the Senate's AlthoughTiberiuscarried resolutions, the story shows general public identificationof Livia as a protector and benefactorof marriage and family life.5 In fact, evidencefrom Roman Egypt shows that Livia'snamewas included in marriagecontracts as late as the middle of the second century as the patronessof marriage. Some of these survivingcontractson papyrusstatethat the documentwas concludedtL'IouXLctvAC Xas g, "in the presenceof Julia Augusta,"36, probably, as Wilcken suggests,before her statue. Hence Livia, afterher death, had become assimilated to the status of a goddess of married life whose presenceratifiedthe marriage agreement. The publicacceptance and venerationof subsequentempressesas patronessesof marriedlife may stem from an identificationand role establishedfirst by Livia. After the deathof Faustinathe Youngerin A. D. 175, the Senatedecreedthat an altarbe erected in honor of her marriage with Marcus Aurelius and on it brides and
34

Above, n. 26, 136-40 and n. 81.

'5 On Tiberius' refusal: Dio Cass. 58.2.6; Tac., Ann. 1.14.1-2. On Livia's support of and

intervention in behalf of many, see, e. g., Dio Cass., 55.14.-22.2; Vell. Pat. 2.130.5; Dio Cass. 58.2.3; Tac. (Ann. 4.71.5) reports how Livia helped her granddaughter Julia: "illic viginti annis exilium toleravit Augustae ope sustentata." In an epigram from Thespiae (A. S. F. Gow and D. L. Page, The Greek Anthology: The Garland of Philip [Cambridge 1968] 1.277) Livia's wisdom is said to have "saved the world." On parallels to this statement in the typology of Livia, C. P. Jones, "A Leading Family of Roman Thespiae," HSPh 74 (1970) 254-55 and n. 86, 87. The unauthorized title - "mater patriae" - appears on a coin from Lepcis Magna. See M. Grant, Aspects of the Prncipate of Tiberius (New York 1950) 127, for discussion and pl. VIII (6) for an illustration. 36 Evidence collected and discussed by U. Wilcken, "Ehepatronae im romischen Kaiserhaus," ZRG 30 (1909) 504-507.

320

MARLEENBOUDREAU FLORY

bridegroomsshould offer sacrifice(Dio Cass. 71.31.1).A similaraltar,which the Elder,patrons also namesan Imperial couple,AntoninusPiusandFaustina of marriage,survives at Ostia (CIL XIV.5326). The association of later empressesand Liviaherselfboth duringher lifetimeand afterher deathwith Juno suggestsa role as Juno Pronubaand honors the wife of the emperoras the guardian of marriedlife.37 An inscription from Forum Clodi (CIL XI.3303), datable to A. D. 18, records a birthdaycelebrationfor Livia as well as sacrificesto the Genii of Augustus and Tiberius.The duumviriprovidedsweetmeatsand wine to the namedfor a women of the "vicus ad BonamDeam." The vicus is apparently small shrine located within it. If, as Grethersuggests,the Bona Dea figures here as a kind of dea natalis,then it would explainwhy the women of this This particularvicus have an exclusive celebration of Livia's birthday.38 inscriptionshows how closely Liviacameto be associatedwith womens'lives and concernsand how her honorsandlaterherworshiprecognizedherspecial by Claudius' role as the first wife and motherof the state. So, appropriately, order afterher deification,women were to take oaths in the deifiedempress' name (Dio Cass. 60.5.2). deities of femalelife such as Juno and Liviawas associatedwith traditional to the statusof a Vestal Vestaand, by degreesduringher lifetime,assimilated Virgin. Her identificationwith Juno fitted her role as consort to AugustusJupiter- "sola toro magni digna repertalovis" (Ov., Fast. 1.650); "magno consociataIovi" (Cons. ad Liviam 380) - although the papyri from Egypt went beyond merely discussedabove show that in one case the identification to Augustus,since she activelytook on the the expressionof her relationship function of Juno Pronuba39. Her comparison with the Vestal Virgins,who bestowed embodiedthe highestidealof the Romanconceptof womanhood,40 role. She was on her greatdignity and an impressive public givensacrosanctity
3' There existed other more subtle associations between Livia's name and family life, for example, the dedication of the Ara Pacis Augustae on her birthday and her appearance in the frieze, since "the chief reason for the inclusion of women and children in the processional friezes of the Altar of Peace was to place before the eyes of the Roman public an image of the emperor and his associates as heads of families. The emperor and his retinue were thus depicted as the embodiment of the Augustan social program; they set a standard for the rest of the population to emulate" (D. E. E. Kleiner, "The Great Friezes of the Ara Pacis Augustae: Greek Sources, Roman Derivatives, and Augustan Social Policy," MEFR 90 [1978] 776). 38 "Livia and the Roman Imperial Cult," AJPh 67 (1946) 238 and n. 91. " On Livia's divine honors and deities with whom she was identified, see Grether (above, n. 38) 222-52; Grant (above, n. 35) 108-29; L. R. Taylor, The Divinity of the Roman Emperor (Middletown, Conn. 1931) 270-83; K. Scott, "Emperor Worship in Ovid," TAPhA 61 (1930) 57, 64-65; L. Ollendorf, "Livia Drusilla," RE 13.1 (1926) 907-23. 40 F. Altheim, A Historyof RomanReligion(London 1938) 88: "The Roman conception of woman found perhaps its strongest, most clearly defined expression, however, in the Vestal Virgin."

Livia'sShrineto Concordiaand the PorticusLiviae Sic exemplaparantur:

321

early in her husband's rule (35 B. C.; Dio Cass. 49.38.1) during which she already appeared in a veil like that worn by the Vestal Virgins. The cult of the Palatine Vesta appears to have been delegated to her, and after Augustus' death and six years before her own,4' she was given the right to sit with the Vestal Virgins at public performances (Tac., Ann. 4.16.4). The emperor Claudius, who was responsible for her deification, entrusted her cult to the Vestal Virgins (Dio Cass. 60.5.2). Ovid, although eager to flatter and please and win a return from exile, only reflects current Imperial ideology in his description of Livia as "pudicarum te Vestam, Livia, matrum" (Pont. 4.13.29). Other writers like Ovid, whose poetry or prose reflected an official view, linked Livia's name with the traditional moral qualities associated with women. Livia is, above all, an exemplar of pudicitia worthy of earlier and morally superior generations: "Caesaris ... coniunx. . / quae praestatvirtute sua, ne prisca vetustas/laude pudicitiae saecula nostra premat" (Ov., Pont. 3.1.114-16); "femina digna illis, quos aurea condidit aetas" (Cons. ad Liviam 343). Valerius Maximus, in his sixth book, De pudicitia (6.1. pr.), joins together Vesta, Juno, and Livia because of their characteristic attribute of chastity: "tu [Pudicitia] ... consecratos Vestae focos incolis, tu Capitolinae lunonis pulvinaribus incubas . . . sanctissimumque Iuliae genialem torum adsidua statione celebras." Her iconographic identification with these goddesses makes the compliment particularly apt. Horace delicately equates her moral stature with that of univirae (from whose ranks an earlier marriage excluded her): "unico gaudens mulier marito" (Carm. 3.14.5). She lives unsullied by contemporary moral decay - "quid tenuisse animum contra sua saecula rectum/altius et vitiis exeruisse caput" (Cons. ad Liviam 45-46) - and achieves a unique standing in Roman society by her superiority to other women, although she is still less than the gods: "eminentissima et per omnia deis quam hominibus similior femina" (Vell. Pat. 2.130.5).42 Her flatterers tacitly acknowledge her power but only to praise her for finding satisfaction in traditional domesticity: "nec vires errasse tuas campove forove/quamque licet citra constituisse domum" (Cons. ad Liviam 49-50).43 The sentiments are, for that era, old-fashioned and sound little different from those of a famous second century B. C. sepulchral epigram for Claudia, which emphasizes the same values of domesticity, fidelity to her husband's wishes, and correct female
41 Livia appears in a veil on the Uffizi Altar. See C. T. Seltman, CAH pl. 4. 136. On the Palatine cult and Livia's role, D. Kienast, Augustus: Prinzeps und Monarch (Darmstadt 1982) 196-97, and n. 106; C. Koch, "Vesta," RE 8A2 (1958) 1757. 42 Velleius' words reflect Tiberius' decision not to allow his mother extraordinary honors during her lifetime. Cf. Tac., Ann. 1.14.1-2. 43 See too Vell. Pat. 2.75.3; Tac., Ann. 5.1.5; Dio Cass. 58.2.4-5; Sen., Cons. ad Marcaam 4.1-2. Other evidence on her personality and reputation collected by V. Gardthausen, Augustus und seine Zeit (Leipzig 1896) 1.2.1022-32; Ollendorf (above, n. 39) 904.

322

MARLEEN BOUDREAU FLORY

conduct." While other evidence reveals her wealth, her political power, and her influence over both her husband and her son, the ruler and the ruler apparent,45 her official portrait equates her with the traditional Roman matrona, but one whose exemplary character elevates her to a position analogous to that of the Vestal Virgins. By her charities, her public championship of the religious rites of women, and the example of her character, Livia gave support to the neglected family values Augustus hoped to revive. By the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus and the lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis, both in place by 17 B. C., Augustus attempted to regularize the marital relationship, to make marriageonce more a social obligation by instituting penalties against the unmarried, and to stimulate the birthrate by creating a series of rewards for families with the required number of children.46Thus the princeps hoped to re-establish the sanctity and dignity of marriage and family life and the honor and prestige traditionally accorded to the mothers of families. The ideal of Concordia not only suggested the pleasures of marital felicity but a time-honored and dignified concept of marriage as a partnership, undertaken for the sake of children, and mutually beneficial. When Livia and Augustus made public acknowledgment of the importance (and happiness) of their married life together by a shrine to the goddess of marital accord, they, as the first couple of Rome, set an example for others to follow. That Livia, moreover, dedicated the shrine was a correct and suitable gesture quite consonant with Roman ideas about married life, since the success of the marriage depended on the wife's character and efforts. When Livia chose June 11, however, as her date of dedication, there were still other ideological aims in view. She undoubtedly hoped to give renewed prestige and attention to two long-established Roman temples and cults of women's lives and the traditional social role they emphasized - marriageand motherhood and childbirth - by linking her new shrine, under her personal and prestigious sponsorship, with the old. In turn, the new shrine and Livia gained eminence by association with venerable cults and temples whose foundations were connected with the earliest period of Roman history. So this
" CIL 12.1211 = Dess., ILS 8403. Like Claudia ("lanam fecit") Livia made clothes from homespun for her husband (Suet., Aug. 73). 4 See, e.g., Dio Cass. 56.30-31.1; 57.12; Tac., Ann. 5.3.1; 6.51.3; Suet., Tib. 50.2; CIL VI.3926-4326 (the columbarium of Livia's extensive staff); S. Treggiari, "Jobs in the Household of Livia," PBSR 30 (1975) 48-77. Other evidence on her wealth collected by Ollendorf (above, n. 39) 914.
46 On the legislation, its chronology, and aims: H. Last, CAH 10. 441-56; P. E. Corbett, The Roman Law of Marriage (Oxford 1930) 31-39, 133-35; G. Williams, "Poetry in the Moral Climate of Augustan Rome," JRS 52 (1962) 28-46; R. I. Frank, "Augustus' Legislation on Marriage and Children," CSCA 8 (1975) 41-52; K. Galinsky, "Augustus' Legislation on Morals and Marriage," Phil. 125 (1981) 126-44.

Sic exempla parantur: Livia's Shrine to Concordia and the Porticus Liviae

323

act was one of a series by which the Roman people identified Livia as the contemporary representative of a centuries-old reverence for the dignity of married life. There exists, I believe, a second reference to the Aedes Concordiae in the Porticus Liviae in a passage from book 1 of the Fasti (649-50), which supports the idea that Livia's dedication constituted a re-establishment of a characteristically Roman ideal of family life. Frazer, and before him Peter, recognized the significance of this reference and correctly interpreted it, but Bomer, in his edition of the Fasti, by choosing a different reading from Frazer of one critical word, has given Livia a role in Tiberius' reconstruction of the temple of Concord in the Roman Forum. Her presumed, but I believe erroneously presumed, role there has led some to connect, in turn, Tiberius with her shrine to Concordia on the Oppius and to see both buildings as a reflection of the same desire to advertise dynastic unity.4"Under the date of January 16 Ovid writes about the history of the temple of Concordia in the Roman Forum, whose reconstruction, vowed on Tiberius' return from Pannonia in 7 B. C., was not completed until A. D. 10 when Tiberius dedicated the Aedes Concordiae Augustae in his own name and that of his deceased brother Drusus. Levick has analyzed and explained the political significance of this act: He took upon himself the duty of restoring, in his own name and in that of his brother, the temple of Concord. An innocuous act, if the temple had not had such controversial associations, so clear a connexion with the more conservative type of politician. The claim was that the temple had been founded by that godsend to optimate pamphleteers, M. Furius Camillus ... and it had been restored once before, in 121 by the reactionary consul Opimius.... In making his first act as consul an offer to restore it, Tiberius was taking on the mantle of Camillus and Opimius ... he was announcing that he wished to be known as the champion of strong senatorial government.48 Ovid's description of Tiberius' restoration ends with these four verses, for which we here follow Bomer's text: inde triumphatae libasti munera gentis templaque fecisti, quam colis ipse deae. haec tua constituit genetrix et rebus et ara, sola toro magni digna reperta lovis. (647-50)
4' See, e. g., Weinstock (above, n. 7) 266 and esp. n. 13. Richardson suggests Livia undertook "to supervise the construction" (above, n. 5, 272) of the temple in the Roman Forum and sees no difference in purpose between them. 48 "Tiberius' Retirement to Rhodes," Latomus 31 (1972) 803-804; also discussed by Levick (above, n. 8, 224) in terms of the political significance of fraternal harmony between Tiberius and Drusus. On the changed political situation in A. D. 10 when the temple was dedicated and Concordia between Tiberius and Germanicus, see K. Kraft, Zur Minzpragung des Augustus (Wiesbaden 1969) 242-51.

324

MARLEEN BOUDREAU FLORY

In line 649 Bomer reads "haec," the word in dispute, to refer in the prior line to "templa," and so gives Livia a role in building the temple, providing it with an altar, and, as Bomer translates "rebus," "furnishings." There is no other evidence to connect Livia with this reconstruction except the very flimsy evidence of this disputed reading.49 In fact Bomer's reading has not gained acceptance. Both Frazer and Peter read "hanc" prior to Bomer's edition, and Alton, Wormell and Courtney reestablished that reading in their 1978 Teubner edition. Thus "hanc" refers to "deae" in the previous line. Frazer and Peter interpreted the verse to mean that Livia securely established the goddess Concordia in Rome by her "actions" The (rebus), that is, her happy marriage with Augustus, and "with an altar."50 next verse, in its reference to Livia's marriage to Augustus (here depicted as Jupiter) does in fact confirm that Ovid is thinking about Concordia in these two verses in terms of marital harmony, a subject which would naturally follow a reference to Livia and her shrine to Concordia in the Porticus Livia. Thus the verse suggests that the worship of this traditional deity of family life had weakened and diminished until Livia, by publicly identifying Concordia as her own special deity, secured the goddess' place in religious and family life. The dedication of this shrine may have been of considerable public significance and interest or a project about which Livia enjoyed being reminded, since Ovid mentions it twice and in both cases in passages meant to flatter and please the Imperial household. This discussion, I believe, has shown that the shrine of Concordia had important links with the revival of family life in Augustan society. Obviously the establishment of a shrine to the harmony between Augustus and Livia might well also suggest the dynastic unity between the Julian and Claudian clans or imply that the political well-being of the state emanated from the domestic unity of the Imperial household. But the evidence - the dies natalis, Ovid's verses, and Livia's sponsorship of the shrine in conjunction with her role in helping Augustus restore the dignity of family life - suggests that any political or dynastic motives should be given secondary significance. There still exists an important, unanswered question about the shrine. Was there any significance to a choice of a site in the Porticus Liviae? Although more testimony survives for the porticus than Livia's shrine, the porticus, like the Aedes Concordiae, has received only slight attention, except in the work of Grimal, who, in his book Les Jardins Romains, has pointed out certain interesting connections between this porticus and Augustus' desire to restrain
49 The restoration is attributed solely to Tiberius in our sources: Dio Cass. 55.8.2; 56.25.1; Suet., Tib. 20; CIL 12. 231, 308. Ancient testimonia collected by C. Caspari, Aedes Concordiae Augustae (Rome 1979) 13-15. 50 Frazer (above, n. 5) 1.42 and 2.252; H. Peter, P. Ovidii Nasonis Fastorum Libri Sex3 (Leipzig 1889) 73. See also Alton,' Wormell, Courtney (above, n. 1) 21.

Sic exempla parantur: Livia's Shrine to Concordia and the Porticus Liviae

325

private luxury.5"In what follows I am indebted to him, although I will also suggest that the site, because of its past history, had propaganda value for Augustus' program of moral reform. Our most important sources for the events which led to the razing of Vedius Pollio's house on the Clivus Suburanus and the building of the porticus are Dio Cassius (54.23.1-6) and Ovid (Fast. 6.637-48).52 Both connect the demolition of the house with Augustus' concern to curtail private extravagance, a goal he tried to carry out via sumptuary legislation and, to a lesser degree, the example of his own austere way of life. Indeed Ovid classifies the destruction of the house as an exemplum: an illustration of Augustus' unwillingness to tolerate private extravagance by his deliberate razing of a splendid and luxurious house willed to him haec aequata solo est, nullo sub crimine regni, sed quia luxuria visa nocere sua. sustinuit tantas operum subvertere moles totque suas heres perdere Caesar opes: sic agitur censura et sic exempla parantur, cum vindex, alios quod monet, ipse facit. (643-48) Along with the house Augustus tried to obliterate any connection between his name and that of this notorious profligate, but also a friend who had once been his political counselor.54 Dio begins a story, an illustration of Augustus' humanity, by telling us Vedius was entertaining Augustus, and when a slave boy broke a valuable goblet, Vedius, "without regard for his guest"(54.23.2), ordered the slave thrown to his lampreys. Augustus first tried to persuade Pollio to relent, but "when he did not pay any attention to him" (54.23.3), Augustus smashed the rest of the crystal, and Pollio, unable to punish the slave for what the emperor had done, "held his peace although very much against his will" (54.23.4). Dio's story is interesting for its glimpse of the intimacy of the friendship which allowed Vedius to treat so casually and even to ignore, at least at first, the wishes of Rome's most powerful man. Given Augustus' public stance and personal feelings about luxuria, Augustus could not help but try to destroy all connection between himself and a man like Vedius, but Vedius' significant role as a helpmate in Augustus' rise to power, although ignored by both Dio Cassius and Ovid,55 must have constituted an embarrassment which also played a role in Augustus' refusal to grant Vedius any public memorial in the city:
:53

s' Paris 1943, 155, 188-91. 52 For other references see above, n. 1. 5 For Augustus' predilection for teaching by precedent, see, e. g., Suet., Aug. 89.2; Res Gestae Divi Augusti, ed. P. A. Brunt and J. A. Moore (Oxford 1967) 8.5. 5 Vedius' career is traced by R. Syme, "Who was Vedius Pollio?" JRS 51 (1961) 23-30. 55 Tac. (Ann. 12.60.4) was aware of his political significance (cf. Tac., Ann. 1.10.5 for Vedius' moral reputation). H. Trainkle("Augustus bei Tacitus, Cassius Dio und dem alteren Plinius, " WSt

326

MARLEENBOUDREAU FLORY

6 oiuvAi5youosTo TPv otxLav afroT


Tg 7tQO(PXOGEL

?5

E,baqo;
IXT1V

N(ENVOUxcZtaCxEUTJ;, 07t

?X%,xaTarakdov 3rEQLrPvI OFduvov?V Ti tO6Xsi OTpOVPXO6OId1OaaTO, xCaiovITO Ovota IO toTO HwXCOvo; dX&a'T PTg Atouiag; WnayQaEv.

(54.23.6)

Ovid concentrates exclusivelyon praisingand flattering the princeps for his action,but his wordsareinteresting for revealing thatthe luxurialay in the size of the house and the amountof landit expropriated in the city. The housewas 640), "asbig as a city' ("urbisopus domusunafuit," 641), "vast"("immensa," andcoveredan arealargerthanthatof manytowns ("spatiumque tenebat/quo breviusmurisoppidamultatenent",641-42). And, a few verseslater,the word "moles," in the phrase "tantasoperum moles" (645) with its suggestionof gigantic and palatial construction echoes a rhetoricaltopos of the day.56 Although Ovid may exaggerateto make Augustus' actions even more commendableby the size of his loss ("sustinuittantas operum subvertere
moles/ totque suas heres perdere Caesar opes," 645-46), Ovid does pinpoint

the particular cause of offense to Augustus.Neither Ovid nor Dio mentions that the potentialfor conspiracies or revolutionslurkedin these vast estates, their houses hidden deep in gardensand filled with retinuesof restlessand opportunistic followers. The strongmen of the late Republic, like minor potentates,had held court in these giganticestates,and Augustussurely had the cultivationof personalmagnificence.57 politicalreasonsfor discouraging A remarkby Dio (54.23.6) suggests the haste with which Augustustore down the house, perhaps even leaving the site vacant for some time. The demolition undoubtedly provoked, just as Augustus wished, widespread public attentionand discussion,but perhapsthe porticus,just as muchas the destructionof the house, also carrieda message from the emperorto the people. The discoveryof two cippi in the areaof S. Martinoai Monti in 1888 and 1893 revealsAugustus'restorationof privateland in this areaof the city to publicuse: "[impCaesarAugustus][ex pri] vat[o] in [publicum] restitui[t]."58
3 [1969] 128) argues that Dio omitted material about Vedius injurious to Augustus' reputation, but B. Manuwald in "Cassius Dio und das 'Totengericht' uber Augustus bei Tacitus," Hermes 101 (1973) 364, n. 30, writes: "Aus 54, 23, If. erhelit, dass Dio von der politischen Bedeutung des Vedius Pollio nichts wusste." It seems unlikely that Ovid, a contemporary, did not know something of Vedius' political history. 18.2. 56 See Cic., Mil. 85; Hor., Carm., 2.15.1-2; 3.29.10; Sen., Cons.ad Polybium 57 Asc., Mil., ed. A. Clark (Oxford 1907) 32, 45. Discussion in Grimal (above, n. 51) 129 and esp. 160. 58 CIL VI. 31572. The text is restored on the basis of CIL VI. 1262. On the location and the inscription, G. Gatti, "Di un sacello compitale dell'antichissima regione Esquilina," BCAR 16 (1888) 237-38; G. Gatti, NSA (1888) 225; R. Lanciani, "Recenti scoperte di Roma e del Suburbio," BCAR (1893) 29.

Sic exempla parantur: Livia's Shrine to Concordia and the Porticus Liviae

327

Grimal, pointing out that this area corresponds with the location of Vedius' house, suggests that the cippi marked the return of Vedius' land to the public domain.59 Augustus' interest in creating public spaces for the plebs urbanais reflected in his and Agrippa's ambitious building program to provide parks, porticoes, baths, and places of amusement. The return of the land on the Oppius to the people fitted Augustus' desire to emphasize his concern for public welfare and shows how he turned this embarrassing bequest to his own advantage. The choice of porticus was appropriate to efforts to bring public amenities to the Esquiline. The porticus provided a recreational area for meeting, walking, talking, and lounging, and close to it, to the north of the porta Esquilina, there was built at some contemporaneous period a marketplace which carried Livia's name. Good roads and the reclamation of the ancient and pestiferous burial area by Maecenas had already made the Esquline attractive.60 Augustus undoubtedly welcomed an opportunity, given him by his inheritance, to establish public areas in a region dominated by private estates, and, in particular, the house and garden of his friend and advisor Maecenas. Indeed Grimal writes that the construction of the Porticus Liviae and the marketplace were intended as checks on the extent of Maecenas' garden-park and further private development: Les jardins de Mecene se trouvaient par consequent voisins de la demeure de Vedius Pollio, oiu Auguste devait elever le Portique de Livie .... Cet espace, bien qu'il soit relativement considerable, n'est cependant pas comparable a celui que couvraient les Jardins de Cesar sur la rive droite du Tibre. Au Nord et a l'Ouest, il etait limit6 par des constructions "publiques" d'Auguste, qui entendait ainsi montrer sa reprobation d'un
luxe prive sans mesure et partageait entre ses amis et le peuple les terrains

que ses travaux avaient conquis a la Ville.61 The porticus was one of a long series of similar public promenades built during the late Republic and early Empire by Pompey, Agrippa, Augustus, and members of Augustus' family. Like some of those buildings, the Porticus Liviae had an interior garden and housed an art collection. The garden had trellised walkways over which grapevines twined (Pliny, HN 14.11), and famous paintings of great antiquity characterized the art collection - "nec tibi vitetur quae, priscis sparsa tabellis,/ porticus auctoris Livia nomen habet" (Ov., Ars Am. 1.71-72) - which Strabo classified among the wonders of Rome:

See above, n. 51, 155, n. 1. Points discussed by A, M. Colini, "La Torre di Mecenate," RAL 34 (1979) 243. On the location of the Macellum Liviae, see Coarelli (above, n. 3) 208. 61 See above, n. 51, 155.
5 60

328

MARLEENBOUDREAU FLORY
&CL Ttg Eig TfIV ayOQaV 2TCLXLV

cTaQEkXfhbV TIV

QXav &k-qg TLoiJTaQaPE,XintLviv xat Ia3JLXLX&; oTOaS; xai vaoi';, rbol 8Eh TacTvrJ xai To KaWtLTkLOV xai T' tvTaCEfC xci t tya T4 Tig ALI3iag tv Tb rHaTct'h xaiL ctEQUaT6fT, Qt68,(O av TC)V txXAdi0oLT' 'E@W V. TOIcaVTi [IEVfj 'P6Ouj. (5.236) But in themselves the "vast"62 portico, its garden and art collection did not differ except perhaps in stylistic features such as the layout of the gardens or the quality and kind of its art collection from other public promenades.63Yet the history of this site, dramatically brought to public notice by Augustus' actions, makes this porticus different, for we cannot disassociate the porticus from its predecessor on the site: Vedius' house. A telling contrast between the old values and the new, the past and the present, lay in the uses to which Vedius had put this land and Augustus' construction of a public porticus on it. The implied comparison in the public mind was wholly to Augustus' advantage. Nothing, in fact, could have been more apropos or propagandistically effective for Augustus' desire to show his public disapproval of private extravagance than to turn a great private estate into a public one. The porticus and its gardens were on a magnificent scale, the art collection one of the most notable in Rome, but the luxury of the porticus, for the benefit of the people, contrasted with and condemned the private wealth destroyed to build it. In a recent article Pollitt has shown how the fabulous art collections of the period before Actium were a symptom of private extravagancewhich had dangerous political implications, and so Augustus tried to discourage private collecting and to make Greek art public property.64The endowment of Livia's porticus with a public art gallery fits Augustus' desire to emphasize the democratic uses to which wealth should now be put. But the contrast lay not merely in the history of the site but with the adjacent area. The most immediate neighbor to the porticus was the "horti Maecenatis," one of the most spectacular private estates in Rome of that day.65 Only a handful of references to it survive, but even these reveal a sumptuous private park, "molles horti", as one author writes, with a hot water swimming pool, a tower from whose heights Maecenas enjoyed a magnificent panoramic
t acXXrIv
62 M. Blake, Ancient Roman Construction in Italy from the Prehistoric Period to Augustus (Washington, D. C. 1947) 176. 63 Grimal (above, n. 51, 189-90) reconstructs the layout of the garden, sees analogues in private gardens from Herculaneum, and suggests a common prototype. On the development of the portico and the garden during the late Republic and early Empire in Rome, A. Boethius and J. B. Ward-Perkins, Etruscan and Roman Architecture (Harmondsworth, England 1970) 327. 64 "The Impact of Greek Art on Rome," TAPhA 108 (1978) 155-74, esp. 164-65. 65 On the topographical relationship between the Porticus Liviae and Maecenas' gardens, Grimal (above, n. 51) 155; Coarelli (above, n. 3) 195.

Sic exempla parantur: Livia's Shrine to Concordia and the Porticus Liviae

329

view far above the smoke and noise of the city, and gardens specially laid out to suit the refined tastes of a man who was a patron of one of the horticultural experts of the era./' Grimal emphasizes that the location of the porticus served to limit a great private estate. Yet the juxtaposition of a public promenade next to Maecenas' estate had a more subtle message to convey: Men like Vedius and Maecenas had helped bring Augustus to power, and he might continue to tolerate them, but toleration could not extend to unrestrained individualism in the form of reckless extravagance. Their houses and gardens symbolized the old ways of limitless self-indulgence. Augustus' porticus showed that the interests of the community had to prevail over the personal pursuit of pleasure. In time, of course, the history of the site of the porticus faded from public awareness, just as, after Maecenas' death, his estate, which he willed to Augustus (Dio. Cass. 55.7.5), became a part of the Imperial properties. The propaganda value of the site and the porticus reflect a wholly contemporary situation - Augustus' difficulties in persuading the senatorial aristocracy to abandon a pleasure-seeking life and to support, through their own lives and actions, a return to personal austerity and to traditional values. His laws on the family and marriage, for example, were passed with great difficulty, and hostility erupted in a public demonstration as late as A. D. 9 (Dio Cass. 56.1.2). There is no evidence to show that the sumptuary legislation, passed at the same time as Augustus' laws on family life, curbed personal expenditure or conspicuous consumption.6" We do know that Augustus' efforts to get senators to spend their private means on such public, utilitarian, and inglorious projects as the repair of the roads failed, for, as Dio Cassius tells us (53.22.2), "none of the senators liked to spend money on this."68While the porticus may have been an obvious choice for developing the Esquiline for public use, a
balky senatorial aristocracy might read into
it

an apt exemplum for themselves

66 "In mollibus hortis:" Eleg. Maec. 1.35; hot water pool (possibly for his health, location unknown): Dio Cass. 55.7.6; "turris Maecenatiana:" Hor., Carm. 3.29.6-12; Suet., Ner. 38.6. Horace (Carm. 3.29.9) uses language critical of his friend: "fastidiosam desere copiam et/ molem propinquam nubibus arduis." Sabinius Tiro dedicated a work on gardening to Maecenas (Pliny, HN 19.177). Other evidence collected and discussed by A. Kappelmacher, "Maecenas," RE 14A (1928) 215-17; G. Lugli, "Horti," Diz. Epig. 998-1000. 67 Dio Cass. 54.2.3; 54.16.5; Aul. Gell., NA 2.24.14-15; Suet., Aug. 34.1; Tac., Ann. 3.54.2. Discussion in R. Syme, The Roman Revolution (Oxford 1939) 440-58. 68 In 29 B. C. Augustus tried to set an example for the senators by using pecunia ex manubiis to repair the Via Flaminia and requiring them to repair other roads (Dio Cass. 53.22.1-2), but the senators evidently procrastinated until Augustus found other funds. Some of the viri tniumphales followed Augustus' example in using their prize money to repair roads during the 20's, but coins issued between 17-15 B. C., commemorating Augustus' contributions for more road repairs, show Augustus' ultimate failure in this effort. The evidence is collected and discussed by F. W. Shipley, "Chronology of the Building Operations in Rome from the Death of Caesar to the Death of Augustus," MAAR 9 (1931) 32-36, 51.

330

MARLEEN BOUDREAU FLORY, Sic exempla parantur

of Augustus' intolerance of personal selfishness. Nor should we forget - did the senators ? - that Vedius' patrimony had financed construction. The shrine to Concordia stood in the middle of the porticus, so that the shrine and its colonnade formed an architecturalunity, but more than physical proximity tied them together. Both are monuments which reflect Augustus' determination, buttressed by strong legislation, to revive family life and plain living. Rising up on the land where once had stood a house symbolic of a luxurious and self-centered past, which Augustus was determined to eradicate as completely as he had razed Vedius' house to the ground, the porticus and the Aedes Concordiae emphasize the traditional importance of the community and the corresponding insignificance of the individual. The magnificent porticus gave Romans the space in their city, formerly the sole prerogative of one man, while the shrine reasserted the central importance of married life to Roman society, whose continuation rested, and had always rested, on the preservation of family life. The shared location of these two monuments thus points to the intrinsic relationship in Augustan legislation and society between the restoration of family life and the ideal of self-denial. Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota Marleen Boudreau Flory

Anda mungkin juga menyukai