Greece and Rome

On page 13 of your Rome Packet, there are two charts that you should fill in using the following information concerning the influence Greek culture had on the Romans.


How did the Greeks influence Roman culture in the following areas?

RELIGION:
- The Romans worshiped Greek gods but gave them new names
- Examples: Zeus = Jupiter, Aphrodite = Venus

LITERATURE:
- Roman writers were inspired by Greek writers
- Virgil wrote the Aeneid, an epic poem about the end of the Trojan War and the hero Aeneas
- Virgil based the Aeneid on the Iliad and the Odyssey

ARCHITECTURE:
- Romans adopted Greek forms such as temples with columns, pediment, and a rectangular floor plan
- The Romans also used the arch, which they learned from the Etruscans

EDUCATION:
- Wealthy Romans studies Greek literature
- Romans often hired Greek teachers and tutors
- Greek was the language spoken by the upper class


How did the following practical skills of the Romans advance their society?

LEGAL:
- Legal system of courts, judges, and lawyers spread around the Mediterranean area
- The Roman system influences the laws of many modern European countries

ENGINEERING:
- Developed surveying and engineering skills to build an entire highway system
- Connected all parts of the Roman territory
- Used roads for trade and army movement
- Invented the use of arch and concrete

MILITARY:
- The Roman army was determined and disciplined
- Roman soldiers were experienced and professional
- The army was organized to have long campaigns
- Specially trained troops for desert, mountain, and naval battles

Memorial Day 2012

This long weekend, many people will be grilling, traveling, spending time with family, or doing all kinds of fun outdoor activities. That's great!

But, I think it's important to take a minute to understand what Memorial Day is all about.

From the History Channel's website:

Memorial Day, which falls on the last Monday of May, commemorates the men and women who died while serving in the American military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, at least, it marks the beginning of summer.

Roman Engineering and Architecture

As we will discuss in class, the Romans copied several aspects of the Greek culture and adapted them to their own. For example, the Greek gods and religious system was the same in Rome, but the gods were assigned different names.

In architecture, the Romans used Greek style and building techniques to create huge structures. This includes the use of columns, pediments, and architraves in the construction of temples.

The following video will give you more information.

MFA Preview: The Giza Archives

The Giza Plateau

Students should check out the Giza Archives section of the MFA website. As you may know, the Museum and Harvard University teamed up in the early 1900s to conduct archaeological digs in the area of the Giza Plateau, the location of the Great Pyramids. The MFA was the only American museum allowed to dig there. As a result, the evidence gathered from these digs has been some of the most important information uncovered about Egyptian history.

The Giza Archives have the original documents, photos, and writings of the original archaeologists on the dig. Many of the artifacts in the MFA's Egyptian collection can be seen in these photos as they appeared in situ.

Check it out:

MFA Preview: Akhenaten as a Sphinx

Akhenaten receiving the rays of Aten

One of the most interesting pharaohs ever to rule Egypt was named Amenhotep IV, who later renamed himself Akenaten. This pharaoh changed the Egyptian religion and the style of Egyptian art and even moved the capital city of the kingdom from Thebes to a brand new city he built called Amarna. For that reason, this time in history is called the "Amarna Period."

In the comments, can you describe any specific changes that Akhenaten put in place?

* Egyptian, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten, 1349–1336 B.C.

Dimensions
    Height x width x depth: 51 x 105.5 x 5.2 cm (20 1/16 x 41 9/16 x 2 1/16 in.)
 

Medium or Technique
    Limestone
 

Classification
    Architectural elements

Accession Number
    64.1944
On view
    Egypt: New Kingdom - 210

Although Akhenaten's religious reforms purged Egyptian art of many of its most familiar manifestations, the king remained fond of the sphinx and often had himself depicted as that fantastic creature - part man, part lion. In Old Kingdom times, the Great Sphinx at Giza probably stood for the king presenting offerings to the sun god, while in the Eighteenth Dynasty the mighty monument was reinterpreted as the sun god Horemakhet, or Horus in the Horizon. Its impeccable solar credentials therefore made the sphinx an appropriate image for Akhenaten at el-Amarna, the city he called Akhetaten, "Horizon of the Sun Disk."



This relief was one of a pair flanking a temple doorway. The sphinx on it rests on a plinth, suggesting that it represents a statue. A pair of such reliefs flanking the doorway of a small temple would have evoked the grand avenues of sphinxes that traditionally led up to the entrance pylons of larger Egyptian sanctuaries. Here the sphinx is equipped with human arms and hands to enable him to make offerings to his god, the sun disk, Aten, who appears at the upper left. He wears the uraeus of kingship while behind him (to the left) are two cartouches containing his lengthy official name. The sun's life-giving rays end in so many hands, some holding ankh-signs. Below are three offering stands. To the right, Akhenaten as sphinx raises one hand in adoration while in the other he holds a neb sign, a basket signifying lordship, holding Aten's cartouches. These same cartouches appear a third time in the upper right where they are joined with the cartouches of Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, who is thus present in name if not in image. The rest of the inscription describes the "great, living Aten" as "dwelling in the Sunshade temple [called] Creator of the Horizon [which is] in Akhetaten." The temple named here, yet to be located, must be the one for which this block was carved. 



Akhenaten's religious revolution was accompanied by a change in the way pharaoh was depicted, showing a marked departure from the idealized images favored by his predecessors. Even though the king's face has been sadly hacked away, one can still discern his characteristic slanted eyes, long nose, hollow cheeks, drooping lower lip, and pendulous chin.

Provenance: Probably from el-Amarna. By 1964: with Ernst E. Kofler, Lucerne, Switzerland; October 4, 1964: purchased by the MFA from Ernst E. Kofler. 

(Accession Date: October 14, 1964). Credit Line:
Egyptian Curator's Fund

MFA Preview: Etruscan Woman

This sculpture depicts the head of a wealthy Etruscan woman. The Etruscans were the mysterious people of central Italy who conquered and ruled the Romans in the 6th century B.C.E. Evidence shows that the Etruscans might have migrated from eastern Anatolia during prehistoric times.

The Romans settled a small fishing village on the banks of the Tiber River in the middle of the 700s B.C.E. Soon after, the Etruscans took over their territory and expanded the village into a large city. In 509 B.C.E. the Romans overthrew their Etruscan masters and formed the world's first republic.

Female Head, Etruscan 300s B.C.E.

Female head
 

Italic, Etruscan, Classical or Early Hellenistic Period, about 4th century B.C.
 

Height: 29.4 cm (11 9/16 in.)
Terracotta
 

Classification: Sculpture
 

On view in the: Italic and Etruscan Gallery

Female head. Worked fully in the round. Wavy hair, parted in center, under an elaborate diadem of rosettes and points. Behind diadem, hair indicated as uneven parallel strands. Heavy shield-shaped earrings lying flat to the ears. Corded necklace with a pendant on each side. Pinkish-buff terracotta. Remnants of white slip over surface. Plaster (modern) added to neck in back for balance. From Cerveteri.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Everett Fund, 1888
Accession number: 88.358

Provenance/Ownership History: By 1886: said to have been found at Cervetri; by 1888: with Pennelli; purchased by R. Lanciani from Pennelli; purchased by MFA from R. Lanciani, 1888, for $491.89 (this is the total purchase price for MFA 88.346–530)

MFA Preview: Greek Sphinx

The MFA's Greek collection is one of the best in North America. The Museum has an especially large gallery of Greek pottery. We've talked a lot about the different gods, goddesses, and myths that made life in ancient Greece more fun and interesting.

The Greek Sphinx
Most people know the term "sphinx" to mean the more famous giant statue which guards the Great Pyramids of Giza, in Egypt. The Greeks, however, had their own version of a sphinx. The Greek sphinx had the body of a lioness, the wings of an eagle, and the head of a woman. She was famous for demanding the answer to a riddle, and for killing those who were incorrect in their answers. Unfortunately, the MFA's Greek sphinx is without its head, so you'll just have to imagine what she looked like.

A Greek Sphinx: What is the difference from an Egyptian Sphinx?

Upper part of a grave stele: seated sphinx (sphinx and capital)

Greek, Archaic Period, about 530 B.C.

Height: 141.7 cm (55 13/16 in.) 

Marble, either island (sphinx and plinth) or Pentelic (capital)
 

Classification: Sculpture
Catalogue: Sculpture in Stone (MFA), no. 017; Sculpture in Stone and 

Bronze (MFA), p. 106 (additional published references); Highlights: Classical Art (MFA), p. 159.
 

On view in the: Early Greek Gallery

Sphinx and plinth were carved in island marble separately from the Pentelic marble capital. This plinth was let into a socket at the top of the capital and secured in a bed of molten lead. There is a large socket on the underside of the capital, with a pour hole from the back side. The abacus and the base of the capital are flush with the volutes, and all surfaces have been smoothed, except the plinth of the sphinx, which shows point or punch marks.

The sphinx crouches to the right, with hind-quarters lifted and head turned to the front. The end of her curving tail rests on her right haunch. The hair, originally black, is shown as a mass descending to the shoulders and divided vertically and horizontally by grooves. The feathers of the wings are carved in relief and were painted alternately green, black, red, and blue. The feathers on the breast form a scale pattern, painted in alternate rows of red and green. The rib of each wing and the flat molding at the top of each foreleg are green.

The capital is of lyre design, consisting of two double volutes, with palmettes in all the interstices. It is open in the center and richly decorated with incised and painted designs. The front and ends of the base are enriched with a delicately carved guilloche. The abacus has four-pointed stars set on three-petaled palmettes, three in front and one on each end. The outer sides of the volutes are incised and painted with a large lotus and palmette pattern. Alternating red and black colors complement the form, carving and incision.

Sphinx and capital have been broken into a number of pieces and rejoined, with slight restorations at the joins. There is more restoration in the lower part of the capital than elsewhere, but this is to a great extent supplanted by an extra piece acquired nearly twenty years after the original purchase was first undertaken. The surfaces are very fresh. The fragments with the parts of the dedicatory inscription have the handsome golden yellow patina of the best Pentelic marble.



See: 40.724a-b for inscribed fragments.


See also Cls. Inv. 186.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1931 and 1939 Purchase Funds, 1940
Accession number: 40.576
Provenance/Ownership History: By date unknown: with Brummer Gallery, Inc., 110 East 58th Street, New York; purchased by MFA from Brummer Gallery, Inc., October 10, 1940, for $ 65,000.00

Rome: Engineering an Empire

In class we watched portions of the History Channel's Engineering and Empire on ancient Rome. Clearly the Romans were great builders and engineers. Some of their fantastic achievements include aqueducts, bridges, temples, and fortifications. The most famous example of Roman engineering is the Coliseum, the huge amphitheater where the Romans went to see gladiators fight to the death.

As you watch each video segment, ask yourself the following questions:

• Why was this structure build? What was its purpose?
• What were some of the engineering techniques the Romans used?
• Is this structure still standing today? 

 

  Julius Caesar's Bridge Over the Rhine



Roman Roads

Aqueducts: Bringing Fresh Water

The Coliseum!

Hadrian's Wall

The Baths of Caracalla

MFA Preview: Roman Sarcophagus

The ancient Romans copied much of the Greek culture, art, and mythology and adopted it as their own.

This sarcophagus was made to bury the body of a wealthy Roman. The side is a huge and detailed sculpture showing the "triumph of Dionysus." The Greek god Dionysus represented wine and partying, among other things. One day the hero Hercules challenged the god to a drinking contest. Not a good idea.

Hercules lost the contest, the one time in his life he ever lost. If you look at the details, you'll see all kinds of crazy and exotic animals including elephants and giraffes. At the far right, some satyrs are helping Hercules to walk, since he's pretty shaky on his legs.

Roman Sarcophagus from about 220 A.D.

Sarcophagus with triumph of Dionysos
 

Roman, Imperial Period, about A.D. 215–225
 

Overall: 77.5 x 208cm (30 1/2 x 81 7/8in.)


Other (Body): 59cm (23 1/4in.)


Other (lid): 18.5cm (7 5/16in.)


Case (Rolling steel pedestal with wooden skirts/plex-bonnet): 77.5 x 228.6 x 76.5 cm (30 1/2 x 90 x 30 1/8 in.)


Marble, from the island of Proconnesus in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul



Inscriptions: An inscription along the lower edge reads, "Marcus Vibius Agesilaus Junior made it (i.e. set up this monument?) for Marcus Liberalis, the son of Marcus, the Praetor, his tutor" or "who brought him up."

Classification: Sculpture

Catalogue: Sculpture in Stone (MFA), no. 244; Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), p. 113 (additional published references); Highlights: Classical Art (MFA), p. 108-109.

On view in the: Roman Gallery

The god of wine and dramatic festivals, in full choral attitude, steps into a biga drawn by two Indian elephants with fringed cloths on their backs. He is supported by his companion the satyr Ampelos and attended by the complete Dionysiac train of Sileni, pans, satyrs, maenads, and the exotic animals of his triumph in India.



The inscription reads :M~VIBIO~M~FIL~LIBERALI~PRAET~M~VIBIVS~AGESILAVS~IVNIOR~NVTRICIO~SUO~FEC ("Marcus Vibius Agesilaus junior made (it) for Marcus Vibius Liberalis, son of Marcus, the praetor, his foster-father" ).

The condition is, generally speaking, superb, with the small breaks, missing limbs, and absent attributes apparent from illustrations. The surfaces, particularly of the nude or seminude figures, retain their high polish. There are no restorations of the kind that ruin so many sarcophagi. The sections cracked or broken through have been carefully rejoined, and the missing pieces of the lid hardly detract from the visual sweep and rhythm of the triumphal procession. The three-volume corpus of Dionysiac sarcophagi reveals that very few of these monuments of Greek art in the Roman Empire have their original (or any) lids preserved in any form or condition.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

William Francis Warden Fund, 1972
Accession number: 1972.650
Provenance/Ownership History: By date unknown: collection of an international banker in northwest Europe; by 1972: with Miss Jeanette Brun, Dufourstrasse 119, Zurich 8008, Switzerland; purchased by MFA from Miss Jeanette Brun, June 7, 1972

MFA Preview: Prince Ankhhaf

Next week, our cluster will be visiting the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. There, students will see one of the best Egyptian collections outside of Egypt, a huge Greek and Roman collection, and some of the oldest artifacts of human civilization. Each day, I'll be posting a preview of selected artifacts that I would like students to notice when we're at the MFA.

If you want to preview even more, the MFA website has a tremendous online gallery, interactive tours, and a very detailed catalog of their immense collection. I highly recommend you take a look...

The first is one of the most important artifacts in all of Egyptian art history. It is a statue of Prince Ankhhaf, who was the brother of one pharaoh and the son of another. He helped to build the great pyramid at Giza around 2500 B.C.E.

What the Museum won't tell you is that the Egyptian government would love to get its hands on this statue to bring it back to Cairo. The problem for them is that it was legally excavated by Harvard and the MFA about 100 years ago. Now the Egyptian government says it would like to "borrow" it. Yeah right!



Here's what the Museum does say about this artifact:

Bust of Prince Ankhhaf
 

Egyptian, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, reign of Khafra (Chephre, 2520–2494 B.C.
 

Findspot: Giza, Egypt
     Height: 50.48 cm (19 7/8 in.)
     Painted limestone
 

Classification: Sculpture
 

On view in the: Gardiner Martin Lane Gallery (Egyptian Old Kingdom Gallery)

In ancient Egypt, artists almost never created true portraits. This bust of Ankhhaf, therefore, breaks the rule. It is made of limestone covered with a thin layer of plaster, into which details have been modeled by the hand of a master. Rather than a stylized representation, the face is of an individual. From inscriptions in his tomb, we know that Ankhhaf was the son of a king, probably Sneferu, brother of another, Khufu, and that he served Khafre as vizier and overseer of works. In this last capacity, he may have overseen the building of the second pyramid and carving of the sphinx.



Ankhhaf's features are those of a mature man. His skull shows a receding hairline. His eyelids droop slightly over eyes originally painted white with brown pupils. Puffy pouches are rendered underneath. Diagonal furrows set off a stern mouth. Apparently, he once had a short beard made from a separate piece of plaster. It was lost in antiquity, as were his ears. His gaze is that of a commanding and willful man, someone who was accustomed to having his orders obeyed. It was the way he wanted to be remembered for eternity.



Ankhhaf's mastaba was the largest in the great Eastern Cemetery at Giza. His bust was installed in a mudbrick chapel attached to the east side of the tomb and oriented so that it faced the chapel's entryway. The chapel walls were covered in exquisitely modeled low relief. It has been suggested that Ankhhaf's arms were sculpted on the low pedestal on which he sat, thereby making him appear even more lifelike. Passersby left more than ninety models of food and drink for Ankhhaf to enjoy in the afterlife. 



Ankhhaf is unique, and by the terms of the Museum's contract with the Egyptian government, he should have gone to the Cairo Museum. However, he was awarded to Boston by the Antiquities Service in gratitude for the Harvard-Boston Expedition's painstaking work to excavate and restore objects from the tomb of Queen Hetepheres.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Harvard University—Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, 1927
Accession number: 27.442
Provenance/Ownership History: From Giza, tomb G 7510. 1925: excavated by the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition; 1927: assigned to the MFA in the division of finds by the government of Egypt.
(Accession Date: July 7, 1927)

The Mysterious Etruscans

A Map of the Etruscan settlements

Before Rome was anything more than a collection of Neolithic fishing villages on the banks of the Tiber River, the Etruscans established their civilization throughout central Italy. This mysterious culture showed signs of being from Eastern Europe or beyond, used an alphabet based upon those of the Phoenicians and Greeks, and traded with several Mediterranean kingdoms including Egypt.

The High Rock Media Center database has some great information:

The Etruscans originated in central Italy around 900 B.C. and were absorbed into the Roman Empire in the 80s B.C. During the first millennium B.C., they developed the earliest complex society in Italy. In common with other Mediterranean civilizations of their time, the Etruscans lived in city-states, had a specialized agricultural and craft economy, and exchanged goods and ideas with their neighbors. Distinctive to the Etruscans was their religion, social and political structure, and language. There is a wealth of archaeological evidence for Etruscan settlements, economy, society, and culture, including the remains of cities, towns, cemeteries, and everyday objects.

The Etruscans loved a good party!

The Myth of Romulus and Remus

The Founding of Rome
The Founding of Rome is very much told through myth.
 Traces found by archaeologists of early settlements of the Palatine Hill date back to about 750 B.C.E. 
This ties in very closely to the established legend that Rome was founded in April of 753 B.C.E., which was traditionally celebrated in Rome with the festival of Parilia. 
Two founding legends exist - Romulus and Remus and Aeneas.
 Rather than contradict each other, the tale of Aeneas adds to that of Romulus and Remus.

Romulus and Remus with "mom"

Romulus and Remus
King Numitor of Alba Longa was overthrown by his younger brother Amulius. To do away with any further possible pretenders to his throne, Amulius murdered Numitor's sons and forced Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become a vestal virgin. (Vestal virgins were priestesses to the goddess Vesta and were expected to never marry, under penalty of death). 
However Mars, the god of war, fell in love with Rhea Silvia and married her. As a result of this Rhea Silvia had twins, Romulus and Remus.
 A furious King Amulius had Rhea Silvia thrown into the Tiber River where she was caught beneath the waves by a river god who married her.

The twins were set adrift on the river in a reed basket. They floated downstream until the basket was caught in the branches of a fig tree. This was where they were found by a she-wolf who nursed them (wolves are sacred to Mars) until a shepherd found them.

Another version of the same story tells of the shepherd finding them and taking them to his wife, who had just lost her own child and who cared for them.

As the two boys had grown to men in the care of the couple, they were told of their true origins. True to their heroic status they raised an army and marched on the city of Alba Longa. Amulius was killed in battle and Numitor was restored to his throne. 
The twins decided to start a new city close to where they had been washed ashore, caught by the fig tree. The twins disputed which hill their city should be built on, Romulus favouring the Palatine, Remus choosing another (possibly the Aventine).
 Taking the looking at omens and trying to understand the will of the gods, Remus on his hill saw six birds, Romulus saw twelve. So it was decided that Romulus’ choice was the right one and he and his followers took to building their city on Palatine Hill.
 After an awful argument and fight, Remus was killed by his twin brother Romulus.

Aeneas runs out of Troy with his family

Aeneas
If the tale of Romulus and Remus appears the more popular Roman myth today, then the tale of Aeneas was perhaps even more popular in the days of the Roman Empire. Written by the Roman poet Virgil, the Aeneid became the national epic of the Roman Empire and the most famous poem of the Roman era.

Aeneas was said to have been a hero fighting the Greeks in the Trojan War. The son of Venus and a mortal father, he escaped as the great city of Troy was sacked. After quite a journey, he landed in Latium through which the Tiber River flows. Aeneas married the daughter of King Latinus, only to anger King Turnus of Rutuli who himself had his eye on her. As usual in ancient tales, there ensued a war for the princess between Turnus and Aeneas, who was by then supported by King Tarchon of the Etruscans.

Naturally Aeneas, son of Venus, was triumphant.

The sack of Troy is dated to around 1220 BC. To fill the years from Aeneas to Romulus the Romans therefore were required to produce a string of fictional Kings to make the tale work. This was done across all the generations with some ease from Ascanius, son of Aeneas to Numitor, grandfather of Romulus and Remus.

Neolithic Rome

Historical Background (What REALLY Happened)
The tribe of people known as the Latins settled in the wider area of Rome around 1000 BC. Though those early settlements were not anything like a city. They kept pigs, herded sheep, goats, cattle and lived in primitive, round huts.

So how could such simple beginnings ever lead to a city of power which would rule the world? The rise of Rome was certainly not certain, but it had many advantages right from the start. Rome lies only a few miles from the sea with all its possibilities of trade. It lies central to the Italian peninsula, which in turn lies central to the entire Mediterranean Sea. Italy is guarded by the Alps to the North and by the sea all around.

Along with this development was the influence of the Greeks who were settling southern Italy, founding cities like Cumea and Tarentum and bringing advanced civilization to the country. From the Greeks the Romans learned skills such as reading and writing, even their religion is almost entirely taken from Greek mythology.

If the Greeks settled to the south of them, then the Roman had the Etruscans to the north. Etruria was predominantly an urban society, drawing its considerable wealth from sea trade. The extravagant Etruscans were generally seen by the more hardy Romans to be fancy and weak. While being distinctly unique in their own right, the Etruscans too owed much of their culture to the Greeks. At around 650 to 600 B.C.E. the Etruscans crossed the Tiber and occupied Latium. It is through this that the settlement on the Palatine Hill was brought together with the settlements on surrounding hills, either in an attempt to fend off the invaders, or by the Etruscan king who sought to rule through a structure of city states. It is at this point that the first known, rather than mythical, kings emerge.