Rome, Parthia, and the Politics of Peace by Jason M. Schlude

Author:Jason M. Schlude
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2020-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Hence to commemorate the event Augustus called for a temple to the avenging god of war on the model of that of Jupiter Feretrius, the first temple of Rome founded by Romulus to celebrate the military (if legendary) victory that ensured Rome’s future.50 He celebrated an ovatio, something short of triumph but still an indication of military accomplishment. And even if he went without a triumph, he still enjoyed a triumphal arch, which was crowned with a four-horse chariot carrying none other than Augustus, who was flanked by Parthians holding bows and arrows, offering up the symbolic eagle, and acclaiming his victory and power (Figure 9).

Figure 9 Denarius of Augustus, with reverse of Parthian arch of Augustus. Rome, 16 BCE. Roman Imperial Coinage 1.359. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group.

Similar notes were sounded elsewhere. Augustan coinage (gold and silver) boasted reverse legends of SIGNIS PARTHICIS RECEPTIS (or abbreviations thereof), meaning “the standards have been restored,” and associated images suggestive of conquest, for example, Mars holding a standard, Augustus’s triumphal arch, or a Parthian at his knees and offering up a standard (Figure 10).51 Most famous is an honorific statue meant to commemorate the event, for which we have a marble copy: the Prima Porta Augustus (Figure 11). Here Augustus, the victorious general, wears chest armor depicting a Parthian representative handing over a composite standard with eagle and phalerae to Roma. Accounting also for the images around the center, including Earth at bottom and Sky at top, Spain at left and Gaul at right, we see that Augustus has brought peace throughout the empire—but it was peace through military victory, with the defeat of the Parthians being central.52 In addition, later on there would have been little doubt how to read Augustus’s own account of the event, recorded in his Res Gestae Divi Augusti (“The Accomplishments of the Divine Augustus”), designed to accompany his Mausoleum at Rome and inscribed in both Latin and Greek translation in temples dedicated to Augustus and Rome in locations like Ancyra in Asia Minor:

Figure 10 Denarius of Augustus, with obverse bust of Honos and reverse of a Parthian kneeling and offering a standard. Rome, 19 BCE. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum 1.58. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group.

Figure 11 Augustus of Prima Porta. Rome, marble copy of an original from c. 20 BCE. Courtesy of Sailko (Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Augusto_di_pirma_porta,_inv._2290,_02.JPG).

With the enemy having been conquered, I recovered from Spain, Gaul, and the Dalmatians the many military standards lost by other generals. I forced the Parthians to return to me the spoils and standards of three Roman armies and to seek as suppliants the friendship of the Roman people.53

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