Enemies of Rome: Barbarians Through Roman Eyes by I. M. Ferris

Author:I. M. Ferris [I. M. Ferris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-07-07T16:00:00+00:00

Order from Disorder

At the very end of the second century, following a period of civil war, Septimius Severus came to power, his rise not only being connected with his victory over his rivals for the imperial purple but also with his resounding successes over the Parthians, historic adversaries of Rome in the east, that led to his adoption by acclamation of the title Parthicus. These victories were commemorated at Rome by the dedication of a victory arch in the Forum in AD 203 which also celebrated the founding and legitimacy of the Severan dynasty.¹

Most of the decorative programme of the arch was relegated to four relatively small relief panels, two on each side of the monument. These panels depicted the siege and capture of the four Parthian cities or strongholds of Nisibis, Edessa, Seleucia and Ctesiphon, and were composed in such a way as to suggest that they may have been based upon battle paintings, such as were carried in triumphal processions in Rome, and whose use was part of a long tradition stretching back to Hellenistic times.² An adlocutio scene concludes the portrayal of the capture of Ctesiphon.

Though now quite badly damaged, partly as a result of a fire in the Forum in antiquity, the relief scenes display many of the stylistic traits of a state art that had to some extent moved away from the tradition of grand narrative in the commemoration of historic events. The figures are very small, while no attempt was made either to produce a continuous story-line or to create linking scenes.

In Scene III one register of decoration depicts an event during the siege of Seleucia when a body of Parthian cavalrymen flees the area, the leading horseman who turns back to look at the now-condemned city probably intended to be their leader Vologases, retreating to fight on elsewhere. Soon afterwards, the city surrenders, its defenders holding up their arms in submission, while one man bravely attempts to get away from the city by swimming across the River Tigris.

Beneath the four panels is a narrow, band-like register inhabited by low-relief figures taking part in a triumphal procession, these figures being even smaller and less well realised than those in the panels above. The scene has a desultory, rather than triumphalist, ambience which is emphasised further by the wide spacing of the figures. Included here are Parthian captives and paraded booty from the wars carried in carts or waggons, but the emperor is nowhere to be seen. At the culmination of the procession, a Parthian prisoner kneels before a seated Roma, larger in scale than the human figures, and begs for clemency. In the centre of the band, and seemingly blocking the route of the procession, sits a slumped and dejected personification of Parthia, again depicted at a larger scale than the tiny human figures traipsing along in the parade.³

On the bases of each of the eight free-standing columns of the arch, four on each side of the monument, are carved Roman soldiers leading bound or chained male Parthian captives, dressed in their distinctive traditional costume.

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