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A Note on the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius Author(s): Michael Woloch Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 73, No. 4 (Oct., 1969), p. 469Published by: Archaeological Institute of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/504007Accessed: 11-07-2015 01:05 UTC

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This content downloaded from 92.84.224.172 on Sat, 11 Jul 2015 01:05:46 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1969] ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES 469

toes, centipedes, storks or crows, and even if they come here, they do not settle down, and if they stay for long, they die.

"If a man enters the pavilion when he is feeling nauseated, he will be relieved within the hour, and will vomit up bits of black and yellow bile and phlegm, and other humors. This is because in one of the com- partments of the dome there is a piece of Yemeni alum, and in another there is an azure-colored blue vitriol eye-stone. Likewise, by the effect of their odor, a feverish man, once he has vomited, will be cured of his fever. This is a well-tested remedy.

"Equivalent to the eight winds on the outside of this

pavilion dome, one of the learned men, an accom-

plished master, has contrived a time-piece based on the

knowledge of the stars and of the astrolabe. It consists of a quadrant, together with slanting lines of celestial declination, carved into the marble in such a way that never under all this devious firmament, whether it be

by one of the Ptolemies, or by al-HIIkim bi-Amr Al-

lah, or by 'Ali the Falconer in the age of Mehmed the

Conqueror, has such a time-piece been constructed.3 "To sum it all up, this is an exemplary and elevated

edifice." PIERRE A. MACKAY

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

3 Al-Hikim (A.D. 985-1021) is the strange mad Caliph of the Fatimid line, whose divinity is a fundamental article of faith among the Druzes (Encyclopaedia of Islam2 III, 76-82). 'Ala' al-Din 'Ali b. Muhammad al-Kiishdji (falconer) is a well known Muslim astronomer of the mid-15th century (Encycl. Islam2 I, 393).

A NOTE ON THE EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF MARCUS AURELIUS

The equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, which was placed in the center of the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome, in accord with the plan of Michelangelo, is very familiar to the public and to scholars.' Since H. P. L'Orange's excellent study on imperial iconog- raphy, there can be no doubt the emperor's right arm, which is held out horizontally with palm of the hand down and the fingers spread, represents the imperial gesture of power.2 The upper part of the left arm is held close to the body, while the lower arm is extended with the palm of the hand up and the fingers rather close together. Originally, the now vanished reins of the slowly prancing horse must have been held loosely by some of the fingers of the left hand.

It is obvious that nothing could have been held in the right hand, but whether there could have been

something in the left is an interesting subject for

conjecture. L. Curtius goes so far as to suggest that the left hand "die wahrscheinlich ein Goetterbild trug, die Zuegel laessig fuehrt."3 Such a hypothesis has no

strong foundation, but if one looks at A. Alf6ldi's

study of imperial costume4 and contemporary coins, better possibilities appear--especially either a globe or a scepter.

From photographs in the works cited, it appeared to the writer unlikely that the left hand held a scepter and that the other possibility suggested by Alf6ldi's work, a globe, was more suitable.5 This idea seemed to be supported by C. Pietrangeli's suggestion of a

globe, which was made without stating his supporting reasons.6 Although many sorts of questions in ancient

history may be solved by the use of photographs alone, this is not one of them. During a recent visit to Rome, Prof. Richard Stillwell was kind enough to inspect the statue for the writer, and reported that the grasp of the hand is too tight to hold a globe, but a scepter would fit it well. It would be possible to imagine the

sculptured emperor holding both reins and scepter loosely, while the horse is represented as moving slow-

ly and majestically. If we accept the suggestion that the emperor of the

equestrian statue held a scepter, it is appropriate to discuss whether that scepter was plain or eagle-tipped. The scepter tipped with the eagle of Jupiter was part of the costume of the emperor as triumphator,7 while the plain scepter was part of the ordinary imperial regalia.8 Yet it must be acknowledged that triumphal ornaments were used as regular imperial ones.9 The

present writer believes that the triumphant Marcus of the Aurelian Panel now in the Museo dei Conserva- tori in Rome1o was intended to hold an eagle-tipped scepter. Inasmuch as an ovation, the event commemo- rated by the equestrian statue, was very similar to a

triumph, the possibility that Marcus's scepter was eagle- tipped is a very strong one.

MICHAEL WOLOCH

MC GILL UNIVERSITY

1 The accepted date for this sculpture is A.D. 173. For bib- liographies see: H. Kaehler, The Art of Rome and her Empire, trans. J. R. Foster (New York 1963) 222 and E. Nash, Pic- torial Dictionary of Ancient Rome (London 1961) I 391.

2 H. P. L'Orange, Studies in the Iconography of Cosmic Kingship in the Ancient World (Oslo 1953) 139f.

3 L. Curtius and A. Nawrath, Das Antike Rom, rev. E. Nash (Vienna 1957) 53.

4A. Alf6ldi, "Insignien und Tracht der r6mischen Kaiser," RrmMitt 50 (1935) 57f.

5 Cf. two coins: Marcus holds a globe on Cohen 785 and BM

Cat 846. It must be admitted that equestrian representations of the Emperor on coins are not helpful. In theses cases, the ob- ject held is not visible (BM Cat 575, 590), is the rare parazoni- um (Cohen 303) or is a spear (BM Cat 1349), which is easily confused with the scepter; the scepter will be shown infra to have been possible on the equestrian statue.

6 C. Pietrangeli, Piazza del Campidoglio (Milan 1955) under

pl. 33. 7 R. Cagnat, "Triumphus," DarSag, 490 n. 6. 8 On coins see BM Cat 576, 591. 9 This is probably the case where Marcus as Caesar is rep-

resented with a quadriga and eagle-tipped scepter on coins: BM Cat, Antoninus Pius 1022, 1781, 2124.

10 See I. S. Ryberg, Panel Reliefs of Marcus Aurelius (Mono- graphs on Archaeology and Fine Arts of the Archaeological Institute of America and the College Art Association of America 14, 1967) 15-20, pls. 9 and 14.

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