Drusus´ Funerary Honors

In spite of differing views about how the imagery on sarcophagi should be read, one commonly acknowledged goal in interpreting Greek myths on Roman sarcophagi is to identify the way Romans understood the myths in their own society, so that we might better understand their use of these myths in the context of death.  The group of Roman sarcophagi depicting the triumphal return of Dionysos from India is particularly useful for this purpose, because the Roman version of the myth is intertwined with a fundamentally Roman institution. Previous interpretations of this group of sarcophagi, from an initial reading of the symbolism of the triumph of life over death to, more recently, a general understanding of scenes of Dionysos as exhortations to enjoy bacchic pleasures in the face of mortality, have focused primarily on the mythological qualities of Dionysos.

This paper will follow a combination of visual, historical and mythological threads of the triumphal tradition in order to examine the depiction of Dionysos in triumph in a funerary context.  Evidence of triumphal processions appearing in republican tombs reflects the early tradition of commemorating specific achievements.  In the midst of Augustus’s restrictions on triumphal honors, two consolation texts negotiate the postmortem attribution of triumphal honors to Drusus by describing his funeral procession in terms of the triumph he earned but died too soon to receive.  In light of recent studies that have brought attention to the idealized nature that the Roman triumph develops after Augustus’ transformations, I will suggest that this group of sarcophagi perform a similarly consolatory function by appealing to historical and symbolic associations with the triumph through the figure of Dionysos.

Our earliest evidence for the visual tradition of triumphal associations in a funerary context comes from republican tomb paintings.  The images of a procession in the republican tomb of Quintus Fabius on the Aesquiline, also known as the Arieti tomb, have been dated according to varying interpretations between the second half of the third and second half of the second centuries BCE.  Some interpretations have seen the procession as a funeral procession or a magistrate’s journey to the underworld accompanied by games, though most recent interpretations follow Colini’s interpretation of it as a triumphal procession [1]. Overlapping qualities in the nature and depiction of these processions may blur the distinction, but either way, an overall scheme that associates a prominent figure with military feats is discernible.  The fragmentary nature of the evidence discourages absolute conclusions, but we can identify features in the procession that reappear as essential elements in later triumphal imagery.

A watercolor made at the time of the excavation incorporating fragments now missing shows a procession with a quadriga preceded by lictors carrying fasces [2]. One surviving fragment showing a lictor wearing a short, red military tunic with a white stripe carrying fasces [3], and another that shows three similarly dressed lictors moving in the same direction, are probably part of the procession [4]. The two missing fragments reportedly showed the quadriga and more attendants. In addition to signs of a formal procession, there are combat scenes that have been interpreted either as games or as battle. In one, a figure wearing a shield on the left arm raises the right arm in a fighting stance [5]. On another, a soldier fights on his knees with a shield on his left arm and a sword in his right [6]. Yet another fragment depicts a bearded, naked, front-facing figure with raised arms [7]. The interpretation of this figure varies the most widely, depending on how the overall program of the tomb is understood.

Coarelli, among others, follows Colini in interpreting the reconstruction of the tomb imagery as a triumphal procession rather than a funeral procession for the following reasons: the presence of four lictors suggests a triumphing general with the rank of praetor (although if there were originally more lictors, he could have been of consular rank); the lictors wear the red sagum, which, according to Cicero, was worn only for military campaigns or, inside the city, for the triumph; and in a funeral, we might expect the lictors to carry the fasces upside down. Coarelli further argues that the front-facing man with raised arms represents a crucified figure, alluding to the practice of torturing a prisoner at the conclusion of the triumph. He combines this reading with his supposition about the rank of the central figure to conclude that the imagery commemorates <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } -->a specific battle that resulted in the triumph of M. Aquilius in 126 BCE. While Moreno, whose interpretation of this figure as a telamon supports his understanding of the imagery as indicating a different battle, at Telamon in Etruria, he also sees the quadriga and lictors as elements of a triumphal procession, in particular the one conducted by L. Aemilius Papus in 225 BCE.

With only fragmentary evidence, assigning these paintings to a specific triumph with any certainty is not possible, but we can recognize the quadriga accompanied by attendants as a fundamental element of the basic formula of later triumphal symbolism. Interpreting the scenes as triumphal, and even working with the premise that the scenes commemorate specific triumphs, makes sense in the context of Polybius’s observation that the triumphs achieved by prominent Romans or their ancestors were signified by special togas worn by the actors in funeral processions (Hist. 6, 53, 7). During the late republic, triumphal honors in a funerary context commemorated the specific achievement of the deceased or one of his ancestors. A triumph achieved during life increased the honors received in death.

• [1] Images of these fragments that were used for the Spring School presentation may be found in Coarelli 1976.
  [2] Coarelli Plate III, fig. 1
  [3] Coarelli Plate V, fig. 1
  [4] Coarelli plate IV, fig 2
  [5] Coarelli, plate III, fig. 2
  [6] Coarelli, plate IV, fig. 1
  [7] Coarelli, plate A, fig. 2 (in color) and plate V, fig. 2.