Exam 2

Question 1

Describe the Tomb of Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces

Answer 1

Late 1st c. BCE. Relief style and subject matter typical of Italic style. 33 ft tall, largest tomb ever found of a Roman “sub-elite”. Freize says “In Death as in Life”. Freedman, baker, and contractor.

Question 2

Describe the Portrait of Pompey.

Answer 2

1st c. CE copy of a ca. 55 BCE marble original. His hairstyle references Alexander the Great from Pergamon 200-150 BCE. Slightly idealized features. References his military leadership in the East.

Question 3

Describe the so-called “Belvedere” Altar

Answer 3

ca. 12-2 BCE. Depicts the apotheosis of Caesar. He is ascending to Caelus the sky god. Augustus, his daughter, and his grandsons watch from below.

Question 4

Describe Divine Julius, Silver denarius of Augustus

Answer 4

ca.18 BCE coinage. Depicts Divus Julius on one side and the comet that marked his apotheosis on the other. A way to propagandize about Augustus’s lineage.

Question 5

Describe Augustus as Pontifex Maximus

Answer 5

After 12 BCE. Depicts him as chief priest of the state religion.

Question 6

Describe Augustus of Prima Porta

Answer 6

Early 1st c. CE. Depicted as imperator, commander in chief. Wearing a paludamentum and a cuirass with imagery. Beside is Cupid son of Venus on a dolphin. On the cuirass is a scene of cosmic forces, Caelus and Tellus, with Sol and Dawn. The forces combine to represent Augustan Peace.

Question 7

Describe the Parthian Arch of Augustus.

Answer 7

19 BCE. Triumphal arch paid for by spoils of military campaigns. Atop is a quadriga, a four horse chariot. On either side are ‘savages’. Arcuated, the passageways are called bays. Attic is the upper portion.

Question 8

Describe the Forum Augustum

Answer 8

ca. 10 CE. Contains a temple to Mars Ultor. Two Portico colonnades at the sides with exedra or semicircular rooms where summi viri (great men) can converse. Forum is to piety and balance, but has limitations, he did not make it symmetrical because he didn’t want to kick people out of their homes.

Question 9

Describe the Mausoleum of Augustus.

Answer 9

Completed 23 BCE. Name derived from king Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Largest circular tomb, 285 ft diameter. Family tomb of the Julio-Claudians and holds 20+ members of the family.

Question 10

Describe the Ara Pacis Augustae

Answer 10

Constructed 13-9 BCE, in campus Martius. Dedicated to his wife Livia. Made of Luna marble. Roman peace. Walls around altar have palmette border and garland of the seasons, also Bucrania and Paterae. Vegetal motifs on outside with acanthus tendrils. South side has imperial family procession to rep dynastic stability.

Question 11

Describe the Horologium

Answer 11

10 BCE. Campus Martius. Solar meridan, measures the length of days and nights with bronze markers in the pavement. Made of an obelisk stolen from Egypt dated 6th c. BCE. Monolithic four sided pillar. Gnomon is the indicator that casts shadow on a horologium.

Question 12

Describe the Temple of Rome and Augustus at Ancyra.

Answer 12

The Res Gestae Divi Augusti was posted here in Latin and Greek. In 14CE it was read by Tiberius to the senate. Describes his accomplishments.

Question 13

Describe the Gemma Augustea

Answer 13

ca. 15 CE. Contested dating, either late Augustan or early Tiberian. Made in cameo technique of onyx. Two narrative registers. Top has personifications of Roma, Victory, and the civilized world with a divine Augustus. Bottom scene has soldiers raising a trophy.

Question 14

Describe the Villa of Tiberius at Sperlonga.

Answer 14

Name derived from spelunca, Latin for cave. Has a large odyssey themed dining area in a cave with fishponds. Sculptures in a Hellenistic baroque style. Include the blinding of the cyclops Polyphemus. Deep drilling to make heavy shadows.

Question 15

Describe statue of Claudius with the attributes of Jupiter from Lanuvium

Answer 15

42-43 CE. 8’4” tall. Middle aged head on an idealized body. Dressed like a god, bare chested. Wearing oak leaf wreath.

Question 16

Describe the Ara Pietatis

Answer 16

ca. 43 CE. Building project of Claudius. Processional scenes refer to Ara pacis. And a sacrifice at temple of mars ultor.

Question 17

Describe the Sculpture group from the basilica at Veleia

Answer 17

ca. 45 CE. 12 figures from the Julio-Claudia dynasty in luna marble. Included Claudius, the agrippinas, and Nero as a child.

Question 18

Describe the Aqua Anio Novus and Aqua Claudia

Answer 18

38-52 CE. 43 mile long aqueduct project by Claudius. Transported clean water to Rome. Ran through the attic of Porta Maggiore at crossroads of Via Labicana and Via Praenestina.

Question 19

Describe Pavement with ship in piazzale delle Corporazioni (square of the guilds) in Ostia

Answer 19

2nd c. CE.

Question 20

Describe Horrea Epagathiana et Epaphroditiana.

Answer 20

Ostia, 145-150 CE. Storage warehouse for incoming shipped goods.

Question 21

Describe the Colossal of Nero

Answer 21

40 m tall. Reconstructed in 64 CE. Originally in the Domus Aurea. After damnatio memoriae was reworked to be Sol and moved to the Flavian ampitheater.

Question 22

Describe the Esquiline Wing of the Domus Aurea

Answer 22

For entertaining, 140+ rooms. Radial arrangement of rooms. Octagonal room. Domed. Designed by Severus and Celer. Radiating barrel-vaulted rooms lit by window slits surrounding the oculus.

Question 23

Describe Nero’s rotating dining room

Answer 23

Rotated day and night to imitate the motion of the globe.

Question 24

When and what was the plinian eruption?

Answer 24

Either August or October 79 CE. Violent eruption destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Question 25

Describe Insula and Cenacula

Answer 25

Apartment building and units where most lived. 3-5 stories tall with communal latrines and cooking and water source.

Question 26

Describe a Domus Italica.

Answer 26

4th-3rd c. BCE. Central Atrium with compluvium and impluvium. Cubilculum bedrooms surround atrium, hortus garden in back. Behind atrium is tablinum or home office. Fauces or jaws is the entrance.

Question 27

Describe the Cave Canem mosaic from fauces of the House of the Tragic Poet

Answer 27

Pompeii, renovated 1st c. BCE. Beware of dog mosaic on floor, like signs today.

Question 28

Describe the Lararium in the House of the Vetii and Casa degli Amorini Dorati in Pompeii.

Answer 28

Shines located in the atriums or Ara of houses. Dedicated to lares or protective household spirits.

Question 29

Describe a Roman triclinium

Answer 29

Dining room, could have central table. Contains three couches, one for host family, one for high status guests, and one for low status guests. Slaves or servants would wait on the guests.

Question 30

Describe the Alexander Mosaic in the House of the Faun

Answer 30

ca 100 BCE Roman copy of lost Greek painting ca 315 BCE. Around 1.5 million tesserae. Depicts the battle of Issus, a famous historical scene. Has Alexander the Great and Darius III.

Question 31

Describe the mural from the fauces of the Samnite House in Herculaneum

Answer 31

Late 2nd c. BCE. First mural style known as Masonry style.

Question 32

Describe mural in room 2 of the House of the Griffins on the Palatine Hill

Answer 32

ca. 100-80 BCE. Second style of mural, illusionistic of 3d columns and pediments.

Question 33

Describe the Black room in the Villa of Agrippa Postumus

Answer 33

ca. 10 BCE. Third style called ornamentation. Monochromatic background with delicate unrealistic architectural elements.

Question 34

Describe the Triclinium P at the House of the Vettii

Answer 34

ca. 62-79 CE. Fourth mural style and combination of other styles.

Question 35

Describe Dionysian Mystery Rites in room 5 of the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii

Answer 35

ca. 60-50 BCE. Depicts the flagellation of an initiate into the cult of Dionysos. In 2nd mural style.

Question 36

Describe the Peristyle of the House of the Vettii in Pompeii

Answer 36

2nd c. BCE rebuilt 3rd quarter of 1st c. CE. Shows garden, which could have grown kitchen herbs, fruit, medicine, dyes, perfume. Both exotic and native species have been identified by their roots.

Question 37

Describe the Mensa Ponderaria from the forum of Pompeii

Answer 37

A weights and measurements table to check that you got as much stuff as you paid for at the markets

Question 38

Describe the Palaestra

Answer 38

Where games and exercise were done at public baths.

Question 39

Describe Bikini Girls mosaic I. The Chamber of the Ten Girls

Answer 39

4th c. CE mosaic depicting games and exercise of the time.

Question 40

Describe the roads of Pompeii

Answer 40

Streets with sidewalks and stepping stones for crossroads as the street would have been wet and dirty.

Question 41

Describe the bakery of modestus

Answer 41

Had millstones and an oven. Workers were treated bad.

Question 42

Describe the fullinicae

Answer 42

Laundries, people would stomp on the clothes