DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0202
Diana-Pillars
r47
with the same deer-heads (?) we may recognise the trappings of
Diana's human consort, the rex Nemorensis himself1. There is
indeed a certain fitness in the fact that a fresco illustrating the
Arician cult was chosen for the walls of this triclinium. The
'House of Livia ' was in all probability2 acquired from the Hortensii
by Augustus, who occupied it for more than forty years*. He
seems to have reconstructed its back court, and—we are told—after
the work was done made the whole house public property, con-
tinuing to hold it as pontifex maximusi. Later, if R. Lanciani8 is
right, it became the house of Germanicus father of Caligula, who—
jealous of the long reign of the rex Nemorensis—actually hired a
cut-throat to dispose of him6. Was it our fresco that suggested the
freak ?
Another fresco (fig. 88)7, discovered at Pompeii, during the
excavations of 1888—1890, on the end wall of a triclinium in the
fifth region8, adds further points of interest. In the centre of a
rocky, mountainous scene, close to a stream or lake, grows a leafy
pine-tree. Beside it is set a club-like pillar tapering downwards and
surmounted by a capital of some sort with ornaments (deer-heads ?)
as before: the pillar is painted in light violet and is twined with
1 Traces of a similar crown can perhaps be made out to the left of tbe sceptre in the
monochrome painting from Herculaneum (supra p. 144 fig. 86). De Visser De Gr. diis
nan ref. spec. hum. p. 56 n. 4 observes that many Roman frescoes attribute a ' corona
dentata' to Artemis (e.g. Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 67 nos. 234, 236, 237, p. 68 nos.
240, 247, 248, p. 71 f. no. 253, p. 72 f. no. 256, Sogliano Pitt. mur. Camp. p. 28 no. r 12,
p. 30 f. no. 119, p. 141 f. no. 687, cp. id. ib. p. 29 nos. 114 f., A. Mau in the Rom.
Mitth. 1890 v. 264 f. See further L. Stephani Nimbus und Strahlenkranz St Petersburg
1859 P- I23 (extr. from the Memoires de VAcademic des Sciences de St.-Pitersbourg. vi
Serie. Sciences politiques, histoire, philologie. ix. 483), so that the crown in our fresco
might be that of the goddess, not that of her priest. But, if the goddess is represented by
the lignum, her crow n is presumably the disk set upon it.
2 See G. Pinza in the Bull. Comm. Arch. Comm. di Roma 1910 xxxviii. 1 ft. and O. L.
Richmond 'The Augustan Palatium' in the Journ. Rom. Stud. 1914^. 193 ff. Others
(e.g. O. Richter 1"opographie der Stadt Rom11 Mtinchen 1901 pp. 143 f., 160, M.Jordan —
C. Iluelsen Topographie der Stadt Rom im Alterthum Berlin 1907 i. 3. 61) have
regarded it as the house of Ti. Claudius Nero, first husband of Livia and father of the
emperor Tiberius, who was born on the Palatine (Suet. Tib. 5).
3 Suet.. Aug. 72.
4 Dion Cass. 55. 12.
5 C. L. Visconti—R. Lanciani Guida del Palatino Torino 1873 p. 114. But see
H. Jordan—C. Huelsen op. cit. i. 3. 85 n. 109.
u Suet. Calig. 35 Nemorensi regi, quod multos iam annos poteretur sacerdotio,
validiorem adversarium subornavit.
7 A. Mau in the Rom. Mitth. 1890 v. 264—266 with fig. (=my fig. 88), G. Roden-
waldt Die Komposition der pompejanischen Wandgemcilde Berlin 1909 p. 49. The
painting, which measures o-99ni in height by o-57m in breadth, is of the third or 'ornate'
style (<\ 25 B.C.-50 A.D.).
8 Reg. v. 2. 10.
10—2
r47
with the same deer-heads (?) we may recognise the trappings of
Diana's human consort, the rex Nemorensis himself1. There is
indeed a certain fitness in the fact that a fresco illustrating the
Arician cult was chosen for the walls of this triclinium. The
'House of Livia ' was in all probability2 acquired from the Hortensii
by Augustus, who occupied it for more than forty years*. He
seems to have reconstructed its back court, and—we are told—after
the work was done made the whole house public property, con-
tinuing to hold it as pontifex maximusi. Later, if R. Lanciani8 is
right, it became the house of Germanicus father of Caligula, who—
jealous of the long reign of the rex Nemorensis—actually hired a
cut-throat to dispose of him6. Was it our fresco that suggested the
freak ?
Another fresco (fig. 88)7, discovered at Pompeii, during the
excavations of 1888—1890, on the end wall of a triclinium in the
fifth region8, adds further points of interest. In the centre of a
rocky, mountainous scene, close to a stream or lake, grows a leafy
pine-tree. Beside it is set a club-like pillar tapering downwards and
surmounted by a capital of some sort with ornaments (deer-heads ?)
as before: the pillar is painted in light violet and is twined with
1 Traces of a similar crown can perhaps be made out to the left of tbe sceptre in the
monochrome painting from Herculaneum (supra p. 144 fig. 86). De Visser De Gr. diis
nan ref. spec. hum. p. 56 n. 4 observes that many Roman frescoes attribute a ' corona
dentata' to Artemis (e.g. Helbig Wandgem. Camp. p. 67 nos. 234, 236, 237, p. 68 nos.
240, 247, 248, p. 71 f. no. 253, p. 72 f. no. 256, Sogliano Pitt. mur. Camp. p. 28 no. r 12,
p. 30 f. no. 119, p. 141 f. no. 687, cp. id. ib. p. 29 nos. 114 f., A. Mau in the Rom.
Mitth. 1890 v. 264 f. See further L. Stephani Nimbus und Strahlenkranz St Petersburg
1859 P- I23 (extr. from the Memoires de VAcademic des Sciences de St.-Pitersbourg. vi
Serie. Sciences politiques, histoire, philologie. ix. 483), so that the crown in our fresco
might be that of the goddess, not that of her priest. But, if the goddess is represented by
the lignum, her crow n is presumably the disk set upon it.
2 See G. Pinza in the Bull. Comm. Arch. Comm. di Roma 1910 xxxviii. 1 ft. and O. L.
Richmond 'The Augustan Palatium' in the Journ. Rom. Stud. 1914^. 193 ff. Others
(e.g. O. Richter 1"opographie der Stadt Rom11 Mtinchen 1901 pp. 143 f., 160, M.Jordan —
C. Iluelsen Topographie der Stadt Rom im Alterthum Berlin 1907 i. 3. 61) have
regarded it as the house of Ti. Claudius Nero, first husband of Livia and father of the
emperor Tiberius, who was born on the Palatine (Suet. Tib. 5).
3 Suet.. Aug. 72.
4 Dion Cass. 55. 12.
5 C. L. Visconti—R. Lanciani Guida del Palatino Torino 1873 p. 114. But see
H. Jordan—C. Huelsen op. cit. i. 3. 85 n. 109.
u Suet. Calig. 35 Nemorensi regi, quod multos iam annos poteretur sacerdotio,
validiorem adversarium subornavit.
7 A. Mau in the Rom. Mitth. 1890 v. 264—266 with fig. (=my fig. 88), G. Roden-
waldt Die Komposition der pompejanischen Wandgemcilde Berlin 1909 p. 49. The
painting, which measures o-99ni in height by o-57m in breadth, is of the third or 'ornate'
style (<\ 25 B.C.-50 A.D.).
8 Reg. v. 2. 10.
10—2