DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26205#0028
CHAPTER III
PERSONIFICATIONS OF RIVERS
IN ROMAN ART
1. TYPES OF REPRESENTATIONS AND FREQUENCY OF THEIR
OCCURRENCE
From among two methods of representing rivers created in Greek world
and described in the previous Chapter, i.e. “zoomorphic” and “anthropo-
morphic”, only the latter in fact was adopted in Roman art. This, however,
does not mean that depicting rivers in the form of an animal was entirely
discarded; suchlike images appear sporadically, beyond the main “anthro-
pomorphic” current of the personification of rivers. As a rule, they are limited
merely to the images of the Achelous, represented generally as a bull or
a protome1. They provide the continuation of images from the 6th and 5th
centuries B. C. and contribute in no way to innovatory iconographical or
compositional ideas. Judging from the archaeological material known to the
author this image of a river god as a bull which is so immensely popular in
archaic or classical Greece appears with regard to another river only once in
the Roman period. On the coin of Sagalassos in Pisidia the river Kestros is
represented as a bull (with the legend KECTPOC between its legs), next to
which stands a deity which is hard to identify2. A kind of reference to the
bull images from the coinage of the Sicily and Southern Italy is the represen-
1 Cf. among others a carnelian in Florence (Isler, Acheloos, No. 308; Isler, LIMC, Acheloos,
No. 68), a cameo in Madrid (Isler, Acheloos, No. 309; Isler, LIMC, Acheloos, No. 68), a lamp
in the Museum in Carthage (J. Deneauve, Lampes de Carhage, Paris 1969, No. 305, PI. 37; Isler,
LIMC, Acheloos, No. 70), bronze appliques from the 1st century A. D. (Isler, LIMC, Acheloos,
Nos. 72—73) or masks (Isler, LIMC, Acheloos, No. 161—165). The head of Acheloos with horns
appears on the marble altar from the Municipio Courtyard in Amelia, dated to the first 30 years
of the 1st century A. D. and made after the pattern of Greek reliefs of Nymphs from the 4th century
B. C. (Isler, LIMC, Acheloos, No. 209).
2 Imhoof-Blumer, No. 417, PI. 13, 18 (obv. bust of Gallienus in a cuirass; rev. deity clad
in a long chiton, holding one hand over the head, and the other on a horn of a bull, between the
PERSONIFICATIONS OF RIVERS
IN ROMAN ART
1. TYPES OF REPRESENTATIONS AND FREQUENCY OF THEIR
OCCURRENCE
From among two methods of representing rivers created in Greek world
and described in the previous Chapter, i.e. “zoomorphic” and “anthropo-
morphic”, only the latter in fact was adopted in Roman art. This, however,
does not mean that depicting rivers in the form of an animal was entirely
discarded; suchlike images appear sporadically, beyond the main “anthro-
pomorphic” current of the personification of rivers. As a rule, they are limited
merely to the images of the Achelous, represented generally as a bull or
a protome1. They provide the continuation of images from the 6th and 5th
centuries B. C. and contribute in no way to innovatory iconographical or
compositional ideas. Judging from the archaeological material known to the
author this image of a river god as a bull which is so immensely popular in
archaic or classical Greece appears with regard to another river only once in
the Roman period. On the coin of Sagalassos in Pisidia the river Kestros is
represented as a bull (with the legend KECTPOC between its legs), next to
which stands a deity which is hard to identify2. A kind of reference to the
bull images from the coinage of the Sicily and Southern Italy is the represen-
1 Cf. among others a carnelian in Florence (Isler, Acheloos, No. 308; Isler, LIMC, Acheloos,
No. 68), a cameo in Madrid (Isler, Acheloos, No. 309; Isler, LIMC, Acheloos, No. 68), a lamp
in the Museum in Carthage (J. Deneauve, Lampes de Carhage, Paris 1969, No. 305, PI. 37; Isler,
LIMC, Acheloos, No. 70), bronze appliques from the 1st century A. D. (Isler, LIMC, Acheloos,
Nos. 72—73) or masks (Isler, LIMC, Acheloos, No. 161—165). The head of Acheloos with horns
appears on the marble altar from the Municipio Courtyard in Amelia, dated to the first 30 years
of the 1st century A. D. and made after the pattern of Greek reliefs of Nymphs from the 4th century
B. C. (Isler, LIMC, Acheloos, No. 209).
2 Imhoof-Blumer, No. 417, PI. 13, 18 (obv. bust of Gallienus in a cuirass; rev. deity clad
in a long chiton, holding one hand over the head, and the other on a horn of a bull, between the