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THE EMPEROR AND HIS ANIMALS: THE ACQUISITION OF EXOTIC BEASTS FOR IMPERIAL VENATIONES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2019

Nicholas Lindberg
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Extract

Where the dusty village of Smirat now sits hunched against the winds of the Tunisian desert, there once stood the country villa of a wealthy Roman named Magerius. Prominently displayed in Magerius’ villa was a (now well-known) mosaic depicting a beast hunt in the arena. But the presumed stars of the show, four pairs of hunters and leopards, are placed at the corners of the mosaic, while centre-stage is dominated by a figure bearing a plate of money, and a block of text explaining that these are the funds with which Magerius has generously offered to pay for the show. Contrary to the ancient donor's expectations, however, the modern observer is not struck by Magerius’ munificence, but rather by the meanness of his show compared to those put on in Rome. The emperor Titus (r. 79–81), for example, had 9,000 animals killed during the hundred-day-long inauguration of the Flavian Amphitheatre (Cass. Dio 66[66 Cary].25.1). Magerius’ leopards, worthy of a mosaic in the provinces, would have provided about ten minutes’ worth of entertainment in the capital.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , October 2019 , pp. 251 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2019 

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Footnotes

This article is a revised and condensed version of a master's essay submitted at the University of Virginia in 2015. I thank the readers for that essay, Elizabeth Meyer and J. E. Lendon, as well as the anonymous reader from Greece & Rome, for their helpful comments. Any remaining faults are, of course, my own. All translations from Dio are my own.

References

1 AE 1967.569. On the Smirat Mosaic, see Beschaouch, A., ‘La mosaïque de chasse à l'amphithéâtre dècouverte à Smirat en Tunisie’, CRAI 110 (1966), 134–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dunbabin, K., The Mosaics of Roman North Africa. Studies in Iconography and Patronage (Oxford, 1978), 67–9Google Scholar; Bomgardner, D. L., ‘The Magerius Mosaic Revisited’, in Willmott, T. (ed.), Roman Amphitheatres and Spectacula. A 21st-Century Perspective (Oxford, 2009), 165–77Google Scholar; Adams, J. N., ‘The Latin of the Magerius (Smirat) Mosaic’, HSPh 108 (2016), 509–44Google Scholar.

2 Assuming that the venatio lasted for a full four hours every morning of Titus’ games, then an average of 22.5 animals per hour, or approximately one animal every two and a half minutes, were killed. Nor were Titus’ inaugural games without equal. Trajan (r. 98–117) killed 11,000 animals during the 123 days of games celebrating his victory over the Dacians (Cass. Dio 68[68 Cary].15.1).

3 For imperial venationes, see Jennison, G., Animals for Show and Pleasure in Ancient Rome (Manchester, 1937), 60–99Google Scholar; Ville, G., La gladiature en occident des origines à la mort de Domitien (Rome, 1981), 57–168CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Epplett, C., ‘Roman Beast Hunts’, in Kyle, D. G. and Christesen, P. (eds.), A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity (Chichester, 2014), 505–19Google Scholar. On the beast trade generally, see Jennison (this note), 137–54; Bertrandy, F., ‘Remarques sur le commerce de bêtes sauvages entre l'Afrique du Nord et l'Italie’, MEFRA 99 (1987), 211–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bomgardner, D. L., The Story of the Roman Amphitheatre (London, 2000), 212–14Google Scholar; MacKinnon, M., ‘Supplying Exotic Animals for the Roman Amphitheatre Games: New Reconstructions Combining Archaeological, Ancient Textual, Historical and Ethnographic Data’, Mouseion 6 (2006), 137–61Google Scholar. On imperial beasts, see Epplett, C., ‘The Capture of Animals by the Roman Military’, G&R 18 (2001), 210–22Google Scholar; and Epplett, C., ‘The Preparation of Animals for Roman Spectacula: Vivaria and their Administration’, Ludica 9 (2003), 76–92Google Scholar.

4 For the role of provincial connections in supplying spectacles in the Republican period, see Deniaux, E., ‘L'importation d'animaux d'Afrique à l’époque républicaine et les relations de clientèle’, L'Africa Romana 13 (1998), 1300–5Google Scholar.

5 Epplett, 2014 (n. 3), 512.

6 For traders, see Symmachus, Ep. 5.62; Apul. Met. 4.13. For Ostia merchants, see Meiggs, R., Roman Ostia (Oxford, 1973), 287Google Scholar; Bertrandy (n. 3), 227–8.

7 See Potter, D. S., ‘Entertainers in the Roman Empire’, in Potter, D. S. and Mattingly, D. J. (eds.), Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire (Ann Arbor, MI, 1999), 311Google Scholar. For the North African guilds, see Beschaouch, A., ‘Que savons-nous des sodalités africo-romaines?’, CRAI 150 (2006), 1401–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with references to his earlier works on the subject.

8 MacKinnon (n. 3), n. 18.

9 For gladiators, see Carter, M., ‘Gladiatorial Ranking and the “SC de pretiis gladiatorum minuendis” (CIL II 6278 = ILS 5163)’, Phoenix 57 (2003), 83–114CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ville (n. 3), 270–95. For circus factions, see Cameron, A., Circus Factions. Blues and Greens at Rome and Byzantium (Oxford, 1976), 5–13Google Scholar; Potter (n. 7), 292–301. For actors, see Potter (n. 7), 269.

10 Caelestium…animalium, AE 1948.109. On the nature of the animals, see Guey, J., ‘Les éléphants de Caracalla (216 ap. J.C.)’, REA 49 (1947), 248–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On this inscription more generally, see Corbier, M., ‘Le discours du prince, d'après une inscription de Banasa’, Ktèma 2 (1977), 211–32Google Scholar.

11 On imitation of Alexander, see AE 1948.109; Cass. Dio 77(78 Cary).6–7.

12 Evidence collected in Epplett, 2001 (n. 3).

13 Ibid., 215. According to Ammianus Marcellinus 18.7.5, lions practically swarmed the swampy shores of the Tigris and Euphrates.

14 CIL 8.21567.

15 Le Roux, P., ‘Le amphithéâtre et le soldat sous l'Empire romain’, Spectacula 1 (1990), 203–15Google Scholar.

16 CIL 3.7449.

17 On imperial quarries, see Ward-Perkins, J. B., Marble in Antiquity. The Collected Papers of J.B. Ward-Perkins (London, 1992)Google Scholar; Hirt, A. M., Imperial Mines and Quarries in the Roman World. Organizational Aspects 27 bc–ad 235 (Oxford, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Russell, B., The Economics of the Roman Stone Trade (Oxford, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Russell (n. 17), 194.

19 Evidence collected in Toynbee, J. M. C., Animals in Roman Life and Art (London and Southampton, 1973), 148Google Scholar.

20 Ibid., 286–7.

21 On animals in Republican games, see Deniaux (n. 4); Coleman, K. M., ‘Ptolemy Philadelphus and the Roman Amphitheater’, in Slater, W. J. (ed.), Roman Theater and Society (Ann Arbor, MI, 1996), 46–68Google Scholar. The provision of such games was, of course, part of a broader pattern of public munificence that had its roots in the Hellenistic period: see Veyne, P., Le pain et le cirque (Paris, 1976)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Translation from McGiffert, A. C. (ed. and trans.), Eusebius. Church History (Oxford, 1890)Google Scholar.

23 In Egypt, the fleet was also responsible for taking porphyry down the Nile (Russell [n. 17], 43).

24 Lo Cascio, E., ‘The Early Roman Empire: The State and the Economy’, in Scheidel, W., Morris, I., and Saller, R. (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World (Cambridge, 2007), 639–41Google Scholar. For overviews and further literature on the annona, see Rickman, G., The Corn Supply in Ancient Rome (Oxford, 1980)Google Scholar; Erdkamp, P., The Grain Market in the Roman Empire (Cambridge, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Charles, M. B. and Ryan, N., ‘Managing the Annona: Grain Fleets and the Early Roman Empire’, AH 37 (2007), 136–57Google Scholar.

25 On the subject of vivaria more generally, see Epplett, 2003 (n. 3).

26 CIL 6.8583 = ILS 1578 = EAOR 1.8; CIL 6.10209 = ILS 5159 = EAOR 1.9; CIL 6.10208 = ILS 5118 = EAOR 1.10; Bloch, H., ‘Ostia: inscrizioni rinvenute tra il 1930 e il 1939’, NSA 7 (1953), 239–306Google Scholar, no. 37. The administration of imperial stone supplies also made extensive use of freedmen (Russell [n. 17], 51–2).

27 EAOR 1.8.

28 Bertrandy (n. 3), 231.

29 EAOR 1. 9–10.

30 CIL 6.130. See also Epplett, 2001 (n. 3), 212; and ILS 3265, a dedication to Diana from a centurion at Cologne who ‘guarded the animal preserve’ (vivarium saepsit).

31 The Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily, with its famous Big Game Hunt mosaic depicting the capture and transport of wild animals, may have belonged to an official who helped procure animals for imperial games. See Epplett, 2014 (n. 3), 512–13.

32 See Bertrandy (n. 3), 232, for how these posts might have related to one another.

33 See MacKinnon (n. 3).

34 Coleman, K. M., M. Valerii Martialis Liber Spectaculorum (Oxford, 2006), 192Google Scholar.

35 At the same time, vivaria also gave emperors a chance to breed some animals in captivity, a money-saving practice that assured a steady supply of certain species, particularly herbivores (Epplett, 2014 [n. 3], 513).

36 Even in death, these unfortunate animals were used to demonstrate imperial munificence. Carcasses from the games were occasionally distributed as a gift (sparsio, missilia) to spectators. See D. Kyle, ‘Animal Spectacles in Ancient Rome: Meat and Meaning’, Nikephoros (1995), 181–205.

37 On such animal celebrities, see Coleman, K. M., ‘Feral Attraction: Animal “Stars” in the Roman Arena’, Omnibus 63 (2012), 13–16Google Scholar.

38 It is worth noting that the celebrity status of games participants mattered even on the provincial level. In the Magerius mosaic, the four leopards and the venatores are all named, suggesting that these figures were known.

39 Fant, J. C., ‘Rome's Marble Yards’, JRA 14 (2001), 167–98Google Scholar; Russell (n. 17), 51–3.

40 Tac. Ann. 11.35.3. Ludi: for Spain, see CIL 2.4519; for Alexandria, see ILS 1397; for Pergamum, see IGUR 1060.

41 Millar, F., The Emperor in the Roman World (31 bc–ad 337) (London 1977), 195Google Scholar; Ville (n. 3), 290.

42 ὁ δὲ ἔφη, μὴ εἶναι ἐξὸν αὐτῷ, ἐπειδὴ πεπληρώκει τὰ κυνηγέσια.

43 Ebner, C., ‘Hinrichtungen in der Arena’, in Rollinger, R., Lang, M., and Barta, H. (eds.), Strafe und Strafrecht in den antiken Welten. Unter Berücksichtigung von Todesstrafe, Hinrichtung und peinlicher Befragung (Wiesbaden, 2012), 106Google Scholar.

44 ut aliarum Lybicarum mihi emptio sacra auctoritate praestetur.

45 Cass. Dio 72(73 Cary).14.1; Cod. Theod. 15.11.1 (Honorius and Theodosius).

46 Taking the ‘about 10,000’ gladiators whom Augustus claimed to have exhibited, divided among the eight games mentioned in the RGDA.

47 Chariot races, too, were governed by laws which favoured races put on in Rome by the circus factions: Cod. Theod. 15.10.2, 15.7.6 (both Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius, ad 381). See also Cameron (n. 9), 8–9.

48 The Empress Theodora was, allegedly, the daughter of the bear trainer for the Greens (Procop. Anecdota 9.2).

49 See Aubert, J., Business Managers in Ancient Rome. A Social and Economic Study of Institores, 200 bc–ad 250 (Leiden, 1994), 364Google Scholar.