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Images of War in Greece and Rome: Between Military Practice, Public Memory, and Cultural Symbolism*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2012

Tonio Hölscher
Tonio Hölscher*
Affiliation:
GermanArchaeological Institute, Rome
*
thoelsch@vatlib.it
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Extract

Wars were once considered to be the essence of world history, but under the influence of social history, the histoire des mentalités, and the discourse of the ‘cultural turn’ their role has changed fundamentally. More interest is now paid to wars as part of cultural history than as highpoints of histoire événementielle.

Historians of the present generation stand in an ambivalent relation to the phenomenon of war. The ‘cultural turn’ in historical studies has generally focused on anthropological phenomena that are part of general human experience — love and death, body and soul, memory and hope, customs and emotions, mentality and ideologies. These phenomena, which are conceived as driving forces in history, are at the same time parts of the contemporary cultural furniture of those scholars who study their changing aspects as objects of research. The phenomenon of war, however, for the majority of contemporary historians and other observers in Europe and North America, has become a distant spectacle. So, what do we really know about war? And what do we want to know about war?

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 93 , November 2003 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright ©Tonio Hölscher 2003. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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Footnotes

*

I thank R. R. R. Smith for inviting me to give a concluding overview in a seminar series in Oxford on ‘Art and War in the Ancient World’, for recommending the paper to the editors of this journal, and for correcting and anglicizing my text. I also thank the Journal‘s anonymous readers for their precise comments. For helpful criticism and suggestions I am grateful to Bettina Bergmann, Barbara Borg, Jürgen Franssen, William Harris and Emanuel Mayer. To Susanne Muth and Felix Pirson who read the text I owe many useful and stimulating contributions. The part of Fernande Hölscher with whom I discussed most of these issues is hard to define.

The illustrations are courtesy of the Archaeological Institute, University of Heidelberg.

References

1 Hannestad, L., ‘War and Greek art’, 120-9, and N. Hannestad, ‘Warfare in Roman imperial art’, 146–54, in Bekker-Nielsen, T. and Hannestad, L. (eds), War as a Cultural and Social Force, Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Historisk-filosofiske Skrifter 22 (2001)Google Scholar.

2 For the following theoretical approach see: Hölscher, T., Formen der Kunst und Formen des Lebens (1995). 11–45Google Scholar.

3 On social structures and habitus: Bourdieu, P., Outline of a Theory of Practice (1977)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 ABV 52, 10; H. A. G. Brijder, Siana Cups I and Comast Cups (1983), pLs 9b, 23a; Chr. Ellinghaus, Aristokratische Leitbilder — demokratische Leitbilder. Kampfdarstellungen auf athenischen Vasen in archaischer und frühklassischer Zeit (1997), 12–13.

5 Lehmann-Hartleben, K., Die Trajanssäule (1923)Google Scholar, Taf. 14, 23, 34; Coarelli, F., La colonna traiana (1999)Google Scholar, tav. 21–4, 42–5, 81–3.

6 Emmanuel Mayer reminds me of the reactions to the First World War in Germany: immediately after the war the surviving soldiers kept highly idealizing memories of their experiences, and more critical and ‘realistic’ accounts were produced only later — such as E. M. Remarque's Im Westen nichts Neues, first published in 1929.

7 Simon, E. and Hirmer, M., Die griechischen Vasen (1976), Taf. 58Google Scholar; van Wees, H., ‘The development of the hoplite phalanx: iconography and reality in the 7th century’, in H. van Wees (ed.), War and Violence in Ancient Greece (2000), 125–66Google Scholar. Generally on the phalanx in vase-painting, see Lorimer, H. L., ‘The hoplite phalanx’, BSA 42 (1947), 76–138Google Scholar. On the origins of the phalanx tactic, see the balanced discussion in Cartledge, P., ‘La nascita degli opliti e l'organizzazione militare’, in Settis, S. (ed.), I Greci (1996), II 1, 681–714Google Scholar.

8 ABV 58, 122; Simon and Hirmer, op. cit. (n. 7), Taf. 58.

9 I do not agree, in this specific regard, with the scepticism of P. Cartledge on the value of representations of war in art, p. 712 of his admirable article, op. cit. (n. 7).

10 See T. Hölscher, Griechische Historienbilder des 5. und 4. Jahrhunderts v.Chr. (1973), 28–30; A. Stewart Art, Desire, and the Body (1997), 89–93; van Wees, op. cit. (n. 7).

11 Smith, C., ‘A protocorinthian lekythos in the British Museum’, JHS 11 (1890), 167–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with pl. II. See Cartledge, op. cit. (n. 7), 689, on Homer's emphasis on single duels within the frame of mass battles: ‘L'importanza apparentemente fondamentale dei duelli tra singoli eroi è un'illusione creata col ricorso dei poeti all'espediente quasi “cinematografico” della messa a fuoco o dello zoom sulla singolare tenzone dei protagonisti a fini drammatico-narrativi.’ See recently Hellmann, O., Die Schlachtszenen der Ilias, Hermes Einzelschriften 83 (2000)Google Scholar.

12 See V. D. Hanson, The Western Way of War (1989), esp. 19–26, 71–5, 135–59; idem, ‘Hoplite technology in phalanx battle’, in V. D. Hanson (ed.), Hoplites. The Classical Greek Battle Experience (1991), 63–84; J. Lazenby, ‘The killing zone’, in ibid., 87–120, esp. 93–102.

13 Thucydides 7.44.1 (trans. C. F. Smith, Loeb Class. Library).

14 On the ideal of individual fighting, face to face, see for example Homer, Iliad 2.604; Euripides, Rhesos 510–11. Lance against bow: Homer, Iliad 11.384–90; Archilochos Fr. 3 Diehl = fr. 3 West; Strabo 11.1.12; Hölscher, op. cit. (n. 10), 42–3, 154; Cartledge, op. cit. (n. 7), 699–700, on Thucydides 4.40 and ‘ideologia oplitica’.

15 See Chr. Meier, Politik und Anmut (2000); T. Hölscher, ‘Images and political identity. The case of Athens’, in D. Boedeker and K. Raaflaub (eds), Democracy, Empire and the Arts in Fifth Century Athens (1998), 353–85.

16 B. Andreae, Das Alexandermosaik aus Pompeji (1977) For the specific aspects of space and action see Hölscher, op. cit. (n. 10), 162–9; Hölscher, op. cit. (n. 2), 30–6.

17 Leander, M. L. Touati, The Great Trajanic Frieze (1987), pls 1–4, 56Google Scholar; B. A. Andreae, Römische Kunst (1973), Abb. 421–4.

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19 B. Andreae, Römische Kunst (1973), Taf. 144; D. E. E. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture (1992), fig. 359.

20 On ‘ideal nudity’ see Bonfante, L., ‘Nudity as a costume in classical art’, AJA 93 (1989), 543–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Himmelmann, N., Ideale Nacktheit in der griechischen Kunst (1990)Google Scholar; Hölscher, T., review of Himmelmann, N., Ideale Nacktheit in der griechischen Kunst, Gnomon 65 (1993), 519–28Google Scholar; C. W. Clairmont, Classical Attic Tombstones. Introductory Volume (1993), 137–9; Stewart, op. cit. (n. 10), 24–42; Th. Schäfer, Andres Agathoi (1997), 12–14; Hölscher, T., Aus der Frühzeit der Griechen. Räume, Körper, Mythen, Lectio Teubneriana 7 (1998), 30–56Google Scholar; Himmelmann, N., ‘Klassische Archäologie — kritische Anmerkungen zur Methode’, JDI 115 (2000), 253–323, esp. 296–309Google Scholar. See also L. Foxhall and J. Salmon (eds), Thinking Men. Masculinity and its Self-representation in the Classical Tradition (1998).

21 Xenophon, Hellenica 1.28. I apologize for repeating these stories which I have quoted in various former essays on this topic.

22 Plutarch, Agesilaos 34.6–8.

23 German auxiliaries: Lehmann-Hartleben, op. cit. (n. 5), Taf. 14/XXIV centre, 31/LXVI-VII centre, 33/LXX, 34/LXXII centre; Coarelli, op. cit. (n. 5), tav. 22, 73, 78, 82. Regular auxiliaries: Lehmann-Hartleben, Taf. 31/LXVI-VII centre, 34/LXXII right; Coarelli, tav. 22, 73, 82. Legionaries: Lehmann-Hartleben, Taf. 14/XXIV left, 31/LXVI-VII left, 34/LXXII left; Coarelli, tav. 21, 72, 82.

24 Waurick, G., ‘Untersuchungen zur historisierenden Rüstung in der römischen Kunst’, Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz 30 (1983), 265–301, esp. 293–6Google Scholar. The distribution of ‘Attic’ helmets seems to be guided by the specific ideological contents of the various scenes.

25 See Hölscher, T., ‘Feindwelten – Glückswelten. Perser, Amazonen und Kentauren’, in T. Hölscher (ed.), Gegenwelten zu den Kulturen Griechenlands un Roms in der Antike (2000), 287–320Google Scholar, esp. 288–9.

26 For exceptions, that is, for long-term constellations of ‘friends’ and ‘enemies’, see Hölkeskamp, K. J., ‘La guerra e la pace’, in Settis, S. (ed.), I Greci (1997), II 2, 481–539, esp. 486–7Google Scholar.

27 Hostile opposition to the emerging order of the polis was conceived characteristically on a more symbolic level: first in the fantastic realm of wilderness, represented in the animal friezes with lions, sphinxes, and other beasts, then in the myths about assaulting Amazons, centaurs, and giants. On this, cf. Hölscher, op. cit. (n. 25). In archaic times most foreign mythological adversaries, except for the centaurs, are shown as purely Greek warriors: giants, Amazons, Trojans.

28 J.-P. Vernant (ed.), Problèmes de la guerre en Grèce ancienne (1968); Hölkeskamp, op. cit. (n. 26), 494–501.

29 Rare exceptions: e.g. Rumpf, A., Chalkidische Vasen (1927), pl. 88Google Scholar; Schefold, K., Meisterwerke griechischer Kunst (1960), 141Google Scholar, no. 129. Opposition of oriental and Greek concepts: P. Ducrey, ‘Victoire et défaite. Réflexions sur la représentation des vaincus dans l'art grec’, in Cl. Bérard, Chr. Bron and A. Pomari (eds), Images et société en Grèce ancienne (1987). Common ‘sphere of solidarity’: e.g. the Villa Albani relief, R. Lullies and M. Hirmer, Griechische Plastik (1979), Taf. 172; J. Boardman, Greek Sculpture. The Classical Period (1985), fig. 153.

30 Gods against giants: e.g. LIMC IV 2 (1988)Google Scholar, Gigantes nos 126, 170. Herakles against Amazons: LIMC I 2 (1981), Amazones no. 7, cf. 41. Theseus against the Minotaur: LIMC VI 2 (1992), Minotauros nos 8, 10, 18–20Google Scholar. Note also Ajax and Glaukos: Rumpf, op. cit. (n. 29), Taf. 12. Ajax and Hektor: K. Friis Johansen, The Iliad in Early Greek Art (1967), 67–8, fig. 13.

31 Achilles and Troilos: LIMC I (1981), Achilleus nos 35–77Google Scholar. Neoptolemos, Astyanax and Priamos: LIMC II (1984), Astyanax I nos 7–29Google Scholar. LIMC VII (1994), Priamos nos 116, 118Google Scholar. Generally, see Ducrey, op. cit. (n. 29).

32 Bovon, A., ‘La représentation des guerres perses’, BCH 87 (1963), 579–602CrossRefGoogle Scholar; W. Raeck, Zum Barbarenbildin der Kunst Athens im 6. und 5. Jahrhundert v.Chr (1981), 101–63; Hölscher, op. cit. (n. 25), 301–4.

33 ARV 2 433, 62; D. Buitron-Oliver, Douris (1995), no. 108, pl. 67; Hölscher, op. cit. (n. 25).

34 ARV 2 417, 4; Bovon, op. cit. (n. 32), 582, fig. 7; Hölscher, op. cit. (n. 25), 301–2, Abb. 4.

35 ARV 1 631, 38; Hölscher, op. cit. (n. 25), 303–4, Abb. 5.

36 Künzl, E., Die Kelten des Epigonos von Pergamon (1971)Google Scholar; Schalles, H.-J., Untersuchungen zur Kulturpolitik der pergamenischen Herrscher im 3. Jahrhundert v.Chr. (1985)Google Scholar; Smith, R. R. R., Hellenistic Sculpture (1995). 99–102Google Scholar; Polito, E., I Galati vinti (1999)Google Scholar; Hölscher, op. cit. (n. 25), 304–5.

37 Grand Camée de France: Andreae, op. cit. (n. 19), Taf. 57; J. B. Giard, Le Grand Camée de France (1993). Oriental enemies: R. M. Schneider, Bunte Barbaren (1986); idem, ‘Die Faszination des Feindes. Bilder der Parther und des Orients in Rom’, in Wiesenhöfer, J. (ed.), Das Partherreich und seine Zeugnisse, Historia Einzelschriften, vol. 122 (1998), 95–146Google Scholar. On northern barbarians, a dissertation is in progress by Chr. Heitz. General attitude of Rome towards their enemies: S. P. Mattern, Rome and the Enemy (1999); I. M. Ferris, Enemies of Rome: Barbarians Through Roman Eyes (2000).

38 T. Hölscher, ‘Alle Welt fur Traian’, in Imago Antiquitatis. Mélanges offerts à R. Turcan (1999), 281–9.

39 A study of violence in archaic and classical Greek art by S. Muth is in preparation.

40 Boardman, J., Greek Sculpture.The Archaic Period (1978), 22–4Google Scholar, and passim; Martini, W., Die archaische Plastik der Griechen (1990), 69–77Google Scholar; C. Rolley, La sculpture grecque I (1994), 165–75.

41 supra nn. 33–4.

42 ARV 3 118, 13; Boardman, J., Athenian Red Figure Vases. The Archaic Period (1975), fig. 114.Google Scholar

43 On the general increase of violence in warfare during the fifth century B.C., see Hölkeskamp, op. cit. (n. 26), 493.

44 Borbein, A. H. (ed.), Das alte Griechenland (1995), 260–2Google Scholar; Fehr, B., Bewegungsweisen und Verhaltensideale (1979), 25–30.Google Scholar

45 Stewart, A., Faces of Power (1993), 163–71, 427–8Google Scholar.

46 supra n. 36.

47 Smith, op. cit. (n. 36), 102–4, n 36), 102–4, fig. 132.

48 Andreae, op. cit. (n. 19), Taf. 34; P. Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (1990), figs 104 and 148a; Boschung, D., Die Bildnisse des Augustus, Das römische Herrscherbild I 2 (1993), pls 213, 214Google Scholar; Kleiner, op. cit. (n. 19), 41, 42.

49 P. Zanker, ‘Die Barbaren, der Kaiser und die Arena’, in R. P. Sieferle and H. Breuninger (eds), Kulturen der Gewalt (1998), 53–86. Generally: Ferris, op. cit. (n. 37). Non vidi: T. Viljamaa, A. Timonen and C. Krutze, Crudelitas. The Politics of Cruelty in the Ancient and Medieval World (1992).

50 H. Kähler, Alberti Rubeni dissertatio de gemma Augustea (1968); Andreae, op. cit. (n. 19), Abb. 316; Zanker, op. cit. (n. 48), fig. 182; Kleiner, op. cit. (n. 19), fig. 47.

51 C. Caprino et al., La colonna di Marco Aurelio (1955). tav. XLIII, 85; Pirson, F., ‘Style and message on the Column of Marcus Aurelius’, Papers of the British School at Rome 64 (1996), 139–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

52 Schneider, op. cit. (n. 37, 1986), 18–97; Andreae, op. cit. (n. 19), Abb. 237; Zanker, op. cit. (n. 48), fig. 55; Kleiner, op. cit. (n. 19), fig. 64.

53 I address this question more fully in a forthcoming article in a volume on war in Roman art, edited by S. Dillon and K. Welsh.

54 W. K. Pritchett, The Greek State at War, vol. III: Religion (1979); J. Rüpke, Domi militiae. Die religiöse Konstruktion des Krieges in Rom (1990).

55 Pritchett, op. cit. (n. 54); A. Brelich, Guerre, agoni e culti nella Grecia arcaica (1961); R. Lonis, Guèrre et religion en grèce à l'époque classique (1979); M. H. Jameson, ‘Sacrifice before battle’, in V. D. Hanson, Hoplites. The Classical Greek Battle Experience (1991) 197–227. See Cartledge, op. cit. (n. 7), 697: ‘…i Greci sembrano aver spinto la ritualizzazione oplitica all'estremo, sia sul campo di battaglia sia fuori.’

56 Lissarrague, F., ‘Autour du guerrier’, in C. Bérard and J.-P. Vernant (eds), La cité des images (1984), 35–48Google Scholar, esp. 41–6; idem, L'autre guerrier (1990), 35–69; A. B. Spiess, Der Kriegerabschied auf attischen Vasen der archaischen Zeit (1992).

57 Lissarrague, op. cit. (n. 56, 1984), 46–7; Lissarrague, op. cit. (n. 56, 1990), 71–96. Generally, J.-P. Vernant, ‘La belle mort et le cadavre outragé’, in G. Gnoli and J.-P. Vernant (eds), La mort, les morts dans les sociétés anciennes (1982), 45–76; Müller, C. W. ‘Der schöne Tod des Polisbürgers’, Gymnasium 96 (1989), 317–40Google Scholar.

58 Amazons: LIMC I (1981), Amazones nos 6, 9, 12, 18, 23, 69Google Scholar, etc. (e.g. west metopes of Parthenon). Centaurs: above all, the Kaineus episode. Further, e.g., south metopes of Parthenon.

59 Boardman, op. cit. (n. 29), figs 120–1, 153; Hölscher, op. cit. (n. 10), 102–11; R. Stupperich, Staatsbegräbnis und Privatgrabmal (1977), 14–22. Cf. Lissarrague, op. cit. (n. 56, 1990), 75, on a hydria in München, fig. 75, where the deceased warrior appears in two different aspects, as a ‘beau mort’, carried by a companion, and as a forceful fighter, in the form of his psyche.

60 Rüpke, op. cit. (n. 54), 248–9.

61 Rüpke, op. cit. (n. 54), passim.

62 I. S. Ryberg, Panel Reliefs of Marcus Aurelius (1967); Andreae, op. cit. (n. 19), Abb. 523–33.

63 Hölscher, T., ‘Die Geschichtsauffassung in der römischen Repräsentationskunst’, JdI 95 (1980), 265–321Google Scholar. Italian translation in T. Hölscher, Monumenti statali epubblico (1993), 90–136.

64 Hölscher, op. cit. (n. 15).

65 Tyrant-slayers: S. Brunnsaker, The Tyrant-slayers of Kritios and Nesiotes (1971); B. Fehr, Die Tyrannentöter (1984); M. W. Taylor, The Tyrant Slayers (2nd edn, 1991). Stoa poikile: Hölscher, op. cit. (n. 10), 50–84; de Angelis, F., ‘La battaglia di Maratona nella Stoa Poikile’, AnnPisa ser. IV, I 1 (1996), 119–71Google Scholar.

66 Hölscher, T., ‘Ritual und Bildsprache. Zur Deutung der Reliefs an der Brüstung um das Heiligtumder Athena Nike’, AM 112 (1997), 143–66Google Scholar; Brouskari, M. S., To thorakio tou naou tes Athenas Nikes, ArchEph 137 (1998)Google Scholar.

67 Dörig, J., ‘Une nouvelle base commémorant une victoire de la fin du Vème siècle av. J.-C.’, in Zur griechischen Kunst, Antike Kunst, 9. Beiheft, (1972), 9–14Google Scholar.

68 e.g. Tyche of Antiochia: T. Dohrn, Die Tyche von Antiochia (1960); Smith, op. cit. (n. 36), 76, fig. 91. Tazza Farnese: J. J. Pollitt, Art in the Hellenistic Age (1986), 257–9, fig. 279.

69 supra, n. 50.

70 Hölscher, T., Victoria Romano (1967), 6–17Google Scholar.

71 Weber, M., ‘Die drei Typen der legitimen Herrschaft’, in M. Weber, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre (1st edn, 1922; 4th edn, 1973), 475–88Google Scholar. See further, T. Hölscher in a forthcoming article, above n. 53.

72 Hölscher, T., ‘Die Anfänge der römischen Repräsentationskunst’, RM 85 (1978), 315–57Google Scholar; Hölkeskamp, K.-J., Die Entstehung der Nobilität (1987), 204–40.Google Scholar

73 This article was completed during my stay as a research professor at the German Archaeological Institute in Rome for a project, ‘Bilderwelt-Lebenswelt im antiken Rom und im Römische Reich’, financed by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Düsseldorf.