Public Images: Motives and Means for the Commemoration of Ancestors in Roman Republican Society

Abstract

This thesis investigates the commemoration of ancestors in Rome from 200 BC to the death of Augustus, assessing both the avenues through which information about particular individuals was transmitted to later generations and the factors that motivated descendants to do so. The period covered extends from the height of the Republic, when this phenomenon was first reported by Polybius, into the early Principate, when it survived as a diminishing remnant of Republican values. Changes in the composition and circumstances of the nobility which occurred over this time are closely linked with this issue. Chapter One outlines the political context, showing that the lack of automatic hereditary succession to magistracies was actually a spur for families to promote their ancestors for electoral advantage. Important points are the distinction between nobiles and novi homines, the electoral process, competition and the advantages of a high family profile, the problems and responses of 'new men', and the propaganda value of legendary and divine ancestry. Public funeral ceremonies provided forums for promoting the interests of both families and the nobility as a whole; Chapter Two discusses these functions and shows how ancestors were integral to their fulfilment. As ambitious individuals and factions increasingly used funerals to further their own agendas, so were ancestors consequently removed from the foreground. Chapter Three looks at ancestral portraits, the most visible reminders of forebears. The form and accuracy of these likenesses are considered, as well as the question of their apparent restriction to the nobility, and their treatment as display items. Various means available for the transmission of information from one generation to the next are explored in the fourth chapter, considering documents such as birth certificates, and particularly funeral speeches, their preserved transcripts and inscriptions. These items, as well as ancestral portraits, are then placed in the overall context of an oral tradition which could service the need for publicity that emerges from Chapter One. Chapter Five discusses the responsibilities which accompanied the benefits of commemoration, first pointing to various obligations, such as the continued remembrance of individuals and the upholding of family reputation, and then asking what sort of pressure there was to perform them. Finally, Chapter Six deliberates on the extent to which the commemoration of ancestors was motivated by religious beliefs and practices. This discussion comprises three phases: a search for religious rituals and connotations concerned with ancestral likenesses, a description of the context of domestic religion, and a brief comparison with societies that are regarded as "ancestor worshipping".