The Ivories of Ariadne and Ideas about Female Imperial Authority in Rome and Early

Byzantium
Author(s): Diliana Angelova
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Gesta, Vol. 43, No. 1 (2004), pp. 1-15
Published by: International Center of Medieval Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25067088 .
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The Ivories of Ariadne and Ideas about Female

in Rome and Early Byzantium*
Authority

Imperial

DILIANA ANGELOVA
Harvard

University

Abstract

Two
Ariadne,
peror

sixth-century
ivory
a Christian
portray
in the

breaking

imperium

dramatically

and

as the Ivories
known
of
as a partner
to the em
augusta
as a bearer
power,
of imperial
Roman
This
earlier
tradition.

panels,

from
can only

a better
be explained
change
through
in
the
the
empress'
imperial
ideology
place
understanding
of
rule and the indebtedness
iconography
of imperial
of sacred
iconographie

to the portrayal
the Christianization

of Greco-Roman
of the Roman
to two central

deities.

I argue

Empire,
ideas about

that before
of the
depictions

imperial power:
was
the gift of a
like a god, and his victory
'
was delineated
that time, an empress
standing
deity. During
to mother-goddesses,
deities
assimilation
visually
of
through
or her symbolic
The new
motherhood
victory,
of the troops.
empress
responded
was
the emperor

of
iconography
more
authoritative

the sixth centuries

the fifth
and
the empress
and
outlook for

conveyed
indicated

a
an

In the Christian
vision for
in the imperium.
partnership
the augustus
and the augusta
and victory
empire
participated
was
as corulers.
This change
in part
by present
legitimized
as partner
to
the mother
the Great,
ing Helena,
of Constantine
her son in the establishment
of the Christian
monarchy.
actual

make a few comparisons with the Roman era, the period as a

whole has not been central to their analyses.3
Claudian's
rhetorical model provides a different avenue
of analysis, which emphasizes
the continuities between the
Roman and the Byzantine
periods. In this study I examine
two ivory panels with an empress to demonstrate the validity
and importance of Claudian's model. They are known as the
in
and are presently
ivories of Ariadne
(4747-513/515)4
the Bargello Museum
in Florence and the Kunsthistorisches
Museum
in Vienna
(Figs. 1 and 2). On structural, composi
tional, and stylistic grounds, most scholars agree that the ivo
an imperial consulship
ries were executed to commemorate
or early sixth century.5
the
fifth
in Constantinople
late
during
carved, nearly three
panel represents an exquisitely
an
in the insignia of
dimensional
of
dressed
empress,
image
an emperor's power. These
include the imperial paluda
mentum, or chlamys, fastened over the right shoulder with a
Each

fibula, the diadem of precious stones, the globe

bejeweled
surmounted by a cross, the scepter held by the Florence em
press, and the canopied throne of the Vienna empress. Both
empresses

In the first few lines of his epithalamium

from the year
398 for the marriage of the emperor Honorios and Maria, the
court poet Claudian related that the groom chose adornments
(ornatus) for his bride once worn by noble Livia and all the
of the divine emperors.1 Thus Clau
proud daughters-in-law
dian presented the Christian empress within the context of a
long succession of imperial women that began with Livia, the
wife of the first Augustus, who handed down her adornments
as dynastic heirlooms. The poet's vision is significant for its
skillful bridging of the pre-Christian
and Christian phases
of the Roman Empire. Three years earlier one of Claudian's
contemporaries had presented a very different view of the ge
nealogy of the augusta. In his funeral oration for Honorios'
father, the emperor Theodosios
I, Bishop Ambrose of Milan
set the empress in an exclusively Christian framework through
a lineage beginning with Helena, mother of Constantine
the
Great.2 Modern discussions of the early Byzantine empresses
have largely followed Ambrose's model, analyzing the posi
tion of the augusta within
the established
historiographie
boundaries of the Christian period. While most specialists do

GESTA XLIII/1

The

International

Center

of Medieval

Art

2004

wear

elaborate

necklaces

of

precious

stones

and

are adorned profusely with pearls that hang from their crowns,
strung on long pendants, border their garments, and decorate
their shoes. Roundels with bust portraits embellish the tablia
(the rectangular patches of cloth sewn on their paludamenta
at chest level). The roundel of the Florence ivory clearly shows
an emperor, but the medallion
image on the Vienna panel is
more difficult to identify. Richard Delbrueck
suggested that it
a
a
helmeted
of
represented
city, yet the two
personification
trails framing the face and the pointed endings of
pigtail-like
the headcover resemble more accurately the silhouette of an
augusta

wearing

a crown

with

long

pendants.6

At first glance these ivories seem to support the standard

and the Christian eras.
separation between the pre-Christian
The hieratic, richly ornate vision of the early Byzantine em
press as a figure vested in the insignia of rule stands in stark
to the portraiture of the first Roman
contrast, for example,
one of the wealthiest
women
in
Livia.
empress,
Although
Livia shrewdly avoided being depicted in elaborate
and
dresses.7 Rather, she chose to evoke qualities tra
jewels
to Roman women, notably virtuousness
ascribed
ditionally
and fecundity. Her fecundity was especially
important, for

Rome,

?mm-t

FIGURE
le Attivit?

ca. 500, Florence, Mu

carved
ivory panel,
Empress,
del Bargello
per i Beni e
of Ministero
(photo: by permission

1. Byzantine

seo Nazionale

historisches

2. Byzantine
Museum

carved ivory panel, ca. 500, Vienna,

Museum,
Wien).
(photo: Kunsthistorisches

Empress,

Kunst

Culturali).

of the Julio-Claudian
her the "dynastic matriarch"
as
an exceptionally
vir
Livia
both
of
The
portrayal
dynasty.8
tuous woman and a female progenitor of the empire set the
standard for female imperial iconography until the fourth
these qual
century augustae of the Theodosian house. While
in the
ities never went out of fashion for the empresses
Christian period, the emphasis on coins and other objects
gradually gave way to a more commanding
portrayal.9 This
is well illustrated on the ivory panels from Florence and Vi
it made

FIGURE

enna, where even the jewelry seems to be part of the imperial

attributes rather than an expression of femininity.10
in the portrayal of the
Instead of taking the difference
on the Byz
empress as an argument for focusing exclusively
antine period, we ought to ask the question: What ideas and
contributed to the portrayal of an early
historical developments
as
an
emperor? To answer this, it is neces
Byzantine empress
sary to revisit the Roman period, noting continuities
the Roman and Byzantine eras.

between

The Origins

and Meaning

of the Empress

'
Attributes

rule that are so explicitly

the two panels include the
scepter, the globus cruciger,
assimilation
by the augusta
and
occurred
with
the
diadem
simultaneously
probably began
with its adoption as an official token of power by the emperor
Constantine I (324-337). Coins featuring Constantine's mother,
Helena (324-329; Fig. 3), and his second wife, Fausta (324
326), suggest that the augusta wore a diadem that consisted of
a headband inlaid with stones, much like that of the augustus.11
The only difference between the two is the absence of ribbons
fastening the diadem on the nape of the neck in the women's
version; instead, the diadem appears as part of the empress'
The attributes of imperial
associated with the empress on
the
diadem, the paludamentum,
and the canopied throne. Their

coiffure.
Modern

are divided over how to interpret the

headbands of Helena and Fausta. The tendency is to see them
as decoration
and not as official attributes of rulership.12
it is significant that the headband appeared on
Nevertheless,
the coinage of Helena and Fausta only after they assumed the
rank of augusta, at the very moment Constantine became the
sole ruler of the empire in 324.13 An explanation for the ideas
this novel attribute may be found in a letter by
underlying
Paulinus of Nola dated to 403, in which he defined Helena's
position as being a cornier (conregnans) with her son with the
scholars

title "augusta," and in which he also argued that Constantine

deserved to be princeps of Christ as much through his own
faith as through that of his mother.14 But the idea of the em
press

as

a conregnans

or

koinonos,

partner,

of

the

emperor

had already been applied to an empress of the Constantinian

dynasty.15 In his speech of thanks for Eusebia (ca. 356), Julian
defined Eusebia's relationship with her husband, the emperor
as koinonia, a partnership, in which she partici
Constantius,
pated by taking part in the emperor's plans and by encourag
ing his natural goodness and wisdom.16
The first empress considered to wear a diadem identical
to the emperor's on her coins was Aelia Flaccilla
(379-386),
I (379-395; Figs. 4 and 5).17 The
the first wife of Theodosios
headbands of the empress and the emperor feature a big stone
in the middle, are bordered with pearls, and are fastened with
beaded strings coming together at the back. As with Helena,
Flaccilla's
hair covers the diadem partially, and the overall
impression is that the jeweled band was intentionally integrated
the
into the empress' hairstyle. This fashioning undermines
as
as
mere
it
diadem
of
Helena's
decoration,
interpretation
seems

that a woman's hairstyle by its nature offered oppor

tunities for variations. It ismore intriguing that together with
the diadem, Flaccilla donned the traditional military garment,
the paludamentum.
On her coinage she wears it in the impe
rial fashion, fastened over the right shoulder with a bejeweled
these two signs of authority became
fibula.18 After Flaccilla,
standard elements of the iconography of the augusta, initiat
that
ing, in Kenneth Holum's view, a process of assimilation

Arthur
3. Helena,
bronze coin, mint of Antioch,
325-326,
follis,
1951.31.4.37
Sackler Museum,
(photo: courtesy of the Arthur M. Sackler
Art Museums,
Museum, Harvard
University
Bequest of Thomas Whittemore).
FIGURE

M.

replaced the earlier practice of separate attributes for males

and females.19 Prior to this, the empress' appropriation of the
could be provocative,
as, for instance, when
paludamentum
worn by Agrippina,
the fourth wife of the emperor Claudius
inmatching
and the mother of Nero.20 Dressed
attire, Agrip
a
over
naval
and
Claudius
spectacle as two
pina
presided
a
Her
chosen
battle.21
garment on this
generals commanding
on
in a triumphal procession
occasion and her participation
another when she received the same honors awarded her hus
band were frowned on by Tacitus as an innovation and a sign
of her desire for a partnership in the empire.22 The empress'
ambition for equal imperial honors with the male augustus,
be it her husband or her son, eventually cost her her life. Nero
began the list of charges compiled against her with the most
serious?her
hope for partnership in the imperium {consor
tium impert?), followed by her demand for the allegiance of
the praetorian guard, the Senate, and the people.23 By the fifth
century the essential characteristic of the Roman Empire as a
military monarchy with the emperor as a commander in chief
of the army remained intact, but the place of imperial women
in the empire seems to have changed.24
The purple mantle had been linked with rulership since
Hellenistic
times.25 Its significance as a token of power is evi
dent from an episode in the Aeneid where Dido presents a
an act that signifies her desire to
to Aeneas,
purple mantle
marry him and share her kingdom with him.26 In late Antiq
uity the granting of the purple chlamys was one of the defining
moments

in the imperial succession. The soldiers proclaimed

the new emperor by clothing him in purple. Sim
Constantine
ilarly, a bright purple chlamys fastened with a golden brooch
was the last element in the ceremonial dress of the newly
elevated emperor Justin II.27 By the early fifth century the
diadem and the purple garment were such well-established
referred to the
attributes of the augusta that John Chrysostom
as "she who is wearing the
empress Aelia Eudoxia (400-404)
and is clothed in the purple
diadem (to diadema perikeimen?)
The solidus of
garment (ten porfurida peribebl?men?)."28
that the garment in
demonstrates
Eudoxia, dated to 400-401,
(Fig. 6).29 The empress wears
question is the paludamentum
3

IllllSilil
!;tj?:!;?;;;;:::;!S;U?Ss::?S!;a;?;;
?1\^WBIliS;

FIGURE
mint

4. Aelia

bronze coin,
Flaccilla,
follis,
383 (photo: courtesy of

of Constantinople,
Numismatic
Classical

Group).

5. Theodosios
I, solidus, gold coin, mint
Arthur M. Sackler Museum,
383-394,
of Milan,
1951.31.4.67
(photo: courtesy
of the Arthur M.
Art Muse
Sackler Museum,
Harvard
University

FIGURE

ums, Bequest

of Thomas

it fastened over the right shoulder with a round fibula with

three pendants. In the only extant contemporary
image of an
an
in
and
color?Justinian
and
emperor
empress
(527-565)
in the apse mo
his consort, the empress Theodora (527-548),
saics of San Vitale in Ravenna?the
augusti are distinguished
from their corresponding
retinues by the deep purple hues
of their paludamenta
and their opulent diadems of precious
stones. Their attributes are a powerful assertion of the shared
nature of their power.30 These examples
suggest that con
the garment of the
temporary viewers would have perceived
on
shown
and
Vienna
the
Florence
empress
panels as tinted
purple.31

The idea that the empress' imperial authority was shared

with the emperor is reinforced by other iconographie
ele
ments on the ivory panels. The scepter held by the Florence
empress is a token of imperial power often identified with
the empire itself. It was a traditional attribute of the gods,
of the
entering imperial iconography
through associations
were
with
divinities.
Roman
who
empresses
imperial family
in
include
it
the
of
represented
carrying
guise
goddesses
Livia (Fig. 7), Domitia, Faustina I, and Julia Domna.32 The
scepter became an official attribute of the emperor probably
at the end of the third century.33 The eulogy of Justinian by
elucidates the emblematic character of the scepter:
Agapetos
in it God invested the emperor with "the scepter of earthly

Whittemore).

FIGURE

6. Aelia Eudoxia,
solidus, gold coin, mint
Arthur M. Sackler
400-401,
of Constantinople,
1951.31.4.126
Museum,
(photo: courtesy
of the
Arthur M. Sackler Museum,
Harvard
University
Art Museums,

Bequest

of Thomas

Whittemore).

rule" (to sk?ptron tes epigeiou dunasteias).34 Corippus also

used the scepter as a symbol of the imperium when he re
marked that Justin's love for Justinian surpassed that of a
successor who had had his father's scepter (sceptra patris)
from birth.35 The first Christian empress shown carrying the
the mother of Ariadne, on the
scepter was Verina (457-484),
bronze coinage of her husband, Leo I (457-474).36
Once
a
illuminated
its
in
pun on
again Corippus
significance
means
in
Greek
He
which
"wisdom."
claimed
name,
Sophia's
that even while the empress Theodora was ruling (regebat),
in Constantino
the church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom)
was
a
that
would
have
the
ple
sign
Sophia
scepter.37
Like the scepter, the globus cruciger, symbol of Chris
tian rule over the world, had a long history. Itwas adopted as
an imperial token on the coinage of Theodosios
II from the
as
a
itself
of
had
but
the
rule
been
used since
420s,
globe
sign
to
it
Roma
times.38
and
the ge
Initially
Republican
belonged
nius of the Roman people, but it achieved greater political
in scenes of investiture, which show either Jupi
significance
ter or an emperor granting the globe as the foremost symbol
to a new emperor.39 In the third and
of imperial dominion
fourth centuries
the globe appears with greater frequency,
sometimes in combination with the scepter.40 Coins from the
fourth and fifth centuries show the joint rule of two emperors
by depicting

them enthroned

and holding

the globe

together

FIGURE
bronze
15-16,

as of Tiberius,
7. Livia,
coin, reverse, mint of Rome,
Arthur M. Sackler Museum,

1976.40.389

(photo: courtesy of the

Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard
Art Museums,
University
Transfer
from Harvard
College Library).

FIGURE
follis,

II and Sophia,
coin, obverse, mint of
Arthur M. Sack
567-568,
8. Justin

bronze

Cyzicus,
lerMuseum,
courtesy
Museum,

1951.31.4.594
(photo:
of the Arthur M. Sackler
Harvard
Art
University

Museums,

Bequest

of

Thomas

Whittemore).

(Fig. 5).41 Prokopios' description of the globus cruciger, held

by the emperor Justinian on his bronze equestrian statue in
Constantinople,
dispels all doubts about itsmeaning. Accord
to
the
the globe signified Justinian's rule over the
writer,
ing
whole earth and sea, while the cross was the "emblem by
which alone he has obtained both his empire and his victory
in war."42 The coins of Justin II are the only known instance
where an emperor and an empress are seated on a throne side
by side: in this case, the emperor carries the globe while the
empress Sophia has the scepter (Fig. 8).43 Rather than "am
biguous symbols" of imperial power, as has been argued re
cently by Liz James, the scepter and the globus cruciger were
very explicit attributes of Christian rule and victory, attri
butes that Justin II and the emperor associated with the Flor
ence and Vienna ivories willingly
shared with the empress.44
The gesture made by the empress on the ivory panel in
Vienna also came from the emperor's iconography. Her open
hand positioned at the knee signifies liberalitas, or donation,
and is akin to the emperor Constantine's
gesture when he dis
tributes largesse on his triumphal arch in Rome (313-315)
and to the image of the emperor Constantius
II in the Calen
dar of 354.45 Largesse often played a part in the imperial cer
of adventus, where the sovereign would meet the
is
people and display his generosity.46 The ivory in Vienna
one of two preserved instances in which an imperial woman
is shown in this characteristically male posture. The other ex
ample is of Anicia Juliana (daughter of the emperor Anicius
and Placidia), who was depicted as a benefactor
Olybrius
with her right hand opened in the Vienna Dioskorides manu
emonial

med.
Nationalbibliothek,
script (ca. 512; ?sterreichische
gr. 1, fol. 6v). The generosity of the empress was an estab
lished traditional virtue. In the Roman period itwas acknowl
the augusta as a personification
edged through representing
a doer of good deeds or benefactor.47 The mu
of Euerget?s,

FIGURE

9. Licinia Eudoxia,
solidus,
mint of Ravenna,
455,

gold coin,
Dumbarton

Oaks, Byzantine Collec

(photo: Dumbarton

tion, 4S.17.970
Oaks,

Byzantine

ington, D.C.).

Collection,

Wash

FIGURE

10. Fausta,

coin, mintofTicinum,
M.
Sackler
Museum,

bronze
follis,
325, Arthur
1942.176.

(photo: courtesy
of the Ar
thur M. Sackler Museum,
Harvard
Art Museums,
University
Gift of
George Davis Chase, Professor
of
Classics and Dean of Graduate Study
1905x

at the University

of Maine).

nificence of the early Byzantine empress was tied to her piety

and mostly expressed itself in caring for the sick and the poor
and in the building of churches.48 But two independent tex
tual sources demonstrate
that the empress, like the emperor,
could also directly distribute
largesse and therefore be rep
resented with her hand opened: Helena and Eusebia were,
recorded distributing money to the populace on
respectively,
their imperial visits to the Holy Land and Rome.49
The canopied throne, whose curving rails are visible on
either side of the empress in the Vienna panel, is yet another
attribute of imperial power which the sovereign shared with
the augusta.50 The only surviving image of an emperor shown
on a throne under a baldachin is on the obverse of a coin of
this scarcity of representations, we can
Domitian.51 Despite
ascertain the significance of this attribute in a detailed sixth
century description of the imperial seat, which suggests that
a canopy was an important element. "The imperial seat en
nobles the middle of the palace, the seat having been sur
rounded by four outstanding
columns, over which a canopy
of solid gold of immoderate quantity shining brightly, and
imitating the regions of the arching sky, covers the immortal
head and the solium of the seated; the solium being decorated

with

gems and gold and superb purple. It had four curved

arches, bound in themselves."52 As the passage suggests, the
evokes the sky and the notion that
canopy unequivocally
the canopied throne was appropriated from the gods, like the

of the emperor Trebo

scepter and the globe.53 A medallion
nianus Gallus (ca. 252) depicts on its obverse a statue of the
enthroned Juno seated under a baldachin supported by four
columns.54 The image represents a temple of Juno Martialis
in Rome, but the composition
is very similar
Vienna ivory and of Corippus' description.
Known in literature as solium or thronos,

to that of the

the seat itself

on a
in imperial representations
its first appearance
coin of Tiberius presenting his mother, Livia, as an enthroned
the emperor as
goddess
(Fig. 7) and on cameos depicting

made

to Andreas Alf?ldi,
it replaced the tradi
Jupiter.55 According
tional imperial seat, the sella curulis, a backless chair with
folding legs, around the 200s.56 Most examples of enthroned
and

fourth-

fifth-century

emperors

are of

two

emperors

seated

together.57 These include the reverses of the solidi of Valen

I (Fig. 5), Leo I, and the upper
tinian I, Gratian, Theodosios
a
of
consular
diptych from the fifth century.58 It is
register
as
in his description of the triumph of
well
that
significant
used
the word thronos to define the em
Belisarios, Prokopios
peror's seat in the hippodrome, while Corippus referred to the
imperium as synonymous with the royal throne (regni solium)
and

the

scepter.59

of a Christian empress seated on a high

Representations
back seat start to appear on fifth-century coinage. Galla Placidia
for example, is depicted nimbed and enthroned on
(421-450),
and Licinia Eudoxia
the reverse of her solidus from 426-430,
reverse
a
on
the
of
solidus
from 455 (Fig. 9),
(439-ca. 462)
where she is shown holding a globus cruciger in her right
hand and a long scepter surmounted by a cross in her left.60
A throne with a canopy is implied in a reference to the
II. She
the wife of Theodosios
empress Eudokia (423-460),
on Antioch while
seated "inside an
made her encomium
throne of solid gold set with jewels."61 Like other
imperial attributes, the throne of the Vienna empress points
to imperial authority being shared between the empress and
the emperor. Thus, the iconographie
analysis suggests that
attributes on the two ivories can
the origins of empress'
ultimately be traced in the iconography of the Greco-Roman
the use of imperial tokens for the Chris
gods. Furthermore,
tian empress imparted to her authority over the imperium and
imperial victory, essentially making her a co-emperor.
imperial

Notions

of Imperial Power

and the Roman Empress

The notions of the sacred position of the Roman emperor

and his divinely sanctioned victory are critical to understand
ing the portrayal of imperial power in both pre-Christian and
in origin and were
Christian times. Both ideas are Hellenistic
first used in Rome and theWest for political ends during the
of the principate. For
civil wars preceding the establishment

instance, Octavian and Mark Antony put themselves under

as
the protection of and respectively
themselves
presented
on
con
and
From
then
and
Apollo
comparisons
Dionysus.62
nections between the Roman emperor and his family and the
gods were ever present, reasoned variously
through the di
vine ancestry of the imperial house, its members'
affinity to
male or female deities, and the imperial benefaction.63 The
emperor occupied the ambiguous position of being a mortal
yet above ordinary people, with a cult to his own genius and
his divine ancestors, and was often compared with and as
similated to gods in coinage, statuary, portraiture, poetry, and
panegyrics.
Before

Constantine,

emperors

were

mostly

seen

as

asso

ciated, protected, and sometimes appointed by powerful male

gods, Jupiter chief among them, who ensured imperial vic
the emperors
tory and whom they imitated. After Constantine,
became appointees and imitators of Christ.64 Imperial victory,
the overwhelmingly
definitive element of the emperor's author
was
most
the
eloquent sign of Jupiter's or another deity's
ity,
favor.65 The notions of divinely granted imperial victory and
as a

the emperor

perpetual

victor

remained

to the con

central

ception of the imperial power into the Christian period.66

the idea of the godlike emperor and
Iconographically,
his heavenly assisted victory were translated in images such
as those on the silver denarius of Hadrian from 119.67 The
obverse depicts a laureate bust of Hadrian, bare-chested and
sporting a beard, with his name and title inscribed around his
head. The reverse bears a representation of the enthroned Ju
piter, modeled after the statue of Phidias, holding a Victory and
a scepter.

The

inscription,

accompanying

refers,

however,

not

to Jupiter, but continues the titles of the emperor from the ob

verse. The coin therefore associates Hadrian to Jupiter, whose
appearance he imitates through his heroic nudity and through
his facial hair. Given the way the obverse and reverse commu
nicate with one another, the Victory with the wreath in the out
stretched hand of Jupiter is clearly meant for the emperor.68
with Livia, pre-Christian Roman empresses
implicated in the imperial ideology of sacred rule in a
to female
similar fashion, through association or assimilation
deities and the deified imperial virtues.69 The objective of
Beginning

were

such

associations

was

twofold:

to

emphasize

the

empress'

dynastic significance and to underscore her role in imperial

victory. The empress' role in securing an heir or in ensuring
the imperial continuity
through herself prompted assimila
tions to fertility goddesses,
such as Ceres, Venus Genetrix,
the emperor's assimi
and Juno.70 These often complemented
ties were especially
lations with gods. Conjugal
important,
the imperial couple often compared with divine pairs
such as Juno and Jupiter or Isis and Serapis.71 In these the em
press assumed the attributes of the female deity to whom she
was likened: a Stephane (a headband of a goddess), cornuco

with

pia,

scepter,

or

a throne.72

This phenomenon was often featured on coins, for ex

ample, the sestertius of Julia Domna of 211-212 from the joint

reign of her sons Caracalla and Geta.73 The obverse depicts a

bust of Julia with an inscription of her name and title?"Iulia
Pia Felix Augusta." On the reverse is a representation of an
enthroned female figure holding a scepter, which has been
identified as the goddess Cybele,
the great mother goddess
of Anatolia. The inscription above this image reads "ivlia
DOMNA MAT(ER) AVG(VSTORUM)MAT(ER) SEN(ATVS) MAT(ER)
of

of

the augusti, mother

the Senate,
(mother
patr(iae)"
mother of the fatherland). The coin inaugurates Julia Domna,
a cofounder of the Severan dynasty, as a new Cybele and a
matriarch of the Roman people. Julia's maternity is celebrated
as the sacred source of the major political institution in Rome
and the whole empire.
The fecundity of the augusta forges another important
in female ideology in Rome: her implication
connection
in
imperial victory. The intersection of dynasty and victory is
best seen with Venus, the ancestral goddess of the Julii via
the Trojan Aeneas,
in her two closely related aspects as Ge
netrix and Victrix.14 On coins of Augustus from about 31-29
B.c., she appears with a shield at her feet, baring a sinuous
back, holding a long scepter, and carrying a helmet in her
outstretched hand.75 The helmet seems intended for Octavian,
shown on the obverse. There is no identifying inscription for
the goddess, only for Octavian
(placed on the reverse), who
is referred to as the son of the deified. Thus the image by its
iconography and inscription clearly delineates Venus' role as
both the progenitor of the future Augustus
and his victory
less common than assimilations
tomother
bringer. Although
the Roman empress was conceived as a bringer of
goddesses,
to Venus Victrix and Nikephoros,
victory in her assimilations
or Nea Nikephoros.16 The deified imperial virtue of Victory
and the virtues that were connected to the consequences
of
imperial victory, such as Pax (peace), Securitas (security), and
Salus

(well-being,

health),

should

also be included

in this

category.77

In the second century this close connection between the

dynastic role and imperial victory was recognized

empress'
in

the

title

mater

castrorum,

mother

of

the military

camps.

Just over half of the empresses from Faustina the Younger

to Helena received this title.78 Visually,
this title
(147-175)
translated into images depicting the empress enthroned as a
goddess with a scepter and a globe, with the imperial stan
dards. Through a symbolic motherhood
of the troops, the
empress was, therefore, presented as the begetter of imperial
victory.

The traditional Roman practice of assimilating empresses

to goddesses and the deified virtues to highlight their signif
icance for the dynasty and imperial victory continued into the
first decades of Christianization
of the Roman Empire. Coins
of the women of Constantine's
family clearly illustrate this
phenomenon. The obverse of a double solidus of Fausta shows
a bust of the empress, while the reverse depicts a seated fe
male figure wearing a halo and holding a child on her lap.79
The iconography of this image is styled after a nursing Isis,

but the inscription reads "pietas avgvstae"

(the sense of duty
of the augusta).80 The coin was struck to commemorate
the
elevation of Fausta and Fausta's sons to the rank of augusti
in 324. Through association
to a childbearing
goddess the
solidus celebrates Fausta's fecundity, and through the virtue
of piety it emphasizes Fausta's sense of duty, fulfilled by pro
ducing heirs to the throne.81 Similarly, a bronze follis of 325
celebrates the empress as the "spes rei pvblicae"
(hope of
the state) and features her holding two children, who hold on
to her breasts as if about to nurse (Fig. 10).82
A panegyric from 307, the year when Maximian made
Constantine
augustus and betrothed his daughter Fausta to
him in marriage, places a different emphasis in the portrayal
of this empress.83 The poem drew its audience's attention to
a picture in the palace inAquileia, which presumably featured
a plumed helmet adorned with
Fausta offering to Constantine
gold and jewels.84 The orator argued that this image demon
strated Maximian's
early intentions to elevate Constantine
to that "sacred pinnacle of divine power."85 In the painting,
Fausta seems to have been likened to Venus Victrix. Fausta,
like Venus, was therefore investing
the emperor with an
instrument necessary for the accomplishment
of victory and
the imperium. The gift alluded to the origins of Constantine's
power, which the orator presented as being ensured through
into the imperial family. The text explicitly
states
marrying
that

as

receives

Constantine

son-in-law,

an's daughter

and his "fortune most

both

outstanding,"

Maximi

that is, the

imperium.86

The legitimization
of Constantine's
power through an
a
imperial daughter recalls much earlier instances where
woman, by virtue of her position and family links, strength
ened a man's claim to power or his political alliances. The
informative, as it
beginning of the principate is particularly
seems to have established
the precedents
through which a
woman could participate
in and influence the dynamics of
power. For instance, Livia's marriage to Octavian reinforced
his power base by allying him with her family, the Claudii;
Octavia's marriage toMark Antony ensured, at least tempo
rarily, the peace between her husband and her brother; and
Livia's maternity of Tiberius ultimately secured his succes
of Julia, the princeps' daughter,
sion.87 The marriages
to
Agrippa and Tiberius were intended to strengthen the men's
as his designated successors. Family
to Augustus
association
ties,

as

particularly

consort,

daughter,

or mother

of

an

to play a role in imperial politics in the

period.88 Galeria Valeria was daughter of the em
peror Diocletian, wife of the emperor Galerius, augusta (305
she
315), and mater castrorum. After the death of Galerius,
must have been perceived as a serious impediment to the bal
ance of power, for she was exiled by Maximin Daia and later
to death by Licinius, who executed her and her
condemned
mother in 315.89
continued

emperor,
Christian

Helena,

empress

of

course,

was

in the early Christian

the

most

important

mother

period. Like Livia before her,

she became amodel for the imperial women who followed.90

on her coinage,
Helena's
elevated position
is celebrated
to both imperial piety and imperial
where she is assimilated
and a follis from about
victory. The obverse of a medallion
325 feature her head in profile. On the reverse of the medal

raphy of this coin follows the type used on the vota coinage,
which celebrated vows for the emperor at the beginning of
imperial journeys, anniversaries of his reign, and marriages,
the goddess Victory
and usually represented
recording the
nature of the vows.97 Vota for the emperor were considered acts

lion, a standing woman holds a child in her left hand and

gives an apple to another; the bronze follis (Fig. 3) shows a
woman with a laurel or olive branch in her right hand. The
while the
inscription of the former reads "pietas avgvstes,"

of piety in exchange for which the gods granted the emperor

their blessings.98
In the bronze coin shown in Figure 4, the
reverse associates
the empress to Salus and Victory, whose
mimics
those
of Flaccilla.99 The augusta is thus simul
hairstyle
to
assimilated
taneously
Victory and Salus. Both the well-being
and guaran
of the state and imperial victory are personified
teed by the pious empress who pledges the emperor's shield,
a metaphor for military victory, to Christ.100
The image on this coin compares with the triumphal re

of Helena

latter makes

the

rei

"secvritas

pvblice"

(security

is depicted on the medallion,

of the state).91 Helena
holding
the end of her dress in one hand and an apple with the other,
reminiscent of the Venus Victrix last used on the aureus of
construes
Valeria of 308.92 The iconography of the medallion
as
fulfilled
her
like
Helena,
Fausta,
having
imperial duty
through her fecundity, while the coin makes her the security
of the state personified.93
The practice of linking empresses to deities and virtues
in the imperial ideology
allowed the empress to participate
to mother-goddesses,
be
of earthly rule through association
cause her ability to bear children assured the continuation
of these associations,
the
of the dynasty. As a consequence
iconography of the divine shaped the image of the augusta.
Furthermore, because the empress secured new bearers of the
she was
imperium either through her children or herself,
source
as
of imperial victory.
the
imaged
eventually

The Christian

Augusta

turned

a
symbolic
a victorious

From
into

of

mother
sovereign.

victory
Dynastic

the empress
concerns

has
were

obviously equally important in the Christian era. Why, then,

portray the empress as a sovereign rather than a childbearer?
The first augusta whose portrayal did not explicitly em
phasize childbearing was Flaccilla, consort of the founder of
the Theodosian
dynasty. As was noted earlier, Flaccilla was
the first augusta to wear a diadem of precious stones together
fastened over the right shoul
with the imperial paludamentum
der with a bejeweled fibula (Fig. 4). This portrayal occurs on
her coinage issued in 383 to celebrate an important dynastic
elevation to the rank of augusta, which
occasion?Flaccilla's
occurred simultaneously with her son Arkadios' promotion to
the rank of augustus.95 Yet the image created for Flaccilla on
this coin is quite different
even

though

the occasions

from the image minted

were

similar.

The

reverse

for Fausta,
of Fausta's

and intriguing: it depicts a winged Victory

coinage
the
of Christ on a shield.96 Its legend reads
monogram
writing
"salvs rei pvblicae"
(well-being of the state). The iconog
is novel

inscription reads "Victory of the augusti." In this con

text, the attire and attributes of Flaccilla
imply a degree of
I similar to that
partnership between her and Theodosios
I and his Western
existing between Theodosios
colleague.102
This shift in the conception of the empress' role is fundamen
tal and is reinforced by the simultaneous
refashioning of the
portrayal on the reverse of the coins. Traditionally, Flaccilla's
through association
childbearing would have been conveyed
with a mother-goddess.
But an image reminiscent of Venus,
for instance, would have been inconsistent with Theodosios'
on
to the Christian faith. The Christian message
commitment
The

and the Imperium

The empresses on the Florence and Vienna ivories con

from that seen in the Roman period.
vey a different message
On the ivory panels, the Roman emphasis on the sacred fe
cundity of the augusta and the blessed conditions of imperial
victory give way to images that advertised the authority of the
obliterate her identity as a
empress and almost completely
woman.94

lief of Septimius Severus (205-209)

in Leptis Magna, where
the Victory crowning the emperor was given the features of
Julia Domna, or with Fausta endowing Constantine with a
helmet from the Panegyric
of 307.101 But there are differ
ences. The image conveys Christian
ideas, and, more spe
not
celebrate her fecundity
coinage does
cifically, Flaccilla's
as do the portrayals of Julia Domna or Fausta. The obverse
shows her depicted very much like her consort on a solidus
in Milan by his Western
minted
colleague
(Fig. 5). Theo
The re
dosios I wears the diadem and the paludamentum.
verse of the same coin features the Eastern and Western
in paludamenta
with embroidered
tablia,
augusti dressed
sporting diadems and haloes, and holding a globe together.

the reverse draws on the traditional iconography of Victory

and the vota. This mixture of tradition and innovation reflects
of the late fourth century as well
the ideological complexities
as Theodosios'
own policy of toleration for the pagan aris
tocracy, which lasted up to February 391, when he banned all
sacrifice to the pagan gods and the use of their temples.103
of the empire may account for this
Thus, the Christianization
of empresses.
shift in the representations
of the reverse, showing
the
The novel iconography
empress adorned with the attributes of the imperium, can
therefore only be understood in light of Ambrose's
funerary
I in 395. Ambrose
elaborated on the
oration for Theodosios
god-inspired beginnings of the Christian monarchy by locat
ing them, not, as we might expect, in the actions of Constan
tine the Great, but in those of his mother, the empress Helena,
and her discovery of the True Cross. Ambrose
reported that

the empress found the nails with which the Lord was cruci
fied.104 From one nail she ordered a bridle to be made, from
the other a diadem. She sent both of these items to Con
stantine, who through their use made the monarchy Christian.
Helena placed the cross on the head of sovereigns and single
handedly allowed for the Christian faith to be practiced by
emperors. Helena also compared with Mary: "Maria was vis
ited, so that Eva might be liberated, Helena was visited, so
that the emperors might be redeemed."105 Thus Ambrose
in forging the
presented Helena as a partner of Constantine
the cross on
the
nail
of
Christian monarchy
through putting
his diadem and ensuring his victory in Christ by the bridle for
the augusta
his horse.106 In the process the bishop associates
with Mary.
oration helps explain why an
This passage in Ambrose's
as
an emperor and not as a dy
would
be
empress
portrayed
nastic matriarch. The bishop made Helena an active partner
in the forging of the Christian state and ele
of Constantine
vated her to a position of authority comparable to that of the
in
emperor. This new status necessarily
implied participation
the imperium. This is a markedly different vision from that of
Instead of jew
of Livia and her adornments.
the genealogy
to
the
Helena
future
empresses
imperium. Augus
passed
elry,
tae from Flaccilla onward derived this authority through their
symbolic descent from Helena, whose actions were funda
and
to the establishment
of the Christian monarchy
Con
which
letter
of
The
of
Paulinus
Nola,
envisaged
victory.
faith
stantine's imperium coming as much through Helena's
as through the emperor's, echoes this formulation.107
Late Antiquity offers a number of instances in which an
empress, performing in fact what Ambrose's Helena had done
in faith, bestowed imperial authority on a new emperor. These
include Pulcheria's role in the accession of Marcian, Ariadne's
coro
or Verina's
in the accession of Anastasios,
(457-484)
nation of the pretender Leontios.108 Building on the innova

mental

the elevated position

introduced for Flaccilla,
was
her
in
reflected
empress
gradual appropriation
tions

emperor's

of
of

the
the

insignia.

certain empresses
(414-453),
Starting with Pulcheria
with
to
their male coun
be
in
included
victory along
began
reverses
from 450-453
The
of
solidi
Pulcheria's
terparts.109
show a Victory carrying a long cross and the inscription "vic
toria avggg"
(Victoria augustorum; victory of the augusti),
where the three G's refer to the number of augusti recognized
by the Eastern court (Fig. 11). These included Pulcheria's
and their Western
husband, Marcian,
colleague, Valentinian
III.110 The third G must be for Pulcheria, who was thus rec
ognized as a member of the imperial college and a victorious
sovereign. The use of the G's on coins to indicate the number
of the augusti has been one of the most useful criteria for
dating coinage struck in the late fourth century. It has been
argued, however, that the accuracy of this method decreases
with the fifth century and that the inclusion of women in the
imperial college seemed unlikely.111 This interpretation is dif

"*H^Bpr

FIGURE

11. Aelia

dus,

coin, mint

nople,

gold

450-453,

Byzantine

Pulcheria,

12. Ae//?7 Vferi/ui, solidus,

gold coin, mint of Constantinople,
ca. 457-474,
Arthur M.
Sackler
1951.31.4.182
Museum,
(photo:
FIGURE

soli

of Constanti
Dumbarton
Oaks,

Collection,

48.17.1183

Oaks,
(photo: Dumbarton
tine Collection,
Washington,

Byzan

courtesy

D.C.).

Museum,

of the Arthur M. Sackler

Art
Harvard
University

Museums,

Bequest

of

Thomas

Whittemore).

ficult to sustain when we examine the reverses of the solidi

with Victoria augustorum of Verina (Fig. 12), Zenonis (475
and Ariadne.112 In all these cases
476), Euphemia (467-472),
once the empress is
the three G's are perfectly explicable
added into the equation. But even if by that time the number
the plural form
of the final letters had lost its significance,
and the placement of the inscription clearly made the empress
part of the imperial victory in the same way as the emperor
was

on

his

coinage.

The participation of the augusta in imperial victory was

in view of Roman practices. The closest
indeed revolutionary
parallels in the Roman period are Tacitus' account of Agrip
pina's sitting on a dais like the emperor in front of the im
bronze medallion with the
perial standards or Julia Mamaea's
imperial

standards,

of

about

230,

as mater

castrorum

et au

gustorum.113 The scarcity of Roman examples demonstrates

the early Christian devel
how innovative and transformative
opments in female imperial portrayal were.
the parity of imagery, and the
The parity of costume,
parity of designation between the Christian emperor and the
in forg
Christian empress were results of their collaboration
their
faith
ing imperial victory, which they achieved through
and divine

favor. The partnership

of the augusti

is visualized

explicitly on the coins of Leo I and Verina, the now-lost mo

saics in the Chalke Gate depicting Justinian and Theodora
victories
celebrating military
together, and the coinage of
Justin and Sophia seated together on the same throne.114 In

as a

conceived

of

partnership

a male

and

a female

sovereign.

it is very

the last instance

Therefore,
likely that each of the so-called ivories
of Ariadne originally belonged to two diptychs of five parts.
One of the leaves of these diptychs showed an empress, the
other an emperor, completing
in images as well as ideas the

rium felix

joint character of their rule, rule rooted in Christian victory

rather than fecundity.116
The so-called ivories of Ariadne were a product of the
specific late Antique
synthesis of Roman ideas of rulership

the visual parity and the shared throne cor

to parts of Corippus' description of Jus
respond forcefully
tin's succession. Corippus narrates that on entering the palace
the imperial guards wished a happy reign to the rulers (impe
dominis), and that later the citizenry addressed the
pair together, exclaiming,
"Regnate pares in saecula!" (Rule
together in eternity!).115 This word choice and the previous
examples indicate that by the sixth century the imperium was

with Christian
In this synthesis
the augusta
ideology.
some of her sacred aura but gained earthly power.117

lost

NOTES
*

is part of a larger project on female imperial iconography.

on ideas I developed
in my master's
thesis, "The Ivories of
Ariadne
and the Construction
of the Image of the Empress
and the
in Late Antiquity"
Theotokos
(Thesis, Southern Methodist
University,
This

article

3.

It is based

then I have presented

revised versions
of the
Dallas,
1998). Since
thesis at the Byzantine
Studies Conference
(Harvard University,
2000)
New Perspectives"
and the symposium
(Andrew
"Byzantine Women:
I would
M. Sackler Museum,
like to extend
MA,
2003).
Cambridge,
my warm

thanks and appreciation

advised,
read, and critiqued

aged,
include Annemarie

to the individuals
various

drafts

who

have

Imperial
2001);

editor Anne
A Haakon

Smith.

D. Hedeman

of

this study. They

Michael McCormick,

and her assistant, Charlotte

Bauer
Southern Methodist
University

grant from
summer
travel

travel

(1998) and a Mellon

enabled me to examine

grant from Harvard

in person many of the monuments
I am
in this text, including
the two ivories.
mentioned
Ermanno Arslan, who on very short notice showed me the
coins

in the Castello

Sforzesco

inMilan,
in Vienna, who

collection

4.

All

5.

R. Delbrueck,

ornatus,

praeparat et pulchros, Mariae

uenerabilis
olim Liuia
quicquid

nuptae

Carmina,
gessere
superbae." Claudian,
and trans. J.-L. Charlet
(Paris, 2000),
notes that a similar story appears in Tacitus,
60 note

10

are regnal.

in parentheses

1929),

und verwandte Denkm?ler

(Ber
Consulardiptychen
der
51 and 52; W. F. Volbach,
Elfenbeinarbeiten
3rd ed. (Mainz, 1976), Nos. 51
und des fr?hen Mittelalters,
Die

Nos.

on the two ivories; and, most re

delle Esposizioni,
Aurea

Palazzo

citt? pagana
alla citt? cristiana
(Rome, 2000), ed. S. En
See also James, Empresses,
soli and E. La Rocca, No. 268, 580-581.
see
168-178. On Ariadne,
136-145; McClanan,
Empresses,
Byzantine

J. R. Martindale,
6.

comments

sed luce minores,

nurus
diuorumque

IX (Epithalamium),
10-13, ed.
Charlet
Jean-Loius
II, 59-60.

2.

(New York,
Byzantine
Empresses
to the legacy of
is most attentive

Roma: Dalla

7.

8.

"lam mu?era
eligit

on the whole

Byzantium

II, s.v. "Aelia Ariadne."

PLRE,

Die Consulardiptychen,
206;
for instance,
the Vienna
empresses,
Aurea Roma, Nos. 270 and 271, 582-583.
Delbrueck,

compare

of

panel

E. Bartman, Portraits
of Livia:
gustan Rome (Cambridge,
Eng.,

Imaging
1999),

with
or

other portraits
in
heads

sculpted

the Imperial
46 and 72.

Woman

in Au

into this article.

porated
1.

1982);

(London,
on the empresses Ariadne,
and
Theodora,
fourth- and fifth-century
A.
developments,

Sp?tantike
and 52, with a detailed bibliography
entry in Rome,
cently, the catalogue

empresses'
and to the curators

on my work, and for alert

Spieser
challenging
romaines et chr?tiennes,"
"Imp?ratrices
ing me
Spieser's
Travaux et M?moires,
XIV
(2002), 593
(M?langes Gilbert Dagron)
incor
604.1 regret that their counsel arrived too late to be completely

dates

lin,

see

for offering
to Professor

Antiquity
(Berkeley,
in Early
and Power

era.

the Roman

University
and objects
to
indebted

Museum
arranged for me to
to Carmen Arnold-Biucchi
for her
the ivory panel. I am grateful
in obtaining
from the Andrew M.
assistance
Sackler
photographs
I also would
Museum.
and Jean-Michel
like to thank C?cile Morrisson
at the Kunsthistorisches

in Late

Dominion

L. James, Empresses
with a primary focus

Sophia, but not neglecting

McClanan,
Representations
of Early
2002). Of these studies McClanan's

Rabun

Gesta's

Augusta:

period,

encour

Weyl Carr, Ioli Kalavrezou,

John Duffy, Brian DeLay, and Gesta's
Babcock,
Taylor, William
two anonymous
I thank
readers. For their invaluable editorial guidance

on Helena,
J. W. Drijvers,
important recent work includes,
The Mother
the Great and the Legend
of Constantine
on the
(Leiden,
1992), esp. 9-73;
of Her Finding
of the True Cross
and
Women
Theodosian
Theodosian
Empresses:
period, K. Holum,
The most

Helena

Ambrose,

Annales,

XIII,

a.
De

obitu Theodosii,

47;

see note

104 below.

13, 4, ibid.,

9.

Ibid., 72.
For modesty:
Wright

Eusebia

perial
Late Antique

III, 123a, ed. LCL, trans. W. C.

1913; rpt. 1962), 327; and A. St. Clair, "Im
in the Case of Four
of Form and Function

in Julian, Oratio,

(Cambridge, MA,
Virtue: Questions
Statuettes,"

DOP,

(1996),

IX (Epithalamium),
Carmina,
ing: Claudian,
dosian Empresses,
28 and 53-54; D. Missiou,
Rolle

der byzantinischen

Kaiserin,"

147-163.

For

childbear

Theo
Holum,
340-341;
"?ber die institutionelle

JOEB, XXXII/2

(1982),

489-498;

Kaiserin
St. Maslev,
"Die staatrechtliche
Stellung der byzantinischen
For a different view
XXII/2
nen," Byzantinoslavica,
(1966), 308-343.
on childbearing,
see James, Empresses,
60-65. There is no good evi
on the tablion of the
dence that the emperor on the pea-size medallion

20.

For Claudius'

21.

Tacitus,

in the same way as the

image of the emperor on the tablion functioned
of the emperor Justin "in true purple portrait medallion"
of white
Justin gave to the ruler of Laz,
silk, which

of a crown

10.

11.

22.

"Ivories
Angelova,
James, Empresses,

of Ariadne,"
139-140.

for a similar

26-44;

23.

24.

25.

M.

R. Alf?ldi, Die Constantinische

zu ihrer Bedeutung f?r Kaiserpolitik
suchungen
1963), 144-145; Holum, Theodosian
Empresses,
bis

Magnus
avoids

taking
Drijvers, Helena

13.

Drijvers,
324, when

Helena

with

42-43,

and Constantine

James

58-66.
105. See

(Cambridge,

MA,

1982),

9 and note

attention

to this formulation

in Themistios'

16.

877-891,

in Theodosian

Empresses,

41,

including

is all the more important be

III, 114c. This formulation
was not given the title "augusta." For the date of the
S. Tougher,
"In Praise of an Empress:
Julian's
'Speech of

Julian, Oratio,
cause Eusebia
oration,
Thanks'

to Eusebia,"
in The Propaganda
of Power: The Role of Pane
in Late Antiquity,
ed. M. Whitby
Supplement,
(Mnemosyne
(Leiden,
CLXXXIII)
1998), 109 and note 19.

18.

Holum,

Empresses,

48 and 49, 225;

lent photographs
by M. Hirmer

RIC,

Coins
19.

Theodosian

Holum,

IX, Nos.

(New York,

1978), Nos.

Theosodian

Empresses,

32-34.
the text I refer to the excel
throughout
and A. Hirmer
in J. P. C. Kent, Roman
718-720.
34.

and

Historique,

in Die mo
Kaiser,"
mit Register
Kaiserreiche:
(Darmstadt,
1970), 263, first pub

der r?mischen

Arch?ologischen

Instituts,

trans. C. E.
Latini, VI, 8, 3, ed. Mynors,
228 note 31; Justin II: Corippus,
In laudem

Panegyrici

(Berkeley,

1994),

S. Antes

for the text in Latin and a French

II, 118-120;
de l'empereur Justin 11, ed. and trans.
?loge
See also the extensive
37-38.
in
commentary

(Paris, 1981),
Iustini Augusti minoris, Libri IV, ed. and trans A. Cameron
of the impe
(London,
1976). For another example of the significance
rial purple, see Ammianus
Marcellinus'
of Julian's eleva
description

In laudem

tion to the rank of Caesar,

28.

29.

John Chrysostom,
sodian Empresses,

Grierson

and Mays,

Byzantine

Women

lavrezou,
30.

No.

For a different
Reconsideration,"

31.

8, 15.

XV,

Histories,

II, ed. Migne,

PG, LXIII, in Holum, Theo
Homil?a,
for
57; also ibid., 34 note 102 on similar evidence

LRC, no. 273; Cambridge, MA, Sackler Museum,

and Their World
(Cambridge, MA, 2003), ed. I. Ka

29.
view, C. Barber,
BMGS, XIV

32.

"The Imperial Panels

22 and 36-37.

in San Vitale:

(1990),

In my examination
of the Vienna
ivory I saw traces of gilding on the
baldachin
and the garment, but I could not detect any remains of pur
ple paint, though there were traces of black paint in the eyes. Looking
through the display glass,
or gilding on the Florence

I was

Alf?ldi,

"Insignien

not able

to discern

any traces of paint

ivory.

und Tracht,"

Pis.

6.1,

6.4,

12.15,

and 14.7, respec

tively.
33.
34.

Ibid., 230-233.
Agapetos,

Ekthesis,
In laudem

ed. Migne,

PG, LXXXVI/1,

1164.

35.

Corippus,

36.

Grierson

37.

Corippus,

38.

Grierson

39.

und Tracht," 235-237,

PI. 8.6; coin of Hadrian
"Insignien
a globe
from Jupiter, RIC, II, No.
109, 353; aureus of
receiving
Hadrian with Trajan handing him the globe, RIC, II, No. 2, 338 and
302.

gyric

17.

On

Women

im r?mischen

oration

I (ca. 384), Oratio,

ed. W. Dindorf
XIX,
228b,
of Nyssa's
1832), and Gregory
(Leipzig,
funerary oration for Flaccilla
from the year 386, Oratio Funebris
in Flacillam
ed.
Imperatricem,
for Theodosios

PG, XLVI,
Migne,
note 106, and 44.

124-125.

IV, 262-264.

Iustini Augusti Minoris,

see Corippe:
translation,

39.

of Nola,

first drew

Revue

imp?riale,"

Ka

Flaccilla.

precise date might be 8 November

Caesar. See T. Barnes, The New Empire

expressed

Holum

und Tracht

"Insignien

Aeneid,

Nixon

Sulpicius

15.

la victoire

de

Repr?sentation

Constantine:

bibliography.

see
in a similar language,
writing,
reflecting Nola's
and a French
Severus, Chronicles,
II, 33. For commentary
see G. de Senneville-Grave,
S?v?re: Chroniques
translation,
Sulpice
(Sources Chr?tiennes,
(Paris, 1999), 435.
CDXLI)
ship,

A. Alf?ldi,
narchische

Virgil,

also

XXXI,
4; for the text in Latin and a Ger
Epistolae,
man translation,
von Nola: Epistulae;
refer to Paulinus
Briefe, ed. and
trans. M. Skeb Obs (Freiburg,
On the relation
1998), II, 736-737.
Paulinus

"La th?ologie
1.

27.

(Mainz,
100. Imperial
von Constantinus

41. The

Augusta,
Constantius
became

of Diocletian
14.

Augusta,

J. Gag?,

26.

33 note

Sp?tantike Kaiserportr?ts
des Westreichs
(Berlin,
1933),
a stand on this question
in Empresses,

IV, 366-367;

XIV,
11, ed. Page, trans. Jackson, V,
Tacitus, Annales,
see R. Baumann,
ambition
for sovereignty,
Agrippina's
Politics
in Ancient Rome (London,
1992), 181-189.

Alf?ldi-Rosenbaum
in Mitteilungen
des Deutschen
L (1935), 3-158.
R?mische
Abteilung,

Unter

Goldpr?gung:
und Hofkunst

R. Delbrueck,
zum Ende

attributes:

trans. Jackson,

XII, 37, ed. Page,

413.

lished

Fig. 3: Byzantine Women, No. 16; for the type: RIC, VII, No. 465, 206.
see A. Robertson,
On the coinage of Helena with the diadem,
Roman
in the Hunter
Coin Cabinet,
Imperial Coins
University
of Glasgow
A bronze coin minted
255-257.
(Oxford,
1982), V, Pis. 61.H.3-H.17,

Decoration:

Annales,

"Agrippina,"

von Elisabeth

in Thessalonica
the rank of
between
318 and 319, before she assumed
a diadem,
see ibid., No.
1, 255. Exam
augusta shows Helena without
are much rarer, see RIC, VII, No. 482, 209.
ples of Fausta diademed
12.

rpt. 1963), IV, 398-399;

semper atrox: A Study

CLXXI(1933),

see

conclusion,

Tacitus,
plan,

L, XVII,

signified
of the portrait on
respect to the Byzantine
emperor. The significance
the tablion is complicated
by the observation made above that the out
lines of the figure on the chlamys of the Vienna empress may represent
an augusta.

trans. J. Jackson, LCL

see
for commentary,

ed. T. E. Page,

56-57,

1937;

ization

135, trans. E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys,

1986), 233. This present along with the gift
the subordinate position of the king of the Lazi in

Malalas,
Chronographia,
and R. Scott (Melbourne,

MA,

XXVI-XXVII.

Claudius,

in Tacitus' Character
'Agrippina
of Women,"
in Studies
in Latin Literature
and Roman History,
ed. C. Deroux
and note 12.
(Brussels,
1979), I, 413-414,

a minor
as a regent.
and the empress
empress in Florence
represents
see K. Wessel,
For instance,
"Wer ist der Consul
auf der florentiner
Kaiserinnen-Tafel?"
378. It is more
BZ, LVII (1964),
likely that the
representation
on a chlamys

XII,

Annales,

(Cambridge,
M. Kaplan,

Diuus

Suetonius,

marriages,

Iustini,

III, 130-131.

and Mays,

A few years earlier a contem

LRC, Nos. 582-586.
remarked that Valentinian
porary historian
deprived his sister, the em
of the "scepter of the empire"; see Holum,
press Justa Grata Honoria,
Theodosian
1.
Empresses,
In laudem
and Mays,

Iustini,
LRC,

IV, 270-273.
13, Nos.

359-360

and 364-369.

Alf?ldi,

11

40.

41.

I (PI. 10.3-4), Valens

(Pis. 15.1, 16.1, and
only: Constantius
the scepter: medallions
of Probus
16.3). With
(PI. 3.16), Constantine
in F. Gnecchi,
/ Medaglioni
Romani
(PI. 7.17),
(Milan, 1912; rpt. Bo
I.
1972),
logna,

we

Globe

For

the type of

reproduced, RIC, IX, No. 5d, 76; No. 8b, 78,

and Mays, LRC, No. 70
20b, 80; for other examples, Grierson
(Arkadios) and Nos. 901-925
(Anthemios).

as well as the portrayals

of the
representations
ivories as portraits,
let alone different
in the
latter case, is arguable. Since stylistically
and iconographically
the panels
with an empress
with
to early
late-fifthcompare most
comfortably

43.

Prokopios,
bridge, MA,

I, 2, 11-12,
35.

aedificiis,

trans. H. Dewing

ed. LCL,

45.

Catalogue
Bellinger,
Oaks and the Whittemore
ed. A.

Bellinger

the Byzantine
Coins
Anastasius

of

Collection,
and P. Grierson

(Cam

and Coinage
(New Haven,
see New York, Metropolitan

in the Dumbarton
to Maurice

(Washington,

D.C.,

York,
46.

140. Anne
likely
between

the partnership
their follis
coinage,

on
argues that the empress
The major points of her argument are
on
and Sophia, powerfully
conveyed
the same
they are represented
sharing
McClanan

Sophia.
Justin

where

47.

Tiberios

How

ever,

on the

as the most

were
shared

candidate

likely

and

throne

imperial
authority
in the development

instead

of other

48.

for this period. In my view, the

between
Justin II and Sophia

and idea of
of the iconography
in this paper, it was preceded by a grad
attributes and ideas associated with the em

simply stages
rule. As I demonstrate

ual assimilation

the emperor on the tablion fits well

to
into a late-fifthdate. The emperor on the tablion is shown wearing
in an X over the upper body),
(a long scarf wrapped

of

early-sixth-century
a consular
loros

50.

in his lifted right hand and a scepter

(a handkerchief)
holding
his own image) in his left hand. Three
topped by a bust (presumably
of his diadem. Two single-string
points project up from the middle
in a larger stone, attach to the crown on left and
pendants,
terminating

show the emperors

seated on the
435, all of which
in this characteristic
LRC, Nos.
(Grierson and Mays,
posture
and 856 respectively).
On these three, only Valentinian
530-531,
III from

1999), 138; Julian, Oratio,

that Eusebia was welcomed

the diadem
the crown
decorated
dants

of

Justinian

of

the headbands

51.
52.

Alf?ldi,

filopoulou,
V
Deltion,
resentations
diptychs,

148. Stylistically
the panels are very
(1969),
on a number of early-sixth-century
of Ariadne

Volbach,

Elfenbeinarbeiten,

Nos.

15-21.

But

"Nobilitat

extent

medios
columnis,
simulans

ed. and
by

und Tracht,"

129c,

248-249,

PI.

14.1.

eximiis
sedes Augusta
circu
penates,
quattuor
quas super ex solido praefulgens
cymbius auro im
conuexi
climata caeli, immortale
caput soliumque
ornatum gemmis, auroque ostroque superbum. Quat
curuauerat
trans.

the French

believes

Mathews

throne. But
would

arcus." Corippus,
60-61. My

S. Antes,
translation

In laudem Iustini, III,

is
translation
English
and the English
translation by A.

seat must
not the
be the sella curulis,
to imagine how the four arches of the text
to the legs of the sella curulis in terms of structure.
that

the

it is difficult

correspond

53.

Alf?ldi,

54.

/ Medaglioni,
No.
Gnecchi,
1, PI. 25.1,
Kent, Roman Coins, No. 474.

55.

Alf?ldi,

consular

to what

and S. Hall

ed. LCL, 344; Julian

to the custom,
according
imply
for the greeting of an em
protocol
III,

on the passage,
see Cam
(London,
1976). For commentary
in
the last sentence
eron, 188; for a different
interpretation,
especially
see T. Mathews,
The Clash of Gods:
regard to the seat of the emperor,
A Reinterpretation
Art (Princeton,
106.
1993),
of Early Christian

two strings of pendants on either side, whereas

the pen
the tablion emperor and that of Valentinian,
and
Anastasios,
are single-stranded.
Thus, the emperor on the tablion could

im Bargello?"
similar to rep

III, 44-45,

50-67.

Cameron

with

auf der Elfenbeintafel

"Insignien

191-200,
informed

seen on
the characteristic
three projections
(Nos. 15 and 16). In comparison,
emperor
in a cross. Maurice's
terminates
diadem is also

"Wer ist die Kaiserin

1996),

of Hagia Sophia. On the throne, see J. Breckenridge,

the Lyre-Back
Throne," DOP, XXXIV-XXXV
(1980
in the Dy
and A. Cutler, Transfigurations:
Studies
247-260;
Park, 1975), 5-52.
of Byzantine
Iconography
(University

obumbrat,
tuor in sese nexos

of Anas

be identified as any of these three. Finally,

it is possible
that
potentially
a different
in favor of
the two panels represent
empress. Arguments
include James, Empresses,
different
139; and A. Christo
empresses

GA,

trans. A. Cameron

on

1981),
namics

the tablion

of Maurice

(Athens,

the ivory of Ariadne

is not included in the writings
in Vienna
Although
about the lyre-back
in this category. The
throne, it should be counted
of the one on the seat of Christ in the
design of the back is reminiscent

modico,
sedentis

tasios

12

(Oxford,
comments

"Christ

pendants on his diadem, but they are seen only on the reverse.
and Justinian from the upper
Further, medallion
portraits of Anastasios
Volbach,
(Anastasios:
Elfenbeinarbei
registers of consular diptychs
ten, Nos.
15, 16, and 21; and Justinian: ibid., No. 33) show the emperor's
some of these

ed. J. H. McCash

Eusebius,

391,
wears

On

Women,

Vita Constantini,

muallata

short pendants.
and Justinian exhibit

assimilated

Kaiserhauses

Theodosian
Holum,
26-27;
James,
156;
Empresses,
Empresses,
A. McClanan,
"The Empress Theodora
and the Tradition
of Women's
in the Early Byzantine
in The Cultural Patronage
Patronage
Empire,"

obverse

diadem with

721-752.

narthex mosaic

right. There

tinian

(1972),

ing that there was in place a special

of Eudokia's
visit in the Holy
press. See also Holum's
interpretation
Land as an adventus,
in Theodosian
186 and note 46.
Empresses,

a mappa

are frontal representations

of an emperor-consul
with the
Tibe
loros, holding a mappa and a scepter before the reign of Maurice
rios that are similar to that on the tablion, for instance,
the consular
II from 430, of Leo I from 458(?), and of Valen
solidi of Theodosios

XXI

the women

of Medieval
49.

the shared throne was perhaps one of the

peror. In this development
most
of partnership
between
the augusti, but
explicit manifestations
the idea of partnership
itself had a longer history. By contrast, the ico
nography

67, 78-79.

see U. Hahn, Die Frauen des

to Euerget?s,
im griechischen
Osten an
und ihre Ehrungen
von
hand epigraphischer
und numismatischer
Livia
bis Sa
Zeugnisse
bina (Saarbr?cker
Studien zur Arch?ologie
und alten Geschichte,
VIII)
(Saarbr?cken,
1994), 403.

For

r?mischen

and the "form of the imperial portrait" of the emperor from the
on the Florence
Andr? Grabar, she argues for
ivory. Following
similarities
between
the emperor from the tablion and the coinage of

Sophia
shared

No.

S. MacCormack,
Art and Ceremony
in Late Antiquity
(The Transfor
mation
of the Classical
37; idem,
I) (Berkeley,
1981),
Heritage,
in Late Antiquity:
of Adven
The Ceremony
"Change and Continuity
tus," Historia,

throne,
tablion

and Maurice
Tiberios
176-178).
(Byzantine Empresses,
she disagrees with Grabar's
identification
of the empress
ivories as Constantina,
wife of Maurice
and suggests
Tiberios,

and Early
ed. K. Weitzmann,

1979),

I,

195-262.

James, Empresses,
the panels is most

1963), 170-172,
Fig. 4.21. For Constantius,
Museum
of Art, Age of Spirituality:
Late
to Seventh
Christian
Art, Third
(New
Century

Antique

(491
1966),

see R. Brilliant, Gesture and Rank in Ro

For examples
and discussion,
to Denote
Art: The Use of Gestures
Status
in Roman Sculpture

man

1940; rpt. 1961),

A.

602),
Nos.
44.

De

those

and the Florence

this is the date I adopt for them, but I keep

sixth-century
iconography,
the name by which
known for convenience.
they are commonly

solidus

and No.

42.

can consider

Vienna

56.

"Insignien

"Insignien

Ibid., 243.

und Tracht,"

und Tracht,"

243-244.

243,

50; for a better

Pis. 6.1 and 8.18.

photograph,

57.

See also a colossal

statue of Constantine
the emperor was

where

315-330),

the Basilica Nova

(ca.
Roman
seated, D. Kleiner,
and a medallion
of
399-401,

I from

depicted

(New Haven,
1992), 438, Figs.
Sculpture
with his sons celebrating
the founding
Constantine
Alf?ldi,
"Insignien und Tracht," PL 16.1-2.
58.

I and Gratian:

Valentinian

159; Arkadios:

9.a,

ibid., 533;
59.

Prokopios,

60.

61.

Galla

Malalas,

deae,

56 and

72.

Mikocki,

Sub speciae

deae,

17.

73.

H. Mattingly,

trans. E.

1986),
Jeffreys et al. (Melbourne,
found only in the Tusculan Fragments.

(Ann Arbor,

1999),

74.
75.

76.

work on the emperor's

the gods is
with
association
pioneering
L. R. Taylor, The Divinity
CT,
(Middletown,
of the Roman Emperor
In the West,
the divinity
1931; rpt. Philadelphia,
1975), esp. 162-180.
of the Roman emperor was decided by the Senate after his death. In his

The

the deified

the divinity

latest book with

"Gods
Cult,"

Imperial
94-95.
64.

"The Cult

and idem,

of Jupiter,"

77.

II, XVII/2

Welt,

M. McCormick,

(1981),

78.

736-826.

in Late Antiq
Victory: Triumphal Rulership
and the Early Medieval
West
Byzantium,
(Cambridge,
Eng.,
and Byzantine Political
Phi
1986), 35-79; F. Dvornik, Early Christian

67.

on the obverse:
Inscription
on the reverse: "pont max
Roman

68.

Coins,

No.

D.C.,

(Washington,

"imp caesar
tr pot cosiii,"

traianvs
RIC,

1966),

de la victoire,"

hadrianvs

II, No.

Frauen,

44,

The

XLVII

and the Roman

(1946),

Impe

3, 222-252;

PI.

for a photograph

14.16-17;

of

121.

Divus Julius,
100; the following
empresses were Nike
see Hahn, Die
Iulia (Livilla),
the Younger,
and Drusilla
171, 398, and 403.

assimilation

of

the social

of Victory,"

order

and

the
Sabina, Faustina
Poppaea
Sub speciae deae, 125; Hahn,
seen as the prerequisite
for the
its desirable

states;

see Fears,

812-813.

For the first coin with this title, minted posthumously

for Faustina
the
see BMCRE,
bestowed with
IV, PI. 67.15. The other women
Younger,
this title are Julia Domna,
Julia Maesa,
Julia Soaemias,
Otacilia
and Magnia
Urbica.
See
Severa, Herennia
Etruscilla,
Severina,
Ulpia
E. Heimbach,
"The Titles of Imperial Women
in the First, Second, and
A.D."
(Thesis,
To Heimbach's

55-57.

Sub speciae
(Mikocki,
"Galeria Valeria").

deae,

The Ohio
list
125)

State University,
Columbus,
be added Julia Mamaea

should

and Galeria

I, s.v.

80.

draws on the iconography

of Isis; see A. Alf?ldi,
"A
iconography
Festival
of Isis in Roma under the Christian Emperors
of the Fourth
a lecture given at the International
of the Numis
Century,"
Congress

Coins,

641.

This

matics,

London,

(Budapest,
(1), Valens
81.

203; Kent,

No.

(PLRE,

RIC, VII, No.

443,

Roman

Valeria

79.

23.
"Livia

xl.

1975), PI. 67.13-14,

to Victory
began with Ful via during her
probably
on an
to Mark Antony when
she was presented with wings
marriage
aureus from about 42-40
A Study
b.c., S. Wood,
Imperial Women:
in Public Images
and Fig. 1. It includes Anto
1999), 41-44
(Leiden,

1973),

avg";

142, 357; Kent,

281.

see G. Grether,
For the first associations,
rial Cult," American
Journal of Philology,

Livia,

Third Centuries

II, 611?

For the history of a deity granting victory to the emperor, see S. Wein
PL 11.2-3. Depictions
of
stock, Divus Julius (Oxford, 1971), 100-103,
a laurel wreath on the emperor in recognition
of his
Victory bestowing
victory become
frequent in the reign of Commodus,
Gag?, "La th?ol
ogie

69.

and Background

phoros:

"Theology

Eternal

Origins

Ivories

sous les derniers Antonins,"

J. Aymard,
"V?nus et les imp?ratrices
et d'histoire,
XLI
178-196;
(1934),
M?langes
d'arch?ologie
Gag?,
to Venus Victrix:
"La th?ologie
de la victoire,"
21; for assimilations

preservation

uity,

losophy:
638.

Julius,

the Younger,
nia, Agrippina
Domitia,
see Mikocki,
and Julia Domna,
Younger,
Die Frauen,
401. Imperial victory was

3-141.

1-44, esp. 1-2 and 19. A more re

Gag?, "La th?ologie de la victoire,"
cent review with bibliography
is J. R. Fears, "The Theology
of Victory
of Rome: Approaches
and Problems,"
der
und Niedergang
Aufstieg

"The

83-86.

BMCRE,
I, Nos.
98-99,
599-601,
the type, Kent, Roman Coins, No.

see Weinstock,

a diis electus: The Divine

Jupiter's role, see J. R. Fears, Princeps
as a Political
at Rome
Election
(Papers and
of the Emperor
Concept
of the American
in Rome,
(Rome,
XXVI)
Academy
Monographs

r?mischen
66.

of the Roman
Language
CIV (1984), 79-95,
esp.

V, 2nd ed. (London,

Angelova,

the fluidity in the iconography

is the coin of Julia Domna
elements of both Genetrix
and
(No. 381), which combines
Victrix. Weinstock,
is an epithet in
Divus Julius, 83-87. Nikephoros
a Victory,
for example, Athena or Venus,
troduced for deities holding

On

1977);
65.

The Greek
and Emperors:
Journal of Hellenic
Studies,

Weinstock,

116-118;

to

125. See

deae,

example of
cited above

of

in the following works by S. R. F. Price: "Between Man

plex question
and God," Journal of Roman Studies, LXX (1980), 28-43; Rituals and
Power:
The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor
1984),
(Cambridge,
133-248;

BMCRE,

see Sub speciae

do not distinguish
between Venus Genetrix
and Victrix.
Iconographi
in the representation
of the two types, al
cally, there is no consistency
though Victrix seems to be most often represented
holding armor. An

ancestry,
starting with Augustus,
as his
Julius, who claimed Venus

an important new interpretation

on how
the emperor was negotiated
in the West
is I. Gradel,
In
and Roman Religion
(Oxford, 2002), esp. 25-26.
Emperor Worship
to the traditional gods in
the East, the emphasis was on assimilation
on this very com
the emperor's
lifetime. See the excellent
discussion
ancestor.

there are 185 assimilations

to T. Mikocki's
calculation,
According
105 to Juno, and 81 to Venus:
Ceres,
also Hahn, Die Frauen,
399-403.

Divus

and S. Matheson

:RIC, IV/1, No. 368,

Julia Domna: RIC, IV/1, No. 581, 171; Plautilla
270; Magnia Urbica: RIC, V/2, No. 342, 184; Galer?a Valeria, RIC, VI,
see
not necessarily
No. 67, 673; for photographs
of the same examples,
Kent, Roman Coins, Julia Domna, No. 381; Magnia Urbica, No. 560;
and Galeria Valeria, No. 601. It should be noted that Aymard
and Gag?

44-53.

The

his divine

ed. D. Kleiner

Rome,

Sub speciae
Mikocki,
of Ariadne,"
54.

"The Cult of Jupiter and Roman

Imperial Ideology," Auf
der r?mischen Welt, II, XVII/1
und Niedergang
(1981), 3-141,
in the Age of Augustus,
36; and P. Zanker, The Power of Images

he emphasized
the son of
divi filius,

in Ancient
182-193.

71.

279; Corippus,

Grierson

lifetime

1996),

trans. H. Dewing
In laudem Iustini, I,

IV, 9, 4, ed. LCL,

Vand?lico,

1916; rpt. 1968),

Shapiro

Women

(New Haven,
70.

Chronographia,
this is a passage

esp.
trans. A.

Matheson,
in /, Claudia:

RIC, IX, No.

16.a, 16; Gratian,
ibid., No.
and Mays,
LRC, Nos. 61 and 70; Leo I:
No. 35.
Volbach,
Elfenbeinarbeiten,

J. R. Fears,
stieg

63.

of Constantinople,

and Mays,
LRC, Nos. 291-294;
RIC, X, No.
2009, 365, although J. Kent interprets the figure as an emperor; Licinia
Eudoxia: Grierson
and Mays, LRC, No. 870.
Placidia:

194-195;
62.

bello

MA,

(Cambridge,
269-271.

assimil?es

Grierson

ivory diptych:
De

et princesses
romaines
Sub speciae deae: Les imp?ratrices
? d?esses.
?tude
1995), 125; and S.
(Rome,
iconologique
as Goddesses
in Roman Art,"
"The Divine Claudia: Women

T. Mikocki,

The

1937

Ser. II, fase. 7)

Pannonicae,
(Dissertationes
1-22. The examples
include coins of Julian
II (and Gratian),
and anonymous.

1937), PI. XII.

(4), Valentinian

between
the fecundity
relationship
role in the continuation
of the dynasty

of the empress
is also related

and her pivotal

in Claudian, De

13

consulatu

Stilichionis,

ed. LCL

II, 239,

MA,

(Cambridge,

II,

1922),

103. J.Matthews,

18-21.
82. Byzantine

No.

Women,

17.

104.

was

83. Constantine

and the
proclaimed
Imperator in 306. The marriage
as Augustus
occurred
in September
The
307; see Barnes,
43.
Empire,

investiture
New

trans. Nixon,
200. The orator
Latini, VII, 6, ed. Mynors,
sees it as a "happy
the gift as a betrothal present. Barnes
interpreted
invention of the orator"; The New Empire, 41 note 58.

istud fastigium
diuinae
trans. Nixon,
ed. Mynors,
198.

86. Panegyrici

Latini,

VII,

The Roman

role in Tiberius'
succession).
see Bartman, Portraits
of Livia,
For Julia's dynastic
108-124.
Women,

Livia's

(Livia's

On

reign,

108-114;

88. On

the importance
of mothers,
"The Gender of Money:

role

role,

106.

in Tiberius'

and Wood,
ibid., 64-65.

her with her sons, Tiberius

and
represent
probably
see Bartman,
Portraits
82-86
and Fig. 67. Serena
of Livia,
with a horse bridle should also be
her son-in-law Honorios
presenting
a
noted here; see Claudian, De zona equi regii missa Honorio
Augusto

and H.

on Coins

(324
on mar
802)," Gender and History, XII/3
(November
2000), 578-580;
on dynastic
connections
in gen
60-65;
riage, see James, Empresses,
see M. McCormick,
"The Byzantine
eral for this period,
Emperor and
Byzantine

Empresses

His Court," in Late Antiquity:

A.D. 425-600,
Empire and Successors,
B. Ward-Perkins,
and M. Whitby
ed. A. Cameron,
(Cambridge,
Eng.,
other cases
in which
146-148;
2000),
daughters
played
imperial
roles include Galla Placidia
(daughter of Theodo
important dynastic
I), Justa Grata Honoria
(daughter of Constantius
of Arkadios),
Ariadne
(daughter of Leo I).

III), Pulcheria

Jones, PLRE,

1922), II, 275-277.

(Cambridge, MA,
of Constantine
him on the obverse
depicting
with a plumed helmet with the Chi-Rho,
the reins of his horse,
holding
while
the reverse shows him addressing
the cavalry, RIC, VII, No. 36,
PI. 9, 364; Kent,
107. On Christian
Empresses,
108. Pulcheria

nuchs:

in Byzantium,

Gender

ed. L. James

of Imperial Female Ma
in Women, Men and Eu

tion for the form. Follis:

92. RIC, VI, No.

see note

196, 478; Kent,

93. For

the security
dity, see Brubaker

100. That

"The

James

con

48 and 49,

225

(gold); Holum,

of Her

Lawrence,
of Marcian

Reign

(414

1974). For argu

in the Light of

Polemic,"

For Ariadne:

47-68.

(1993-1994),

the augusta's

much
does

not deal with

the reverse,

(Holum's
college

of the British

453;

Acad

argument),
and victory

reverse with the emperor

sharing of an identical
in the imperial
but the inclusion
of the empress
on the solidi from 450
through the inscription

idem, Theodosian

Empresses,

109-111.

of Pulcheria
similar suggestion,
but for the inclusion
in Concordia
was made by J.W. E. Pearce, RIC, IX, 206, n. *. Grierson
Augustorum,
for
and Mays
also indicate that Pulcheria might have been responsible
it (LRC, 152) but elsewhere
"out of the
(ibid., 86) deem that possibility

110. A

IX, No.

815.
Roman

55, 226; Kent,

relief: Mikocki,

Sub speciae

see note 41; for a different

34.

Aspects

in imperial victory
implication
through the "Long-Cross
in "Pulcheria's
has been lucidly argued by K. Holum
Crusade,
A.D. 421-22,
of Imperial Victory,"
and the Ideology
Greek, Roman
not so
and Byzantine
153-172.
I emphasize
Studies, XVIII
(1977),

Theo

Coins,

No.

720.

859.

the coin,

and Religious

109. Pulcheria's

102.

from
intended for the emperor can be deduced
on coins showing em
ideas about victory and representations
and Mays, LRC,
shields decorated with the Chi-Rho: Grierson

Empresses,

of Theodosios,
PLRE, II, s.v.
in support of the actual coronation by
An Inves
of Byzantium:
"Pulcheria, Empress
as the successor

see
alten Geschichte,
XXXV)
(Bonn, 1986), 31; for other references,
For Verina: Malalas,
PLRE,
II, s.v. "Aelia Ariadne."
Chronographia,
XV, 387.

the shield was

101. Leptis Magna

Theodosian

BZ, LXXXVI
of Gaza, Pan
Prokopios
in Anastasium,
V, 5, 20; for the text in Greek and a translation
egyricus
and commentary
in French, A. Chauvot, Procope
de Gaza, Priscien
de
zur
Cesaree. Paneqyriques
1er (Abhandlungen
de l'empereur Anastase

fecun

a similar

reaches

vota," Proceedings

Imperial

of Victory,"

the type: RIC,

perors'
Nos. 743,

14

601.

155.

"Theology

imperial

102. For

No.

see Holum,

and victory,

Solidi"

32,
Empresses,
it as "distinct but trivial."

emy (1950),
98. Fears,
99. For

26-44.

Theodosian

deeming

Coins,

M. Borowski,
the Political

LXXXVII

11 above.

Roman

95. RIC, IX, No. 55, 226, and Nos.

34 and note
dosian Empresses,

97. H. Mattingly,

330 with

648.

of Kansas,
(Dissertation,
University
"The Accession
against: R. Burgess,
Chalcedonian
and Monophysite
Apologetic

reading of
an explana

the state as preconditioned

by the empress'
576.
and Tobler, "Gender of Money,"

of

"Ivories of Ariadne,"
94. Angelova,
in Empresses,
clusion
139-140.

96. Holum,

640,

No.

453)"
ments

52-75.

1997),

323 for another

Coins,

For arguments

of

tigation

ed. LCL

of the emperor

piety
50-51.

chose Marcian

Pulcheria:

(London,

RIC, VII, No. 250, 323 and note

the final word; and Kent, Roman Coins, No.

91. Medallion:

Roman

"Aelia Pulcheria."

I, s.v. "Galeria Valeria."

90. L. Brubaker,
"Memories
of Helena:
Patterns
tronage in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries,"

which

Serena, XLVIII
(LXX),
See also the miliarense

(daughter
89. A. H. M.

104.

of horse trappings and other armor-related

Signs for the significance
accessories
and their relation to military
the troops, and
achievements,
the empress possibly
go back to Livia and a large number of bronze
plaques,
Drusus:

Imperial

see L. Brubaker

esp. Helena,

Tobler,

sios

364-425

Revolution

1952; rpt. Oxford,

(Oxford,
1960),
to the Claudii by marriage),
229 (Octavian's
association
217 (alliance
between Octavian
and Mark Antony
345 and 430
through Octavia),
Syme,

A.D.

Court,

et inuenit. De uno
est dominus,
clauos, quibus crucifixus
"Quaesiuit
clauo frenum fieri preacepit,
de altero diadema
intexuit; unum ad deco
est Maria,
ut Euam liber
uertit. Visitata
rem, alterum ad deuotionem

105. See note

87. R.

and Imperial

232-237.

De Obitu Theodosii,
47, ed. O. Faller with an Italian transla
Ambrose,
e Letter e. Le Orazioni
Discorsi
tion by G. Banterle,
Sant'Ambrogio.
Funebri
(Sancti Ambrosii
(Mi
opera, XVIII)
episcopi mediolanensis
lan, 1985), I, 244-245.

6,

200 note 24.

trans. Nixon,

7, 4, ed. Mynors,

VII,

Latini,

Panegyrici

potestatis,"

Aristocracies

ut redimerentur
aret, uisitata est Helena,
imperatores. Misit
itaque filio
suo Constantino
diadema gemmis
ferro in
quas pretiosior
insignitum,
nexa crucis redemptionis
diuinae gemma conecteret, misit et frenum.
usus est Constantinus
et fidem transmisit ad posteros
Vtroque
reges."

84. Panegyrici

85. "sacrum

Western

1975; rpt. 1990),

(Oxford,

deae, No.

view,

111.

were

never

treated as augusti

in such computations."

et
in Tr?sors mon?taires
tr?sor de Ch?cy
(Loiret),"
romaine:
ed.
la
Gaule
Bavai,
Montbouy,
Ch?cy,
plaques-boucles
et al. (Paris, 1958), 280-290;
and Mays,
J. Gricourt
Grierson
LRC,
J. Lafaurie,

"Le

de

85-86.

446.

see Holum,

augustae

question:

Theodosian

112. Solidus
Mays,

of Verina
LRC, No.

and
wife
of Leo I): Grierson
(augusta 457-494,
593 and 170-171; Byzantine
Women, No. 33. Given

to the title of augusta,

struck on the elevation
usually
of Leo's
that is, in this case in the beginning
reign in 457, and that
coins after his death in 474 was unlikely,
the other
of Verina's
minting
that coins were

two augusti

should be Leo I and either Majorian

in this computation
or Anthemios
solidus of Euphemia
(457-461)
(467-472);
(467-472,
and wife of Anthemios):
and Mays, LRC,
Grierson
daughter of Marcian
No. 933. The three G's probably
referred to Euphemia,
Anthemios,

McClanan's
Figs.

113. Tacitus, Annales,

chi, / Medaglioni,
114. Coins

37, ed. Page,

II, PL 100.9.

XII,

trans. Jackson,

IV, 366; and Gnec

I and Verina: see note 36; Chalke mosaics:

Prokopios, De
I, 10, 5; coins of Justin and Sophia: see note 43. To these can
the consular diptych of Clementius
from 513 with Anastasios

of Leo

aedificiis,
be added

flanking a cross and the diptych of Justin with Justinian

on either side of Christ, Volbach,
Elfenbeinarbeiten,
15 and 33. We can also include the now-lost
of San
apse mosaics

and Ariadne

and Theodora
Nos.

Giovanni

in Ravenna with Arkadios

and The
and Eudoxia
Evangelista
II and Eudokia flanking
the bishop Peter Chrysologus,
C. Riz
of Galla Placidia,"
in The Mausoleum
zardi, "The Mausoleum
of Galla
ed. C. Rizzardi
Placidia,
(Modena,
1996), Fig. 13, 120; the curtains in
odosios

Hagia Sophia with Justinian I and Theodora: Paulus Silentarius, Descr.

S. Sophiae,
in Art of the Byzantine
and
312-1453:
Sources
Empire,
trans. C. Mango
Documents,
(Toronto,
1986), 81; the cross of Justin
and Sophia: Cleveland,
sures: Early Christian,
Collections

(Cleveland,

The Cleveland

of Art, Vatican Trea

Renaissance
and Baroque Art from the Papal
et al., No.
la; and
1998), ed. R. Bergman
Museum

Empresses,

163-168,

that the
Iustini, I, 203 and II, 172. It is probable
to her commis
of Sophia
in the poem can be attributed
the poem, as A. Cameron
has argued, but I doubt that the
with
could have influenced
the wording
of her relationship

empress
the emperor,
the offense

or that the flattery could have trespassed

the status quo to
of the court. See A. Cameron, "The Empress Sophia," Byzan
8.1 of
(1975), 9. Here should be included Justinian's Novel

tion, XLV
to swear an oath of loyalty to both Justinian
535, requiring governors
see C. Pazdernik,
and Theodora,
"Our Most Pious Consort Given Us
(October
1994), 266-267.
by God," Classical
Antiquity, XIII/2

were her husband,

sides Euphemia
solidus of Ariadne
(4747-513/515):

in this period was Julius Nepos

(474-480),
ognized emperor in theWest
so Ariadne's
about 476, and it served
coinage was most
likely minted
to strengthen Zeno's
claim to imperial power after the usurpation
by
Basilikos.

in Byzantine

prominence
sioning of

in the East; solidus of Zenonis

I, their colleague
(475-476,
Jean Tolsto?, Monnaies
wife of Basilikos):
1967),
Byzantines
(Chicago,
No. 94, 167; Kent, Roman Coins, No. 781. The augusti included be

the computation.
In both cases, the imperial line passed
518), complicate
to Zeno and Anastasios
with her. But the only rec
through association

discussion

In laudem

115. Corippus,

and Leo

and their son Markos;

Basilikos,
the dating of Ariadne's
coinage
to the second reign of her first husband, Zeno (476-491),
and possibly
to the beginning
of the reign of her second husband, Anastasios
(491

excellent

7.4 and 7.5.

Die Consulardiptychen,
116. Delbrueck,
No. 48. C. Delvoye
has suggested
this without
any support for it, in "Les ateliers d'arts somp
offering
e bizan
Corsi di cultura sull 'arte ravennata
tuaires ? Constantinople,"
tina, XII
117.

(1965),

171-189.

for the use of statuettes

of early Chris
argument
tian empresses
in lararia, "Imperial Virtues,"
147-163.
The empress'
visual
from a goddess
to a cornier of the
transformation
incarnate
See A.

St. Clair's

through the ivories of an empress, revives disputes con

the
of Christ and Mary
of Christian
origins
cerning
images, especially
enthroned.
So far the discussion
The traditional
has been polarized.
empire,

shown

that these images

view, espoused
by A. Grabar and others, contends
derive from imperial iconography.
In contrast, T. Mathews
argues that
the figure of Christ enthroned was patterned after a much older source,
But as the analysis of the ivories with an em
images of Zeus/Jupiter.
in the early
press has revealed, male and female imperial iconography
Christian
from the Greco
period derived many of its core elements
Roman gods. Thus, Christ and Mary enthroned emerged out of a more
complex

process

than either

pretation suggests. Enthroned

the mosaics
of Sant'Apollinare
on a lyre-back throne, which
F. W. Deichmann,

the traditional
Christ
Nuovo
resembles

or the revisionist

inter

appear, for instance, on

in Ravenna, where Christ is seated
that of the Vienna

Bauten

Fr?hchristliche

view

and Mary

und Mosaiken

see
empress,
von Ravenna

112, 113. For the traditional view: A. Gra

(Baden-Baden,
1958), Nos.
A Study of Its Origins
bar, Christian
(Princeton,
1968), 77.
Iconography:
See also discussion
in Angelova,
"The Ivories of Ariadne,"
and
39-44;
Mathews,

The Clash

of Gods,

109.

15