The exhibit "Relief of the Founding Ceremony" photographed by Ai Jing
The exhibit "The Three Lords of Mount Capitolini" photographed by Ai Jing
Data picture of the exhibit "Altar to Worship Mars, Venus and Silvanos" (detail).
"War Elephant Offering" profile picture
"The Origin of Italy - Ancient Roman Civilization Exhibition" has been exhibited in the National Museum of China for three months and has attracted a large number of Chinese audiences. This exhibition focuses on the history of ancient Rome in the nearly 500 years from the 4th century BC to the 1st century AD, and presents a spectacular picture of the multicultural integration of the Italian peninsula through the process of romanization of the Italian peninsula in this historical period.
The ancient Roman civilization was another peak of the ancient civilization of Europe after the ancient Greek civilization, and together with the ancient Greek civilization, laid the foundation of Western civilization. Many precious cultural relics of the "Origin of Italy - Ancient Roman Civilization Exhibition" allow us to see the historical imprint of the period of integration and development of ancient Greek civilization and ancient Roman civilization.
1. From Troy to the banks of the Tiber River
Like the early oral histories of most peoples of the world, the first historical origins of ancient Roman civilization appear in early legends. Rome, the "Eternal City" on the Tiber River, has a history of more than 2,700 years, and the founder of Rome is said to be the descendant of the Mycenaean heroes of ancient Greece, which shows that ancient Greece and ancient Rome have been inseparable from each other from the foundation.
Homer's epic poem tells the story of the Greek beauty Helen who was abducted by the Trojan prince Paris from Sparta in the Peloponnese to Troy in Asia Minor, which led to a ten-year conquest of Troy by the Greek coalition army. Roman legend continues to tell the story of the heroes who defended the city after Troy was destroyed by the "Trojan Horse Scheme", and the heroes of the city fled and wandered. The outlaw hero Aeneas traveled west and finally stopped between the seven hills of the Tiber River in the middle of the Italian peninsula, the ancestor of the Romulo brothers who founded the Roman city in 753 BC. The story of the "she-wolf baby" makes the birth of the city of Rome full of mythology, and although many scholars are skeptical of this myth, the bronze statue of the she-wolf carved in the 6th century BC, together with the bronze statue of the Romulo brothers added during the Renaissance, tells the history of the city's birth to generations of people. At the "Origins of Italy – Ancient Roman Civilization Exhibition" we can see this ancient story again in the relief "Altar of Worship Mars, Venus and Silvanos" from 124 AD.
Regardless of the truth or falsity of this legend, the close connection between the Greek peninsula and the Italian peninsula is the truth of history. In the large-scale overseas colonization of Greece in the 8th-6th century BC, a large number of Greeks crossed the sea to southern Italy and established a number of Greek colonial city-states, and the influence of Greek civilization spread to the Italian peninsula with the colonization of Greek city-states.
The Greek world around the Aegean Sea experienced the prosperity of the Minoan civilization of Crete, the Mycenaean civilization of the Peloponnese and the so-called "Dark Ages" of about 400 years, and was rejuvenated from the middle of the 8th century BC. The Greek world entered the Iron Age with increased productivity, clan states were gradually replaced by city-states, and aristocratic centralized rule gradually transitioned to city-state democracy. With the development of the social economy, the Greek city-states began to carry out large-scale overseas colonization activities, organized the dispatch of immigrants overseas, and opened up new territories. The new city-states established by the Greeks spread across the northern shores of the Mediterranean, the coast of Asia Minor and the Black Sea, forming a Greek cultural circle spanning most of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and promoting the eventual formation of classical Greek civilization.
The immigrant fleet set sail in the grand farewell ceremony of the mother country, and the Greek immigrants who traveled far away took the soil of the mother country with them, with the yearning for a better life, and went to strange places to establish a new city-state. They practiced the same political system as their mother state in the newly established sub-state, even used the same name as the mother country, participated in large-scale events such as competitions held in the mother country, and supported each other with the mother state in case of danger. But even though these overseas new states were inextricably linked to their Greek mother states, there was no subordination between them, and the substates were entirely independent city-states, like the children of adult self-reliance.
The first to go out and establish a new city state in this colonial wave was a city-state called Kumay, in the Evia region of Greece. Immigrants from Kume established Greece's first overseas colonial city-state in southern Italy and gave it the same name as its mother state. A wave of Greek immigrants continued to come south of Italy, along the Gulf of Naples and eastern Sicily, establishing a series of settlements, including Naples and Syracuse, founded by Greek Corinthian immigrants. Greek colonial city-states were spread almost all over the southern coast of Italy and Sicily, which led to the term "Greater Greece".
"Greater Greece" became an integral part of the Greek world on the Aegean Sea. Here, the Greeks practiced the political system of the Greek city-states, built Greek temples and various Hellenistic buildings, worshipped Greek gods, promoted Greek culture, and used the Greek language. Every year, the Greeks of "Greater Greece" pay their respects to the Temple of Apollo in Delphi and the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, and every Olympic Games athletes from "Greater Greece" participate in and win many championships. The tradition of the "Olympic Armistice" was also respected in the inter-state wars in the "Greater Greece" region. Grain from the rich "Greater Greece" region was continuously transported to Greece, becoming an important source of food for Greece itself. "Great Greece" was also the main area of activity of philosophers and mathematicians Pythagoras, Zeno, Archimedes and others.
"Greater Greece" blew the wind of Greek civilization into the wild Italian peninsula, which had a major impact on the development of Roman civilization. The Greek civilization brought by "Greater Greece" and the rising Roman civilization continued to collide and merge, until after the 3rd century BC, the Romans unified the Apennine Peninsula and stepped into the "Greater Greece" region, and finally put "Greater Greece" under its own control in the 1st century BC.
Although "Greater Greece" ceased to exist, the fusion of Greek and Roman civilizations left a deep historical imprint. The "Origins of Italy – Ancient Roman Civilizations Exhibition" at the "Exhibition of Ancient Roman Civilizations", two important artifacts from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, "Heraklia Copper Plate", confirm the occurrence of this fusion. Both copper plates were found near the ancient city of Heraclia in "Greater Greece", and inscriptions of different scripts were engraved on the plates about two centuries apart. Bronze plate inscriptions from the 4th-3rd centuries BC are written in Greek and show the expropriation of the temple land of Dionysus and Athena for production, which shows the popularity of Greek civilization in the local area. Another 1st century BC copper plate inscription in Latin with Roman laws and regulations shows that Roman civilization was already prevalent at this time.
2. Conquest of "Greater Greece"
The Roman conquest of "Greater Greece" was accompanied by iron and blood. An exhibit on the "Origins of Italy - Ancient Roman Civilization Exhibition", "War Elephant Offering", gives us a vivid sense of the war between the Greeks and Romans that took place in southern Italy between 280 BC and 275 BC. On one side of the war was the "Greater Greece" city-state of Taranto and reinforcements from mainland Greece, and on the other side was the powerful Roman army. It was also the first war in Italian history in which an elephant participated, which was later called the "Elephant War".
By this time the Romans had conquered Etruscania in central Italy and had won the Latin Confederation Wars. "Greater Greece" became its next goal in establishing a unified state. By this time, "Greater Greece" no longer had the unity of the immigration period, and there were constant wars between the city-states for spheres of influence. The city of Taranto was a city-state founded by Spartan immigrants, whose ancestral martial genes gave the Taranto people the desire to act as the overlords of "Greater Greece", and they constantly conquered other small states by force, including Turi. The Turi asked for the support of the Roman army for survival, and the Romans were given a good opportunity to realize their strategic intention of dismantling and encroaching on "Greater Greece". In 282 BC, Rome sent an army to attack Taranto, and in order to defend against the powerful Roman army, Taranto asked the Greek king of Epirus, Pyrrhus, across the sea.
Greece at this time was in the Hellenistic period. The great empires built by Alexander the Great straddling Europe, Asia and Africa had fallen apart. His men would divide the empire through the "War of the Successors", forming three more stable Hellenistic kingdoms: Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Antigo. Pyrrhus's decision to invade Italy was supported by the Greek parties, with Seleucus providing funds, Antigonus providing warships, and Ptolemy providing 20 war elephants.
After Pyrrhus led his army across the sea to Italy, it was once unimpeded, almost hitting the city of Rome. Although the Greek army defeated the Roman army many times, it paid a very heavy price, and was eventually squeezed by the Roman army to the Heraclia plain, where it fought several important decisive battles with the Roman army. This victory, achieved at the expense of one's own huge losses, was later called a "Pyrrhodic victory".
Elephants played an important role in the war between Pyrrhus and the Romans. At the crucial moment of the battle, Pyrrhus ordered 20 elephants to attack both flanks of the enemy. The first time the Roman army saw the elephant as a giant beast, the warhorses in the army were so frightened that they were in a mess and almost collapsed. However, a small Greek elephant was frightened, causing confusion in the elephant array, which led to the victory of the Romans in the counterattack. Later, the Romans designed and built anti-elephant chariots specifically for war elephants, which were equipped with red-hot charcoal stoves and spears. The war ended in the defeat of Pyrrhus, who fled back to Greece. Thereafter, one by one, the city-states of "Greater Greece" were conquered by Rome. The victorious Roman army, leading the captured war elephants in triumph, was warmly welcomed in the city of Rome. The Romans made a number of deity offerings to celebrate the victory of the war, and the "War Elephant Offering" on display is one of them.
In the center of the beautifully decorated plate is an adult war elephant on the march, and the riding tower on its back is surrounded by a heavy bronze shield with soldiers holding weapons. Behind the elephant was a timid little elephant clinging to the elephant, and it was precisely because of its cowardice that the Roman army won the final victory.
Elephants were used in the East long before they appeared on the battlefields of Italy. The War Elephant Corps is a special class of soldiers with strong lethality, defense, and mobility as domesticated elephants. The elephant moves slowly but not clumsy, wading through the mountains and rivers like a flat foot, thick skin can resist the attack of ordinary weapons, the tall body often makes the enemy cavalry's war horses frightened, the war elephant invades the enemy camp, tramples and charges, the power is huge, it can be called the "heavy weapon" of the war at that time. The Greeks learned from the Persians to use war elephants and brought elephant tactics to Asia Minor and Egypt. During the Hellenistic period, the Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt obtained elephants from Ethiopia and tamed them and transported them back to Egypt, establishing their own elephant army, and the elephants that Ptolemy gave to Pyrrhus came from this peculiar force.
The Romans saw the power of the elephant army but dismissed it, paying more attention to the overall combat ability of the Roman legions. In Rome, captured elephants were reduced from war weapons to instruments of entertainment, and were thrown into honor guards and arenas. At a competitive show by General Pompeii in 55 BC, 20 elephants were arranged to fight with javelin-wielding slaves.
3. The "taking" and re-creation of the gods
With the conquest of "Greater Greece", the Greek city-states of the Italian peninsula gradually disappeared, but the influence of Greek civilization in Italy did not disappear, but was deeply integrated into Roman civilization. Greek mythology and stories still spread across the Roman land, but elements of Roman mythology continued to be incorporated into it. The Greek gods from Mount Olympus originally wore only Roman "vests", but in the course of the development of Roman civilization, they gradually transformed into authentic Roman gods.
Most of the gods in early Roman religion were just some inhuman elves. People worship them out of gratitude to the gods for their favor to individuals and families. With the introduction of Greek civilization, Roman gods gradually combined with Greek gods, and a number of Roman gods with Greek style appeared. The twelve main gods in the Roman god system can almost all find a correspondence among the gods of Mount Olympus in Greece. This correspondence reflects the relationship between ancient Roman religion and ancient Greek religion. Nevertheless, after the transformation of Greek gods into Roman gods, they had a strong Roman style. This transformation can be clearly seen in the two exhibits "The Altar of the Twelve Gods" and "The Three Lords of Monte Capitolini" in the "Origins of Italy - Exhibition of Ancient Roman Civilizations".
The Altar of the Twelve Gods is a relic from the second half of the 1st century BC, excavated in the ancient city of Ostia, about 15 kilometers from Rome. Considered the first colony of ancient Rome, Ostia was founded by the Romans in the 7th century BC and developed rapidly in the 4th century BC. During the war between the Romans and Pyrrhus in 278 BC, it was the base of the Carthage fleet that supported the Romans. In this ancient city founded by the Romans, altars made of Greek marble were unearthed. On the circular altar, there are many of the twelve Greek main gods Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Hestia, Apollo, Artemis and Athena, and there are inscriptions of the "Twelve Gods" inscribed in Greek script on them. The altar shows the influence of Greek civilization in Rome from one side.
The 2nd century AD artifact "The Three Lords of Mount Capitoline" statue is about 200 years later than the "Altar of the Twelve Gods". The carvings represent the three patron saints of Rome, Jupiter, Minerva and Juno. Jupiter was the king of the gods in Roman mythology, comparable to Zeus in Greek mythology. Capitoline is one of the 7 hills of the city of Rome and the residence of Jupiter, where the gods who inhabit it have the highest status. The other two main gods who originally accompanied Jupiter to live here were not Minerva and Juno, but Qurinus, the gods of war believed by the Sabines of ancient Italy, and Mars, the god of war. With the popularity of Greek gods in ancient Rome, the goddesses Juno and Minerva, corresponding to Hera and Athena, replaced Quirinus and Mars and, along with Jupiter, became the main god of the Capitoline hills. Their functions and symbolic relics are almost identical to those of Zeus, Hera and Venus on Mount Olympus in Greece, with the typical pattern of Greek classical deities, but the Greek gods at this time already had a native style in Rome.
When people compare the ancient Roman gods with the ancient Greek gods, most of them find the inheritance relationship between the ancient Roman civilization and the ancient Greek civilization from their similarities. If we pay more attention to the differences between the ancient Roman gods and the ancient Greek gods in such a correspondence comparison, and trace the historical traces of how the ancient Romans combined the ancient Greek civilization with the native civilization, we can get more from it.
4. Imitation and innovation of art
The reason why the carving art of the ancient Greeks can be passed down to this day is the historical contribution of the ancient Romans.
First of all, ancient Roman art was heavily influenced by ancient Greek art. During the conquest of "Greater Greece", the Romans were envious of Greek art, and after occupying these Greek cities, the Romans plundered a large amount of Greek art. In the later conquest of the Greek city-states of mainland Greece and Asia Minor, a steady stream of art was brought to Rome. For a time, Greek art filled the city of Rome, and many Greek artists also came to Rome to develop, which made Roman art have a strong Greek color.
Secondly, in addition to plunder, the Romans made a large number of copies of their favorite Greek art. Although the practice of reproduction has been criticized in modern society, without the imitation of Greek art by the ancient Romans, we may not see the true face of ancient Greek art such as "The Discus Thrower".
The Greek classical era was the peak of ancient Greek civilization, and the most outstanding artists from the Greek world created countless exquisite works of art, which were constantly destroyed and lost in the dust of history in the subsequent wars. Thanks to the love of the ancient Romans for the ancient Greek civilization, many outstanding artists in the ancient Roman era have studied and imitated the ancient Greek artworks, and these imitations have become the teaching materials for us to understand the Greek classical art, and they themselves have become an important heritage of human civilization. Many of the treasures in the "Origins of Italy - Ancient Roman Civilization Exhibition", although they are reproductions of ancient Greek art, are also of extremely valuable cultural and artistic value.
The images of Greek gods carved on the Altar of the Twelve Gods are almost identical to those of mainland Greece, especially the image of Zeus, which sits in the center, in the artistic style of Phidias, the greatest sculptor of the Athenian classical era. The bronze statue "Rest of Hercules", created in the 3rd century BC, is considered a high-quality imitation of the bronze statue of Hercules created by the great Greek sculptor Liucibos a hundred years ago, and the original existed on the earth until 1205, when it was destroyed. According to the information, in addition to this bronze high imitation, there is also a marble imitation from the Roman Empire in the Museum of Naples, Italy.
The reason why the Romans were keen to imitate the art of the Greek classical period, in addition to their love of Greek art, was also closely related to the expanding influence of Greek civilization in the Hellenistic era.
The time span of the Hellenistic era was about 330 BC to 30 BC, which was the last peak of the prosperity of ancient Greek civilization and an important period for the Romans to contact, absorb and accept the influence of Greek civilization. During this period, Greek art continued to develop, and a large number of Greek art treasures such as "Venus of Milo", "Hermes and the Little Dionysus", "The Goddess of Victory of Samothrace", "Aphrodite, Pan and Eros" appeared.
Also during this period, Rome saw a climax in the reproduction of classical Greek art, with many reproductions of more than one piece. Three Roman replicas of Mirón's Discus Thrower have now been found, in the collections of Naples, Rome and London. Two surviving Roman reproductions of Aphrodite of Nidos created by the ancient Greek master Plactitres in 350 BC, a 230-centimeter-high statue in the Vatican Museums and a 205-centimeter-high statue in the Sculpture Gallery in Munich, Germany. These Roman replicas are of great artistic value and have been passed down to this day.
While imitating and copying Greek art, the Romans also strove to create works of art with their own style. For example, under the influence of Greek artworks such as Venus de Milo and Aphrodite of Nidos, a Roman artist also created a statue of Venus bathing in the 2nd century AD, known as the Venus of Chastity. This type of statue is a public decorative statue created by the Romans after absorbing the style of Greek sculpture, which was widely placed in open spaces such as gardens, courtyards, and hot springs, and was deeply loved by the Romans. Ancient Greek statues of gods were used to enshrine the Romans.
From ancient Greece to ancient Rome, the chains of European civilization were thus connected. The historical trajectory of the fusion and development of ancient Greek civilization and ancient Roman civilization has continued to this day and has become the common wealth of human civilization.
(Author: Yin Yali, Visiting Professor, Beijing University of Foreign Chinese)
Source: Guangming Daily