The Year One - Art of the Ancient World East and West

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THE YEAR ONArt of the Ancien

World East and WeThe Metropolitan Museum of


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THE YEAR ONE


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THE YEAR ONEArt of

the Ancient WorldEast and West

Edited by Elizabeth J. Milleker

The Metropolitan Museum ofArtYale University Press


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This catalogue is published in conjunction with the exhibition "The YearOne:Art of the Ancient World East and West" held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York, October 3, zooo-danuary 14, 2001.This publication is made possible by th e Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation Inc.Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

John p. O'Nell, Editor in ChiefRuth Lurie Kozodoy, EditorTsang Seymour Design Inc., DesignerElisa Frohlich, ProductionMinjee Cho, Desktop PublishingNew photography by Joseph Coscia Jr., Anna-Marie Kellen,Oi-Cheong Lee, Paul Lachenauer, and Juan Trujillo, the Photograph Studio,The Metropolitan Museum of ArtMaps made by Anandaroop RoyBibliography edited by JeanWagnerColor separations by Professional Graphics Inc., Rockford, IllinoisPrinted and bound by CSGraphics PTE Ltd., Singapore

Copyright 2000 by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkAl! rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmittedin any form or by any means, electronic or mechancal, including photocopying,recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission inwriting from the publishers.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataMetropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)The year one: ar t of the ancient world east and west / edited by Elizabeth J.Milleker; with contributions by Joan Aruz . . . [et al.].

p. cm.Catalog of an exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from Oct. 3, 2000through Jan. 14, 2001.

Includes bibliographical references.ISBN 0-87099-961-3 (hc.) - ISBN 0-300-08S14-1 (Yale)

1. Art, Ancient-Exhibitions. 2. Art-New York (N.Y.)--Exhibitions.3. MetropolitanMuseum of Art (New York, N.Y.)--Exhibitions. 1. Milleker,Elizabeth Johnston. II . Title.NS33S.N4M486 2000709' .01's0747471-dc21 00-055443

Front jacket illustration: Portrait Statue of a Boy,Roman, Augustan perod, late1St century B.c.-early 1St century A.D., detail; see figure ISBack jacket illustration: Torsoof a Bodhisattva, Pakistan (ancient region of Gandhara],Kushan dynasty, late rsr-and century A.D; see figure 104Frontispiece: Rhyton with Forepartof a Wild Cat, Parthan, Iran, rst century B.C.,detail; see figure 94


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CONTENTS

Director's ForewordAcknowledgmentsAuthors and Their ContributionsNote to the Reader

viiixxixii

The Year One: Empires and Trade Routes across the Ancient World 2

24256878

102I02I04I08112116

128128130146176

192192205211214220

West and Central AsiaMapSouth ArabiaThe NabataeansPalmyraThe Parthian Empire

Checklist ofWorks IllustratedSources and Selected BibliographyIndexPhotograph Credits

The AmericasMap

MapSouth Asia: India, Pakistan, AfghanistanEast Asia: China, Korea, JapanSoutheast Asia: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia

Asia

The Mediterranean World: The Roman Empire 24MapRomeGaul, Britain, and PannoniaRoman Egypt


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DIRECTOR' S FOREWORD

To celebrate institutionally the Year 2000 the Metropolitan Museum isbringing together more than 15 0 masterpieces from its collections, objectsproduced sorne two thousand years ago in the period just before and after theYearOne. Drawn from seven departments of the Museum and augmented byseveralloans from private collections, these works come from regions allaround the globe, including western Europe, the Medterranean, the NearBast, India, China, Southeast Asia, and the Americas. The exhibition not onlyfeatures these magnificent and distinctive works but also highlights the interconnections that existed between the widely separated parts of the world inwhich they originated. Sorne links between cultures were established asempires expanded, spreading ideas, beliefs, and customs among heterogeneous peoples, and other connections occurred with the development of overland and maritime trade routes that provided East and West with tantalizingglimpses of each other. Artistic traditions and religious beliefs moved freelyover these global networks, along with such luxury goods as Roman glass,Chinese silk, and lndian pepper.

An in-house exhibition of this sort could only be attempted at theMetropoltan, with its encyclopedic collectons, and the range of material presented in both the exhibition and this book is astonishing. Roman art in theage of Augustus, the first Roman emperor (r. 27 B.C. -A.D. 14) , reached anextraordinary level of sophistication both in the public sphere, where a newimperial iconography was developed. and in the private sphere, where wealthwas poured into the decoration of lavish villas. The Roman Empire expandedas the lands occupied by Celtic tr ibes in western Europe became provincesand when Egypt fell to Rome with the suicide of Cleopatra in 30 B.C. Tworecently acquired masterpieces of Celtic metalwork, a bronze sword and asilver-and-gold brooch, are high points of the exhibition; an arresting mixtureof traditional Egyptian iconography with Hellenistic and Roman styles marksthe many works of art from Egypt on display, which include a magnificentblack stone statue that may represent Caesarion, eldest son of Cleopatra.lnteresting pieces from great centers of trade in the Near East-Palmyra,Nabataean Petra, and South Arabia-are juxtaposed with treasures from thelands within the Parthian Bmpre, which stretched across the area of modernIraq and Iran.

Ancient Gandhara (roughly present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan) wasat the westernmost end of the multiple trade routes that traversed the steppesand mountains of Central Asia. The art produced there under the rule of theKushan dynasty incorporated elements from bothWest and East, and a towering

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TH E YEAR ON Eviii

stone torso of a Buddhist bodhisattva is one of the most important worksin the exhibition. The vast Han Empire in China (221 B.C.-A.D. 220) wasadministered by a specially trained scholarly elite, whose members, alongwith the aristocracy and wealthy merchants, equipped lavish tombs for usein the afterlife. Among the objects such tombs contained were bronze andlacquer vessels and terracotta sculptures of attendants and entertainers. Anelegant dancer, captured in a moment of ethereal stllness, is one of the loveliest objects in this exhibition. Korea and Japan are represented by powerfulceramics and a monumental ceremonial bronze bello Centuries-old traditionsof bronze working also unite the various cultures of peninsular and islandSoutheast Asia, which are noted for their production of splendid weapons,jewelry, and vessels. From the Amercas, which had no known contacts withthe rest of the world at this time, the exhibition presents a selection of forcefuI works: a carved stone Maya vessel from Mesoamerica, a gold mask fromthe area of modern Colombia, an extraordinary ceramic figure from the Tolitaculture on the Pacific coast of South Amerca, and a dramatically decorateddrum produced by the Nasca in southern Peru.

Bringing together such a range of masterpeces, usually isolated in widelyseparated parts of the Museum building, has been an exciting enterprise.Elizabeth J. Milleker coordinated the complex exhibition and this mostinteresting catalogue, which she wrote together with a number of othermembers of the curatorial staff: Joan Aruz, Jean M. Evans, Marsha Hill,Melanie Holcomb, Julie Jones, Steven Kossak, Donald J. LaRocca, DenisePatry Ledy, and Christopher Lightfoot.

We are grateful, as always, to friends of the Museum for their generosityin lending works. 1wish to thank Shelby White and Leon Levy for helpingus give a fuller picture of the arts of Nabataea and South Arabia by lendingtwo sculptures in their collecton, Charlotte C.Weber for her long-term loanof a Chinese fang hu (square [ar], and an anonymous lender for the long-termloan of two Celtic torques and a number of coins. Our gratitude also goes tothe Estate of Samuel Eilenberg. We acknowledge as well the generous assistanceof the Samuel 1.Newhouse Foundation in making this publication possible.

Philippe de MontebelloDirector, The Metropolitan Museum ofAr t


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The YearOne project has involved seven curatorial departments within theMetropolitan Museum and has drawn on the wisdom, expertse, effort, andencouragement of many people. The list begins with Philippe de Montebello,the Museum's Director, who conceived the idea for the exhibition and gavecrucial support, as did Mahrukh Tarapor, Associate Director for Exhibitions.

Almost a third of the objects included in the exhibition come from theDepartment of Asian Art. Denise Patry Leidy assumed responsibility for theirselection and installation and wrote the lengthy Asian section of this catalogue. Thanks are also due to many other members of that department.Steven Kossak contributed two object descriptions for the catalogue andparticipated in numerous discussions of South and Southeast Asian works;James C. y. Watt, Miyeko Murase, and Martin Lerner read drafts of the entries.Hwai-ling Yeh-Lewis, Michael Rendina, Damien Auerbach, Beatrice Pinto, andAlyson Moss were expert in the logistics required for the photography andinstallation of the objects. I am especially grateful to James Watt for sharinghis extensive knowledge about relations between China and Central Asia,which helped me in writing the opening essay. Donald J. LaRocca of theDepartment of Arms and Armor contributed the entry on a sword fromCentral Asia and helpful advice on the Indonesian ax head, and Eric Kjellgrenof the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas advisedon th e standing figure from Indonesia. In the Department of Greek andRoman Art, Christopher Lightfoot wrote part of the Roman section for thispublication and was also a constant source of support and valuable assistance.Additional aid was provided by Patricia Gilkison, who organized diverseaspects of the exhibition, and by William M. Gagen, John F.Morariu Jr., andJennifer Slocum Soupios. Special thanks go to Professor David F. Grose ofthe Department of Classics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, foradvising on the choice of Roman glass and for sharing his expertise.

Joan Aruz and Jean M. Evans selected the objects belonging to the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art and wrote the chapter in this book entitled"West and Central Asia." They benefited from discussions with Prudence O.Harper, the assistance of Elisabetta Valtz-Fino, and further help from ShokiGoodarzi, Melanie Hatz, Shawn Osborne, and CynthiaWilder. Marsha Hill wasresponsible for choosing the works from Roman Egypt and wrote that sectionof the catalogue. She is grateful for discussions and work with Dorothea Arnold,particularly on the mummy portraits from this periodo Melanie Holcomb ofthe Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters contributed the entrieson Celtic ar t from Gaul, Britain, and Pannonia. She thanks Peter Barnet,

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TH E YEAR ONEx

Barbara Drake Boehm, Helen C. Bvans, and Charles T. Little for their supportand advice and Christine E. Brennan and Thomas C.Vinton, who helped withthe photography and installation. Works from Mesoamerica and South Americawere selected and discussed by Julie Jones of the Department of the Arts ofAfrca, Oceana, and the Americas.

Conservation of the objects and their preparation for exhibition wasundertaken by James H. Pranz, Richard E. Stone, Dorothy H. Abramts, PeteDandrdge, George Wheeler, Linda Borsch, Lisa Pilosi, Ann Heywood, KendraRoth, Sarah McGregor Howarth, Dora Henel, Jeffrey W. Perhacs, and Fred A.Caruso. Linda M. Sylling's coordination of all aspects of the exhibition wasessential for its success. Jeffrey L. Daly is responsible for th e design of th eexhibition, Sue Koch for the graphic desgn, and Zack Zanolli for the lighting;all were handsomely conceived and executed. The beautiful new photography inthis book is the work of Joseph Coscia Jr., Anna-Marie Kellen, Oi-Cheong Lee,Paul Lachenauer, and Juan Trujillo, all of the Museum's Photograph Studio, andwas carried out with the knowledgeable oversight of Barbara Bridgers.

In th e Editorial Department, special thanks are due to John P.O'Neill forhis vision and constant support of the project. Ruth Lurie Kozodoy was asuperb editor, and Elisa Frohlich ably managed the production of the book.Patrick Seymour and Arlene Lee of Tsang Seymour Design Inc. are responsiblefor the book's elegant designo The skillful maps are the work of Anandaroop Roy.Minjee Cho efficiently handled the desktop publishing. Peter Antony oversawthe entire production process. Joan K. Holt and Ellyn Childs Allison performedvaluable additional editorial work. Jean Wagner edited the bibliography;Kathleen Friello compiled the indexo

To all these people and to others not named here whose contributionsmade "The YearOne" possble, I would like to express my grati tude.

Elizabeth J. Milleker


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AUTHORS AND THEIRe o NTRI BUTI o N SAll authors are members of the curatorial staff ofThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.Elizabeth J. Milleker, Associate Curator,Department of Greek and Roman Art: pages 3-23, 28-53

Christopher Lightfoot, Associate Curator,Department of Greek and Roman Art: pages 25-27, 54-67

Melanie Holcomb, Assistant Curator,Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters: pages 68-77Marsha Hill, Associate Curator,Department of Egyptian Art: pages 78-101Jean M. Evans, Hagop Kevorkian Curatorial Fel1ow,Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art: pages 104-21

Joan Aruz, Acting Associate Curator in Charge,Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art: pages 122-27Denise Patry Ledy, Associate Research Curator,Department of Asian Art: pages 129-58, 160-86, 188-89Donald J. LaRocca, Curator,Department of Arms and Armor: page 159Steven Kossak, Associate Curator,Department of Asian Art: pages 187, 190Julie Jones, Curator in Charge,Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceana, andthe Americas: pages 193-203

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NOTE TO THE READER

Almost aHthe works of art included in this catalogue are in the collection ofThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Complete credit lines will befound in the Checklist of Works Illustrated, which begins on page 205 .

The maps in this publication are intended to show certain aspects of theworld in the centuries just before and after th e YearOne. Every town, city,political entity, or geographical indication that appears on the maps either ismentioned specifically in the text or has been included to help orient thereader. Ancient place-names have been used whenever possble, bu t sornemodern names have been employed when the ancient name is unknown oris less familiar than the modern equivalent.Sources drawn on by the authors in preparing this catalogue are namedin Sources and Selected Bibliography, which begins on page 211.


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THE YEAR ONEArt of

the Ancient WorldEast and West


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l . Caravan in the Pamir Mountains,Afghanistan.

Trade routes across Central Asiahave passed through the high

Pamirs for over two thousand years.

THE YEAR ONE:EMPIRES AND TRADEROUTES ACROSS THEANCIENT WORLD

"Previously the doings of the world had been, so to say,dispersed, as they were held together by no unity of ntative,results, or locality; but ever since this date history has been anorganic whole, and the affairs of Italy and Africa have beeninterlinked with those of Greece and Asia, allleading up to oneend" [Polybius, Histories 1.3). These words were written in thesecond century B.C. and refer to the Roman conquest of theMediterranean world, but they are even more appropriate as thepreface to an account of the world in the Year One. By then,much of the inhabited world was united politically or linked bytrade and diplomacy in a way that it had never been before.

This book celebrates the Year One by bringing togetherworks of ar t created by all the cultures flourishing at thebeginning of the first millennium that are represented in thecollections of the Metrapolitan Museum. At that time fivecontiguous powers stretched fram the Atlantic Ocean across theMediterranean Sea and Asia to the Pacific: the Roman Empire,the Parthian Empire, the Kushan Empire, the nomadic confederation of the Xiongnu, and the Han Empire. Works fram theseregions and from independent kingdoms in Arabia, India,Southeast Asia, Korea, and Japan are presented here. as well asart o f the city-states and kingdoms of Mesoamerica and thewestern coast of South America.Although travel was arduous and knowledge of geography

mperfect, numeraus contacts were forged between far-flungregions during this period, as empires expanded-spreadingideas, beliefs, and customs among heterogeneous peoples-and

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TH E YEAR ONE4

as valuable goods were moved over long distances throughtrade, barter, and the payment of tribute.

Tangible evidence of the links that existed two thousandyears ago between the peoples of Europe, the Mediterranean,and Asia came to light recently in a region of northernAfghanistan formerly known as Bactria. Bounded to the northby the Oxus River and to the east and south by the mountainsof the Hindu Kush, Bactria lay on a great plain in Central Asiaalmost equidistant between Rome, capital of the Roman Empire,and Chang'an, capital of the Han Empire in China. Here. at anancient Bactrian site known as Tillya-tepe, six princely tombsdating to the early first century A.D. were excavated in 1978.Among the thousands of artifacts uncovered there were suchimported objects as two bronze mirrors from China, an incisedivory comb from India, a gold coin of the Roman emperorTiberius (r. A.D. 14-37) minted at Lugdunum in Gaul, a goldcoin of the Parthian king Mithradates II (r. ca. 124-88 B.C.), anlndian coin, and two glass bottles from Mediterranean workshops. Several fine engraved gems are Greek in subject and style.Numerous gold plaques show writhing animals worked in thevigorous style found in the ar t of nomadic Eurasian tribes suchas the Scythians and Sarmatians. A splendid pair of gold claspsinlaid with turquoise that represent Dionysos, Greek god ofwne, and his consort, Ariadne, riding a powerful pantherlikebeast combine a Greek subject with this nomadic animal style.All these objects, called by the excavators the Golden Hoard ofBactria, were kept in the National Museum of Afghanistan inKabul until their disappearance during the recent upheavals there.The treasure symbolizes the web of interconnections establishedat the beginning of the first millennium between peoples whooften had only a tenuous knowledge of each other's very existence.The Roman Empire ringing the Mediterranean and the HanEmpire in China flourished at the same time, expanded geographically to domains of about the same extent, and ruledapproximately equal numbers of people. Although a vast empirehad been acquired by the Romans over a period of three hundred


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years (see map, pp. 24-25), it was not unt il the last quarter ofthe first century B.C. that the stable rule of Augustus. the firstRoman emperor, ushered in a long period of unprecedentedpeace and prosperity in the Mediterranean world. Virgil'sfamous fourth eclogue, a poem written in 40 B.C., had foretoldthe advent of this extraordinary epoch with the image of anewborn child, an idea that in the Middle Ages carne to beassociated with the bir th of Christ.

Ours is the crowning era foretold in prophecy:Born of Time, a great new cycle of centuriesBegins. Justice returns to earth, the GoldenAgeReturns, and its jirst-born comes down from heaven above.Look kindly, chaste Lucina, upon this infant's birth,Por with him shall hearts of iron cease, and hearts ofgoldInherit the whole earth-yes, Apollo reigns now.

Prophecies and portents abounded at this time of change. Acomet filled the sky for seven nights after the assassination ofJulius Caesar in 44 B.C.; the horoscope of his grandnephew andheir, Octavian, the future emperor Augustus, was so astoundingthat when he carne to power he published it and issued coinsstamped with his astral sign, Capricorn. The star described in theNew Testament that guided the Magi from the East to Bethlehemmay have been yet another of these astrological events.

After the defeat ofMark Antony in a sea battle at Actiumoff the northwest coast of Greece in 31 B.C. and the subsequentsuicide of Antony and his consort Cleopatra, queen of Egypt,Octavian emerged as the sole and undisputed ruler of the RomanEmpire. During the next forty-four years he presided over thedevelopment of an institutional and ideological framework thatpreserved the traditions of the Roman Republic while concentrating effective power in his own hands as princeps, the "firstman" of the state. After his restoration of the Republic in 27 B.C.the Senate conferred on him the honorific title "Augustus." Asocial and cultural program that enlisted literature and all the

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2. Model OfAncient Rome,detail showing the c ity as itappeared at the height of itsexpanson under the emperorConstantine in the early fourth

century A.D. Museo dellaCivilt Romana, Rome

THE YEAR ONE6

arts from architecture to gem-cutting not only revived timehonored values and customs but also promoted allegiance toAugustus and his family throughout the empire. The city ofRome was transformed by hundreds of new buildings and renovated temples that glorified the imperial dynasty.

Augustus doubled the size of the provincial empire, whosedifferent areas were assimilated in different ways. Egypt wasannexed, with special status as the personal estate of the ernperor, who presented himself as successor to the pharaohs. Thelong-established political and social structure of the country wasapparently little changed. Egypt's immense agricultural wealthbecame essential to averting famine in overcrowded Rome, andits location made it the gateway for imperial trade with Africaand the East. Spain was finally subjugated, and the northernfrontiers of the empire were established along the Rhine andDanube Rivers. In central and western Europe most of the terrtories were occupied by the tribal federations of the Celts, greatwarriors who by the first century B.C. were living a settled,agriculturallife. Under Roman rule, Gaul (roughly the area ofmodern France and Belgium) was divided into four provinces.A network of roads, constructed to move and supply the army,led to the growth of new towns such as Lugdunum (modern


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Lyons], which was located at a main crossroads of the transportation system. I t became the administrative, financial, andcommercial center of the entire region, housing a branch ofthe imperial mint and serving as a distribution center forMediterranean products such as olive oil and wine. A federalsanctuary there with an altar to Rome and Augustus becamethe annual meeting place for the aristocratic de1egates of thesixty Ce1tic tr ibes, many of whom became Roman citizens andadopted aRoman way of life.

The empire had no single unified culture. Instead of a oneway transmission of ideas and styles from the Romans to thevarious peoples they ruled, there was an interchange and a coexistence of diverse beliefs, customs, and artistic traditions.From the eighth century B.C. onward Greek language and culture had spread throughout the Mediterranean world, firstthrough the founding of colonies by the major city-states ofGreece and Asia Minor and later through the conquests ofAlexander the Great and the establishment of great kingdomsby his generals. As the Romans began their expansion into theeastern Mediterranean during the third century B.C. they weredeeply impressed by the wealth and beauty of the Greek citiesthat carne under their rule, not only the ancient centers of classical culture and art such as Athens but also the newly foundedcapitals such as Alexandria in Egypt, where a cosmopolitanpopulation gathered and the later Greek culture that has cometo be called Hellenistic flourished. Victorious generals returnedto Rome with booty that included works of art in all media, andGreek teachers and artists were brought to Rome. Roman literature and ar t carne to draw heavily on the motifs and styles ofclassical Greek and Hellenistic arto In Egypt, the ancient artisticcanons continued unchanged or were combined with GrecoRoman styles. Likewise, a hybrid Gallo-Roman ar t developedin the northern provinces.

The state religion mandated veneration of the emperorthroughout the lands Rome controlled, and worship of theRoman pantheon was widespread, but numerous foreign cults

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THE YEAR ONE8

such as those of Cybele, Mithras, and Dionysos became popular.Sorne shared features with mystery religions, which had secretinitiation rites and offered a sense of community and hope foran afterlife. During the Hellenistic period the ancient Egyptiandivinity Isis had been given Greek form and made the consortof the newly created Greco-Egyptian god Serapis. Rapidly identified with almost every major female deity in the Mediterraneanworld, she became one of the most important divinities in theRoman Empire. Jews lived in many parts of the Roman world aswell as in the province of Judaea. Several distinct sects hadarisen among the Jews of Judaea during the Hellenistic period,and in the late first century B.C. many Jews believed that aMessiah-the anointed one, a king sent by God-would soonappear to sit on the throne of Israel and that a radical reorganization and judgment of the world was imminent. Ascetics,prophets, and preachers, among them John the Baptist and Jesusof Nazareth, drew large crowds. Jesus taught that the Kingdomof God was forthcoming. His followers, convinced that he wasthe Messiah (the Greek translation is Christos), began to spreadhis word throughout the eastern Mediterranean after his death,drawing both Jews and non-Jews into a new faith that woulddevelop into a world religin, Christianity. I t is of course fromthe presumed birthdate of Jesus that our YearOne derives. 1The Han Empire in China, powerful at the same time as the

Roman Empire, asserted sovereignty over thousands of squaremiles of territory (see map, pp. 128-29). Surrounded by a greatlThe counting of years from the bir thdate of Jesus was first introduced in 525 by aScythian monk, Dionysius Exiguus, in a document prepared for Pope Sto John I.However, the practice did not become widespread until the eighth century, duringthe reign of Charlemagne, the Frankish king and emperor of the West. A.D. is theabbreviation for AnnoDomini, "In the year of our Lord." (Dionysius was probabJywrong by a few years in caJculating the year of Jess' bir th.) The use of B.C., "BeforeChrist," to count backward from the same date is even more recent, dating from theseventeenth century. The more secular terms c.s. and B.e.E. ("Common Era" and"Before the Common Era") were first proposed in the early twentieth century andare now frequently used.


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expanse of ocean to the east, the high mountains of Tibet tothe southwest, and the arid Gobi Desert and cold steppes ofMongolia to the north, the Chinese believed that they constitutedthe civilized world in the same way that the inhabitants of theMediterranean world envisioned themselves as the center ofcivilization. The Han Empire lasted for four hundred years, theFormer or Western Han dynasty ruling from 206 B.C. to A.D. 9and, after a brief interregnum, the Later or Eastern Han dynastyfrom A.D. 25 to 220.

Many of the precedents and institutions that have shapedChinese policy and thought for centuries were established bythe emperor Wudi, who reigned for over fifty years, from 141 to87 B.C. He brought the empire's recently unified territories firmlyunder his control, breaking up the fiefdoms of the aristocracyand putting in place an elite bureaucracy of scholar-officials whowere trained in literature and a sociopolitical doctrine basedpartly on the rules of ritualized conduct and right hierarchicaldistinctions that the Chinese sage Confucius had defined in thelate sixth century B.C. Schools throughout the empire sent theirbest students to the imperial unversity, where by the Later Handynasty over ten thousand future officials were enrolled, tostudy the Five Classics of Confucius, which taught such moralprncples as self-restraint, concern for others, and loyalty tosuperiors. Ancient cosmological ideas and organizing prncplessuch as the eternal alternating flow of yin and yang were synthesized with Confucian ethics to develop a worldview inwhich it was the emperor's role to maintain a proper balancebetween heaven and earth. Magic and astrology also flourishedin the Han court; the very layout of the emperor's palace in thegreat capital of Chang'an was said to have been aligned with certain constellations. Toward the end of the Western Han dynasty,omens and portents of coming change were widespread, and it isinteresting to note that in 3 B.C. thousands of frenzied peopleconverged on the capital city, convinced that the world wascoming to an end.



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3. Great Wall ofChina.The emperor Qin Shihuangdi

(r. 221-210 B.c.) created this defenseof China's northern border, sorne

1 ,500 miles long, by uniting severalpreexisting walls. It was modified

by the emperor Wudi in thesecond century B.c. and many

times subsequently.

THE YEAR ONEla

The government, which was highly centralized, sponsoredirrigation projects and canals that extended river transportation.Roads with posting stations were built throughout the empire.State monopolies controUing the production of ron. salt. andliquor and the sale of grain produced new revenues and curbedthe power of wealthy merchants. However, China's most famousluxury product-silk-never became a monopoly; its productionon countless private farms was actively encouraged by the imperialauthorities. The painstaking cultivation of a species of the domesti-cated mulberry silkworm (known only in China), the unraveling ofthe silken filaments that compose its cocoon, and the productionof silk thread and cloth had already been undertaken in China bythe second miUennium B.C. Although a silk was produced from thecocoons of wild moths in many parts of the ancient world, noother material could match Chinese silk in luster, texture, andlightness. RoUs of silk were a form of currency within China,and over the years the Han government gave thousands of roUsand thousands of pounds of silk floss as tributary gifts to pacifyand control the tribes and states along their borders.

Nomadic tri bes had long been raising livestock and horseson the grasslands of the steppes of inner Asia, but it was not


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until the late third century B.C. that one group, the Xiongnu,brought c1ans and tribes together in what amounted to anempire stretching from Korea across Mongolia to the AltaiMountains. The containment of these aggressive horsemen onthe northern borders of China was a major concern for theemperor Wudi. He strengthened the Great Wall that had beenbuilt in the late third century B.C. to protect the frontier andsent troops far into the Xiongnu territory. Wudi developed policies that led to the expansion of Chinese power and infiuencesorne three thousand miles westward into Central Asia-cuttingoff a further spread of the hostile nomads and at the same timeforging relationships with small principalities and city-statesalong what would later become one of the great trade routes ofthe world, the so-called Silk Road or Silk Route.

This expansion began with two of the most extraordinaryrecorded journeys in antiquity . In 139 B.C. the emperor sent oneof his officials, Zhang Oan, with about one hundred men, insearch of allies to help fight the Xiongnu. After ten years of captivity in the hands of that enemy, Zhang Qian escaped and madehis way westward beyond the Pamir Mountains to the highvalley of Ferghana and to Bactria, where the Yuezhi, a nomadicpeople who had been pushed westward by the Xiongnu, werenewly settled. Although Zhang Qian failed to obtain a military

4. Terracotta Army,Qin dynasty (22I -206 B.C.).When Qin Shihuangdi's tombwas discovered in I974 in

Xian, China, excavations revealedthousands of lifesize terracottawarriors guarding the grave.

They demonstrate the power ofthe dynasty that laid the

foundation for the Han era.

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TH E YEAR ONE12

alliance with the Yuezhi, he set out again in IIS B.C. to makediplomatic overtures to sorne of the small states in the sameCentral Asian regions, taking as gifts tens of thousands of cattleand sheep and quantities of gold and silk. Traveling through theoasis towns of the Takla Makan desert and over the surroundingmountains, he reached Ferghana, Sogdiana, and Bactria, all occupied by prosperous pastoral states. Many of these sent envoysto the Han court in return. The emperor even dispatched aChinese princess to marry the ruler of the Wusun in the Il ivalley, receiving one thousand horses as a betrothal gift.

By the end of the second century B.C. the Chinese had extendedtheir frontier westward to the edge of the Takla Makan desert,and Ferghana, almost three thousand miles from Chang'an, hadbeen captured. Fifty years later the Xiongnu to the north werepacified through a reciprocal tribute system whereby theyaccepted vassal status in return for enormous annual gifts. (In1 B.C., for example, the Xiongnu received 370 garments, 30,000rolls of silk, and 30,099 pounds of floss silk.) Similar relationships were forged with the city-states of Central Asia, and goodsbegan to move from China westward as far as Bactria, from thereto be transported overland either to the Mediterranean coast orsouth to ports on the Indian Ocean.The Chinese had little knowledge of the lands and peoples tothe west of Bactria. Likewise, the Romans had but the vaguestnotion of the Seres, or silk-people-those remote inhabitants ofAsia who produced the extraordinarily fine silk that was reaching Mediterranean markets by the mid-first century Re. (JuliusCaesar had an awning of it: Cleopatra wore transparent silkgowns.) But just as the Chinese sphere of influence extendedwestward to the regions around Bactria, Mediterranean civilization had penetrated eastward, also to the regions around Bactria.In the fourth century B.C. Alexander the Great had conqueredWest Asia from the Mediterranean to the Indus River, and afterhis death in 323 B.C., most of the vast region was ruled foralmost two hundred years by the Se1eucids, a royal dynastydescended from one of his Macedonian generals. In Bactria


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numerous Greek settlers founded small kingdoms, built cities,and introdueed Greek language, eustoms, religious eults, andartistic traditions to the area. Their power reaehed its peak inthe time of Eueratides I (r. ca. 170-145 B.C.), whom ancientwriters ealled "ruler of one thousand eities." By about 130 B.C.Baetria had been overrun by the nomadic Yuezhi, and theChinese envoy Zhang Qian eneountered them soon thereafter onhis mission to the west. The gold-filled tombs at Tillya-tepedeseribed above probably belonged to aristoeratic members ofthese tribes. The mixture of Hellenistic Greek, Chinese, Indian,and nomadic objeets uneovered there attests to the wealth andcultural syneretism to be found in Baetria by the Year One.

At about this time the Yuezhi united under a powerfulleaderand began a series of eonquests that made them masters of a

5. Great Stupa at Sanchi,rebuilt znd-ust century Re.

over an older coreoMadhya Pradesh, central India.This gigantic monument, with a

burial mound and carvedgateways, is an early example

of Buddhist art. slightly predatingthe era of the Kushans.



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TH E YEAR ON E14

great state, which, since they had come to be called "Kushans,"is known as the Kushan Empire; it included Bactria, Gandhara inthe valley of the Kabul River high in the Hindu Kush, and theplains of northern India watered by the Indus and GangesRivers. From the mid-first century A.D. through the second century A.D. the Kushans were at the geographical center of a net work of trade routes that connected the Roman world, the RedSea, the Arabian Sea, India, Central Asia, and China. Althoughfew written records exist, their wealth and culture can beglimpsed in the extraordinary series of gold coins minted by theKushan kings. Struck on a weight standard based on tha t ofRoman gold coins, they portray a succession of rulers togetherwith a great variety of divinities of Greek, Iranian, Hindu, andBuddhist origino Buddhism, which had originated with theteachings of the Indian prince Siddhartha Gautama in the fifthcentury B.C., flourished under the Kushans. The first sculpturalimages of the Buddha were created in Gandhara at this period,and Buddhism began to filter eastward toward China as monkstraveled along the trade routes of Central Asia. The remains ofmany Kushan cities have been uncovered: among the mostimportant were Bactra (modern Balkh) in Bactria, Purushapura(Peshawar) near the Khyber Pass in the Hindu Kush, Taxila inGandhara, Kapsa (Begram), and Mathura on the northern plainsof India. Fortified with walls and towers, these urban centersbustled with Buddhist establishments, administrative buildings,and trade entrepts.

By the YearOne all the conditions were in place for a greatexpansion of international trade. Quantities of Chinese silk circulated as a medium of gift exchange, tribute payment, or commodity for trade among the nomadic tri bes and city-states ofCentral Asia. Traders from Sogdiana, to the north of Bactria,were especially active middlemen in the transport of silkthrough Kushan territory, taking it over passes in the KarakoramRange and the Hindu Kush down to Barbarikon, a port at themouth of the Indus River, or Barygaza (Broach) farther down


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the lndian coast, from which it could be carried westwardto Mediterranean ports.An overland route from Bactria to the west passed through

Parthia, ruled by the Arsacids, an lranian dynasty that hadgradually conquered lands in the Seleucid Empire (see map,pp. 102-3). Its expansion owed much to the rule of two greatkings, Mithradates I and Mithradates U, whose reigns togetheroccupied most of the years between 171 and 88 B.C. and whomade the Parthian Empire one of the major powers of the ancientworld, controlling the greatest part of Mesopotamia, Iran, andwestern Central Asia. Like the Roman Empire it was ethnically,politically, and culturally dverse, with strong Greek traditions.The kings ruled from the capital at Ctesiphon on the Tigris River,with many ceremonies and titles adopted from the Achaemenid

6. Trade Routes.Map of the eastern Mediterraneanand Asia, showing the trade routes

discussed in this essay

EMPIRES AN D TRA DE R OU TES15


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7. Monumental Arch on the MainColonnaded Street, Palmyra,

zn d century A.D.Palmyra, Syria. Public

buldings, a great marketplace,and covered walkways lined thecentral colonnaded street of this

famous desert city.

THE YEAR ONE16

Persians, who had dominated the area until the advent of Alexanderthe Great. Their power was sometimes challenged, however, bynobles with vast estates and their own standing armies.Numerous trade routes carried goods between East and West.A Parthian Greek called Isodorus of Charax described them in abook entitled Parthian Stations, written around the Year One.From Antioch on the Mediterranean coast, routes crossed theSyrian desert via Palmyra to Ctesiphon and Seleucia on theTigris River. From there the road led east across the ZagrosMountains to the cities of Ecbatana and Merv, where one branchturned north via Bukhara and Ferghana into Mongolia and theother led into Bactria. Spasinu Charax (home of Isodorus), a porton the Persian Gulf, was a great center of seaborne trade. Goodsunloaded there were sent along a network of routes throughoutthe empire-up the Tigris to thecapital, Ctesiphon; up the Euphrates to Dura-Europos; and onthrough the caravan cities of the Arabian and Syrian deserto


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Many of these overland routes ended at ports on the easternMediterranean, from which the merchandise was distributedto cities throughout the Roman Empire.

Enormous fortunes had been amassed by members of theruling elite as Rome gained power in the Mediterranean duringthe second and first centuries B.C., and general prosperity in-creased with the advent of peace during the reign of Augustus.The demand for luxury items from the East, such as finesilk and spices, influenced imperial policy in the easternMediterranean and led to the establishment of new trade routes,across the Indian Ocean.

In 63 B.C. Syria had become aRoman province, while otherareas such as Judaea and Nabataea were made into client kingdoms. Further eastward, expansion was blocked by theParthians, who inflicted an ignominious defeat on the invadingRomans in 53 B.C., overwhelming an army of seven legions andkilling its commander, Marcus Licinius Crassus. Sorne ten thousand Roman prisoners were settled in Parthia. After severalattempts to avenge this disaster failed, Augustus managed torecover the lost legionary standards and sorne of the prisonersthrough a negotiated peace, but relations with Parthia werenever good. Moreover, the tarifIs charged for moving merchan-dise through Parthia were always high.

With the annexation of Egypt in 30 B.C., Rome gained con-trol of ports on the Red Sea that gave access eastward into theIndian Ocean. In 26/5 B.C. an expedition led by Aelius Gallus,prefect of Egypt, sought in vain to conquer the small kingdomsof southwest Arabia in present-day North and South Yemen.The trees that produce frankincense and myrrh, fragrant gumresins widely used as incense ofIerings to the gods throughoutthe ancient world as well as in medicine and cosmetics, growonly in southern Arabia and northern Somalia. Their monopolyover the production and distribution of incense broughtenormous wealth to the South Arabian states. Pliny the Elder,writing toward the middle of the first century A.D., describedthem as the wealthiest kingdoms in the world (Pliny, Natural



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8. EI-Deir, Petra,1St century A.D.

Petra, Jordan. Carved into one of thesandstone c1iffs that surround theruins of the Nabataean capital ofPetra, this facade with an interior

room may have been a cul tmonument to a deified king.

THE YEAR ONE18

History VI.32.I62) and estimated that of the hundred millionsesterces expended by the Roman Empire on goods fromArabia, India, and China, approximately one half was spentfor Arabian merchandise alone. Numerous trade routes wentoverland through the Arabian deserto Sorne ended at Petra, therockbound city of the Nabataeans in what is now southernJordan, where new caravans could travel on to Gaza and otherports on the Mediterranean or north to Damascus or east toParthia. A complex of sea routes linked the incense ports ofSouth Arabia and Somalia with ports in the Persian Gulf andIndia in the east, and also with ports on the Red Sea, fromwhich merchandise was transported overland to the Nile andthen to Alexandria.


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Arab and Indian seamen had been pIying the waters of thewestern Indian Ocean for centuries, but it was not until aboutII6 B.C., during the reign of PtoIemy VIII, ruIer of Egypt, that aGreek named Eudoxus managed to sail to India. Thereafter sornetwenty ships made the journey from Egypt to India every year.Under Augustus this traffic suddenIy increased to well overone hundred ships per year, and for the first time in historysignificant commerce on the Indian Ocean was directly linkedwith that of the Mediterranean region. Thanks to a brief handbook, the Periplus Maris Erythraei (Sailing Guide for theErythraean Sea), probabIy written in the mid-first century A.D.,we have more detailed information about this exotic commercethan any other trade activity in the Roman Empire. The Periplussupplied sea captains and merchants with information aboutwinds, distances, and harbors in the Red Sea, the GuIf of Aden,and the western Indian Ocean, as well as listing what couId bebought or soId in the various ports. Loaded with merchandisethat had been shipped from the Mediterranean up the Nile toCoptos and carried overland to the Red Sea ports of MyosHormos or Berenice, vesseIs sailed down the Red Sea. One routefollowed the western coast of Africa to approximate1y where Dares SaIaam stands today. At ports aIong the way traders obtainedivory, tortoiseshell, frankincense, and myrrh in exchange forstapIes such as tools, iron, tin, and tabIeware. Another route ledto the Arabian ports of Muza and Kane, where frankincenseand myrrh were traded for clothing, copper, tin, and variousdrugs and cosmetics. From Kane ships took off across sorne twothousand miles of open sea for India, heading northeast foreither Barbarikon, at the mouth of the Indus River, or Barygaza,on the Gulf of Cambry-or southeast to ports such as Muzirison the Malabar Coast.The timing of these voyages was determined by the prevailing winds of the Indian Ocean-the monsoons-which bIowfrom the southwest during the summer months and from thenortheast in the fall. While the lat ter is a gentle wind in baImy

E MP IR ES A ND T RA DE R OU TE S


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THE YEAR N E20

weather, the former is so strong and stormy that even todaymarine insurance is suspended during its height. The Romanscould take advantage of the powerful southwest monsoon for afast journey to India because their merchant ships were largeand heavy, constructed with exceptionally strong hulls andspecial rigging.

Cargoes worth a fortune were carried in these huge vessels.Western traders sold raw materials such as lead, tin, and copperas well as slaves, drugs and cosmetics, wine, coral, silverware,and glass. At Barbarikon and Barygaza they could buy nard,spikenard, and bdellium, three valuable ingredients for cosmetics and medicine, from the Himalayas; lapis lazuli from what isnow Afghanistan; silk cloth and yarn from China; and skins,probably from the steppes of Central Asia. The southwesternport of Muziris offered gems such as Indian diamonds and emeralds, cottons, and Chinese silk as well as ivory and tortoiseshell.Spices, however, were the most eagerly sought commodity. Cassia,cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and mace, imported from China, mainland Southeast Asia, and Indonesia, could be purchased in India,but Indian pepper and cinnamon, available in large quantities atthe ports of the Malabar Coast, were most in demando Indeed, inA.D. 92 the emperor Domitian constructed special warehousesin the spice quarter of Rome for the storage of pepper.

As many as three Indian embassies to Augustus are recorded,one of which featured the first public viewing of a tiger. Theinflux of luxury products to Rome increased during the reign ofTiberius (r. A.D. 14-37), who inveighed in vain against the wearing of silk, especially by men [Tactus, Annales 2.33). A generation later the satirist Petronius described how the nouveau-richeTrimalchio has specially ordered the seed of arare and costlymushroom from India (Petronius, Satyricon 38.4). The carvedivory handie of an Indian mirror found at Pompeii indicates thatsorne traders brought back works of arto Despite this plethoraof imported goods, the East remained a fabled, distant land tomost people living in the Roman Empire and must have carriedassociations of exotic romanticism much like those that still


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cling to it. In the second century A.D. the writer Xenophon ofEphesus could compose a story worthy of the best romanticnovel in which the heroine, purchased as a slave by a richlndian visiting Alexandria, only escapes to rejoin her loverwhen brigands attack the caravan taking her to a port on theRed Sea (Xenophon of Ephesus 3.II ff.).

Although there are references to the "Yavanas," or westerners, in sorne poetry written in southern India, and inscriptionsrefer to permanent settlements on the west coast of the subcontinent, most evidence for the presence in India of traders from theMediterranean during the first and second centuries A.D. comesfrom archaeological excavations. Enormous numbers of gold andsilver coins, most dating to the reigns of Augustus and his successor, Tiberius, have been discovered in central and southernIndia, indicating that the balance of trade must have been inInda's favor. A cache of Roman bronzes, including a statuette ofPoseidon, vessels, and mirrors, was found at an ancient inlandsite. lndian ships carried the merchandise along the easterncoast of India, although the Romans were apparently familiarwith ports up to the mouth of the Ganges. Storage warehouses,trade quarters, and fragments of Roman pottery and glassvessels have been uncovered at Arikamedu, on the easterncoast near the modern town of Pondicherry, making it likelythat Mediterranean traders were settled there. Raw glass.waste glass, and hundreds of beads have also been excavatedthere; local craftsmen may have supplied glass beads through-out the Indo-Pacific area.

Although little is known about sea trade between India,Southeast Asia, and China during the first and second centuriesA.D., isolated incidents are recorded in both Roman and Chineseliterature. The easternmost port known to the author of thePeriplus was Chryse, probably on the coast of Burma. Pliny theElder recounts that during the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54),the freedman of a certain Annius Plocamus was blown, perhapsfrom Arabia, across the lndian Ocean to Taprobane (modernSri Lanka) and returned with an embassy from the island, who



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THE YEAR ONE22

provided much information about its geography and customs;this included assertions that their island faced the country ofthe Seres, to which they had traveled, and that there they hadtraded with blond, blue-eyed people on the beach (Pliny,Natural History VI.24.84-89). In the mid-second century A.D.,Ptolemy, the Greek geographer, was able to describe places thatcan be identified with Malay, Sumatra, or even Java, and ment ions a city named Kattigara that has been thought to be as fareast as Singapore, Hanoi, or Guangzhou (Canton).

Despite all this trade and travel, it appears that direct contacts between Rome and China were never actually establishedin the period around the YearOne. According to the Chinesedocument Hou Han Shu (History of the Later Han), in A.D. 97 theChinese general Ban Chao sent an ambassador named Gan Ying asenvoy to the West. He arrived at the coast of a great sea butturned back when the Parthians told him that "there was something in the sea that made a man long for home, and many menlost their lives on it." Scholars cannot be sure which sea ismeant, but Gan Ying may have reached the Persian Gulf. As faras we know, the first Romans arrived in China in A.D. 166.Chinese sources describe this visit as an official delegation fromthe emperor Antun (Marcus Aurelius], although it may havebeen a private enterprise pretending to be official. The gifts thevisitors brought-ivory, rhinoceros horns, and tortoiseshellcould all have been bought in India or in China itself.

Works of ar t offer the best evidence for the remarkable webof interconnections among the disparate cultures that thrivedtwo thousand years ago. Just as the rich variety of objects in thetombs of the nomadic Yuezhi at Tillya-tepe in Bactria demonstrates that there was contact between China, India, Parthia, andthe Mediterranean world around the Year One, another treasurefound nearby at Begram, sixty miles north of Kabul, shows howthis contact continued and increased during the following century and a half. Begram has been identified as ancient Kapisa,the summer residence of the Kushan kings. During excavationsin the 1930S a spectacular cache of objects was unearthed in two


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sealed adjoining rooms of what is usuaHy described as a palace.Indian ivories, fragments of Chinese lacquer boxes, Romanbronzes, vessels of porphyry and alabaster, and over ISO glassobjects from Mediterranean workshops littered the storeroomfloors. In addition there was an extraordinary collection of plas-te r casts, including forty roundels obviously cast from the reliefmedallions in the centers of Greek or Roman silver bowls. Thesemust have served as models for artists working at the Kushancourt. The material, which can all be dated to before the mid-second century A.D., testifies once again to the variety of thecultures that carne together in a high plain of Central Asia,midway between Rome and China, at the center of all the traderoutes that connected the ancient world . We are fortunate thatthe diverse cultures flourishing in the Year One can also be eluci-dated through their art as it is represented in the collections ofthe Metropolitan Museum.

-Elizabeth J. Milleker

EMPIR ES A ND TRA DE R OU TES23


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u' 20'

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,\ R R I

THEMEDITERRANEAN

WORLD:THE ROMAN

EMPIRE

RMETraditionally founded in 753 B.C. , Rome began as a small clusterof primitive huts dat ing back at least to the tenth century B.C.From such insignificant and unpromising beginnings it developed into a city-state, first ruled by kings bu t from 509 B.C.onward organized in a new form of government, the Republic.This unique power-sharing partnership between the patricians,the ruling c1ass, and the plebs, or ordinary citizens, continueduntil the late first century B.C. During the last three centuriesB.C. Rome also became a metropolis, the capital city of a vastexpanse of territory acquired piecemeal by conquest and bydiplomacy. The strains of governing an ever-expanding empire,combined with the fact that relatively few citizens profited fromRome's new wealth, led to the collapse of the Republic. The cityexperienced a long and bloody series of civil wars, politicalcrises, and civil disturbances, culminating in the dictatorship ofJulius Caesar and his assassination on the Ides of March, 44 B.C .

After Caesar's death the task of reforming the Roman stateand res toring it to a condi tion of peace and stability fell to hisgrandnephew and heir, Octavian, then only eighteen years old .Although he was dismissed by Mark Antony, the leadinggeneral among Caesar's followers , as "a mere boy who oweseverything to his name," Octavian emerged sorne thirteen yearslater "like a Colossus" bestriding the Roman world . By war orby proscription he had eliminated all opposit ion to his rule. In27 RC . Octavian sought to legitimize his position by restoring


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TH E RMAN EMPIRE26

the Republic while effectively establishing himself as prineeps,the "first man" of the state. Awarded the honorfic title ofAugustus by a decree of the Senate, he continued to rule Romeand its empire by various direct and indirect means until hisdeath in A.D.14 at the age of seventy-six.

Rome was already the largest, richest, most powerful, andpossibly most populous city in the Mediterranean world, butduring his reign Augustus transformed it into a truly imperialcity. He imposed a new political and administrative system thatfacilitated more efficient rule of the empire. He encouraged writers to compose works that proclaimed Rome's imperial destiny.The Histories of Livy, no less than the Aeneid of Virgil, wereintended to demonstrate that the gods had ordained Rome"mistress of the world"-and thus to justify and legitimize itsdominion over other cities and peoples.

The empire over which Augustus presided was made up ofnumerous disparate parts; one of his first tasks was to consolidate Roman holdings and define their borders. In the 20S B.C.the emperor himself campaigned in Spain in order finally topacify the barbarian tribes that had resisted Roman rule therefor two hundred years. Meanwhile his generals took theoffensive in Gaul, the Alps. the Balkans, Africa, upper Egypt,and Arabia. On the eastern frontier, where the Parthians hadproved formidable adversaries, Augustus scored a major diplomatic success, securng the return in 20 B.C. of the Roman standards they had captured in the humiliating defeats of Crassus (in53 B.C.) and Mark Antony (in 36 B.C.). The event was celebratedby the issue of special coins bearing the legend Signis Reeeptis[The standards have been recovered) and was represented inrelief on the cuirass worn by Augustus in the famous statue ofhim found at Prima Porta, now in the Vatican Museums. Furthercampaigns carried out in the last two decades of the first century B.C. against various barbaran tr ibes pushed the northernfrontiers of Rome up to the Danube and the Rhine. Tiberius,Augustus's stepson and eventual successor, played a majorrole in the conquest of Pannonia (principally in present-day


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Hungary), just as he had done earlier in the negotiated settlement with Parthia. Thereafter efforts focused on the annexation of Germany, with Roman armies advancing against theGermanic tribes as far as the river Elbe. However, the annihilation of the general Varus and his three legions in the TeutoburgForest in A.D. 9 effectively thwarted Roman ambitions inGermany. At his death Augustus lef t an empire "surroundedby the ocean and by far-off rivers," but not quite "the empirewithout end" tha t Virgil had Jupiter promise Rome as itsdestiny in the Aeneid.

Acutely aware that empire is a matter of culture as well asconquest, Augustus embarked on a massive building programaimed at turning Rome into a metropolis of gleaming marblewith public buildings and amenities befitting its position as theimperial capital (fig. 2).He complete1y transformed the city'sappearance. The high artistic quality of monuments such as theAra Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace) was matched byan innovative use of space and materials: the earliest hemispherical concrete dome was probably erected during Augustus'sreign, a period of great advances in architecture and civilengineering. Conditions in Rome under Augustus also attractedcraftsmen from all around the Mediterranean world. Spurred onby imperial and private patronage, they established workshopsthat were soon producing a range of objects-sculpture, slverware, gems, glass-of the highest quality and originality.

Thus at the beginning of the first century A.D. Rome stoodat the head of an empire that dwarfed all its neighbors, with thepossible exception of the Parthian Empire. Romans themselvesperceived their position of "masters of the world" as divinelyordained and destined to last forever. The success of the neworder established by Augustus can be measured by the actuallongevity of Roman imperial rule: the last western emperor,appropriate1y named Romulus Augustulus, was deposed inA.D. 476, and the eastern half of the empire only carne to an endwhen Constantinople-the "New Rome"-fell to the OttomanTurks in A.D. 1453.

ROME27


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TH E R OM AN EM PIRE28

The stern, uncompromising expression on the three faces seen here embodiesthe austere traditional values of the Roman Republic, which lasted from thefifth century until the late first century RC . Patrician clans had long preservedimages of their ancestors in their homes, bu t it was probably not until thesecond century RC . that marble portraits of victorious generals and governing magistrates began to proliferate in public spaces. As the Romans carneinto sustained contact with the Greek-speaking cities and kingdoms of theeastern Mediterranean, they adopted the custom of setting up honorific statues and employed Greek artists to carve them. Instead of the charismatic,youthful images favored by the Hellenistic kings, who wished to be associated with Alexander the Great, the Roman ruling class chose a sober, objective style. The traditional Roman concept of virtue called for old-fashionedmoralty, a serious, responsible public bearing, and courageous endurance inthe field of battle. Prestige carne as the result of age, experence, and competition among equals within the established political system. These are valuesexpressed in the portraits of grim-faced middle-aged men seen here. The individual bony structure of each face is carefully modeled and the hard surfaceof the flesh is deeply etched with wrinkles. All three men have furrowedbrows, piercing eyes, and thin, tightly sealed lips. Their hair is close croppedin a military style.

Although we do not know the names of these individuals, the portraitsoffer a few clues about them. The head seen here (fig. 9), with its broad forehead, narrow chin, and long, scrawny neck, is so similar in structure toimages of Julius Caesar as he appears on coins and in sculpture that formerlyit was identified as that famous general and politician. Perhaps the man whois the actual subject of the portrait wished to accentuate this resemblancebecause he sympathized with the dictatorship of Caesar and with the causeof Caesar's grandnephew and heir, who would become Augustus.

9. Portrait of a Man.Roman, early Augustan period, late rst century A.D.

Marble, H. 12 3/8 in. (31.5 cm)


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ROME


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The head on the right (fig. 11)is from a funerary relief and probably represents a freedman, or formerslave, who had achieved prosperityafter obtaining his freedom. Suchreliefs showing busts of familymembers within a windowlike framewere often set into the outer wall ofa famly's funerary building.

The portrait bust on the left(fig. 10) incorporates a large expanseof chest, which indicates that it wascarved toward the middle of thefirst century A.D. Most survivingportraits carved in the hard, realisticmanner seen in these three worksdate to the first century s.c., bu t thestyle continued in fashion until themid-first century A.D. and wasrevived intermittently thereafter.

FACING PAGE10 . Portrait Bust of aMan.

Rornan, Julio-Claudian perod,mid-rst century A.D.

Marble, H. 17,/2 in. (44.3 cm)

11 . Head of aMan from a Funerary Relie].Roman, early Augustan perod, late 1St century B.e.

Marble, H. 95/8 in. (24.5 cm)

ROME


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In 30 B.C. Gaius Julius CaesarOctavianus, grandnephew and heirto Julius Caesar, became master ofthe empire that Rome had amassedover th e previous three centuries. Along, chaotic period of civil warsand military dictatorships carne toan end as the young Octavian beganto shape a new form of governmentthat would ensure peace and stablity. Over the next forty-four years heintroduced institutions and an deology that combined the traditions ofRepublican Rome with the reality ofkingship. A new type of leadershipevolved in which Octavian officiallyrelinquished command of the stateto th e Senate and the people whileactually retaining effective powerthrough a network of offices, prvileges, and control over th e army.In 27 B.C., after this restoration ofthe Republic, the Senate conferredon Octavian th e honorific title ofAugustus-an adjective wth connotations of dignity, stateliness,even holiness.

12 . The Emperor Augustus.Roman, Tiberian period, A.D. 14-37.

Marble, H. 11 in. (27.8 cm)

TH E ROMAN EMPIRE32


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At about the same time, anofficial portrait was created thatembodied the qualities CaesarAugustus wished to project. andhundreds of versions of it were disseminated throughout the empire-on coins, gems, busts of aH sizes,and full-scale statues. Over 150 ofthese works are still known today,and among them are the two portraits seen here (figs. 12, 13). Thisimage of Augustus drew neither fromthe dramatc, semidivine imagery ofAlexander and other Hellenisticrulers nor from the relentlessly realistic style of late Republican portraits. It was a new conception of aruler portrait, in which the featuresare individualized bu t the overalleffect is of calm, elevated dignityand brings to mind classical Greekar t of the fifth century Re. With thisstudied understatement Augustuscould evoke the values of the glorious past of Athens and at the sametime present himself simply as primasinter pares, "first among equals."

13. The Emperor Augustus.Reman, Tiberian period, A.D. 14-37.

Marble, H. 12 in. (30.5 cm)

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The portrait style created forAugustus was adopted by his familyand immediate successors in orderto stress the uni ty and continuity ofthe Julio-Claudian dynasty. This finemarble bust of the emperor GaiusJulius Caesar Germanicus, known asCaligula (r. A.D. 37-41), has regularfeatures and carefully designedlocks of hair similar to those in portraits of Augustus; here, however,the artist has also conveyed something of Caligula's vanity and crueltyin the proud turn of the head andthe thin, pursed lips (fig. 14).

14. The Bmperor Gaius Julius CaesarGermanicus, Known as Caligula.Reman, Julo-Claudian perod,

A.D. 37-41. Marble,H. 20 in. (50.8 cm)


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Th e appearance of rulers an dtheir wives in official portraits se tth e fashion for me n an d woment h ro u g ho u t t h e empire. This lifesizeb ro nze st atu e of a boy w i th s ho rthair, a broad face, a n d p r om i ne n tears (fig. 15)resembles images ofyoung princes of th e imperial house.The portrait was found on th e east-ern Mediterranean island of Rhodes,whose ancient Greek cities werewealthy, flourishing centers of com-merce an d culture d ur in g t he Romanperiodo Although he wears a Greekhimation (cloak) rather than th eRoman toga, th e boy may well havebeen t he s on of an important Romanofficial stationed on th e island.

15. Portrait Statue of a Boy.Roman, Augustan perod, late rs t

century B.c.-early r s t c e nt u ry A.D.Bronze, H. 48Y, in. (123.2 cm)

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16. Portrait of aMan.Roman, Julio-Claudian period, early 1St century A.D. Bronze, H. I2j4 in. (31 cm)

TH E R OM AN E M PI RE

This powerful bronze head ofa mature man also has short lockscarefully arranged over th e forehead(fig. 16). I t bears some resemblanceto known portraits of MarcusVipsanius Agrippa, lifelong friendan d supporter of Augustus. Thehead was found at Susa, near Turin,together with fragments of a military statue an d an inscription bearing Agrippa's name.

As soon as he took power, Augustusset in motion a program aimed atrestoring th e time-honored values ofvirtue, honor, an d piety. Religiouscults were revved, temples wererebuilt, public ceremonies an dsacrifices filled th e calendar. Theemperor was th e chief state priest,an d many statues show him in th eact of prayer or sacrfice, with a foldof his toga pulled up to cover hishead in a gesture of piety. Th e marble head seen here (fig. 17) is veiledin this manner. However, th e features are so youthful an d idealizedan d th e curls so stylized that thiswork may represent the Genius, orprotective sprit, of th e livingemperor rather than th e emperor


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17. VeiledHead of aMan.Reman, Julio-Claudian perod, first half of the 1St century A.D. Marble, H. 10 in. (25.4 cm)

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THE ROMAN EMPIRE38

himself. Tradtonally, the protectivespirit of the head of every Romanhousehold was worshiped at thefamily shrine. I t was represented bya statuette with a veiled head, holding implements of sacrifice. Similarveneration of the Genius Augusti,introduced by the paternalisticAugustus, was widespread at publicshrines and altars.

Through the promotion of oldand new cults, many of them assoc-ated in sorne way with the ruler,bonds were created between theemperor and members of all thesocial classes. Throughout the Julio-Claudian period men of every rankchose to be portrayed in the act ofpious sacrifice, and a popular typeof sculpture represented young boyswho served as acolytes at religiousceremonies. This bronze statue(fig. IS) shows such a boy, standingat ease with his left arm outstretched.

IS. Camillus (Aeolyte).Rornan, Claudian period,ca. A.D. 41-54. Bronze,H. 46;8 in. (U7.1 cm)


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A cylindricalleather box for scrollsthat stands at the feet of this figureidentifies him as aman engaged inpublic business. He wears a tunicand over t a toga, the most charac-teristic Roman dress. The toga, alength of woolen cloth with roundedends, had been the traditional gar-ment of th e Romans for centures,bu t by the late first century B.C. itwas declining in popularity. As partof his effort to revive ancient valuesand customs, Augustus made thetoga a sort of unofficial state dressthat all citizens were required towear in the forum. By the late firstcentury A.D. the toga could beworn only by Roman citizens, andQuintilian, an authority on publicspeaking, warned orators thatimproper draping of the garmentmight be det rimental to a buddingpolitical career. The toga seen hereis draped in the same way as thoseworn by officals in reliefs decorat-ing the Ara Pacis Augustae, or Altarof Augustan Peace, erected in Romebetween 14 and 9 B.C.

19. Statue of a Togatus.Roman, Augustan period,

ca. 14-9 RC . Marble,H. 6 ft. sys in. (1.97 m)

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20. Comer Acroterionwith Acanthus Scrolls.

Roman, Julio-Claudian perod, firsthalf of the 1St century A.D.

Marble, H. 353/ 8 in. (89.8 cm)

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The Ara Pacis was only one of the buildings that transformed the city ofRome during the prineipate of Augustus. It was eustomary for a general todevote part of his victory spoils to the construetion of temples or publicbuildings, and Augustus, together with his close friend Agrippa, lavishedhuge sums on the improvement and embellishment of Rome. While Agrippaconcentrated on practical matters that included the water system, or onamenities for the population such as free public baths, almost all the projectsundertaken by the emperor served to glorify his family or enhance his reputation for piety. Imposing monuments, including his gigantic mausoleum, thetemple of Apollo next to his house high on the Palatine Hill, and the lavishnew Forum of Augustus with its temple to Mars Ultor (the Avenger], werehighly visible additions to the city. In one generation Rome was transformedfrom a city of modest brick and local stone into a metropolis of gleamingmarble. Quarries had recently been opened at Carrara, and for the first timein Rome's history quantities of excellent white marble were readily available.


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The new buildings were richlydecorated on every possible surface.Even cornices, doorframes, and column bases were overspread by leafysculpted vines loaded with frut,flowers, and grain. The lush vegetation was inspired by Greek ar t ofthe Hellenistic period, bu t Augustanartists reached new heights ofinvention with their combinationsof different plants and the intricatepatterns they devised. These imagesof luxuriant growth became symbolsof the prosperity and abundancethat the programs of Augustuspromised. The pair of reliefs seenon the facing page (fig. 20) once decorated the comer of a roof or highbalustrade. They were set at rightangles to each other, and at the corner joint a thick stalk would haveemerged from a bed of floppy acanthus leaves to spread ou t in vinesencircling huge flowers. Anotheracanthus plant climbs up a tal lpilaster in a succession of sprals,half concealing little birds that peckat the fruit (fig. 22), while still moreacanthus leaves and flowers springfrom the base of a finely carvedpilaster capital (fig. 21).

TOP21 . Pilas ter Capital.

Roman, Julio-Claudian perod.first half of the rst century A.D.

Marble, H. 21 in. (S3.3 cm)

BOTTOM22 . Section of a Pilaster with

Acanthus Scrolls.Roman, Julio-Claudian period,first half of the rs t century A.D.Marble, H. 43'/2 in. (IIo.S cm)

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ABOVE23. Trapezophoros (Table Support).Roman, early Augustan period,

ca. 30-13 a.e. Marble,H. 34Ya in. (88 cm)

FACING PAGE24. Funerary Altar.

Roman, Julio-Claudian period,A.D. 14-68.

Marble, H. 31% in. (80.7 cm)

THE ROMAN EMPIRE42

The vines and garlands that symbolized Augustan prosperity on public monuments also decorate works made for private enjoyment. This great marbletrapezophoros (fig. 23), one of two that supported a large tabletop, probablystood in the atrium of a wealthy family's house. Its symmetricalIy arrangedvines springing from a cluster of acanthus leaves give rise to delicate flowersand bunches of grapes, while at either end griffins stand guardo Otherimagery, connected with the religious revival promulgated by Augustus, wasused in the private sphere to decorate monuments such as this funerary altar(fig. 24). The inscription commemorates a certain Q. Fabius Diogenes andFabia Primigenia, with whom he had lived for forty-seven years; the altarwas dedicated by his family and freed slaves. Libations were poured overaltars such as this during commemorative rituals. The heavy garland suspended from ram's heads derives from the kind of decoration found on thewalIs of public sanctuaries and altars. Birds of three types surround the garland, alI familiar from Augustan monuments: at the center an eagle-bird ofJupiter, the ruler of the gods; at the corners swans-birds of Apollo, patrongod of the emperor; and below the garland, quarreling over a piece of fruit,two songbirds-charming denizens of bountiful nature. By the time this altarwas carved, sorne decades after the death of Augustus, these images had lostmuch of their public significance and become part of a common vocabulary ofdecorative motifs.


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In the late fourth century B.C. the Romans started on a path of territorialexpansion that within three hundred years made them masters of theMediterranean world. Victorious generals, impressed by the wealth, culture,and beauty of the great Greek cities and by the lavish palaces of theHellenistic kings, returned to Romewith booty that included artworks of alltypes. Greek teachers and artists were also brought to Rome, as privilegedslaves. Soon wealthy Romans wanted to surround themselves in their homeswith an atmosphere that evoked the idea of Greece and its civilization. By thelate second century B.C. new objects and images were being produced inGreece and Italy that could impart the flavor of a classical gymnasium orlibrary to aRoman gentleman's villa. There he might entertain his friends bydiscussing literature and art, perhaps even dressed in the Greek manner.Since these values ran counter to the austere, traditional Roman concept ofvrtue, a divide opened between private and public behavior. For the firsttime a domestic environment was specifically created for a cultural life thatwas intrinsically at odds with the outer world of business and politics.

Many such villas were located along the coast near Naples. One of themost sumptuous must have been the villa built by Agrippa, friend of theemperor Augustus and husband of his daughter, Julia. It stood overlookingthe Bay of Naples from a spot near the modern town of Boscotrecase. Thevilla was partially excavated between 1903 and 1905 after ts accidental ds-covery during work on a railway. Wall decorations that still survived in fourbedrooms were removed; the Metropolitan Museum acquired sections fromthree rooms and the Archaeological Museum at Naples received the restoAgrippa died in 12 B.C. and his son, Agrippa Postumus, became the villa'sproprietor in 11 B.C., as inscriptions found there indicate; the frescoes musthave been painted during renovations begun at that time. Painted by artistsworking for the imperial household, they are among the finest existingexamples of Roman wall painting.

FACING PAGE, TOP25. Panel from the Black Room at

Boscotrecase, North Wall,detail (see fig. 27)

FACING PAGE, BOTTOM26. Panel from the Black Room at

Boscotrecase, North Wall,detail (see fig. 27)

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The three panels il lustrated here (fig. 27) come from the back walI of arectangular bedroom, where they faced a wide doorway giving onto a ter racethat overlooked the sea. As is true of much Roman wall painting, the theme isa playful rendition of architectural motifs. A low, dark red dado ran aroundthe entire room. A narrow green band above it simulated a ledge, from whicha skeleton of thin white columns appears to rise against a black background.In the center of the wall the most substantial pair support a pavilion roofwhile on each side panel a candelabrum shoots up, terminating in a rectangu-lar yelIow panel with an Egyptianizing scene (fig. 25). Tiny, realisticallypainted swans perch improbably on threadlike spirals that emerge from thecandelabra (fig. 26). Almost weightless supports set slightly behind thecolumns on the ledge hold up a cornice that passes behind the pavilion andthe candelabra. ShalIow "niches" appear to recede slightly into the surround-ing space, bu t the architectural scheme creates almost no sense of depth orvolume. The black walls behind appear at once to be flat and to dissolve intolimitless space. A tiny landscape vignette floats like an island in the middle ofthis blackness.

This ambiguous and sophisticated decoration is a masterpiece of the so-calIed third style of Roman wall painting, which fiourished during the reignof Augustus. While previously artis ts strove to create a true illusion of arehi-teetural depth, here the idea is treated whimsiealIy with attenuated, highlyrefined forms. The landseape vignette derives from HelIenistic paintings, theEgyptianizing panels refer to the recent eonquest of Egypt, and the swans,birds of Apollo, were popular contemporary motifs.

27. Three Panels from the Black Room at Boscotrecase, North Wall.Roman, Augustan perod, last decade of the 1St eentury B.C.

Fresco, H. 7 ft. 8 in. (2.33 m)

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28. Landscape with Polyphemus and Galatea from the Villa at Boscotrecase.Roman, Augustan period, last decade of the 1St century B.C. Fresco,

H. 6 ft. 2 in. (1.88 m)

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29. Landscape with Perseus and Andromeda from the Villa at Boscotrecase.Reman, Augustan perod, last decade of the 1St century B.C. Fresco,

restored H. 6 ft. 2 in. (1.88 m)

The fortunes of love and theever-present sea are the themeslinking two large wall decorationsbased on Greek mythology thatcome from another bedroom of thevilla at Boscotrecase. One painting(fig. 28) presents several incidentsin the story of the one-eyed giantPolyphemus. Polyphemus fell hopelessly in love with the sea nymphGalatea and was later blinded by thehero Odysseus, whose ship is seensailing away at the far rght. Theother fresco (fig. 29) depicts Perseusabout to rescue Andromeda (whohad been chained to a rock and leftto the merey of a sea monster) andhis subsequent welcome by hergrateful parents. The translucentblue-green background tone of thepaneIs unifies the disparate episodescombined in each painting and musthave brought a sense of coolness tothe room.

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30. Handle Attachment in the Form of a Mask.Roman, Julio-Claudian perod, first half of the1St century A.D. Bronze, H. lO in. (25.4 cm)

THE ROMAN EMPIRE5

31. Handle Attachment in the Form of a Mask.Roman, Julio-Claudian period, first half of the1St century A.D. Bronze, H. 8 /2 in. (21.7 cm)


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Images related to Dionysos, Greekgod of intoxication and ecstasy,were well suited to the luxuriousand hedonistic life that wealthyRomans led in their villas. The twobronze bearded faces seen at the left(figs. 30, 31) were handie attachments for wine buckets. The wreathof ivy leaves and the fillet crossingthe forehead are associated exclu-sively with the god of wine and hisfollowers. The masks bring to mindarchaic images of Dionysos, whountil the fifth century Re. wasalways shown with long hair and abeard; bu t their pointed, equinecars mark them as representations ofsatyrs or sileni, th e quasi-humanwoodland creatures that made upthe rowdy, drunken entourage ofth c godo

Villa gardens and peristyles(courtyards) were filled with imagesof Dionysos and his band of satyrsand maenads, or female revelers.This marble figure of Pan, the goatgod (lig. 32), is aRoman copy oradaptation of a Hellenistic workand was probably par t o f a fountain complex, with water pouringfrom the wineskin carried on Pan'sleft shoulder.

32. Statue oIPan.Roman, rst century A .D.

Marble, H. 26Y8 in . (67.6 cm)

r

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33. Calyx Krater with ReliefofMaidens and Dancing Maenads.

Roman, 1St century A.D.Marble, H. 31% in. (80.6 cm)

TH E ROMAN EMPIRE

Large marble vases decorated with reliefs were produced especially forsuch gardens. Figures drawn from a wide repertoire of classical types appear,singing and dancing, onthese monumental ornaments. On one side of thisvase two modestly wrapped maidens approach a girl playing a double flute,while on the other side three maenads dance in abandon to the music ofwooden clappers (figs. 33, 34). Two of the maenads appear to be in a trance-like state, with their heads thrown back and their cloaks fanned ou t likewings. The freshness and spontaneity of these figures are partly due to thefact that the carving of the vase was never completed. The background hasnot been cut away to its full depth, and chisel marks on the faces and drap-ery remain unsmoothed.


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34. Calyx Krater, detail

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LEFT35. Portrait Head of the

Emperor Augustus.Roman, Augustan period, late 1Stcentury B.c.-early rs t century A.D.

Ivory, H. IYS in. (4 cm)

RIGHT36. Statuette ofaMan

Wearing a Toga.Roman, Julio-Claudan or

Flavian period, 1St century A.D.Jasper, H. 7Ys in. (18.7 cm)

TH E ROMAN EMPIRE54

Augustus not only initiated a new political system but also-with his closefriends, men such as the highly cultivated Maecenas-created a new culturaland artistic tradition in Rome that w

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The Year One - Art of the Ancient World East and West