Browsing by Author "Stassen, Heidie"

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    Succeeding the Great Aeneas: ideological parallels of Augustan succession in the Aeneid and on the Ara Pacis
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03) Stassen, Heidie; De Villiers, Annemarie; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Ancient Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The succession narrative was commonplace in Republican Rome among the senatorial families, where the children of said families would not only accumulate their own “political authority” (auctoritas) but also inherit that of their parents. This study investigates succession during the early Principate and how it was connected to auctoritas, its hereditary nature and how this served as a foundation for Augustus to gain auctoritas from his familial lineage that linked him with Julius Caesar, and more importantly, to Aeneas. Therefore, this study aims to cross-examine how Augustus consolidated the key-virtue of Aeneas by incorporating and propagating the virtue of pietas across all of his own public monuments and depictions. Although individual studies have examined the political and religious propaganda of the Principate’s ideology in Virgil’s Aeneid and on the Ara Pacis – arguably the two most important artefacts related to the establishment of the Principate – no studies have examined the parallels between these works which highlight those virtues that may have served to legitimise Augustus’ rule in the eye of the public. Therefore, this study considers both the visual (Ara Pacis) and the literary (Aeneid) in correlation to each other, within the context of the political ideology created under Augustus, and alongside other artistic mediums. The method of analysis that is used is that of iconographic exegesis, which examines both visual and literary mediums in order to identify possible iconographic patterns or coinciding themes. An investigation into identified values/ideals and specific figures that were portrayed throughout the Aeneid and on the Ara Pacis reveals where and how the element of succession is present, and how it was used to support Augustus’ claims to authority, along with the portrayal of pietas as a familial and inherited virtue. The evidence collected across the various and different mediums suggests that the Principate propagated the familial and divine lineage of the imperial family, specifically Augustus, which ultimately worked to both legitimise and ensure his reign. Therefore, this thesis concludes that there is a clear theme present in the Aeneid and on the Ara Pacis, one relating the necessary pietas of the princeps as the only guarantee for maintaining the Golden Age. The main themes across all state-sponsored media indicates a continuous promotion of the pietas of Augustus while also comparing him to the very first Roman, Aeneas, his divine ancestor.