#gaius asinius pollio

[catilinas]

dubious shackleton bailey translation of part of cic. fam. 10.33 btw. pollio had to stroke lepidus the right way huh

[wolframpant]

[uncleclaudius]

This is cool. I always love it when what is written in ancient literature gets supported by archaeological evidence.

THE FARNESE BULL

Pliny the Elder mentions a sculpture in the collection Asinius Pollio depicting the Supplice of Dirce:

Asinius Pollio, a man of a warm and ardent temperament, was determined that the buildings which he erected as memorials of himself should be made as attractive as possible; for here we see ... Zethus and Amphion, with Dirce, the Bull, and the halter, all sculptured from a single block of marble, the work of Apollonius and Tauriscus, and brought to Rome from Rhodes. (Historia Naturalis 36.4)

This outsized Hellenistic sculpture, carved from a single block of marble, was displayed near the Forum in the Atrium Libertatis. In 39 BC, Pollio had funded the rebuilding of this structure, which housed the censor’s archive and the brass tablets of the ager publicus. Also included were an art gallery and Greek and Latin libraries, which Pollio founded in 39 BC. This lavish complex was demolished during the construction of the Forum of Trajan.

In 1546, excavators hired by Paul III working in the palestra of the Baths of Caracalla discovered numerous “beautiful fragments of statues and animals were found that were all in one piece in antiquity,” as a contemporary phrased it. These fragments were immediately identified as the Hellenistic group described by Pliny. This identification was supported by the fact that the baths had been built on the site of the Horti Asiniani, the gardens of Pollio’s estate, to where the sculpture might have been relocated after the closing of the Atrium Libertatis. The sculpture was reconstructed and restored by Michelangelo and installed in the Palazzo Farnese.

It is now, however, thought that the Farnese Bull is a late 2nd-century copy of Pollio’s sculpture. If that is the case, the original was either already lost or at some other location. The decision to place this work in a bathing complex contrasts sharply with the context of Pollio’s version. Situated in the Atrium Libertatis, the sculpture was prized by its owner and his cultured peers for its Greek pedigree, technical virtuosity and mythological drama. The Severans, however, may have chosen it for its size. Rising 4 m from the floor on a 3.3” x 3.3” m base, the Farnese Bull (unlike the other sculptures decorating the main bathing block) held its own amidst the gargantuan architecture. Besides the work’s scale, its violent subject matter and turbulent composition might have appealed to Caracalla’s brutish tastes and personality.

[e-pistulae]

in today's letter: balbus steals pollio's treasury and has theatrical eidolon issues about caesar! he has also started killing! pollio has prevented his army being bribed by antony! can the senate please tell pollio what he should be doing! and a surprise appearance from cornelius gallus!

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[trialsinthelateromanrepublic]

trial of Gaius Porcius Cato

date: 54 BCE, verdict before July charge: lex Licinia et Iunia (activity as tr. pl. 56) defendant: C. Porcius Cato tr. pl. 56, pr. 55? prosecutors: ? C. Asinius Pollio cos. 40 (ORF 174.I) ? C. Licinius Macer Calvus M. Livius Drusus Claudianus pr. or iudex 50 other: praevaricatio

Cic. Att. 4.16.5, 4.15.4; Sen. Con. 7.4.7

[shoutsthedustflake]

I live in Chicago, have for quite some time, but I grew up in post-industrial Northern Illinois. A city in the upstate downstate, you know? So today at work, some of my coworkers were talking about a friend who was trying to buy a house and considering moving out of the city, and my hometown came up in a "where is that? Is it a neighborhood or a suburb?" kind of context, and spoke up to clear up some geographical confusion and put in a (somewhat measured) good word for my native sod.

I've been reading, in my downtime, an excellent series on the Romans and who they were on the also excellent blog A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry. The author makes the point in the third part, about the expansion of Roman citizenship over time, that many of our favorite Romans -- Ovid, Virgil, Horace, Livy, Cicero -- were from the sticks. They were either naturalized Roman citizens or from cities that had only recently been granted citizenship, sons of freedmen, anything but the long-pedigreed great and good our passing acquaintance with them in school suggests. Some examples:

Ovid is asserting quite a few identities there. He identifies his home: sulmo mihi patria est, “Sulmo is my fatherland;” Sulmo was a city of the Paeligni (speakers of an Oscan language) in central Italy and probably granted citizenship only after the Social War. Patria is a strong word there; he might have used natus or origo if he just wanted to say “Sulmo is where I was born.” Patria implies a lingering, permanent connection. For comparison, Horace’s famous “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country” in Latin is dulce et decorum pro patria mori (Horace, Odes 3.2.14). 

Horace, you say?

Quintius Horatius Flaccus (Horace, 65-8) was from Venusia, a point he tells us in Satires 2.1.35; he notes he is unsure if he is ethnically Lucanian or Apulian, “for the Venusian plows at the boundaries of both” but Horace is fiercely defensive of his family and origins. Remember last time we noted that freed slaves became Roman citizens? That was Horace’s family’s road. His father was a freedman and Horace writes movingly about his father’s sacrifices so that he could attend school in Rome rather than in his own village and proudly refuses to be ashamed of his humble birth or the social station of his father (Satires 1.6). 

Finally, Livy:

Livy, we are told, was born in the 60s BC in Padua (ancient Patavium), a city of the Veneti outside of Italy as the Romans understood it (it was in Gallia Cisalpina); Padua was made a municipium and given Roman citizenship by Caesar in the 40s; Livy would likely have been in his teens or perhaps early 20s when this happened making him a ‘naturalized’ Roman. Livy evidently had a pronounced accent or marked Venetian manners; he was mocked for it by Gaius Asinius Pollio as noted by Quintilian (8.1.1). Yet Livy is fiercely proud both of his home town in particular (note, e.g. Livy 1.1 where Livy claims a Trojan antecedent not only for Rome but for his own people, the Veneti as well) but also of the tradition which would place the socii in the Roman narrative...

"Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto", as another famous non-Roman Roman once put it. Turns out the experience of moving from the sticks to the city, loving your city but being fiercely proud of your hometown is an ancient one.

[girlonthelasttrain]

Livy, we are told, was born in the 60s BC in Padua (ancient Patavium), a city of the Veneti outside of Italy as the Romans understood it (it was in Gallia Cisalpina); Padua was made a municipium and given Roman citizenship by Caesar in the 40s; Livy would likely have been in his teens or perhaps early 20s when this happened making him a ‘naturalized’ Roman. Livy evidently had a pronounced accent or marked Venetian manners; he was mocked for it by Gaius Asinius Pollio as noted by Quintilian (8.1.1).

Are you telling me Livy got mocked because he had a "Venetian" accent...................

[intothestacks]

Libraries Around the World: Rome, Italy

Bibliotheca Asini Pollionis (Asinius Pollio Library)

The first public library in Rome, it was founded by Gaius Asinius Pollio roughly around 37 BCE. It was located at the Temple of Liberty (Atrium Libertatis) on the Aventine Hill, and had Greek and Latin wings. 

[plinyknowsbest]

Gaius Asinius Pollio the grapes are born from these words: 'When the anti-aphrodisiac, or by gaps left breast for us in the

[wolframpant]

Sh! Not so loud.

[dererumgestarum]

THE FARNESE BULL

Pliny the Elder mentions a sculpture in the collection Asinius Pollio depicting the Supplice of Dirce:

Asinius Pollio, a man of a warm and ardent temperament, was determined that the buildings which he erected as memorials of himself should be made as attractive as possible; for here we see ... Zethus and Amphion, with Dirce, the Bull, and the halter, all sculptured from a single block of marble, the work of Apollonius and Tauriscus, and brought to Rome from Rhodes. (Historia Naturalis 36.4)

This outsized Hellenistic sculpture, carved from a single block of marble, was displayed near the Forum in the Atrium Libertatis. In 39 BC, Pollio had funded the rebuilding of this structure, which housed the censor’s archive and the brass tablets of the ager publicus. Also included were an art gallery and Greek and Latin libraries, which Pollio founded in 39 BC. This lavish complex was demolished during the construction of the Forum of Trajan.

In 1546, excavators hired by Paul III working in the palestra of the Baths of Caracalla discovered numerous “beautiful fragments of statues and animals were found that were all in one piece in antiquity,” as a contemporary phrased it. These fragments were immediately identified as the Hellenistic group described by Pliny. This identification was supported by the fact that the baths had been built on the site of the Horti Asiniani, the gardens of Pollio’s estate, to where the sculpture might have been relocated after the closing of the Atrium Libertatis. The sculpture was reconstructed and restored by Michelangelo and installed in the Palazzo Farnese.

It is now, however, thought that the Farnese Bull is a late 2nd-century copy of Pollio’s sculpture. If that is the case, the original was either already lost or at some other location. The decision to place this work in a bathing complex contrasts sharply with the context of Pollio’s version. Situated in the Atrium Libertatis, the sculpture was prized by its owner and his cultured peers for its Greek pedigree, technical virtuosity and mythological drama. The Severans, however, may have chosen it for its size. Rising 4 m from the floor on a 3.3” x 3.3” m base, the Farnese Bull (unlike the other sculptures decorating the main bathing block) held its own amidst the gargantuan architecture. Besides the work’s scale, its violent subject matter and turbulent composition might have appealed to Caracalla’s brutish tastes and personality.

[e-pistulae]

in today's letter: asinius pollio is sooo sorry that all his letter-carriers keep getting stopped and imprisoned by lepidus! he was besties with caesar during the civil war, but only because he had beef with the pompeians, and he felt bad about it! he promises to oppose future attempts at tyranny, which is kind of funny if you've read his wiki page! cornelius gallus is possibly hanging out with cicero! and pollio says he is going to bring his legions to italy, and is only maybe not lying!

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[trialsinthelateromanrepublic]

trial of Gaius Porcius Cato

date: 54 BCE, verdict reached on July 4 charge: lex Fufia (activities as tr. pl. 56) defendant: C. Porcius Cato tr. pl. 56, pr. 55? advocate: M. Aemilius Scaurus pr. 56 (ORF 139.II) prosecutors: ? C. Asinius Pollio cos. 40 (ORF 174.I) ? C. Licinius Macer Calvus (ORF 165.III) other: praevaricatio?

Cic. Att. 4.16.5, 4.15.4; Asc. 18, 19C; Sen. Con. 7.4.7

[plinyknowsbest]

Gaius Asinius Pollio, who drink for quinsies.

[trialsinthelateromanrepublic]

#CONDEMNOSWEEP#do it for my blorbinos.......#asinius pollio didn't get beaten up by (gaius) cato's goons for you to vote absolvo on him (@hortensius)

trial of Gaius Porcius Cato

date: 54 BCE, verdict reached on July 4 charge: lex Fufia (activities as tr. pl. 56) defendant: C. Porcius Cato tr. pl. 56, pr. 55? advocate: M. Aemilius Scaurus pr. 56 (ORF 139.II) prosecutors: ? C. Asinius Pollio cos. 40 (ORF 174.I) ? C. Licinius Macer Calvus (ORF 165.III) other: praevaricatio?

Cic. Att. 4.16.5, 4.15.4; Asc. 18, 19C; Sen. Con. 7.4.7