Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T22:20:15.496Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Silver Lanx as means of propaganda of a Roman Family

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Bedřich Svoboda
Bedřich Svoboda
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences, Prague
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Out of a grave containing a skeleton that was accidentally discovered in 1939 near the village of Stráže, in the vicinity of the world-famous spa of Pieštany in south-western Slovakia, archaeologists succeeded in recovering a large circular plate (33 cm. in diameter)—a lanx (Pl. III). It is decorated on its upper surface with a very interesting engraved design in the centre and a series of scenes in graded relief on its flat flange, along the outer edge of which is a row of minute half globules. No niello is employed, but the ornament is richly gilded with gold foil, which today shows cracks in many places and has in some places even fallen off.

In the central roundel (119 mm. in diameter; Pl. IV) there is a picture of an oath-taking over a sacrificial victim, similar to that on gold coins of the Roman Republic ascribed to the family of the Veturii. This scene is drawn by a skilled hand, in fine lines and with great feeling for its decorative potentialities. The interpretation of the coin-type (Pl. VI, 2) has already given rise to a number of different opinions which, however, agree on one point, namely that it was struck to commemorate some significant event in which a member of the house of Veturii had played the decisive role.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 1-2 , November 1968 , pp. 124 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © Bedřich Svoboda 1968. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See recently Bleicken, J., ‘Coniuratio, Die Schwurszene auf den Münzen und Gemmen der römischen Republik’, Jb. Num. XIII, 1963, 51 ff.Google Scholar

2 Codmpare Reinach, S., RP 237, 1Google Scholar ‘sujet à déterminer’. Rizzo, G. E., ‘Le pitture dell'Aula Isiaca di Caligola’, Monumenti della pittura ant. scop, in Italia II, Roma 2, Roma 1952Google Scholar. I am very grateful to Univ. Prof. H. Kenner (Vienna) for calling my attention to this picture in 1958. A new interpretation was proposed by Schefold, K., ‘Helena im Schutz der Isis’, Studies presented to Davis Moore Robinson II (Saint Louis, Missouri 1953), 1096 ff.Google Scholar, pl. 89.

3 Grueber, H. A., BMC I, 480Google Scholar; in, pl. XLVIII: 9, No. 3864–3867. Jongkees, J. H., ‘Primitive Imagines Maiorum of Coins of the Roman Republic’, Acta Arch. Kobenhavn XXXVI, 1965, 232 ff.Google Scholar, fig. 4.

4 Babelon, E., Le trésor d'argenterie de Berthouville près Bernay (Eure) conservé au Département des Médailles et Antiques (Paris 1914), 117 ff.Google Scholar, pl. X. Strong, D. E., Greek and Roman Gold and Silver Plate (London 1966), 172 ff.Google Scholar, pl. 49.

5 Antikenabteilung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (West), Inv. Nr. 10.175. O. Rubensohn, ‘Griechisch-Roemische Funde aus Aegypten’, AA 1902, 46. E. Pernice, ‘Erwerbungen der Antiken-Sammlungen in Deutschland’, AA 1904, 43 ff.

6 A. Rumpf, ‘Römische historische Reliefs’, BJb 155–156, 1955–1956, 119, 134. Strong, Eugenie, La scultura Romana da Augusto a Costantino II (Firenze 1925), 246 ff.Google ScholarHamberg, Gustaf, Studies in Roman Imperial Art (Uppsala 1945), 75Google Scholar. Toynbee, J. M. C., The Hadrianic School, A Chapter in the History of Greek Art (Cambridge 1934), XX–XXIIGoogle Scholar.

7 Münzer, F., Römische Adelsparteien und Adelsfamilien (Stuttgart 1920), 132Google Scholar. Gundel, H., RE (2. Reihe) VIII A 2 (Stuttgart 1958), 1899 ff.Google Scholar s.v. Veturius (R. Stieglitz).

8 Friedländer, L., Sittengeschichte10 (Leipzig 1922), 122–5Google Scholar; Alföldi, Andreas, Byvanck-Festschrift, Nederlands kunst-historisch Jaarboek 5, 1954, 151 n.Google Scholar; Bethe, Erich, Ahnenbild und Familien-geschichte bei Römern und Griechen (München 1935), 82 ff.Google Scholar; Toynbee, J. M. C., Some Notes on Artists in the Roman World, Coll. Latomus VI, 1951, 6 ff.Google Scholar; and notably Syme, R., Tacitus (Oxford 1958) II, 571 ff.Google Scholar; id., Acc. Naz. dei hincei CCCLXV (1968), Quademo n. 105 (Atti del Convegno internazionale sul tema ‘Tardo Antico e Alto Medioevo’), 27 ff.

9 In Tomb no. 2 from Stráže (near Pieštany). An account of the finds from this grave (up to 1957) was published by Vojtěch Ondrouch in Bohaté hroby z doby rímskej na Slovensku. Novšie nálezy = Reiche römerzeitliche Gräber in der Slowakei. Neue Funde, 115 n., 244 ff. Some other decorated silver vessels were also recovered from this grave, the publication of which (in German) is already prepared for press.