Roman Empire Cinerary Urn 2nd-3rd century AD marble Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky |
Roman Empire Achilles and Lycomedes (sarcophagus front panel) AD 240 marble relief Musée du Louvre |
Roman Empire Achilles and Lycomedes (sarcophagus front panel - detail) AD 240 marble relief Musée du Louvre |
Roman Empire Achilles and Lycomedes (sarcophagus front panel - detail) AD 240 marble relief Musée du Louvre |
Roman Empire Labors of Hercules (sarcophagus front panel) AD 150-175 marble relief Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
Roman Empire Labors of Hercules (sarcophagus front panel - detail) AD 150-175 marble relief Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
Roman Empire Offering to Python (sarcophagus end panel) AD 150 marble relief Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Venice |
Roman Empire Sack of Troy - Achilles battling Troilus (sarcophagus end panel) AD 150 marble relief Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
Roman Empire Sack of Troy - Trojan Women Mourning (sarcophagus end panel) AD 150 marble relief Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
Roman Empire Sack of Troy (sarcophagus front panel - detail) AD 150 marble relief Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
Roman Empire Sack of Troy (sarcophagus front panel - detail) AD 150 marble relief Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
"It was probably during the third century B.C.E. that the Trojan hero Aeneas came to be identified as the founder of the Roman people, and at the Peace of Apamea in 188 B.C.E. the Roman Senate officially recognized Troy as Rome's mother city. Beginning in the second century B.C.E. Troy began to benefit both politically and economically from this link with Rome. She received more land and was declared a free and federate city, which meant no taxes needed to be paid to Rome. The city also became a favorite pilgrimage spot for aristocrats, emperors, and members of the Imperial family, and this would last until late antiquity. . . . The fortunes of Troy and the Trojan legend received even greater prominence during the first century B.C.E. Both Julius Caesar and Augustus were members of the Julian family, which traced its descent from Aeneas and his mother, Aphrodite. For them Troy was both the mother city of the Romans and the root of their family's genealogical tree."
– Charles Brian Rose, from Troy and the Historical Imagination, published in Classical World (1998)
Roman Empire Capital Fragment - Winged Horse (Forum of Augustus, Rome) 2 BC marble Museo dei Fori Imperiali, Rome |
Roman Empire Frieze Fragment - Gryphon (Forum of Trajan, Rome) AD 98-117 marble relief Museo dei Fori Imperiali, Rome |
Roman Empire Frieze Fragment - Figure with Shield AD 150 marble relief Antikensammlung, Berlin |
Roman Empire Abduction of Ganymede AD 140-150 marble relief Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence |