Tomb of Quintus Sulpicius Maximus
The tomb of Quintus Sulpicius Maximus was found during demolition work on the Porta Salaria in Rome . It was located under the eastern tower of the gate system, which, after being badly damaged in a bombardment by Italian troops against the Papal States on April 20, 1870, was to give way to a new building designed by the architect Virginio Vespignani the following year . A copy of the tomb stands today near where it was found on the corner of Via Piave and Via Sulpicio Massimo in Rome.
description
The tomb, like numerous other buildings and monuments, was used again during the construction of the Aurelian Wall in order to speed up its completion. It belonged to a burial area on Via Salaria, of which further evidence can be found under the towers of the porta Salaria .
The tomb in the form of a cippus , which is now in the Capitoline Museums , stands on a base made of travertine . The cippus is made of marble and crowned by a flat gable. A laurel wreath is depicted in the center of the gable, from which fluttering taenias emerge to the left and right . On the gable corners there are small acroters in the form of curved palmettes that grow out of acanthus calyxes. The height of the cippus is 1.61 meters.
The front, framed by profiles, is divided into a smooth, smaller base area and a higher upper area, which depicts a young togatus in high relief in a niche-like depression , his right hand raised to his chest and a half-unrolled papyrus roll in his left. The areas to the left and right of the boy are filled with Greek verses. The lower area, separated from the upper by a horizontal profile strip with the inscription Deis Manibus sacrum , bears the actual grave inscription as well as two Greek epigrams that tell of the boy, his achievements and his death, once as a literal speech by Quintus, once as Presentation by a third party. The epigrams showing that Quintus died of overexertion during the agon are believed to have been written by his father.
The epitaph reads:
Deis Manibus sacrum / Q (uinto) Sulpicio Q (uinti) f (ilio) Cla (udia) Maximo domo Roma vix (it) ann (os) XI m (enses) V d (ies) XII / hic tertio certaminis lustro inter Graecos poetas duos et L / professus favorem quem ob teneram aetatem excitaverat / in admirationem ingenio suo perduxit et cum honore discessit versus / extemporales eo subiecti sunt ne parent (es) adfectib (us) suis indulsisse videant (ur) / Q (uintus) Sulpicius et Licinia Ianuaria parent (es) infelicissim (i) f (ilio) piissim (o) fec (erunt) et sib (i) p (osterisque) s (uis).
“Consecrated to the manes. To Q. Sulpicius Maximus, son of Quintus, from the tribe Claudia, from Rome, who lived 11 years, five months and 12 days. In the third lustrum of the competition, in which he appeared among 52 Greek poets, the affection he aroused because of his tender age led to admiration through his talent and he has resigned with honor. His impromptu verses have been added so that his parents would not be seen as exaggerating out of love. Quintus Sulpicius Eugramus and Licinia Ianuaria, the most unhappy parents, did this for their most pious son and for themselves and for their descendants. "
Quintus Sulpicius Maximus
The young Quintus, the son of a Greek freedman, apparently died immediately after participating in the third poets' competition on the occasion of the agon Capitolinus . These games, also known as ludi Capitolini , were set up by Domitian in 86 on the occasion of the restoration of the Capitoline Temple of Iupiter Optimus Maximus , and were also aimed at the person of the emperor as Iuppiter's governor on earth. The agon consisted of hip , gymnastic and musical competitions. The third games took place in 94, as the lustrum of the Capitoline Agon was only four years. Quintus Sulpicius took part in the musical competitions and was able to make an impression not only because of his age, but also because of his talent.
His discipline was impromptu poetry, in Greek according to a theme given to all participants, which in this case included Zeus' address to Helios after the fall of Phaeton . Little is known about the exact course of such events, but impromptu poetry was an exercise for rhetoricians and poets, especially in the Greek East, which can be traced through the centuries to Petrarch and Torquato Tasso . The winner personally received a wreath made from Capitoline laurel from the emperor. The verses recited by Quintus Sulpicius are reproduced on the left and right of the young Togatus, with the last three verses encompassing the papyrus scroll, but only poorly preserved there.
literature
- Rodolfo Lanciani : Pagan and Christian Rome . Houghton, Boston / New York 1892, pp. 281-283 ( online ).
- Samuel Ball Platner , Thomas Ashby : A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome . Oxford University Press, London 1929, p. 487 ( online ).
- Wolfgang Helbig : Guide through the public collections of classical antiquities in Rome . 4th edition. Volume 2. Tübingen 1966, 1734.
- Filippo Coarelli : Rome. An archaeological guide . Herder, Freiburg 1981, pp. 226-227. Extended and revised new edition: Zabern, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-8053-2685-8 , pp. 249-250.
- Lawrence Richardson Jr .: A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1992, p. 361 (Sep. Q. Sulpicii Maximi) .
- Siegmar Döpp: The impromptu poem of Q. Sulpicius Maximus . In: Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy . Volume 114, 1996, pp. 99-114 ( PDF ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sullanisches dice grave under the eastern tower, frühaugusteisches round grave of Cornelia, the daughter of Lucius Scipio, wife of Vatienus, f Cornelia L. Scipionis. Vatieni , under the western tower; compare CIL 6, 1296 and Filippo Coarelli : Rom. An archaeological guide . Herder, Freiburg 1981, p. 226; expanded and revised new edition: Zabern, Mainz 2000, pp. 249–250.
- ↑ Luigi Moretti (Ed.): Inscriptiones Graecae Urbis Romae . Volume 3. Rome 1979, pp. 189-193, no. 1336 .
- ↑ CIL 6, 33976 .
- ^ Theodor Mommsen : Roman State Law . Volume 3, 1st 3rd edition. Leipzig 1887, p. 789 note 6.