TRADITION and TRANSFORMATION
How Roman artists built on Greek culture and made it their own
The Old Made New
The range of frescoes in Pompeii provides an opportunity to identify shifting trends over time. Many paintings reveal nuanced interactions between ancient Italic cultures, Greek subjects, and Roman values.
Pre-Roman History of the Bay of Naples
The Bay of Naples had a long history before the eruption in 79 CE. There is evidence of a significant walled settlement at Pompeii dating to at least the sixth century BCE, and over time Pompeii was home to a succession of ancient Italic people before being established as a Roman colony in 89 BCE.
Pompeii’s picturesque views of Vesuvius were accompanied by frequent seismic activity. A major earthquake had rocked the city around 62 CE, causing significant damage, and it is likely that the famous eruption seventeen years later was preceded by tremors and earthquakes that prompted many people to flee the city before the tragic event.
Map of the Bay of Naples. Laura Grey and Tom Elliott
A contemporary view of ruins at Pompeii with Vesuvius visible in the background. VPC Travel Photo / Alamy Stock Photo
Inside the Painting: Admetus and Alcestis
Admetus and Alcestis, 1st century CE, fresco, House of the Tragic Poet, tablinum 8, east wall, central section, Pompeii, H. 115.3 cm; W. 95.3 cm, National Archaeological Museum of Naples: MANN 9026. Image © Photographic Archive, National Archaeological Museum of Naples
Inside the Painting: Admetus and Alcestis
Admetus and Alcestis, 1st century CE, fresco, House of the Tragic Poet, tablinum 8, east wall, central section, Pompeii, H. 115.3 cm; W. 95.3 cm, National Archaeological Museum of Naples: MANN 9026. Image © Photographic Archive, National Archaeological Museum of Naples
Inside the Painting: Admetus and Alcestis
Admetus and Alcestis, 1st century CE, fresco, House of the Tragic Poet, tablinum 8, east wall, central section, Pompeii, H. 115.3 cm; W. 95.3 cm, National Archaeological Museum of Naples: MANN 9026. Image © Photographic Archive, National Archaeological Museum of Naples
Greek Influence
After Rome’s military defeat of Greece, which followed a series of campaigns culminating in the Battle of Corinth in 146 BCE, Romans grew increasingly enamored with the culture of their former enemy. In the centuries that followed, instead of destroying the heritage of the conquered, the Romans took Greek works and placed them in public spaces and private homes. Tremendous admiration for Greek art, literature, and culture influenced diverse aspects of Roman society, and this cultural exchange—the “Hellenization” of Rome—also inspired artists in their creation of new works. This phenomenon is apparent in Pompeian wall painting, where the overwhelming majority of mythological scenes feature Greek subjects.
“Captive Greece took captive her savage conqueror and brought civilization to the rustic Latins”
– Horace, in a poem addressed to the Emperor Augustus, 14 BCE
Dido abandoned by Aeneas, 1st century CE, fresco, House of Meleager, atrium 2, north wall, central section, Pompeii, H. 115.9 cm; W. 135.9 cm, National Archaeological Museum of Naples: MANN 8898. Image © Photographic Archive, National Archaeological Museum of Naples
But this interaction was a dynamic absorption rather than the Romans simply imitating of Greek art. Roman culture itself was not a blank slate onto which Greek heritage could be projected—the Bay of Naples was a multicultural area and had its own history prior to the Roman conquest. That history wove together local traditions from the Samnites (an ancient Italic people) and Greek influence. The elite Pompeians who commissioned mythological scenes for their walls were not pretending to be Greek. Rather, these older stories were adapted to a new context, and Greek narratives provided a framework for Romans to understand the Greek world: Roman artists and patrons made Greek mythology their own and added new meaning to past figures.
Written by the Roman poet Virgil, the Aeneid narrates the flight of Aeneas following the fall of Troy and Rome’s founding by his descendants. In this scene, Queen Dido of Carthage sits enthroned at center while Aeneas’s ship sails off in the background. Distraught by her lover’s departure, she curses him and then commits suicide. This moment was understood as foreshadowing the enmity between Carthage and Rome that resulted in the Punic Wars between 264 and 146 BCE and ended in Roman victory. Rome's founding myth and its more recent history blend together here.
The dark-skinned woman at left holds an ivory drinking vessel, and the female figure at right wears an elephant headdress. The elephant iconography reinforces a connection with the Punic Wars and is likely intended to represent Carthage, since these large mammals were used in the empire’s military campaigns.
Cimon and Pero, 1st century CE, fresco, Pompeii IX, 2, 5, triclinium c, south wall, central section, Pompeii, H. 53.7 cm; W. 53.7 cm, National Archaeological Museum of Naples: MANN 115398. Image © Photographic Archive, National Archaeological Museum of Naples
Representing an ideal manifestation of the ancient Roman virtue pietas (loyalty; devotion to family, particularly parents), this painting presents a scene from the story of Cimon (also known as Micon) and his dutiful daughter Pero. Here, Pero feeds her ailing father from her breast after he is condemned to death. From outside the prison cell, a male figure peers through the window, mirroring the viewer’s own sense of voyeurism when looking at the painting. Pero’s devotion to her father is all the more profound as it challenges the important Roman virtue of modesty (pudicita) for women, thus asserting that pietas is the greatest of all virtues.
One of three versions of this scene found in Pompeii, this work was excavated from a dining room, a space frequently used for entertaining guests, suggesting that the family selected this story to publicly assert their own values.
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