O.J. Hekster

Octavian and the thunderbolt: The Temple of apollo palatinus and Roman traditions of Temple building

Apres sa victoire de -36 a Nauloque, Octavien decide de construire un temple dedie a Apollon sur le Palatin. L’article revient sur le choix de l’emplacement, de la divinite, sur les motivations d’Auguste ; ainsi que sur les aspects novateurs de cette initiative (choix politique et religieux, decision personnelle et non du Senat…)

Making History with Coins: Nero from a Numismatic Perspective

Analysis of the coinage during Neros reign as Roman emperor reveals a much less uniform image of Nero than is usually depicted in historical literature. The case of Nero exemplifies the importance of an interdisciplinary methodological framework. A “pick and mix” numismatic methodology devised in support of a Neronian ideology gleaned via literary evidence may lead to a superficially convincing image of the emperor, but it will not do justice to the complexities surrounding his reign.

An accidental tourist? Caracalla's fatal trip to the temple of the Moon at Carrhae/Harran

The circumstances surrounding Caracalla’s death in AD 217 remain confusing. In particular the presence of the emperor near the famous temple of the Moon at Carrhae-Harran has led to much scholarly speculation. Often a preference for ‘the East’ has been put forward to explain Caracalla’s actions. This paper discusses the various possibilities why he decided to visit this specific temple, and argues that the episode ought to be understood through a combination of religious notions and individual, ‘political’ needs and conveniences which would have made it impossible for this emperor not to go to a deity whose local cult stood for total, universal power. In the process, this article also provides some clarity regarding the contradictory sources describing the events.

Reversed Epiphanies: Roman Emperors Deserted by Gods

According to Suetonius, the emperor Galba was twice visited by the goddess Fortuna in his dreams. At the second occasion, she withdrew her support, preceding Galba’s fall. This type of epiphany is rare for Roman emperors, but not unique. The emperor Domitian, too, was visited in his dream by his favourite goddess Minerva, who stated that she was about to abandon him. This article aims to place the passages discussing these dreams in a wider context of Roman ways of dealing with emperors and gods. It will argue that the closer the link between emperor and god was, the more important it became for the god to voluntarily withdraw before an emperor could be dethroned. In doing so, the article draws a parallel to the Roman notion of evocatio in order to understand these ‘reversed epiphanies’ in which gods appear solely to state that they are leaving.

The Size of History: Coincidence, Counterfactuality and Questions of Scale in History

Historians try to interpret the past by analysing patterns in human behaviour in earlier periods of time. In some ways, that excludes ‘coincidence’ as a mode of interpretation. Most historians view coincidences as closely related events that lack causal relationship. That type of coincidence does not fit into a historical narrative, because historians tend to focus on causality, action, and consequence. This is noticeably linked to questions of historical scale: the choice for the scale of a specific narrative decides whether certain events are coincidental to the history which is being described, or causal factors within that history. This relation between historical coincidence and the scale of writing history is at the centre of this contribution. It focuses on different trends in writing history, and analyses the possibilities to use ‘coincidence’ as an interpretative tool in each of them. In doing so, this article discusses counterfactual historical analysis (‘what if history’), determinist views of history and their relation to speculative philosophy of history, ‘cliodynamics’ and ‘big history’. It ultimately argues for historical accounts that pay attention to both the large processes that are likely to lead to certain trajectories, and the enormous number of micro-causes that triggered the events as they happened. Coincidence might fall outside of the analysis of (macro-) historians who are looking for a comprehensive view of historical processes, but could still play a proper role in thinking about historical trajectories.

Son of two fathers? Trajan and the adoption of emperorship in the Roman Empire

Roman imperial succession was in practice a dynastic system. Since the Roman Empire had a high rate of child-mortality, many of the rulers did not have surviving biological sons. This made adoption a standard method of appointing an heir. There was, however, a clear preference for consanguineals when adopting someone into the imperial family. The only exception to this practice of adopting a family member as imperial successor was the adoption by the emperor Nerva (96–98) of Trajan (98–117). This article analyses some of the possible motives for this break with precedent, and the consequences for the ways in which imperial ancestry was represented. There was a noticeable emphasis on Trajans biological father, the Elder Trajan, towards the end of the emperors reign, but not similarly pronounced in all ancient ‘media’. Attention to the Elder Trajan was limited to Rome, where the new form of imperial adoption seems to have led to discussions about the relative merits of succession by adoption or through bloodline. These discussions are not traceable to the provinces, where images of imperial ancestry stuck to precedent. The mixed messages from the centre were apparently not sufficient to change local expectations.

Honouring ancestors: the dynamic of deification

The expenditures of funerals can be easily joked about as attested by the quote from Ambrose Bierce. The emphasis on the divinity of the dynasty was paramount. One could even make the argument that this section of Trajans restoration series was aimed at higher echelons of society, since they are issued in gold, whereas the prototypes were denarii, and the Flavians and Nerva struck their restoration coins in bronze, following bronze prototypes. Finally, the dynastic framework behind the adoptive system further increased the prominence of the imperial women, whose family ties were paramount in the succession policy. Keywords: deification; echelons; Flavians; Nerva; Trajan