Constantius I
‘Chlorus’
–
Roman Emperor
: 305-306
A.D.
Bronze Follis 25mm (7.88 grams) Lugdunum mint: 302-304 A.D.
Reference: RIC 164a (VI, Lugdunum)
CONSTANTIVSNOBC – Laureate, cuirassed bust right.
GENIOPOPVLIROMANI Exe: B/PLG – Genius standing left, sacrificing over
altar and
holding cornucopia.
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The cornucopia (from Latin cornu copiae)
or horn of plenty is a symbol of abundance and
nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container
overflowing with produce, flowers, nuts, other edibles,
or wealth in some form. Originating in
classical antiquity
, it
has continued as a symbol in
Western art
, and it is
particularly associated with the
Thanksgiving
holiday in
North America
.
Allegorical
depiction of the Roman goddess
Abundantia
with a cornucopia, by
Rubens
(ca.
1630)
In
Mythology
Mythology
offers
multiple
explanations of the origin
of the cornucopia. One of the best-known involves the
birth and nurturance of the infant
Zeus
, who had to be
hidden from his devouring father
Cronus
. In a cave on
Mount Ida
on the island
of
Crete
, baby Zeus was
cared for and protected by a number of divine
attendants, including the goat
Amalthea
(“Nourishing
Goddess”), who fed him with her milk. The suckling
future king of the gods had unusual abilities and
strength, and in playing with his nursemaid accidentally
broke off one of her
horns
, which then had
the divine power to provide unending nourishment, as the
foster mother had to the god.
In another myth, the cornucopia was created when
Heracles
(Roman
Hercules
) wrestled with
the river god
Achelous
and wrenched
off one of his horns; river gods were sometimes depicted
as horned. This version is represented in the
Achelous and Hercules
mural painting
by the
American Regionalist
artist
Thomas Hart Benton
.
The cornucopia became the attribute of several
Greek
and
Roman deities
,
particularly those associated with the harvest,
prosperity, or spiritual abundance, such as
personifications of Earth (Gaia
or
Terra
); the child
Plutus
, god of riches
and son of the grain goddess
Demeter
; the
nymph
Maia
; and
Fortuna
, the goddess of
luck, who had the power to grant prosperity. In
Roman Imperial cult
,
abstract Roman deities who fostered peace (pax
Romana) and prosperity were also depicted
with a cornucopia, including
Abundantia
, “Abundance”
personified, and
Annona
, goddess of the
grain supply to the city of Rome
.
Pluto
, the classical
ruler of the underworld in the
mystery religions
, was
a giver of agricultural, mineral and spiritual wealth,
and in art often holds a cornucopia to distinguish him
from the gloomier
Hades
, who holds a
drinking horn
instead.
Modern depictions
In modern depictions, the cornucopia is typically a
hollow, horn-shaped wicker basket filled with various
kinds of festive
fruit
and
vegetables
. In North
America, the cornucopia has come to be associated with
Thanksgiving
and the
harvest. Cornucopia is also the name of the annual
November Wine and Food celebration in
Whistler
, British
Columbia, Canada. Two cornucopias are seen in the
flag
and
state seal
of
Idaho
. The Great
Seal
of
North Carolina
depicts
Liberty standing and Plenty holding a cornucopia. The
coat of arms of
Colombia
,
Panama
,
Peru
and
Venezuela
, and the Coat
of Arms of the State of
Victoria, Australia
,
also feature the cornucopia, symbolising prosperity.
The horn of plenty is used on body art and at
Halloween, as it is a symbol of fertility, fortune and
abundance.
-
Base of a statue of
Louis XV of France
Head of a genius worshipped by Roman soldiers (found
at
Vindobona
, 2nd
century CE)
In
ancient Roman religion
,
the genius was the individual instance of a
general divine nature that is present in every
individual person, place, or thing.
Winged genius facing a woman with a
tambourine and mirror, from southern Italy,
about 320 BC.
Nature of the genius
The rational powers and abilities of every human
being were attributed to their soul, which was a
genius. Each individual place had a genius (genius
loci) and so did powerful objects, such
as volcanoes. The concept extended to some specifics:
the genius of the theatre, of vineyards, and of
festivals, which made performances successful, grapes
grow, and celebrations succeed, respectively. It was
extremely important in the Roman mind to propitiate the
appropriate genii for the major undertakings and events
of their lives.
Specific genii
Bronze genius depicted as
pater familias
(1st century CE)
Although the term genius might apply to any
divinity whatsoever, most of the higher-level and state
genii had their own well-established names.
Genius applied most often to individual places or
people not generally known; that is, to the smallest
units of society and settlements, families and their
homes. Houses, doors, gates, streets, districts, tribes,
each one had its own genius.The supreme hierarchy
of the Roman gods, like that of the Greeks, was modelled
after a human family. It featured a father,
Jupiter
(“father god”),
who, in a
patriarchal society
was
also the supreme divine unity, and a mother,
Juno
, queen of the
gods. These supreme unities were subdivided into
genii for each individual family; hence, the
genius of each female, representing the female
domestic reproductive power, was a Juno. The male
function was a Jupiter.
The juno was worshipped under many titles:
- Iugalis, “of marriage”
- Matronalis, “of married women”
- Pronuba, “of brides”
- Virginalis, “of virginity”
Genii were often viewed as protective spirits,
as one would propitiate them for protection. For
example, to protect infants one propitiated a number of
deities concerned with birth and
childrearing
: Cuba (“lying down to
sleep”), Cunina (“of the cradle”) and Rumina
(“of breast-feeding”). Certainly, if those genii
did not perform their proper function well, the infant
would be in danger.
Hundreds of lararia, or family shrines, have
been discovered at
Pompeii
, typically off
the
atrium
, kitchen or
garden, where the smoke of burnt offerings could vent
through the opening in the roof. A lararium was
distinct from the penus (“within”), another
shrine where the
penates
, gods
associated with the storerooms, was located. Each
lararium features a panel fresco containing the same
theme: two peripheral figures (Lares)
attend on a central figure (family genius) or two
figures (genius and Juno) who may or may
not be at an altar. In the foreground is one or two
serpents crawling toward the genius through a
meadow motif.
Campania
and
Calabria
preserved an
ancient practice of keeping a propitious house snake,
here linked with the genius. In another,
unrelated fresco (House
of the Centenary) the snake-in-meadow appears
below a depiction of
Mount Vesuvius
and is
labelled Agathodaimon, “good
daimon
“, where
daimon must be regarded as the Greek equivalent of
genius.
History of the concept
Origin
Etymologically
genius
(“household
guardian spirit”) has the same derivation as nature
from
gēns
(“tribe”,
“people”) from the
Indo-European
root
*gen-, “produce.”
It is the indwelling nature of an
object or class of objects or events that act with a
perceived or hypothesized unity. Philosophically the
Romans did not find the paradox of the one being many
confusing; like all other prodigies they attributed it
to the inexplicable mystery of divinity. Multiple events
could therefore be attributed to the same and different
divinities and a person could be the same as and
different from his genius. They were not
distinct, as the later guardian angels, and yet the
Genius Augusti was not exactly the same as
Augustus either. As a natural outcome of these
beliefs, the pleasantness of a place, the strength of an
oath, an ability of a person, were regarded as intrinsic
to the object, and yet were all attributable to
genius; hence all of the modern meanings of the
word. This point of view is not attributable to any one
civilization; its roots are lost in prehistory. The
Etruscans had such beliefs at the beginning of history,
but then so did the Greeks, the native Italics and many
other peoples in the near and middle east.
Genii under the monarchy
No literature of the monarchy has survived, but later
authors in recounting its legends mention the genius.
For example, under
Servius Tullius
the
triplets
Horatii
of Rome fought
the triplets Curiatii of
Alba Longa
for the
decision of the war that had arisen between the two
communities. Horatius was left standing but his sister,
who had been betrothed to one of the Curiatii, began to
keen, breast-beat and berate Horatius. He executed her,
was tried for murder, was acquitted by the Roman people
but the king made him expiate the Juno of his sister and
the Genius Curiatii, a family genius.
Republican genii
The genius appears explicitly in Roman
literature relatively late as early as
Plautus
, where one
character in the play,
Captivi
, jests that
the father of another is so avaricious that he uses
cheap Samian ware in sacrifices to his own genius,
so as not to tempt the genius to steal it.In this
passage, the genius is not identical to the
person, as to propitiate oneself would be absurd, and
yet the genius also has the avarice of the
person; that is, the same character, the implication
being, like person, like genius.
Implied geniuses date to much earlier; for example,
when
Horatius Cocles
defends
the
Pons Sublicius
against
an Etruscan crossing at the beginning of the
Roman Republic
, after
the bridge is cut down he prays to the Tiber to bear him
up as he swims across: Tiberine pater te, sancte,
precor …, “Holy father Tiber, I pray to you ….”
The Tiber so addressed is a genius. Although the
word is not used here, in later literature it is
identified as one.
Horace
describes the genius as “the companion which controls
the natal star; the god of human nature, in that he is
mortal for each person, with a changing expression,
white or black”.
Imperial genii
Octavius Caesar
on
return to Rome after the final victory of the
Roman Civil War
at the
Battle of Actium
appeared to the Senate to be a man of great power and
success, clearly a mark of divinity. In recognition of
the prodigy they voted that all banquets should include
a libation to his genius. In concession to this
sentiment he chose the name
Augustus
, capturing the
numinous meaning of English “august.” This line of
thought was probably behind the later vote in 30 BC that
he was divine, as the household cult of the Genius
Augusti dates from that time. It was propitiated at
every meal along with the other household numina.The
vote began the tradition of the
divine emperors
;
however, the divinity went with the office and not the
man. The Roman emperors gave ample evidence that they
personally were neither immortal nor divine.
Inscription on votive altar to the genius
of
Legio VII Gemina
by L. Attius Macro (CIL
II 5083)
If the
genius
of the
imperator
, or
commander of all troops, was to be propitiated, so was
that of all the units under his command. The provincial
troops expanded the idea of the genii of state;
for example, from Roman Britain have been found altars
to the genii of Roma, Roman aeterna,
Britannia, and to every
legion
,
cohors
,
ala
and
centuria
in
Britain, as well as to the
praetorium
of every
castra
and even to
the
vexillae
.
Inscriptional dedications to genius were not
confined to the military. From
Gallia Cisalpina
under
the empire are numerous dedications to the genii
of persons of authority and respect; in addition to the
emperor’s genius principis, were the geniuses of
patrons of freedmen, owners of slaves, patrons of
guilds, philanthropists, officials, villages, other
divinities, relatives and friends. Sometimes the
dedication is combined with other words, such as “to the
genius and honor” or in the case of couples, “to the
genius and Juno.”
Surviving from the time of the empire hundreds of
dedicatory, votive and sepulchral inscriptions ranging
over the entire territory testify to a floruit of
genius worship as an official cult. Stock phrases
were abbreviated: GPR, genio populi Romani (“to
the genius of the Roman people”); GHL, genio huius
loci (“to the genius of this place”); GDN, genio
domini nostri (“to the genius of our master”), and
so on. In 392 AD with the final victory of Christianity
Theodosius I
declared
the worship of the Genii,
Lares
and
Penates
to be treason,
ending their official terms. The concept, however,
continued in representation and speech under different
names or with accepted modifications.
Roman iconography
Coins
The genius of a corporate social body is often
a
cameo
theme on ancient
coins: a
denarius
from Spain,
76-75 BC, featuring a bust of the GPR (Genius
Populi Romani, “Genius of the Roman People”) on the
obverse
; an
aureus
of
Siscia
in
Croatia
, 270-275 AD,
featuring a standing image of the GENIUS ILLVR (Genius
Exercitus Illyriciani, “Genius of the Illyrian
Army”) on the reverse; an
aureus
of Rome, 134-138
AD, with an image of a youth holding a cornucopia and
patera (sacrificial dish) and the inscription GENIOPR,
genio populi Romani, “to the genius of the Roman
people,” on the reverse.
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Scene from Lararium, House of Iulius
Polybius, Pompeii
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Agathodaimon
(“good divinity”), genius of the
soil around Vesuvius
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Unknown Roman genius near Pompeii,
1st century BC
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Modern-era representations
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Genius of love, Meister des
Rosenromans, 1420-1430
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Genius of victory,
Michelangelo
(1475-1564
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Genius of
Palermo
,
Ignazio Marabitti, c. 1778
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Genius of liberty,
Augustin
Dumont
, 1801-1884
|
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Genius of Alexander, Marie Louise
Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1814
|
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Genius of war, Arturo Melida y
Alinara (1849-1902)
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Flavius Valerius Constantius/b>
(March 31 c. 250 – July 25, 306), also Constantius I,
was an
emperor
of the
Western Roman Empire
(305-306). He was commonly
called Chlorus (the Pale)
an epithet given to him by
Byzantine
historians. He was the father of
Constantine the Great
and initiator of the
Constantinian dynasty
.
//
History
The
Historia Augusta
says Constantius was the son of
Eutropius
, a
noble
from northern
Dardania
in modern
Serbia
, and Claudia, a niece of the emperors
Claudius II
and
Quintillus
.
Historians, however, suspect this maternal connection to
be a
genealogical
fabrication
created by his son
Constantine I
, thus connecting his family to two
rather highly regarded predecessors. His father,
however, might have been the brother of Eutropia, wife
of Maximian.
Under the emperor
Carus
, he was governor of
Dalmatia
, and Carus is said to have considered
adopting him as his heir in place of his dissolute son,
Carinus
.
In 293 the emperor
Diocletian
created the
Tetrarchy
, dividing the
Roman Empire
into
Western
and
Eastern
portions. Each would be ruled by an
Augustus
, supported by a
Caesar
. Diocletian became Augustus of the Eastern
empire, with
Galerius
as his Caesar. Constantius was appointed
Caesar to the Western Augustus,
Maximian
, and married
Theodora
, Maximian’s stepdaughter. They had six
children. Constantius divorced his first wife (or
concubine),
Helena
, by whom he already had a son,
Constantine
. Helena was probably from
Nicomedia
in Asia Minor.
He was given command of
Gaul
,
Britain
and possibly
Hispania
.
In 293, Constantius defeated the
forces of
Carausius
, who had declared himself emperor in
Britain and northern Gaul in 286, near
Bononia
. Carausius was killed by his
rationalis
Allectus
, who took command of Britain until 296,
when Constantius sent
Asclepiodotus
, a prefect of the
Praetorian Guard
, to invade the island. Allectus was
defeated and killed, and Roman rule in Britain restored.
Also in 296, Constantius fought a
battle against the
Alamanni
at the city of
Lingonae
(Langres)
in Gaul. He was shut up in the city, but was relieved by
his army after six hours, and defeated the enemy.
He
defeated them again at Vindonissa
(Windisch,
Switzerland
),
thereby strengthening the defenses of the
Rhine
frontier.
Diocletian and Maximian stepped down
as co-emperors in 305, possibly due to Diocletian’s poor
health, and the Caesars, Constantius and
Galerius
, became co-emperors. Constantius ruled the
western empire, Galerius the eastern.
Severus
and
Maximinus
Daia were appointed Caesars. Constantine,
who had hoped to be a Caesar, joined his father’s
campaigns in Gaul and Britain.
Constantius died in Britain, at
York
, in 306, and Constantine was declared emperor
by the army.
Legend
Christian
legends
As the father of Constantine, a
number of Christian legends have grown up around
Constantius.
Eusebius
‘s Life of Constantine claims that
Constantius was himself a Christian, although he
pretended to be a pagan, and while Caesar under
Diocletian, took no part in the emperor’s persecutions.
His first wife,
Helena
, is the subject of many legends, including
the finding of the
True Cross
.
British
legends
Constantius’s activities in Britain
were remembered in medieval British legend. In
Geoffrey of Monmouth
‘s
History of the Kings of Britain
(1136), he is
sent to Britain by the
Senate
after Asclepiodotus, here a British king, is
overthrown by
Coel
of Colchester. Coel submits to Constantius and
agrees to pay tribute to Rome, but dies only eight days
later. Constantius marries Coel’s daughter Helena and
becomes king of Britain. He and Helena have a son,
Constantine, who succeeds to the throne of Britain when
his father dies at York eleven years later.
The identification of Helena as British had previously
been made by
Henry of Huntingdon
,
but has no historical validity: Constantius had divorced
Helena before he went to Britain.
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