The Theatre of Pompey, and in particular a group of female statues displayed in it, has drawn renewed interest among scholars in the last twenty years or so.Footnote 1 The present paper intends to unravel the reasoning behind this specific collection, in line with other comparable phenomena, influenced by a particular idea of the time.
In a paper published over twenty years agoFootnote 2 I discussed ‘three groups of (multiples of) seven which may conceivably have formed part of Varro's collection’ in his Hebdomades uel de imaginibus. These were two miniatures containing seven portraits each of doctor-pharmacologists in the famous, illustrated Vienna codex of Dioscurides (Vindob. Med. Gr. 1, olim Constantinopolitanus), the enumeration and brief description of the careers of fourteen Greek and barbarian kings at the end of the first edition of Nepos’ book on foreign generals (ch. 21), and the fourteen warrior women whose careers are the subject of an anonymous Tractatus de mulieribus. These groups have been brought to the attention of readers with the ‘purpose … to elicit from other scholars’ card-indexes/databases more possible groups of candidates’. In addition I discussed some years later another group of fourteen statues personifying the various vanquished nations in Pompey's Porticus ad nationes.Footnote 3 That insight was part of one of the main theses of that book, namely the influence of Varro's enthralment with and manipulation of the number seven in his Hebdomades on the Forum Augustum.Footnote 4 Even though Pompey opened his theatreFootnote 5 with the adjacent portico already in 55,Footnote 6 thus antedating by about a decade and a half the publication of Varro's treatise, it has been suggested there that ‘it is not altogether impossible that Varro's fascination with hebdomads considerably pre-dated the publication of the Imagines.’Footnote 7 Regrettably, it has escaped my notice that indeed another group of fourteen statues were displayed in the very same location, thus adding considerable weight to the conjecture that the number fourteen of the statues of the nations commissioned from CoponiusFootnote 8 was indeed due to the attraction of that number and not to chance, and that Varro's influence was really of importance in conceiving the arrangement of Pompey's project.Footnote 9
This gallery of fourteen female statues is derived essentially from Tatian. Tatian (a self-described ‘Assyrian’) had been a typical representative of the Second Sophistic, but was converted in Rome by Justin Martyr and became a Christian apologist, and as such authored an Oratio ad Graecos.Footnote 10 One of the targets of his venomous attacks against the upholders of the Greek religion was the moral decrepitude of pagan women: one way of demonstrating this view was by providing a list of Greek women, as it will be argued all poets, and all contemptible and contrasted with the virtuous Christian women, by a catalogue of statues representing them (Oratio ad Graecos 33). As mentioned, this catalogue has been the subject of scholarly discussion also outside editions of the text, though, as far as I can see, it has not been noticed as a relevant detail that the number of statues was fourteen.Footnote 11
It is self-evident that Tatian did not waste time on lengthy art-historical research to assemble the references to the statues and to their sculptors, but informs us that he saw them in Rome.Footnote 12 Though in the following he mentions also numerous other statues, it is important to note that the list of fourteen women is a closed one and separated in the text from the rather mixed group of statues enumerated later, and accordingly should be considered on its own.Footnote 13 Since eight out of the fourteen women mentioned are known as poets,Footnote 14 many of them famous, it is an entirely reasonable inference that we have a list of female poets (conceivably including women erroneously considered or intentionally introduced as such; see below).Footnote 15
It has been long conjecturedFootnote 16 that this collection must have been displayed in the porticus adjacent to the Theatre of Pompey: Pliny (HN 7.34) tells us that there were displayed among the statues illustrating marvels in that location one of Eutychis, who had given birth to thirty children and was carried to her funeral at Tralles by the twenty survivors among them, and of Alcippe, who gave birth to an elephant. These statues are in all probability identical with two statues mentioned by Tatian in the later part of his text,Footnote 17 Glaucippe (a slight textual difference) who had given birth to an elephant (33.9), and an unnamed woman who had borne thirty boys (34.3). It is therefore an obvious conclusion that Tatian saw all the statues mentioned in his speech in one site, and I will now provide further circumstantial support for this location being the porticus of the Theatre of Pompey.
Since the authenticity of the inventory had been doubted, it is worthwhile to list briefly Tatian's catalogue with minimal annotation:Footnote 18
1. Praxilla, lyric poet, fl. c.450,Footnote 19 by the famous LysippusFootnote 20
2. Learchis, otherwise unknown, by MenestratusFootnote 21
3. Sappho by SilanionFootnote 22
4. Erinna of Lesbos, poet,Footnote 23 by Naucydes of ArgosFootnote 24
5. Myrtis of Anthedon, reputedly teacher of Pindar and Corinna,Footnote 25 by BoiscusFootnote 26
6. Myro (Moero) of Byzantium, poet, late fourth/early third century,Footnote 27 by Cephisodotus the Younger, son of PraxitelesFootnote 28
7. Praxagoris, otherwise unknown, by Gomphus, otherwise unknown
8. CleitoFootnote 29 by Amphistratus, of the time of AlexanderFootnote 30
9. Anyta of Tegea, poet, c.300,Footnote 31 by EuthycratesFootnote 32 and Cephisodotus (see above)
10. Telesilla of Argos, poet, c.500,Footnote 33 by NiceratusFootnote 34
11. MystisFootnote 35 by Aristodotus, otherwise unknown
12. Mnesarchis of Ephesus, otherwise unknown, by Euthycrates (see above)
13. Corinna of Tanagra, poet of contested date,Footnote 36 by Silanion (see above)
14. Thaliarchis, otherwise unknown, by Euthycrates (see above)
A few words about the unidentified persons and otherwise unattested names are indicated.Footnote 37 Learchis is otherwise unattested, but the name Learchos occurs at a number of locations; a similar situation prevails with Thaliarchis and the frequent Thaliarchos, Mnesarchis and the frequent Mnesarchos (also Mnesarche is attested), Praxagoris (both Praxagora and Praxagoras are widely attested); beside the otherwise unattested Mystis we possess Mysta, Mystes and Mystos.Footnote 38 On the basis of the far smaller evidence for female than for male names these singular occurrences should be viewed with a positive attitude, though admittedly the ending of all the names in -is (of course a highly common formation) may be somewhat troubling. As for the names of the unknown sculptors, Boiscus is a very frequently occurring name, while the absence of both Aristodotus and GomphusFootnote 39 from the published volumes of LGPN may be explained in various ways, always keeping in mind our very partial information regarding antiquity.Footnote 40 If the statues were shipped from abroad, they came without their bases and these, with their inscriptions, must have been provided in Rome. Names could be added to generic statues and one cannot discard the possibility that dealers may have taken advantage of Pompey's and/or Varro's interest in statues of female poets.Footnote 41
Kalkmann's hypothesis, that the otherwise unknown poets and sculptors in Tatian's list point to forgery or deceit, seems to me unwarranted.Footnote 42 It is of course very likely that some poets and sculptors would be not well known and attested only once:Footnote 43 the most learned Varro may have included some obscure poets in his list, probably wishing to arrive at a multiple of seven, and it is not impossible, as suggested above, that these included fake attributions. One may also conjecture that some people may have taken advantage of the situation when the super-rich Pompey and/or his agents were looking for statues, and attributed generic statues to poets—in extreme cases perhaps even to invented ones—or allotted statues in their possession to renowned (or, again, perhaps in some cases to invented) sculptors.Footnote 44 For our purposes it should be sufficient to assume that the fourteen statues were assembled by Pompey or his agents in the honest belief that they all represented female poets.
A complication arising from our list is connected with a text that partially corresponds with it. Antipater of Thessalonica, the well-known Augustan epigrammatist,Footnote 45 compares in an epigram (Anth. Pal. 9.26, GP no. 19) nine earthly Muses, that is, female poets thus styled by him, with the nine heavenly ones. His poets are Praxilla, Moero, Anyta, Sappho, Erinna, Telesilla, Corinna, Nossis and Myrtis. Eight of the nine correspond with the eight known poets in Tatian's list, with the famous Hellenistic epigrammatist NossisFootnote 46 added. The similarity between the two lists has been noted and it was proposed to substitute Nossis for the unknown Mystis in the text of Tatian. This has been widely accepted.Footnote 47 However, almost half a century ago an inscription has been found in a location associated with the porticus of Pompey attesting Mystis,Footnote 48 and this should put an end to the unwarranted substitution of Nossis.Footnote 49 Antipater may well have got the idea for his epigram while strolling in the porticus of Pompey, though of course alternatively it is not inconceivable that both Varro and Antipater had before them a list of eight female poets, and each supplemented it according to his numerical fancy or his wish to parallel the poets with the Muses.Footnote 50 Obviously one must remember that Antipater was constrained by the number nine for his Muses: the inclusion of Nossis, with whose poetry he may well have been acquainted (if not from an edition of her poems, then from her fairly prominent position in the Garland of Meleager), is only proof for his appreciation of her but by no means attestation that she was part of the display in Rome. The exhibition of the statues may have given Antipater his idea, but did not in any way compel him to abide by Varro's (and Pompey's) choice.
We may sum up. Beside the statues of the fourteen vanquished nationes commissioned from Coponius in the porticus of Pompey there were also displayed the statues of fourteen women believed to be, or presented as, Greek poets, many of them attributed to famous sculptors.Footnote 51 The two groups support each other:Footnote 52 even though the number of the one group of nationes had to be forced in order to arrive at that number,Footnote 53 the group of female poets strongly supports the Varronian origin of both of these sets. The express reference to Coponius’ fourteen nationes makes it highly unlikely to ascribe the identical number of the women's statues to mere coincidence, especially considering the connections between Pompey and Varro. By all accounts Varro must have been at a fairly early stage of the planning or preparation of his scheme, and the groups discussed here may well have influenced its later completion. In any event it is remarkable that the two groups together suggest a greater share of women of the Hebdomades than commonly assumed and thus may also increase the likelihood of a Varronian provenance for the Warrior Women. It also supports, despite the masculine title, the inclusion of female statues among the summi uiri of the Forum of AugustusFootnote 54 and the influence of Varro on the Augustan scheme. To what extent Varro's concept may reflect on, or influence, the status of women in Late Republican and Augustan Rome may belong to a more extensive discussion.
