Author: Johanna Kay Sandrock

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13:

The use of Greco-Roman mythology on funerary monuments is characteristic of the Roman provinces of Noricum and Pannonia. This dissertation examines the reasons for the high concentration of mythological funerary reliefs in these areas during the second century C.E. The work is divided into three main parts: an annotated catalog of 145 monuments, a corresponding photographic catalog, and a commentary in which I discuss the contributions this body of evidence can make in the area of Roman frontier studies. I look at factors including the public nature of these monuments, the nature of the myths depicted, and the appearance of Celtic elements in funerary sculpture. I examine the use of these monuments in a socio-historical context. The Danube River formed the northern border of both provinces and the eastern border of Pannonia. In the second century C.E., this limes was fortified against the Germanic tribes that were advancing from the north and the east. The barbarians could not attack Italy without crossing through one or both of these provinces. As a result Noricum and Pannonia became two of the most strategically important provinces in the empire. I conclude that funerary monuments in these provinces were a means of securing native support in Rome's efforts against the threatening barbarian tribes. The Roman administration accomplished this by graphically exploiting the similarities between Roman and Celtic culture, including belief in an afterlife connected with the heavens, hope for reunion with loved ones after death, and the notions of heroic ideal and of civic pride. Greco-Roman myths appealed to the native population, by drawing on the culture that the Celts had brought with them from the west in the fourth century B.C.E., and by incorporating elements that still had meaning for them in the first and second centuries C.E. Through the medium of funerary sculpture, the cultural boundaries between the Celts and Romans were erased, thus making the borders of the provinces stronger against barbarians who did not share the same cultural identity.