Dedication to the emperor Aurelian

Photogallery

Dedication to the emperor Aurelian
Dedication to the emperor Aurelian
Section II. Emperors and the Imperial House

This base for a statue with a dedication to the emperor Lucius Domitius Aurelianus Pius Felix Augustus (270-275 A.D.), father of the country, may date from 271, the year in which for the first time in Rome he took the office of consul, shortly after his rise to power and before he ordered the building of the new city walls of Rome. With this tribute, the people of Castrum Novum (a fortified maritime colony of Rome, possibly founded in 264 B.C. and in ruins by the beginning of the fifth century A.D.), following a decree of the members of the municipal government (decuriones) performed, like other communities of the empire, what had become a habitual formal act of homage. We are unable to assess the quality of the lost statue, but the mediocrity of the engraving and layout indicate the decline of an artisanal tradition that had left a widespread legacy of extraordinary examples of monumental writing.