On the Unreality of the Actian Arch: Reassessing the Celebration of Actium in and beyond Rome (20 min)
Presenters
Anne Hrychuk Kontokosta, New York University
Abstract
It is widely accepted that
the Battle of Actium (31 B.C.E.) was a pivotal historical event that
effectively brought an end to the political norms of the Roman republic and
laid the foundations for the Principate. Despite the social and political
importance of this victory, it is also commonly held that aside from his triple
triumph, Octavian/Augustus refrained from permanently and overtly celebrating
his civil war victory in Rome, relying instead on subtle symbolic and
metaphorical references in the Capital (dolphins, tripods, rostra, etc.) and
reserving grandiose victory monuments for far-flung locals with foreign or
veteran audiences, most famously at Nikopolis. Interpretations of a
freestanding arch, the so-called Actian Arch, granted to Octavian by the Senate
in 31 B.C.E. and possibly depicted on a denarius with a single bay arch minted
in 29–27 B.C.E., have been influenced by this traditional narrative. Many have
argued that the Actian Arch stood only for a short time at the southeast corner
of the Forum Romanum before it was either torn down or integrated into the less
politically-contentious Parthian Arch, thereby aligning with what Paul Zanker
labeled the end of Octavian's self-aggrandizing “triumviral style.”
This paper reassesses the
literary, numismatic, and archaeological evidence for an Actian Arch in Rome,
as well as the context in which it would have been constructed. It questions
whether this frequently cited monument was ever built in Rome and proposes that
the arch depicted on the denarius of 29–27 B.C.E. was instead set up in
Brindisium, the port city from which Octavian’s troops embarked for Actium.
Finally, it situates the possible Brindisium arch within a growing corpus of
prominent and long-standing Actian victory monuments that together demand a
reevaluation of Roman attitudes toward Actium and the public reception of
Actian victory monuments, both inside and outside the capital.
AIA-8D