The Nature of Classical Collecting: Collectors and Collections, 100 BCE – 100 CE

367 Pages·2004·10.346 MB·English

by  Alexandra Bounia

The Nature of Classical Collecting
Collectors and Collections, 100 BCE-100 CE
ALEXANDRA BOUNIA
University of the Aegean, Greece
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LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2004 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2017 by Routledge
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Bounia, Alexandra
The nature of classical collecting : collectors and
collections, 100 BCE-100 CE. - (Perspectives on collecting)
1. Collectors and collecting - History 2. Collectors and
collecting- Philosophy 3. Antiquities - Collection and
preservation - History
I. Title
069.5'09014
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bounia, Alexandra.
The nature of classical collecting : collectors and collections, 100
BCE-100 CE I Alexandra Bounia.
p. cm. - (Perspectives on collecting)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7546-0012-2 (alk. paper)
l. Classical antiquities-Collectors and collecting. 2. Civilization,
Classical-Collectors and collecting. 3. Collectors and
collecting-Philosophy. 4. Collectors and collecting-History. I.
Title. II. Series.
DE60.B68 2003
069'.5'0938--dc 21
2003052110
ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-0012-1 (hbk)
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
List of Figures
Vlll
List of Plates
X
Abbreviations
Xl
General Preface to the Series
XlV
Preface xv
Introduction 1
1 Reading Ancient Texts: methodological approaches
to interpretation and appropriation 29
Part I: Notions of Collecting in the Ancient World
2 Collecting Material Testimonies: antiquarianism and notions
of the past 45
3 'Gifts-to-Men and Gifts-to-Gods': defining (collecting) values 67
4 The Concept of the Individual as a Cultural Category: its
implications in classical collecting 105
5 Collecting in Time and Space in the Classical World 137
Part II: Classical Collectors and Collections
6 Visiting Pliny's Collection: reading a 'museum' 173
7 Poet's Gifts, Collector's Words: the epigrams of Martial 221
VI CONTENTS
8 'Luxury is Not for Everybody': collecting as a means of sharing
cultural and social identity 245
9 'Furnishing' the Collector's World: Cicero's Epistulae and the
Verrine Orations 269
Conclusions 307
Bibliography 317
Index 349
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgment is made for permission to use the following figures and
plates:
Figure 0.1 reproduced from Pearce, S.M., On Collecting: an Investigation into
Collecting in the European Tradition, Routledge, (1995), with the permission
of the author and Routledge;
Figure 1.1 reproduced from Barthes, R., The Fashion System, fig. 3.9, p. 37,
with the permission of Farrar, Strauss and Giroux;
Figures 3.5 and 3.7 reprinted from C. Morgan, Athletes and Oracles, The
Transformation of Olympia and Delphi in the Eighth Century BC, pages 27 and
128 respectively, with the permission of Cambridge University Press;
Figure 9.4 reprinted from Cicero's Verrine Oration /l.4: with notes and
vocabulary by Shelia K. Dickison (1992), with the permission of Wayne State
University Press;
Plates 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4 reprinted with the permission of the Ecole Nationale
Superieure des Beaux-Arts.
List of Figures
0.1: The European historical sequence of collecting
(after Pearce, 1995: 55). 8
1.1: The 'rhetoric of fashion'; Source: Barthes' The Fash ion
System, figure 3.9, p. 37 (after Tilley, 1990a: 174) . 30
1.2: Model of analysis of texts and collections. 40
3.1: Gift exchange as power and indebtedness (after
Leach, 1982a: 59). 71
3.2: Stucturing the parameters of value according to the
gift:commodity and sacred:profane axes, I. 84
3.3: Stucturing the parameters of value according to the
gift:commodity and sacred:profane axes, II. 85
3.4: Stucturing the parameters of value according to the
gift:commodity and sacred:profane axes, ill. 86
3.5: Ground plan of the archaeological site of Olympia
(after Morgan, 1990: 27). 91
3.6: Ground plan of the archaeological site of Delphi
(after Morgan, 1990: 128). 93
3.7: Possible arrangement of the statuary decoration in the
Temple of Hera at Olympia (after Wemicke, 1894: 114). 97
5.1: Spatial and temporal notions in linguistic terms. 148
5.2: Linguistic associations between time and space:
the 'absolute model' that contrasts past and future. 148
5.3a: Time 'meets' the individual. 149
5.3b: The individual 'meets' time. 150
5.4: Spatial and temporal relations: the 'relative model' that
contrasts before and behind (anterior and posterior). 150
5.5: Time as a horizontal notion. 152
5.6: Time as a vertical notion. 153
6.1: Model of analysis applied to Pliny's RN as a
collection/meta-language (level 2). 177
6.2: Model of analysis applied to Pliny's RN as a source
of information on collections (level 3). 178
6.3: Perception of collections as described in RN, and structured
on the axes of private:public and sacred:profane. 205
7.1: Model of analysis applied to Martial's Epigrams. 223
LIST OF FIGURES ix
7.2: Possible arrangement of a collection in the Temple of
Divus Augustus (after Lehmann, 1945: 269). 235
7.3: A schematic presentation ofMartial's poetic collection. 238
9.1: Model of analysis applied to Cicero's Verrine Orations. 271
9.2: Model of analysis applied to Cicero's Epistulae. 273
9.3: Public thefts of Verres from Sicily and Melita
(after Chevallier, 1991: 115-116). 278
9.4: Map of Sicily (after Dickison, 1992: ii). 283
List of Plates
3.1: Ground plan of the treasury of the Cnidians in Delphi
(as reconstructed by Toumaire, 1902). 87
3.2: Ground plan of the treasury of the Athenians in Delphi
(as reconstructed by Toumaire, 1902). 88
3.3: Graphic reconstruction of the fac;ade of the Treasury of
Cnidos, with Caryatids, Delphi (after Toumaire, 1902). 89
3.4: Graphic reconstruction of the ancient site of Delphi
(as in Toumaire, 1902). 95
Abbreviations
AAHG Anzeiger fii.r Altertumswissenshaft, hrsg. van der
Osterreichischen Humanistischen Gesellschaft,
Innsbruck, Wagner.
ad Attic. Marcus Tullius Cicero, Ad Atticum.
ad Fam. Marcus Tullius Cicero, Ad Familiares.
ad Luci[. Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium.
AJA American Journal of Archaeology, New York,
Archaeological Institute of America.
AJPh American Journal of Philology (Baltimore).
ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der Romischen Welt, Berlin.
AP Anthologia Graeca (=Palatina), edited by Beckby,
4Bde, Munich, 2nd edn, 1965-1968.
Appian BellCiv Appian, Bella Civilia.
Arist., Cael. Aristotle, De caelo.
Arist., De part. an,. Aristotle, De partibus animalium.
Ari st., Inc. Aristotle, De incessu animalium.
Augustine, Cat. Augustine, De Catechizandis Rudibus (399 CE).
BCH Bulletin de Correspondence Hellenique,
Paris, de Boccard.
BICS Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies.
BSA Annual of the British School at Athens.
Bude Collection des Universites de France, publiee sous le
patronage de I' Association Guillaume Bude (Paris).
CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (Berlin, 1863).
CRAI Comptes rendus de l'Academie des Inscriptions
et Belles-Lettres, Paris, Klincksieck.
De brev. vit. Lucius Annaeus Seneca, De brevitate vitae (D ial. 10 ).
De invent. M. T. Cicero, De inventione.
De Leg. M. T. Cicero, De Legibus.
De Off M. T. Cicero, De Officiis.
Demetrius, Eloc. Demetrius [Phalereus ], De Elocutione = IlEQ(
'Egµ TJVE(ac;.
Dessau /LS H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, Berlin, 1892-
1916.
Div. M. T. Cicero, De divinatione.
EAD Explorations Arhaeologiques de Delos.
Ep. Epistles (o f Horace, Pliny the Younger, or other
authors).
Eu. Aeschylus, Eumenides.
ABBREVIATIONS
XII
FdD Fouilles de Delphes.
FGrH Jacoby, F. et al. (eds), Die Fragmente der griechischen
Historiker, in progress, Leiden, 1923.
Fin. M. T. Cicero, de Finibus.
frg. fragment(s).
Fronto, Nab. Marcus Cornelius Fronto, edn S. A. Naber (Leipzig,
1867).
FS R. Barthes, The Fashion System, translated by M. Ward
and R. Howard, Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1990.
Geo. Vergilius Maro, Publius, Georgics.
GRBS Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, Durham, North
Carolina.
!Delos Inscriptions de Delos (I 926, Paris: Champion); (1929,
edited by Durrbach, F., Paris: Champion); (1950, edited
by Plassart, A., Paris: Champion); (1972, edited by
Courpy, J., Paris: Depositaire Editions E. de Boccard).
JI. Homer, Iliad.
Inst. Grat. Quintilianus, Marcus Fabius, Jnstitutio Oratoria.
JDAI Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archaologischen Instituts,
Berlin, de Gruyter.
JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies, London.
Josephus, Bel/Jud Josephus, Bel/um Judaicum.
JRA Journal of Roman Archaeology.
JRS Journal of Roman Studies, London.
L.L. Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina.
Loeb CL The Loeb Classical Library (co-published by William
Heinemann, London, and the Harvard University Press
in Cambridge Mass.).
LS Long, A.A. and Sedley, D.N., 1987, The Hellenistic
Philosophers, 2 vols, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
MDAI (R.) Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archdologischen Instituts
(Rom. Abt.), Berlin, Mann.
MEFR Melanges d 'Archeologie et d 'Histoire de I 'Ecole
Fram;aise de Rome, Paris, de Boccard.
MEFRA Melanges d 'Archeologie et d 'Histoire de I 'Ecole
Franr;aise de Rome, Antiquite, Paris, de Boccard.
Mem. Xenophon, Memorabilia Socratis.
Met. Ovidius Naso, Publius, Metamorphoses.
Od. Homer, Odyssey.
OLD Oxford Latin Dictionary, edited by P. G. W.
Glare, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976-1982.
PCPhS Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society.
Phys. Aristotle, Physics.