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104-454: According to legend, Mamurius was commissioned by Numa , second king of Rome , to make eleven shields identical to the sacred ancile that fell from the heavens as a pledge of Rome's destiny to rule the world. The ancile was one of the sacred guarantors of the Roman state ( pignora imperii ) , and the replicas were intended to conceal the identity of the original and so prevent its theft; it

208-649: A New Year festival, with various explanations as to how it was moved from the beginning of the month to the midpoint. The Mamuralia is named as such only in calendars and sources dating from the 4th century of the Christian era and later. On the Calendar of Filocalus (354 AD), it is placed on March 14, but by Lydus on the Ides . The earliest extant calendars place an Equirria , one of the sacral chariot races in honor of Mars, on March 14. The festival of Anna Perenna ,

312-421: A Iove quo visu missa susciperentur atque curarentur. [translated] ...[showing] with what victims, upon what days, and at what temples the sacred rites were to be performed, and from what funds the money was to be taken to defray the expenses. He also placed all other religious institutions, public and private, under the control of the decrees of the pontiff, to the end that there might be some authority to whom

416-399: A battle of wits with Jupiter himself, through an apparition whereby Numa sought to gain a protective ritual against lightning strikes and thunder. Once, when a plague was ravaging the population, a brass shield fell from the sky and was brought to Numa. He declared that Egeria had told him it was a gift from Jupiter, to be used for Rome's protection. He ordered ceremonies to give thanks for

520-529: A classical model as Botticelli does, personifications in art tend to be relatively static, and found together in sets, whether of statues decorating buildings or paintings, prints or media such as porcelain figures. Sometimes one or more virtues take on and invariably conquer vices. Other paintings by Botticelli are exceptions to such simple compositions, in particular his Primavera and The Birth of Venus , in both of which several figures form complex allegories. An unusually powerful single personification figure

624-538: A colony of the Lacedaemonians ." One of Numa's first acts was the construction of a temple of Janus as an indicator of peace and war. The temple was constructed at the foot of the Argiletum , a road in the city. After securing peace with Rome's neighbours, the doors of the temples were shut and remained so for the duration of Numa's reign, a unique case in Roman history. Another creation attributed to Numa

728-533: A day was consecrated to Mamurius on which the Salii "struck a hide in imitation of his art," that is, the blows struck by a smith. A passage from Minucius Felix indicates that the Salii struck skins as the shields were carried in procession. Two mosaics of the Imperial era have been interpreted as illustrating the rite of Mamurius. The calendar mosaic from El Djem , Tunisia ( Roman Africa ), which places March as

832-483: A detailed description of a lost painting by Apelles (4th century BC) called the Calumny of Apelles , which some Renaissance painters followed, most famously Botticelli . This included eight personifications of virtues and vices: Hope, Repentance, Perfidy, Calumny, Fraud, Rancour, Ignorance, Suspicion, as well as two other figures. Platonism , which in some manifestations proposed systems involving numbers of spirits,

936-616: A dialogue between the author and "Lady Philosophy". Fortuna and the Wheel of Fortune were prominent and memorable in this, which helped to make the latter a favourite medieval trope. Both authors were Christians, and the origins in the pagan classical religions of the standard range of personifications had been left well behind. A medieval creation was the Four Daughters of God , a shortened group of virtues consisting of: Truth, Righteousness or Justice, Mercy, and Peace. There were also

1040-606: A female personification is treated at some length, and makes speeches. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation can be regarded as personification figures, although the text does not specify what all personify. According to James J. Paxson in his book on the subject " all personification figures prior to the sixth century A.D. were ... female"; but major rivers have male personifications much earlier, and are more often male, which often extends to "Water" in

1144-684: A form of Mamers , the name of Mars in Oscan ( Latin Mavors ). The Roman personal name Mamercus was derived from Mamers , which was itself formed from doubling the vocative stem of the god's name; Mamurius would thus be related to the vocative Marmar in the Carmen Arvale , the cult song of the Arval Brothers . Mamurius Veturius would be "old Mars" as the embodiment of the year. The late Republican scholar Varro , however, takes

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1248-458: A goddess of the year ( annus ), took place on the Ides. Macrobius understood her doubled name to mean "through the year" ( perennis , English "perennial"). Jane Ellen Harrison regarded Anna Perenna as the female equivalent of Mamurius, representing the lunar year to his solar year . The Ides were supposed to be determined by the full moon , reflecting the lunar origin of the Roman calendar . On

1352-501: A life of piety and reflection. However, his father and Sabine kinsmen, including his teacher and the father of Numa's son-in-law, Marcus, along with an embassy of two senators from Rome, together persuaded him to accept. In Plutarch and Livy's account , Numa, after being summoned by the Senate from Cures, was offered the tokens of power amid an enthusiastic reception by the people of Rome. He requested, however, that an augur should divine

1456-464: A male personification for the governing assembly of free citizens, and Boule , a female one for the ruling council. These appear in art but are often hard to identify if not labelled. Personification in the Bible is mostly limited to passing phrases which can probably be regarded as literary flourishes, with the important and much-discussed exception of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs , 1–9, where

1560-609: A row. In 715 BC, after much bickering between the factions of Romulus (the Romans) and Tatius (the Sabines), a compromise was reached, and the Senate elected the Sabine Numa, who was approximately forty years of age, as the next king. At first, Numa refused the offer of kingship. He argued that Rome, under the influence of Romulus's rule, was still a country of war. It needed a ruler who would lead their armies, not someone who lived

1664-522: A single company, appointing every one their proper courts, councils, and observances. (Plutarch) William Blackstone says that Numa may be credited with "originally inventing" corporations : "They were introduced, as Plutarch says, by Numa; who finding, upon his accession, the city torn to pieces by the two rival factions of Sabines, and Romans, thought it a prudent and politic measure, to subdivide these two into many smaller ones, by instituting separate societies of every manual trade and profession." Numa

1768-546: A somehow comparable, more moral rather than legal fashion, Numa sought to associate himself with one of the roles of Vegoia in the religious system of the neighbouring Etruscans, by deciding to set the official boundaries of the territory of Rome, which Romulus had never wanted, presumably with the same concern of preserving peace. Recognizing the paramount importance of the Ancile , King Numa had eleven matching shields made, so perfect that no one, even Numa, could distinguish

1872-597: A strong element of liberty, perhaps culminating in the Statue of Liberty . The long poem Liberty by the Scottish James Thomson (1734), is a lengthy monologue spoken by the " Goddess of Liberty ", describing her travels through the ancient world, and then English and British history, before the resolution of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 confirms her position there. Thomson also wrote

1976-486: A systematic summary exposition of Roman religion: quibus hostiis, quibus diebus, ad quae templa sacra fierent atque unde in eos sumptus pecunia erogaretur. Cetera quoque omnia publica privataque sacra pontificis scitis subiecit, ut esset quo consultum plebes veniret, ne quid divini iuris negligendo patrios ritus peregrinosque adsciscendo turbaretur. Nec celestes modo caerimonias sed iusta quoque funebria placandosque manes ut idem pontificem edoceret, quaeque prodigia fulminibus

2080-403: A wise legislator. According to Livy, Numa claimed that he held nightly consultations with Egeria on the proper manner of instituting sacred rites for the city. Numa then appointed the priests for each of the deities. Plutarch suggests that he played on superstition to give himself an aura of awe and divine allure, in order to cultivate more gentle behaviour among the warlike early Romans: honoring

2184-472: A wish that the Oscan earth should not wear away Mamurius's skilled hands. Veturius is considered either an Etruscan or Oscan family name. "Mamurius Veturius" became the nickname of Marcus Aurelius Marius Augustus , a former smith or metalworker who was briefly Roman emperor in 269. The divine shield is supposed to have fallen from the sky on March 1, the first day of the month Martius , named after

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2288-473: Is depicted in Melencolia I (1514) an engraving by Albrecht Dürer . Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time ( c.  1545 ) by Agnolo Bronzino has five personifications, apart from Venus and Cupid. In all these cases, the meaning of the work remains uncertain, despite intensive academic discussion, and even the identity of the figures continues to be argued over. Around 300 BC, Demetrius of Phalerum

2392-423: Is impious to represent things Divine by what is perishable, and that we can have no conception of God but by the understanding". By tradition, Numa promulgated a calendar reform , which divided the year into twelve months according to the lunar course, but adjusted to be in accordance with the solstitial revolution. It was during this time that the months of January and February were introduced. Numa also made

2496-747: Is likely to have been connected with the Curia Saliorum Collinorum, the curia of the Colline Salii, who may have dedicated it. "Mamurius Street" appears in medieval records, and took its name from the statue. According to Pomponio Leto , the Italian humanist , the statue and "Mamurius's neighborhood" ( Vicus Mamuri) were at the Church of S. Susanna on the Quirinal Hill , though the regionary catalogues locate it nearer

2600-501: Is meant to create a memory or monimenta , "monument(s)." Therefore, Varro says, when the Salii chant Mamuri Veturi , they are symbolically referring (significant) to archaic memory. Plutarch , in an extended passage on the shields in his Life of Numa , also notes that Mamurius was invoked by the Salii, but that "some say" the phrase means not the name, but veterem memoriam , an "ancient remembrance." William Warde Fowler , in his 1899 work on Roman festivals, agreed with Mommsen that

2704-486: Is more reserved and critical. Francophone scholars A. Delatte and J. Carcopino believe the incident to be the result of a real initiative of the pythagoric sect of Rome. The fears of the Roman authorities should be explained in connection to the nature of the doctrines contained in the books, which are supposed to have contained a type of physikòs lógos , a partly moral and partly cosmological interpretation of religious beliefs that has been proven by Delatte to be proper of

2808-511: Is said to have lifted human life out of its bestial and savage state. For this reason he is represented with two faces, implying that he brought men's lives out of one sort and condition into another." Numa established the traditional occupational guilds of Rome: So, distinguishing the whole people by the several arts and trades, he formed the companies of musicians, goldsmiths, carpenters, dyers, shoemakers, skinners, braziers, and potters; and all other handicraftsmen he composed and reduced into

2912-732: Is the first writer on rhetoric to describe prosopopoeia, which was already a well-established device in rhetoric and literature, from Homer onwards. Quintilian 's lengthy Institutio Oratoria gives a comprehensive account, and a taxonomy of common personifications; no more comprehensive account was written until after the Renaissance. The main Renaissance humanists to deal with the subject at length were Erasmus in his De copia and Petrus Mosellanus in Tabulae de schematibus et tropis , who were copied by other writers throughout

3016-406: Is variously identified as Numa's first wife Tatia, or his second wife Lucretia . Pompilia is said to have married the son of the first pontifex maximus , Numa Marcius , also named Numa Marcius, and by him gave birth to the future king Ancus Marcius . Other authors, according to Plutarch, additionally gave Numa five sons, Pompo (or Pomponius ), Pinus, Calpus, Mamercus, and Numa, from whom

3120-568: Is variously interpreted as self-protection in the face of their questionable loyalty, a sign of Numa's humility, or a sign of peace and moderation. Based on Roman chronology, Numa died of old age in 672 BC. After a reign of 43 years, he was about 81 years old. At his request, he was not cremated, but instead buried in a stone coffin on the Janiculum , near the altar of Fons . Tullus Hostilius succeeded him. Rome had two kings in succession who differed in their methods. According to Livy, Romulus

3224-491: The Four Elements . The predominance of females is at least partly because Latin grammar gives nouns for abstractions the female gender. Pairs of winged victories decorated the spandrels of Roman triumphal arches and similar spaces, and ancient Roman coinage was an especially rich source of images, many carrying their name, which was helpful for medieval and Renaissance antiquarians. Sets of tyches representing

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3328-533: The Palazzo Pubblico of Siena . In the Allegory of Bad Government Tyranny is enthroned, with Avarice, Pride, and Vainglory above him. Beside him on the magistrate's bench sit Cruelty, Deceit, Fraud, Fury, Division, and War, while Justice lies tightly bound below. The so-called Mantegna Tarocchi ( c.  1465 –75) are sets of fifty educational cards depicting personifications of social classes,

3432-457: The seven virtues , made up of the four classical cardinal virtues of prudence , justice , temperance and courage (or fortitude), these going back to Plato 's Republic , with the three theological virtues of faith , hope and charity . The seven deadly sins were their counterparts. The major works of Middle English literature had many personification characters, and often formed what are called "personification allegories" where

3536-430: The 16th century. From the late 16th century theoretical writers such as Karel van Mander in his Schilder-boeck (1604) began to treat personification in terms of the visual arts . At the same time the emblem book , describing and illustrating emblematic images that were largely personifications, became enormously popular, both with intellectuals and artists and craftsmen looking for motifs. The most famous of these

3640-426: The 1870s, but now has some actual Hindu temples . Personification is found very widely in classical literature, art and drama, as well as the treatment of personifications as relatively minor deities, or the rather variable category of daemons . In classical Athens, every geographical division of the state for local government purposes had a personified deity which received some cultic attention, as well as Demos ,

3744-432: The 18th century, and such "complaints only grow louder in the nineteenth century". According to Andrew Escobedo, there is now "an unstated scholarly consensus" that "personification is a kind of frozen or hollow version of literal characters", which "depletes the fiction". Personifications, often in sets, frequently appear in medieval art , often illustrating or following literary works. The virtues and vices were probably

3848-544: The Capitolium Vetus. Numa Pompilius Numa Pompilius ( Classical Latin : [ˈnʊma pɔmˈpɪliʊs] ; c. 753–672 BC; reigned 715–672 BC) was the legendary second king of Rome , succeeding Romulus after a one-year interregnum . He was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political institutions are attributed to him, such as the Roman calendar , Vestal Virgins ,

3952-472: The Catonian reaction of those years. It is relevant though that some of the annalists of those times or only a few years later, do not seem to show any doubt about the authenticity of the books. The whole incident has been critically analyzed again by philologist E. Peruzzi, who by comparing the different versions, strives to demonstrate the overall authenticity of the books. By contrast, M.J. Pena's position

4056-637: The Christian angel. Generally, personifications lack much in the way of narrative myths , although classical myth at least gave many of them parents among the major Olympian deities . The iconography of several personifications "maintained a remarkable degree of continuity from late antiquity until the 18th century". Female personifications tend to outnumber male ones, at least until modern national personifications , many of which are male. Personifications are very common elements in allegory , and historians and theorists of personification complain that

4160-549: The French Roman de la Rose (13th century). The English mystery plays and the later morality plays have many personifications as characters, alongside their biblical figures. Frau Minne , the spirit of courtly love in German medieval literature, had equivalents in other vernaculars. In Italian literature Petrach 's Triomphi , finished in 1374, is based around a procession of personifications carried on "cars", as

4264-488: The Months"). Lydus records that an old man, addressed as Mamurius, was clothed in animal skins and beaten with white sticks, meaning branches that have been peeled, stripped of bark; in a structuralist interpretation, the peeled sticks thus reverse the covering of smooth human flesh with rough animal hides. Lydus does not state that the old man was driven out of the city, but scholars generally infer that he was. As portrayed in

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4368-604: The Roman state's founders, with Numa being the one who first "organised and enhanced [the city of Rome], by means of laws." In a similar manner, the Coptic monophysite bishop John of Nikiû likened Empress Theodora , consort of Justinian, to four prominent figures of Roman history (Romulus, Numa, Caesar, Augustus), citing her reforms aimed at eradicating prostitution. In the 11th century, Michael Psellos wrote his Chronographia with an intent to provide pedagogical models for his student, Emperor Michael VII Doukas , and when reviewing

4472-603: The Romans was buried (there) and the other that Numa's books were inside it. When Petilius after the advice of his friends opened it, the one that was inscribed with the name of the king was found empty, the other containing two bundles each of seven books, not complete but looking very recent, seven in Latin dealing with pontifical law and seven in Greek of philosophy as it was in that remote past. The books were shown to other people and

4576-415: The action going, and when the medieval versifier went out on one fine spring morning and lay down on a grassy bank, one of these ladies rarely failed to appear to him in his sleep and to explain her own nature to him in any number of lines". Personification as an artistic device is easier to discuss when belief in the personification as an actual spiritual being has died down; this seems to have happened in

4680-456: The ancient Graeco-Roman world, probably even before Christianisation . In other cultures, especially Hinduism and Buddhism , many personification figures still retain their religious significance, which is why they are not covered here. For example, Bharat Mata was devised as a Hindu goddess figure to act as a national personification by intellectuals in the Indian independence movement from

4784-414: The ancient pythagorism. Part of it must have been in contradiction with the beliefs of fulgural and augural art and of the procuratio of the prodigies. Most ancient authors relate the presence of treatises of pythagoric philosophy, but some, as Sempronius Tuditanus , mention only religious decrees. The Christian philosopher Clement of Alexandria in his book Stromata claimed that King Numa Pompilius

4888-502: The artistic practice of it has greatly declined. Among a number of key works, The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition ( 1936 ), by C. S. Lewis was an exploration of courtly love in medieval and Renaissance literature. The classical repertoire of virtues, seasons, cities and so forth supplied the majority of subjects until the 19th century, but some new personifications became required. The 16th century saw

4992-399: The countryside. According to Livy , Numa resided at Cures immediately before being elected king. Titus Livius (Livy) and Plutarch refer to the story that Numa was instructed in philosophy by Pythagoras , but discredit it as chronologically and geographically implausible. Plutarch reports that some authors credited Pompilius with only a single daughter, Pompilia . Pompilia's mother

5096-570: The cult of Mars, the cult of Jupiter, the cult of Romulus, and the office of pontifex maximus . According to Plutarch , Numa was the youngest of Pomponius's four sons, born on the day of Rome's founding (traditionally, 21 April 753 BC). He lived a severe life of discipline and banished all luxury from his home. Titus Tatius , king of the Sabines and a colleague of Romulus, gave in marriage his only daughter, Tatia , to Numa. After 13 years of marriage, Tatia died, precipitating Numa's retirement to

5200-403: The dead; and what prodigies sent by lightning or any other phenomenon were to be attended to and expiated. Livy lists the hostiae , victims, as the first competence of the pontiffs: following this come the days, temples, money, other sacred ceremonies, funerals and prodigies. Livy continues saying Numa dedicated an altar to Jupiter Elicius as the source of religious knowledge, and consulted

5304-429: The distinction of the days being either profane or sacred. Plutarch in his Parallel Lives mention that Numa Pompilius made January the first month in the calendar instead of March by the next reason: "he wished in every case that martial influences should yield precedence to civil and political. For this Janus , in remote antiquity, whether he was a demi-god or a king, was a patron of civil and social order, and

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5408-574: The earliest calendar, the Ides of March would have been the first full moon of the new year. H.S. Versnel has argued that adjustments made to the calendar over time caused the Mamuralia to be moved from an original place as the last day of the year (the day before the Kalends of March) to the day before the Ides, causing the Equirria on February 27 to be repeated on March 14. Mamurius in this view

5512-460: The early religion of the Romans, that it was imageless and spiritual. He says Numa "forbade the Romans to represent the deity in the form either of man or of beast. Nor was there among them formerly any image or statue of the Divine Being; during the first one hundred and seventy years they built temples, indeed, and other sacred domes, but placed in them no figure of any kind; persuaded that it

5616-460: The earth those who had helped to produce them". Plutarch suggest the timing could be in the memory of "Saturnian age" "when there was neither slave nor master, but all were regarded as kinsmen and equals." Plutarch depicts Numa as a powerful peacemaker. Making the Romans more peaceful was one of his main targets from the beginning of the kingship and many of his actions were directly or indirectly intended to achieve this aim. He succeeded so much that

5720-410: The fact became public. Praetor Q. Petilius, who was friends with L. Petilius, requested them, found them very dangerous to religion and told Lucius he would have them burnt, but he allowed him to try and recover them by legal or other means. The scriba brought the case to the tribunes of the plebs, and the tribunes in turn brought it to the senate. The praetor declared he was ready to swear an oath that it

5824-525: The fifth and seventeenth centuries". Late antique philosophical books that made heavy use of personification and were especially influential in the Middle Ages included the Psychomachia of Prudentius (early 5th century), with an elaborate plot centered around battles between the virtues and vices, and The Consolation of Philosophy ( c.  524 ) by Boethius , which takes the form of

5928-595: The first month, shows three men using sticks to beat an animal hide. Lydus's understanding of Mamurius may be connected to medieval lore of the wodewose or wild man of the wood, who could play a similar role in winter or new year ceremonies pertaining to Twelfth Night and carnival . A bronze statue of Mamurius stood near the Temple of Quirinus along the Alta Semita , in Regio VI Alta Semita . It

6032-463: The forbidding by Numa of making a sacrifice without a meal and from unpruned vines was intended to make people work in agriculture. Numa forbade fathers to sell their sons into slavery if the son had married according to the will of the father. According to Plutarch, Numa permitted slaves to feast with their masters during the Saturnalia , for "admitting to the enjoyment of the yearly fruits of

6136-562: The gift, and quickly brought about an end to the plague. The Ancile became a sacred relic of the Romans and was placed in the care of the Salii . Many actions and institutions are attributed to Numa. In some of them, Plutarch thought he detected a Laconian influence, attributing the connection to the Sabine culture of Numa, for "Numa was descended of the Sabines, who declare themselves to be

6240-413: The god Mars . In the earliest Roman calendar, which the Romans believed to have been instituted by Romulus , the ten-month year began with Mars' month, and the god himself was thus associated with the agricultural year and the cycle of life and death. The number of ancilia corresponds to the twelve months in the reformed calendar attributed to Numa, and scholars often interpret the Mamuralia as originally

6344-549: The god by means of auguries as to what should be expiated; he instituted a yearly festival to Fides (Faith) and commanded the three major flamines to be carried to her temple in an arched chariot and to perform the service with their hands wrapped up to the fingers, meaning Faith had to be sacred as in men's right hand; among many other rites he instituted he dedicated places of the Argei . Dionysius of Halicarnassus devotes much more space to Numa's religious reforms. In his account

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6448-476: The gods, abiding by law, behaving humanely to enemies, and living proper, respectable lives. Numa was said to have authored several "sacred books" in which he had written down divine teachings, mostly from Egeria and the Muses . Plutarch (citing Valerius Antias ) and Livy record that at his request he was buried along with these "sacred books", preferring that the rules and rituals they prescribed be preserved in

6552-506: The heavenly gods and an even number to the nether gods; the prohibition of making libations to the gods with wine; the prohibition of sacrificing without flour; the necessity of making a complete turn on oneself while praying and worshiping the gods. The ritual of the spolia opima is ascribed to Numa, too, by ancient sources. Finally, Arnobius states the indigitamenta were attributed to him. Numa mostly preferred bloodless and not costly sacrifices. Plutarch, in like manner, tells of

6656-526: The institution of eight priesthoods is attributed to Numa: curiones , flamines , celeres , augurs, vestals, salii , fetials and pontiffs. He says only a few words about the curiones , who were in charge of tending the sacrifices of the curiae ; the flamines ; the tribuni celerum , who were the bodyguard of the king but who also took part in some religious ceremonies; and the augurs , who were in charge of official divination. Plutarch records some of these, such as sacrificing an uneven number of victims to

6760-413: The invocation of the hymn and the story of the smith, but only Lydus describes the ritual as the beating of an old man. Mamurius was also supposed to have made a bronze replacement for a maple statue of Vertumnus , brought to Rome in the time of Romulus. He may have been Oscan and thought to have been buried in his homeland, since at the end of a poem about Vertumnus, Propertius has the god express

6864-573: The living memory of the state priests, rather than preserved as relics subject to forgetfulness and disuse. About half of these books—Plutarch and Livy differ on their number—were thought to cover the priesthoods he had established or developed, including the flamines , pontifices , Salii , and fetiales and their rituals. The other books dealt with philosophy ( disciplina sapientiae ). According to Plutarch, these books were recovered some four hundred years later (in reality almost five hundred years, i. e. in 181 BC according to Livy 40:29:3-14 ) at

6968-658: The lyrics for Rule Britannia , and the two personifications were often combined as a personified "British Liberty", to whom a large monument was erected in the 1750s on his estate at Gibside by a Whig magnate . But, sometimes alongside these formal figures, a new type of national personification has arisen, typified by John Bull (1712) and Uncle Sam ( c.  1812 ). Both began as figures in more or less satirical literature but achieved their prominence when taken into political cartoons and other visual media. The post-revolutionary Marianne in France, official since 1792,

7072-401: The major cities of the empire were used in the decorative arts . Most imaginable virtues and virtually every Roman province was personified on coins at some point, the provinces often initially seated dejected as "CAPTA" ("taken") after its conquest, and later standing, creating images such as Britannia that were often revived in the Renaissance or later. Lucian (2nd century AD) records

7176-540: The most common, and the virtues appear in many large sculptural programmes, for example the exteriors of Chartres Cathedral and Amiens Cathedral . In painting, both virtues and vices are personified along the lowest zone of the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto ( c.  1305 ), and are the main figures in Ambrogio Lorenzetti 's Allegory of Good and Bad Government (1338–39) in

7280-511: The myth of the ancilia, the craftsman Mamurius would seem to be a beneficent figure, and his punishment unearned. The lateness of this account has raised questions about the festival's authenticity or antiquity, since references in Republican and Imperial calendars or literary sources are absent or oblique. Lydus may have misunderstood descriptions of the Salian rites. Servius says that

7384-401: The name Mamuri Veturi as it appears in the Salian song and analyzes it within a semantic field pertaining to "memory", deriving the reduplicative verb meminisse ("to remember") from memoria ("memory"), "because that which has remained in the mind is again moved." He also places the causative verb monêre , "to warn, advise, remind," in this same group, explaining that the verbal action

7488-411: The natural world such as the trees or four seasons , four elements , four cardinal winds , five senses , and abstractions such as virtues, especially the four cardinal virtues and seven deadly sins , the nine Muses , or death . In many polytheistic early religions, deities had a strong element of personification, suggested by descriptions such as "god of". In ancient Greek religion , and

7592-627: The new personification of the Americas and made the four continents an appealing new set, four figures being better suited to many contexts than three. The 18th-century discovery of Australia was not so quickly followed by an addition to the set, if only for reasons of geometry; Australia is not included in the continents at the corners of the Albert Memorial (1860s). This does have a set of three-figure groups representing agriculture , commerce , engineering and manufacturing , typical of

7696-551: The noble families ( gentes ) of the Pomponii , Pinarii , Calpurnii , Aemilii , and Pompilii respectively traced their descent. Other more skeptical authors, still according to Plutarch, believed these were fictional genealogies to enhance the status of these families. After the death of Romulus, there was an interregnum of one year, in which members of the Senate exercised the royal power in rotation, each for five days in

7800-410: The number of two, were later augmented to four by Servius Tullius, and stayed thus through the ages. Livy and Dionysius give a largely concordant picture of the vast founding work carried out by Numa concerning Roman religion and religious institutions. Livy begins with the priesthoods which Numa established. Numa created a residentiary flamen to Jupiter endowed with regal insignia, who could carry out

7904-459: The occasion of a natural accident that exposed the tomb. They were examined by the Senate, deemed to be inappropriate for disclosure to the people, and burned. Dionysius of Halicarnassus hints that they were actually kept as a very close secret by the pontifices . Numa is reputed to have constrained the two minor gods Picus and Faunus into delivering some prophecies of things to come. Numa, supported and prepared by Egeria, reportedly held

8008-419: The opinion of the gods on the prospect of his kingship before he accepted. Jupiter was consulted, and the omens were favourable. Thus approved by the Roman and Sabine people and the heavens, he took up his position as King of Rome . According to Plutarch, Numa's first act was to disband the personal guard of 300 so-called celeres (the "Swift") with which Romulus permanently surrounded himself. This gesture

8112-600: The original from the copies. These shields were the Ancilia , the sacred shields of Jupiter, which were carried each year in a procession by the Salii priests. Numa also established the office and duties of Pontifex Maximus and instituted (Plutarch's version ) the flamen of Quirinus , in honour of Romulus, in addition to those of Jupiter and Mars that already existed. Numa also brought the Vestal Virgins to Rome from Alba Longa . Plutarch adds that they were then at

8216-515: The pageants of Lyons , a major printing center, along with "Typosine", a new muse of printing. A large gilt-bronze statue by Evelyn Beatrice Longman , something of a specialist in "allegorical" statues, was commissioned by AT&T for the top of their New York headquarters. Since 1916 it has been titled at different times as the Genius of Telegraphy , Genius of Electricity , and since the 1930s Spirit of Communication . Shakespeare's spirit Ariel

8320-403: The people should come to ask advice, to prevent any confusion in the divine worship being caused by their neglecting the ceremonies of their own country, and adopting foreign ones. He further ordained that the same pontiff should instruct the people not only in the ceremonies connected with the heavenly deities, but also in the due performance of funeral solemnities, and how to appease the shades of

8424-563: The planets and heavenly bodies, and also social classes. A new pair, once common on the portals of large churches, are Ecclesia and Synagoga . Death envisaged as a skeleton, often with a scythe and hour-glass , is a late medieval innovation, that became very common after the Black Death . However, it is rarely seen in funerary art "before the Counter-Reformation ". When not illustrating literary texts, or following

8528-547: The policies and the destiny of his predecessors and successors: Romulus who is depicted as war-king and the 5 kings after him, from which 4 were killed and 1 dethroned and expelled from Rome. Livy narrates that, in 181 BC, while digging in the field of the scriba L. Petilius at the foot of the Ianiculum , peasants found two stone coffers, eight feet long and four feet wide, inscribed both in Latin and in Greek characters, one stating that Numa Pompilus, son of Pompon, king of

8632-466: The porches of cathedrals, crowds around our public monuments, marks our coins and our banknotes, and turns up in our cartoons and our posters; these females variously attired, of course, came to life on the medieval stage, they greeted the Prince on his entry into a city, they were invoked in innumerable speeches, they quarreled or embraced in endless epics where they struggled for the soul of the hero or set

8736-409: The related ancient Roman religion , this was perhaps especially strong, in particular among the minor deities. Many such deities, such as the tyches or tutelary deities for major cities, survived the arrival of Christianity , now as symbolic personifications stripped of religious significance. An exception was the winged goddess of victory, Victoria / Nike , who developed into the visualisation of

8840-530: The requirements for large public schemes of the period. A rather late example is the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City (1901–07), which has large groups for the four continents by the entrance, and 12 figures personifying seafaring nations from history high on the facade. The invention of movable type printing saw Dame Imprimerie ("Lady Printing Press") introduced to

8944-541: The sacred functions of the royal office, which Numa usually discharged: Numa did so to avoid the neglect of the rites whenever the king went to war, for he saw the warlike attitude of the Romans. He also created the flamines of Mars and Quirinus, as well as the Vestal virgins and the twelfth Salii of Mars Gradivus . Then, he chose Numa Marcius as pontiff. To him, he bestowed all the sacred ceremonies, his books and seals. The following words of this passage have been considered

9048-538: The seven kings of Rome he lauded Numa as pious, peaceable, and "a man not only well worth seeing for his physical appearance but also equipped with all sorts of mental virtues, and a lover of all wisdom." Personification Personification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person. It is, in other words, considered an embodiment or an incarnation. In the arts , many things are commonly personified. These include numerous types of places, especially cities, countries , and continents , elements of

9152-618: The situation was even better than described in the song: "And on the iron-bound shield-handles lie the tawneyº spiders' webs"; "rust now subdues the sharp-pointed spears and two-edged swords; no longer is the blast of brazen trumpets heard, nor are the eyelids robbed of delicious sleep." According to Plutarch, any conflicts were excluded not only from Rome but from all Italy. The roads became safe and feasts and festivals prevailed. Nobody tried to hurt Numa, to take his place. When Numa died, from natural causes, people friendly to Rome come from many places to honour him. Plutarch put this in contrast to

9256-472: The story of Mamurius might be "one of those comparatively rare examples of later ritual growing itself out of myth." The name of Mamurius as chanted by the Salii in March may have become attached to the March 14 Equirria, which is omitted from sources that list the Mamuralia. The fullest description of the ritual known as the Mamuralia is given by Joannes Lydus in his 6th-century work De mensibus ("Regarding

9360-594: The two have been too often confused, or discussion of them dominated by allegory. Single images of personifications tend to be titled as an "allegory", arguably incorrectly. By the late 20th century personification seemed largely out of fashion, but the semi-personificatory superhero figures of many comic book series came in the 21st century to dominate popular cinema in a number of superhero film franchises. According to Ernst Gombrich , "we tend to take it for granted rather than to ask questions about this extraordinary predominantly feminine population which greets us from

9464-470: The whole work is an allegory, largely driven by personifications. These include Piers Plowman by William Langland ( c.  1370 –90), where most of the characters are clear personifications named as their qualities, and several works by Geoffrey Chaucer , such as The House of Fame (1379–80). However, Chaucer tends to take his personifications in the direction of being more complex characters and give them different names, as when he adapts part of

9568-521: Was naturally conducive to personification and allegory , and is an influence on the uses of it from classical times through various revivals up to the Baroque period. According to Andrew Escobedo, "literary personification marshalls inanimate things, such as passions, abstract ideas, and rivers, and makes them perform actions in the landscape of the narrative." He dates "the rise and fall of its [personification's] literary popularity" to "roughly, between

9672-401: Was a king of war while Numa was a king of peace, and thus Rome was well versed in both the arts of war and peace. Numa was traditionally celebrated by the Romans for his wisdom and piety . In addition to the endorsement by Jupiter, he is supposed to have had a direct and personal relationship with a number of deities, most famously the nymph Egeria , who, according to legend, taught him to be

9776-537: Was adopted by the sculptor Eric Gill as a personification of broadcasting, and features in his sculptures on Broadcasting House in London (opened 1932). A number of national personifications stick to the old formulas, with a female in classical dress, carrying attributes suggesting power, wealth, or other virtues. Libertas , the Roman goddess of liberty , had been important under the Roman Republic , and

9880-490: Was associated with Februarius , the month of purifications and care of the dead that originally ended the year, and represented concepts of lustration , rites of passage , and liminality . Because the name Veturius can be explained as related to Latin vetus, veteris , "old," the ritual figure of Mamurius has often been interpreted as a personification of the Old Year , and the rite as its expulsion. Mamurius may be

9984-524: Was becoming fashionable in courtly festivities; it was illustrated by many different artists. Dante has several personification characters, but prefers using real persons to represent most sins and virtues. In Elizabethan literature many of the characters in Edmund Spenser 's enormous epic The Faerie Queene , though given different names, are effectively personifications, especially of virtues. The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) by John Bunyan

10088-454: Was credited with dividing the immediate territory of Rome into pagi (villages). According to Plutarch, he divided the existing land among indigent people in Rome, and persuaded them to work in agriculture, thinking it would reduce aggressivity, and eliminate poverty and consequently crime. He considered agriculture as an occupation that "fostering character rather than wealth". Plutarch suggests,

10192-516: Was influenced by Mosaic law, and due to this refrained from making human images in sculpture. Modern scholars do not accept this claim, as there were no known contacts between the early Kings of Rome and the ancient Hebrews. Numa Pompilius continued to be remembered well into the later centuries of the Eastern Roman Empire. Composing Novellae Constitutiones , 6th-century Emperor Justinian I recalled Numa alongside Romulus as two of

10296-515: Was not a good thing either to read or to store those books, and the senate deliberated that the offer of the oath was sufficient by itself, that the books be burnt on the Comitium as soon as possible and that an indemnity fixed by the praetor and the tribunes be paid to the owner. L. Petilius though declined to accept the sum. The books were burnt by the victimarii . The action of the praetor has been seen as politically motivated, and in accord with

10400-513: Was somewhat uncomfortably co-opted by the empire; it was not seen as an innate right, but as granted to some under Roman law. She had appeared on the coins of the assassins of Julius Caesar , defenders of the Roman republic . The medieval republics, mostly in Italy, greatly valued their liberty, and often use the word, but produce very few direct personifications. With the rise of nationalism and new states, many nationalist personifications included

10504-457: Was the Iconologia of Cesare Ripa , first published unillustrated in 1593, but from 1603 published in many different illustrated editions, using different artists. This set at least the identifying attributes carried by many personifications until the 19th century. From the 20th century into the 21st, the past use of personification has received greatly increased critical attention, just as

10608-404: Was the cult of Terminus , a god of boundaries. Through this rite, which involved sacrifices at private properties, boundaries and landmarks, Numa reportedly sought to instill in Romans the respect of lawful property and non-violent relationships with neighbours. The cult of Terminus, preached Numa, involved absence of violence and murder. The god was a testament to justice and a keeper of peace. In

10712-512: Was the last great personification allegory in English literature, from a strongly Protestant position (though see Thomson's Liberty below). A work like Shelley 's The Triumph of Life , unfinished at his death in 1822, which to many earlier writers would have called for personifications to be included, avoids them, as does most Romantic literature, apart from that of William Blake . Leading critics had begun to complain about personification in

10816-504: Was thus a kind of "public secret." The shields were under the care of Mars' priests the Salii , who used them in their rituals. As payment, Mamurius requested that his name be preserved and remembered in the song sung by the Salii, the Carmen Saliare , as they executed movements with the shields and performed their armed dance. Fragments of this archaic hymn survive, including the invocation of Mamurius. Several sources mention

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