CHAPTER TWELVE
Reliefs, Public and Private
Katja Moede
Rituals and cultic events are among the predominant themes of Roman art, which
amply reflects religious contents and their symbolism (Ryberg 1955; Fless 1995; Siebert
1999; Moede 2004). Various ways to treat the pictorial subject occur. It is either
symbolized by both sacrificial implements and animals, or the actual ritual itself is
portrayed as processions or sacrifices (Ryberg 1955; Ronke 1987; Fless 1995). Yet
the question arises how many of those rituals performed in reality and attested by
our sources are actually represented in art. In order to give an answer at the end of
this chapter I shall first demonstrate the scope of public and private representations
of rituals. Monuments or groups of monuments will be confronted with the respec-
tive ritual as reconstructed from written sources. From a thorough comparison of
ritual sequences as they were performed to their actual representation, it will emerge
which elements are significant in an iconographic sense and have been judged char-
acteristics of a ritual for the purpose of representation.
At the Altar: The Peculiar Religious
Reality of the Images
At the beginning of the principate there was a notable increase of representations
with a religious content. Yet historical reliefs in general multiplied with the advent
of the empire and its change of political conditions. Moreover it was Augustus who
resuscitated a plethora of priesthoods, cults, and rituals at Rome and for the Roman
empire, who took an unambiguous stance regarding the importance of religion and
its part in running a state, and who did his utmost to translate this into action.
Nonetheless those elements used by imperial art to represent rituals are already extant
on republican monuments with religious topics. The performer of the sacrifice and
his attending acolytes, who bring the required instrumenta sacra(implements of cult)
or offerings to the altar, are visible on the terracotta gable from Via S. Gregorio at