Ancient Looting and Collecting

Terme Ruler (2nd century BC): Roman citizen (or Hellenistic prince?) – A good example of what might’ve been seen around Republican Rome?

As part of the class for which this blog is a component, we often discuss topics related to cultural heritage (which one may figure out, from my blog title). Among other things, we’ve had discussions which centred on issues like UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites list (and the advantages/disadvantages of gaining a spot on it); the ways in which to protect cultural heritage; and whether it’s fair or right for a state to emphasize one period of their history above another (and related to this – who gets to decide such matters?).

Yesterday’s discussion, however, related to the issue of the looting of historic sites (both excavated and unexcavated) the result being that objects taken in such a way come to lose important information (i.e. their provenience and provenance). More than this though, objects which are stolen more often than not end up on the black market, and from there quite possibly in the home of a private collector. With this, the object also comes to be hidden from the public, a truly sad event.

 But this got me thinking about earlier cultures, and specifically ancient Roman culture. While it’s pretty safe to say that provenance and provenience were more than likely the last thing on the mind of ancient Roman, I still wanted to focus on the question of looting in a different way  – specifically, looting in an ancient context. Now, one may ask, what possible connections could there be between looting and ancient Rome? As it turns out, quite a few. By the time of the 3rd century BC, the Romans were notorious for taking objects from the various places they had conquered, but the Romans had a sweet spot reserved for Greek or Greek-influenced objects of art. A short list of Roman generals makes this perfectly clear: there was Marcus Marcellus who captured in Syracuse in 212 BC; then there was Fabius Maximus who took Tarentum in 209 BC; Quinctius Flaminius plundered various objects from all over the Greek world after defeating Philip V of Macedon and was honoured with a triumph in 194 BC; and Lucius Mummius, famous for razing Corinth in 146 BC.

The effect of all these military actions then, was a mass influx of Greek works of art in Rome – and also reveals that the Romans clearly had no problem with looting. To me, this was basically state sanctioned looting on a massive scale (there were still opponents, although their reasoning was centred on the argument that such works had a “corrupting” effect on the sober Roman spirit).

While this might seem like a boring history lesson, I feel that the matter of looting raises important questions that allow us to learn not only about the Romans, but our own culture as well. A couple of questions that come to mind are: why did the Romans loot/plunder, or what meanings did they attach to Greek objects of art? What can we learn about them as a result? And do their motives bear any similarity or have any parallels to collecting antiquities today?

I think that the answers to each of these questions are related. First, as to why the Romans might have plundered, or what they meant to achieve by bringing Greek artistic works back to Italy. For a lot of Romans, this would have possibly been just because they liked the way they looked (when most of what’s around is made from terracotta or timber, marble is understandably a step up). But there would’ve been another reason. The Romans viewed Greek art as a pinnacle of achievement (much like we do today) – for that reason, possessing these objects of Greek art signified that a Roman was learned, cultured and wealthy. Demonstrating these qualities then, was an important part of a Roman’s self-representation, and they made use of Greek objects of art to aid them.

I feel the last question though, is the most interesting because of the possible answers one can give. What I think becomes relatively clear is just how similar we are to the Romans when it comes to the issue of looting and collecting. To be fair, I don’t mean to suggest that all individuals who collect antiquities are as uncaring and brazen as the Romans were (although there are no doubt some of these types as well). Instead, I feel that like many ancient Romans, our motives for collecting haven’t changed. Just like them, there are people living in our world today who enjoy collecting simply on aesthetic grounds. On the other hand, there are those who collect antiquities for the other set of reasons that drove the Romans – displaying wealth, status and position (and as this is a particular interest of mine, I hope to tackle these issues in later blogs). In the end, coming to realize these similarities was at first a bit startling, but after having given it some more thought, I have to say that there’s something rather humbling to see just how little things about our human nature have changed in 2000 some odd years.