DEA VIRTUS: MARTIAL GLORY AS DIVINITY IN THE LITERARY AND VISUAL CULTURE OF ANCIENT ROME
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Date
2020-10-29
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Johns Hopkins University
Abstract
The Roman goddess Virtus has long been enshrouded in mystery from her cult to her image.
Originally an ethical quality meaning “manliness,” virtus was deified during the Republic by the general
Marcellus, who vowed to create a cult to the goddess during his campaigns against Rome’s foreign
enemies. As the founder of the first sanctuary, cult, and temple of Virtus in Rome, Marcellus was
religiously contracted to invent an image for his new deity. He selected a mythological Amazon to serve
as the model for the temple’s statue of the goddess, whose religious cult became popular with ranking
men of the army and, subsequently, with the Roman emperors. However, why did Marcellus establish a
cult to Virtus? And why did he choose a seemingly un-Roman, barbaric, bare-breasted, and bellicose
Amazon warrior-woman for the divinity of Roman manliness and martial valor – a civilized characteristic
that became a badge of honor and esteem for the most powerful men in Rome? The objective of the
first half of this dissertation is to shed light on the origins of the cult of Virtus, on the goddess’ unusual
image, and on the significance of the goddess in war and politics. Moreover, during the imperial period,
the image of Virtus became the sole province of the emperors, inferring that her image continued to be
exploited for political purposes. The objective of the second half of this dissertation is to investigate the
political and religious significance of Virtus in the visual rhetoric of Roman art during the imperial period,
when the goddess was given the performative role of leading the emperor through victory and triumph
and, ultimately, to the heavens during his divinization, made possible only by the will of the goddess and
her divine gift of martial glory.
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Keywords
Virtus, martial valor, martial glory, Dea Virtus, goddess Virtus, relief sculpture,