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Lot Essay
Germanicus Julius Caesar (15 BC - AD 19) was the quintessential Roman general and a man with considerable ancestral prestige. He was the adopted son of Tiberius and was married to Augustus' granddaughter Agrippina. Germanicus became, therefore, the 'lynch-pin' between the Julian and Claudian dynasties, a fact that this successors would play on after his death.
His military achievements were many and significant; he was made governor of Upper and Lower Germany and later maius imperium over the territory east of the Adriatic, a command that was not limited geographically and superseded the authority of all other governors in the area. Germanicus died in Antioch on 10 October 19 AD. Rumour was that his corpse bore marks of poison: black and blue marks, foaming at the mouth and a heart that would not burn on the funeral pyre. In his eulogies he was compared to Alexander, who had died at the same age.
The next two emperors, Caligula (ruled 37-41 AD) and Claudius (ruled 41-54 AD) - Germanicus' son and brother respectively - were a surrogate with the legions, and at a time when personal loyalty to a commander was paramount, they evoked his name relentlessly in order to trade on his awesome reputation. Even thirty years after his death, Nero's direct descent from Germanicus - his mother Agrippina the Younger was Germanicus' daughter - was a considerable asset.
Little is known about the whereabouts of the original antique sculpture - now in the Louvre, and on which this bronze is based - before 1655, however, it was certainly in the villa Peretti-Montalto, Rome thereafter. In 1685-6 it was sold from the villa to Louis XIV and placed in the Grande Gallerie at Versailles before being moved again to Paris in 1800.
His military achievements were many and significant; he was made governor of Upper and Lower Germany and later maius imperium over the territory east of the Adriatic, a command that was not limited geographically and superseded the authority of all other governors in the area. Germanicus died in Antioch on 10 October 19 AD. Rumour was that his corpse bore marks of poison: black and blue marks, foaming at the mouth and a heart that would not burn on the funeral pyre. In his eulogies he was compared to Alexander, who had died at the same age.
The next two emperors, Caligula (ruled 37-41 AD) and Claudius (ruled 41-54 AD) - Germanicus' son and brother respectively - were a surrogate with the legions, and at a time when personal loyalty to a commander was paramount, they evoked his name relentlessly in order to trade on his awesome reputation. Even thirty years after his death, Nero's direct descent from Germanicus - his mother Agrippina the Younger was Germanicus' daughter - was a considerable asset.
Little is known about the whereabouts of the original antique sculpture - now in the Louvre, and on which this bronze is based - before 1655, however, it was certainly in the villa Peretti-Montalto, Rome thereafter. In 1685-6 it was sold from the villa to Louis XIV and placed in the Grande Gallerie at Versailles before being moved again to Paris in 1800.