For nearly 30 years, a massive bronze statue thought to be of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius served as the centerpiece of the ancient Roman gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art. But two months ago, the sculpture was removed from public view without explanation. Then came word that the statue had been seized by New York authorities investigating new evidence in the Turkish government’s decades-long claim that it had been looted from the ancient Roman city of Bubon in the southwestern part of that country in the 1960s, decades before it was acquired by the museum.
The statue dates from A.D. 180 to 200 and is worth $20 million, according to the New York District Attorney’s search warrant. For decades, the museum referred to it as “The Emperor as Philosopher, probably Marcus Aurelius,” but then changed the description on its website after the seizure to simply “Draped Male Figure,” saying its high quality and large scale “have suggested to some” that it is a portrait of a Roman imperial.
“It seems like the museum is pretending to know less than they really do,” Colgate University art professor Elizabeth Marlowe told cleveland.com.
The case is full of intrigue and has raised plenty of questions. It’s also sparked an interest in the man long believed to be depicted in the now infamous headless statue.
Next to Julius Caesar, Augustus and Nero, Marcus Aurelius is one of the most famous leaders of the Roman Empire. Part of that is due to his role in “Gladiator,” the Oscar winner for Best Picture in 2001. Marcus Aurelius, played by Richard Harris, is portrayed as a brilliant military leader who “conquered, spilt blood and expanded the empire” for 25 years. He is a benevolent emperor who means “to give power back to the people of Rome and end the corruption that has crippled it.”
The truth is more nuanced.
“In the movie, Marcus Aurelius is in many ways a foil for the emperor, his son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), who is presented as a sort of deranged madman and the embodiment of evil,” said Maggie Popkin, an art history professor at Case Western Reserve University. “So, Marcus Aurelius is shown as kind of a stereotypical good emperor, somebody who embodies the values of the Roman Republic.”
The real Marcus Aurelius ascended to power upon the death of his adoptive father Antoninus Pius in 161 A.D. For the first nine years, he shared the throne with his adoptive brother, Lucius Verus. Marcus Aurelius and his wife, Faustina, had many children, including his eventual successor, Commodus.
Indeed, he spent most of his reign on the battlefield. But the emperor wasn’t necessarily the unstoppable force “Gladiator” makes him out to be. He suffered a great defeat at the Battle of Carnuntum in which 20,000 Romans were killed. When an outbreak of smallpox, a public health crisis that later became known as the Antonine Plague, devastated the Roman forces, he recruited slaves, gladiators and criminals to replace them. And what of his desire to return Rome to a republic? Most likely a ”trope“ commonly associated with the so-called “good emperors,“ Popkin, the art history professor, said.
“Marcus Aurelius was hardly a perfect emperor,” she elaborated. “He seems, based on his own writings, to have been a thoughtful person and somebody who was deeply interested in philosophy. He seems to have genuinely cared about his family. He liked to watch sports like other Romans did. But he also waged a variety of military campaigns, not all of them successful. So, he had successes and he had failures. He was a complicated person and I don’t think that complexity necessarily comes across in representations in popular culture.”
No, Marcus Aurelius didn’t favor Maximus Decimus Meridius over his son and name him as his heir. The protagonist from “Gladiator,” played by Russell Crowe, is actually a fictional character created for the movie. Nor was Marcus Aurelius killed by a jealous, power-hungry Commodus.
“I think that is an unlikely historical scenario,” Popkin said. “I think that is part of the desire of the movie to paint Commodus as particularly evil.”
In fact, the professor said Marcus Aurelius’ writings, which came to be called “Meditations,” showed the emperor had real affection for his family. He and Commodus even ruled side-by-side as father and son during the last four years of Marcus Aurelius’ life.
“He probably died of natural causes,” the CWRU professor said.
His death in 180 A.D. marked an end to the 200-year golden age of Rome known as Pax Romana. But his real legacy is the perception of him as a philosopher-emporer. This idea of Marcus Aurelius as a paragon of wisdom didn’t gain traction until the publication of “Meditations” two centuries after his death. The collection, which he never intended to be published, is considered a masterpiece of stoic philosophy as the emperor writes about the keys to a virtuous life.
That, in part, makes the sculpture in question significant.
“When we look at how Marcus Aurelius presented himself in artworks or how others showed him when honoring him, he appears as a civic political leader when he is dressed in a toga. He’s shown as a military leader when he’s dressed in armor or in a military cloak. He’s elevated into a hero when he’s shown in a nude statue,” Popkin said.
Depictions of Marcus Aurelius that have survived antiquity don’t show him dressed or posed as a philosopher.
“If the (Cleveland Museum of Art) statue does come from Bubon, it has the potential to really change our view of how Roman emperors could be shown in portraiture at different times and places in the Roman Empire,” the professor said.
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