Jeeps and Hummers in Antiquity?
Crossover Vehicles and Conspicuous Consumption
Elizabeth Tylawsky, Norwich Free Academy, CT
Mark Antony's Tricked-Out Ride
If the raeda is the U for utility vehicle of the SUV of antiquity and the essedum is the S for sport, what is our ancient equivalent of the Hummer? Who drives the biggest, flashiest, most conspicuous vehicle of all? Mark Antony, of course. His personal excesses were notorious; he was physical, glamorous and sexy. And what did Antony drive? Cicero gives us a picture in the Second Philippic, composed in late fall of 44 and circulated in the winter of 44-43. Cicero has built up a full head of steam to describe what Antony did back in 49 when entrusted with the care of Italy by Caesar who was off in Spain.
“Then in this same tribuneship, when Caesar on his way into Spain had given him Italy to trample under his heel, what wandering promenades did he make! What surveyings of the municipal towns! I know that I am only speaking of things which have been discussed in every one's conversation, and that the things which I am saying and am going to say are better known to every one who was in Italy at that time, than to me, who was not. Nonetheless I will mention individual points, although in no way will my words be able to improve on your own knowledge. When was such wickedness ever heard to exist on earth? Or such shamelessness? Or such disgrace? The tribune of the people was being conveyed in an essedum, lictors with laurel preceded him; among whom, on an open litter, a mime actress was being carried; whom honorable men, citizens of the municipalities, coming out from their towns under compulsion to meet her, saluted not by the name by which she was notorious on the stage, but by that of Volumnia. A raeda followed full of pimps, thoroughly despicable companions; then his neglected mother was following the girlfriend of her filthy son as though she were a bride. Oh catastrophic fertility of the wretched woman! With the footsteps of these disgusting deeds that man trampled all the townships, the praefectures, the settlements, all finally of Italy!” (Note15)
To summarize Cicero’s dramatization: Antony was trampling Italy under his heel, he was making a grand procession, he himself is driving an essedum, his lictors carry fasces entwined with laurel, his mime-actress mistress is being carried like a grand lady, in a litter. Moreover the local officials must approach her as if she were a respectable Roman lady and address her by her elegant Roman name, Volumnia (instead of her stage/ prostitute name Cytheris).
Dunbabin, K. Plate LXX, # 181.
In sum, Antony is putting on a show; and it is a show meant to impress. It should come as no surprise that his tour contains a raeda and an essedum, vehicles that convey the desired message that Antony is serious, active, able and competent. Antony’s mother, necessarily represented by Cicero as so cruelly mocked by her vile son, will have added considerable luster. She was a Julia, a relative of Caesar himself, daughter of L. Caesar, the consul of 90, and sister of the consul of 64. This is a consciously political family. Can this woman be bringing anything besides respectability, gentility and nobility to her son’s canvass of Italy? At this moment in time Antony is doing his best to show himself a strong contender for power and control of Italy and has provided his procession with all the right stuff: his mother, a lady in a litter, laurelled lictors, an essedum and what else? A raeda full of pimps? What are pimps doing here? How can a bunch of pimps contribute to Antony’s grand procession? How do pimps suit the splendid, laurel carrying lictors? How do pimps enhance the posturing of Volumnia? What is a lady of the house of the Julians doing riding alongside a bunch of rollicking pimps? Even our text seems puzzled. It has long been recognized that the nominative phrase comites nequissimi coming after the ablative lenonibus seems out of place syntactically. It reads like a marginal gloss that has crept into the text, a gloss left by a reader asking this very question: why pimps? (Note16) But suppose our text did not originally read “with pimps”. Suppose instead of cum lenonibus we read (along with one late manuscript) cum leonibus “with lions? Ramsay, the most recent editor of the Second Philippic thinks that the reading leonibus is unlikely here because “elsewhere Cicero refers to Antony’s cronies as pimps” (Note17); and this observation is certainly true, although these Philippics passages are focused on personal physical excess, partying and general revelry. In another letter to Atticus (10. 10. 5) from May 49 Cicero mentions Cytheris being transported about in a litter and seven other litters convey Antony’s other friends, male and female (Note18). This passage offers something like a baseline confirming Antony’s habits at this time and presents a pretty spectacle all by itself. In the Second Philippic passage, however, Cicero portrayed Antony in a very specific situation outside of Rome, processing through Italy. The context was different and was a heightened version of Antony’s wayward carouses through Rome. The difference hinges on the operative word conculare “trample underfoot.” Cicero recognized that Antony was out on this trip to impress, to challenge and to intimidate. Under those circumstances lions would be vastly more attention-getting, impressive and intimidating than pimps. Lions would far better suit the spectacle of a grand entourage with a noble Roman mother, lictors with laurels, a respectable Volumnia, and Antony setting out to bring Italy under his boot.
