Royal sibling rivalry? Why, yes please, just the 3rd century A.D. edition of ‘the heir and the spare’…
This delectable painted roundel (tempera on a panel) now in Berlin shows the Severan Royal family in happier days around 200 A.D. Emperor Septimius Severus and Empress Julia Domna are shown in the background, and the two smaller figures in front are their sons, the princes Caracalla and Geta when they they were approximately 11 and 10 years old. (Dates and ages can be pinpointed with precision because of the portrait hairstyles portrayed).
Co-ruling with his little brother didn’t bring much joy to Caracalla, and less than a year after the death of Septimius Severus, the two princes ascended to co-rule only to see the murder of Geta at the behest of Caracalla in 211. Not only was Geta killed, his image was also snuffed out in the distinctly Roman tradition of ‘damnatio memoriae’ (the damning of someone’s memory by the destruction of existing likenesses or mentions on inscriptions).
This portrait shows the reach of the damnatio, extending not just to public monuments but to potentially privately held, smaller images of the royal family, hinting that this defacement might not not have been just the fulfillment of a senatorial edict, but something more emotional and personal.
