Representations and Re-presentations of the Battle of Actium
By Barbara Kellum
Abstract: This chapter argues that Octavian’s victory at Actium and the final demise of the senatorial republic created a new world of opportunities for the municipal elite of Italy and for freedmen, which both groups acknowledged, even decades after Augustus’ death, by incorporating allusions to Actium—the founding moment—into the pictorial programs of houses, monuments, and civic buildings. Kellum takes as her central concern the painted representations of the battle of Actium on the fourth‐style wall in a Pompeian dining room, asking what this century‐old event might have meant for the freedmen homeowners, the Vettii. The aftermath story from this perspective sees the victory at Actium as a victory for segments of Roman society—both freedmen and municipal Italians—not well served by senatorial rule.
Chapter in Breed, B., Damon, C., and Rossi, A. (2010) Citizens of Discord: Rome and Its Civil Wars.
Published by Oxford University Press.