Maiestas Serena:Roman Court Cameos and Early Imperial Poetry and Panegyric

Abstract

This article offers an account of Roman imperial cameos as an archaeological category, and argues that the production of large high-quality cameos was more restricted in time than currently allowed; that the controversial dates and subjects of individual cameos need to be set in the wider sequence of the main examples; and that early imperial praise poetry sits in relationship to court cameos in a way that can be usefully investigated around their shared concern to understand the particular character of imperial divinity. An Appendix gives details of forty-one examples illustrated and discussed.

Divine Representation in Documentary Style: Gods on the Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius

“… 99 Other images, such as the elevated compositions of imperial court cameos, worked in an additional, higher system, equivalent in certain ways to encomiastic poetry: Smith 2021: 98–106.…”