How to Read a Broken Roman Statue | The Head of Nero | Curator's Corner S6 Ep7
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- Опубліковано 11 сер 2021
- It’s A.D. 61, Emperor Nero rules over the Roman Empire. In the east of the province of Britannia, the head of a bronze statue ends up in a muddy river. Who put it there and why? How do we solve the mystery of this Roman head in the river?
Curator Thorsten Opper tells us what clues to look out for when faced with a Roman portrait and explains how to envision the whole object from studying only a part. Put yourself in the shoes of a citizen of Roman Britannia, and explore how they might have viewed such a statue of the emperor, Nero.
This bronze head of emperor Nero is currently on display in the exhibition Nero: The man behind the myth at the British Museum, and you can book tickets to see it in the flesh here: bit.ly/2Xf39U9
Want to get a Roman-tic gift for the emperor/empress in your life? Maybe just read up a bit more on Nero; the man, the myth? Our shop is stocked full of Nero inspired books, miniature gladiators and replica jewellery and frescoes. Every purchase helps support the British Museum, and to keep making videos like this for all of you. Find out more here: bit.ly/3ARtBlc
Nero was a seriously seriously messed up dude. Cant imagine buying anything that could be seen as supporting such a monstrous man.
"Order your Nero Brand Human-Candle making kit now! Defenseless Christians not included!"
@@knightforlorn6731 If we consider all massive slaughters done by Christians in the name of their faith, Nero should be a saint. I can't imagine anyone who really knows history supporting Christianity.
It seems less idealised than later images. It’s more realistic in style.
Great video. Meat and Potatoes for me.
Part of my humble library.
Roman and Greek History, Etc.
If you're into “Roman” stuff Michael Curtis Ford's “Gods and Legions is the book to read. If you're into history I suggest you get Ammianus Marcellinus' History. The ass kicker here is that Marcellinus actually went to battle with Emperor Julian. The Loeb Classic is almost an adventure novel all by itself.
As far as Gladiators go a couple of “definitive” books are The Way of the Gladiator by Daniel P. Mannix and Spartacus by Howard Fast. Here are books from my library. Ass kickers every one.
Ammianus Marcellinus History Loeb Classical Library
The Battle for Gaul by Julius Caesar Illustrated edition by Anne & Peter Wiseman.
Caesar: The Civil War by Jane F. Gardner
Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars by Robert Graves
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
The Way of the Gladiator by Daniel P. Mannix
Spartacus by Howard Fast
Julian by Gore Vidal
Gods and Legions by Michael Curtis Ford
The Ten Thousand by Michael Curtis Ford
The Last King by Michael Curtis Ford
Marius had long ago showed us that the legionary has a weapon that is the bane of the civilized world, one more formidable than the dual-edged Roman short sword, more effective than the bronze-headed javelin, of greater defensive strength than the concave bronze-sheathed shields. It is a weapon in which the legionary is trained from his first day of induction and which he uses daily, in peacetime or in war, on the march or hunkered in camp under siege from flaming missiles. And upon their arrival at The miscyra, every able-bodied Roman immediately whipped out this most fearsome of all weapons:
The Legionary's shovel.
Before even breaking to rest or scouting for supplies, the Roman troops had unpacked their shovels and commenced digging, and the dirt flew, and the dust rose. In the space of an afternoon, a Roman camp for thirty thousand men had been constructed just beyond range of our catapults. Before dark it had been ringed on all sides with a trench twelve feet deep and three feet across, the dirt thrown up into an embankment ten feet high inside the ring. Topped with a thick palisade of sharpened stakes. Inside, four sturdy walls were constructed of felled trees, guarded by squat log towers twenty feet high, stationed every fifty feet and surmounted by bolt-hurling field catapults. Inside, a space of a full two hundred feet was left between the walls and the tent line, a distance calculated to prevent our missiles and burning arrows from reaching the tents. This space was occupied by prisoners, cattle, plunder and supplies. Withing a few hours, the Romans had constructed a stronghold that would be the envy of a lifetime's work of many civilizations poorer then theirs. A fortress impregnable.
Yet this was not a permanent stronghold they had built. This was the Roman's usual daily campsite, Every day of a legionary's working life he would dig such a trench, construct such an embankment, hew trees, and build such palisade. All to be torched at sunrise, when the legions marched off to their next encampment. Javelins, when thrown, may miss their mark entirely. Shields may cave upon impact with a Scythian battle-ax; and a sword, though reliable at close quarters, still dulled, broke upon ribs. Or shivered if struck upon armor. But the shovel...the shovel was the legionary's best friend, his most faithful protector, the one weapon that allowed him to sleep soundly at night, behind his magnificent trenches and embankments. The shovel could stop a cavalry charge cold, stymie hordes of barbarians. Rome conquered not with its brutal leaders, not with the strength of its soldiers, not with the ingeniousness of its weapons...but with the most rustic, pigheaded, inglorious, gods-bedamned tool of them all...the shovel.
Michael Curtis Ford “The Last King
Read one of the best books you'll ever read; Gods and Legions”
The Sword of Attila by Michael Curtis Ford
The Fall of Rome by Michael Curtis Ford
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Tides of War by Steven Pressfield
The Virtues of War by Steven Pressfield
Thucydides: History of the Peloponesian War.
Last of the Amazons by Steven Pressfield
Alexander the Great by Paul Cartledge
The Spartans by Paul Cartledge
Eagle in the Snow by Wallace Breem
The Eagle and the Raven by Pauline Gedge
The Last Legionary: Life as a Roman Soldier in Britain AD 400 by Paul Elliott
Gladiator: The Roman Fighter's (Unofficial) Manual by Philip Matyzak
Legionary: the Roman Soldier's Manual by Philip Matyszak
On Roman Military Matters (De Re Militari) by Flavius Vegetius Renatus
More of this presenter! He is very knowledgeable, sharing a good insight of the object's background and enjoyable to listening to. That 15 minutes just totally flown away.
Absolutely,i wish i had a teacher like him i would never had slept in the lectures.
Agreed!
@gergely sz - Would you expect the British Museum to hire curators who weren’t incredibly knowledgeable??
@@Lityerses You slept in lectures bc you had no intellectual curiosity, which isn’t the fault of your teachers. I read so many comments by people who don’t take responsibility for their own learning, and who somehow think that education should be a floor show….then, if they aren’t entertained enough, they feel they’ve been wronged. Honestly, we’ve all had to endure subjects and teachers we didn’t much like, but that isn’t an excuse for not learning.
@@voraciousreader3341 I see your point and you are right but not on my case because i did not sleep on all the lectures,i slept on the ones that i felt useless.It is not because i have no intellectual curiosty if it was the case i wouldn't spent hours online in search of lectures,i have studied Roman,Egyptian an Turkish history,i learned english myself and still trying to learn other languages so even though you are right on some points but not only me,many people are unlucky when it comes to the teachers you got to take this into account aswell.
Seen from below, the head gives a very different, and much more majestic, impression from how it looks when viewed at eye level. Obviously, the proportions were calculated to give the best impression when people stood beneath the pedestal and looked up at the statue.
Perspectives can be tricky.
Thinking about the "view from below," we usually see other adults more or less straight on, so that's how we are used to judging the proportions of a face. A statue on a plinth forces us into the position of a young child who has to look upwards to adults.
Narrowing the chin reduces the perspective effect so that the face seen from below looks more like the face seen head-on. Did Roman sculptors employ subtle perspective effects like that? Probably, because we think Greek and Roman masons or architects did when they built their temples with the columns tapering or leaning slightly.
@JONATHAN SUTCLIFFE That salad needs some mayonnaise.
@@faithlesshound5621 The precision of the temples proves the architects play on perspective. Nero was a funny looking imp in his earlier sculptings. The Romans liked their realism to the point of including warts and big ears on some sculptures but Octavian's likenesses always seemed too perfect.
@@brianpeck4035 Perhaps Nero lacked Cromwell's self-confidence, when he asked to be painted "warts and all." Octavian had to be perfect as Augustus, even before he became a god, whereas Alexander could have his deaf ear hinted at in his sculptures.
What strikes me in the progression through different portrait styles is how you could see how Nero grew from a boy into a chunky man. Remarkable.
He presumably took some pride in that too. Didn't object to being shown as very rotund
@@tpower1912 My understanding (that could maybe be a complete misunderstanding) is that in some societies it was a sign that one was healthy and wealthy enough to afford enough food to be overweight.
Fat. The word everyone is looking for is "fat."
@@r0bw00d Mmmm...I believe you are quite right. He was a big boy at the end there - his neck was incredibly wide in comparison to his head, and I'm sure that can't have been good for his health. I suspect Nero was a snorer.
Yeah, he chunked up pretty quick. Those plovers eggs or whatever he lived on must have been rich.
The Meroe head of Emperor Augustus is very fascinating. It shows how far Rome's influences went, that the most well preserved head was found as far away as Sudan.
I find it more interesting that very likely both statues had a similar fate. The head of Augustus did not ended up in Meroe because of the influence of the Romans, it was quite the opposite. The queen of Kush started an invasion of Roman Egypt where this head then was looted. Back in their capital Meroe they buried the head beneath the staircase of a temple.
This was a very interesting talk, and I'd also like to compliment this curator (?) for the great collection of books behind him.
🤣
From that lower angle it is actually a pretty impressive face, full of character almost regal.
Well done!
Let's have more, of Curator Thursten Opper or his colleagues! It brings me back to the days of quiet, gripping, authoritative discussions, and allies them with my interest in historical bronzes. Thank you British Museum, and thank you Curator Thursten Opper.
This is fascinating and well explained- thanks so much
I've always thought this piece of art, beautiful as it is, reminds me of Alfred E Neuman.
QUID? ME FATIGO?
hahahaha Bush jr did as well
~ 5 min in: the view from below. Unsurprisingly, the Romans had figured out perspective (or nicked it from the Greeks) and arranged their statues so they looked correct from below. Just as Michaelangelo did with his David.
I (and, I suspect many of us non-specialists) often forget that the ancient peoples were just as clever as us: they just didn't have the technology or (probably more important) the thousands of years of previous thinking recorded or remembered but, in any case, learned from.
I’m not Greek, nor Italian, and impartial to the subject. But there is more, as in older, history, than “the Romans”. Pheidias (Phidias, ~465BC .. ~425BC) competed with his pupil-gone-independent Alkamenes when Athens-city asked both to come up with their respective versions of a statue portraying goddess Athena. It had to be placed on a tall column. At ground level, Alkamenes’s statue looked beautifully perfect and Pheidias’s version had all sorts of deformations. Placed on a column, though, Pheidias’s version won and this story got passed on. Many clever inventions are older than we think and a higher form of intelligence may have been required even to survive in that age, than is today with all modern luxuries. When we read about Plato’s “Cave” metaphor, that was his way of saying the masses lacked deep knowledge and consciousness, then we could say that modernity has replaced the cave by a TV or computer display. Yes, everything flows but there is little change.
@@jpdj2715 As I said, the Romans may have nicked it from the Greeks. And they seem to have been very aware of earlier science and technology: Babylonian maths, for example. Yes, as you said, lots of things appear to go back much further than we at first think.
Great presentation and curator. I learnt so much in 15 minutes. More like this, please!
Super interesting. Please make more like this.
Loved I Clavdivs series from the 70's
Interesting. Amazing how this curator can help put historical items in context. I'll have to watch this again--this presentation is pretty dense with information, and possible interpretations.
A really fascinating and informative presentation by an excellent presenter! Thank you very much indeed! I do hope we see more featuring him in future.
This video just flew by. An excellent presentation that makes you want to dig deeper, hear more and visit the Museum.
BM content just gets better and better, gripping voice that draws you in and fantastic work by the video editor!
Really enjoyed this! Lots of info and I LOVED the selfie!!!
Amazing curator. I appreciate this upload. Many thanks for your time sharing your knowledge and insights.
Thank you so very much! Enjoyed the presentation immensely.
I really enjoyed this presentation by Mr Opper. Love the pointing out of the clever use of perspective. Hope we get more #curatorscorner from him.
Curators' Corner is always interesting.
Fabulous artifacts and scholarship!
Fascinating and very well presented--many thanks.
Excellent summary. Thank you.
Wonderfully interesting and informative - thank you ~
Great lecture. I wish I had this knowledge few years back when I was visiting the British Museum.
this was awesome. loved it and this speaker :)
These are really good, great presenter.
This came to me as a suggested video. I am so pleased it came my way, because it all happened on my doorstep. The River Alde where it wasfound is only a few miles away. Colchester is about seven miles away and London about Seventy miles. I was brought up on the Iceni and Boudica. I will be subscribing to "curator's corner". I still love learing about history, even though it was 45 years since I left college. Thanks for this great video.
Fantastic presentation! Thank you so much for letting this incredibly erudite man share his vast knowledge with us.
His talk is well-detailed and engaging, and I was thinking of how many of us here appreciate this opportunity to learn more about ancient sculpture.
Love the British Museum. Thank you for letting knowledge spread around the world ❤
Very much enjoyed this, thank you!
Thank you very much Mr. Opper. Very interesting.
This is an outstanding presentation. Thank you, Thorsten.
A really interesting talk... thank you !!
Fascinating - the curator really knows how to makes things interesting. I was surprised at the difference in perspectives - from below the head did have a completely different feel - again that's fascinating.
His thrill is contagious. I do enjoy these explanations of those things I've always been happy to see on their own; they become alive in the telling. Thank you for yet another look at ancient lives.
Excellent presentation! Very informative. Thank you 👏
Excellent and so informative. Great video.
Fascinating from both an artistic and a historical perspective - thank you.
Loved this thoroughly. This presenter knows his stuff!
These videos are really precious ! It’s rare having the possibility to listen to such experts with so detailed explanation. Thanks !
Especially for those of us who will never go to the British museum. Thanks
I loved that lecture. I will be able to look at portraiture with so much more - knowledge and appreciation and insight! So wish I could view in person. Soon. This Canadian will be there.
I thank my lucky stars I have found this wonderful channel. A treasure trove of delights.
I would love to see more from this presenter. I've seen bunches of these, and this gentleman stimulates the mind very well.
Fascinating, thank you- I need to go and see the exhibition now!
Wow !
Very interesting to actually see real evidence of Boudiccas revolt against Roman rule, after just hearing about it for years. Its fascinating to look at Nero's head and see the actual marks a blows of the Iceni axes. A real and tangible link to ancient Britons.
More please. This presentation is excellent.
Really enjoyed this.
I think I recall this being on display at Colchester Castle Museum in the 1980’s as a statue of Claudius destroyed during the revolt of 61AD
That was very interesting. Thank you very much.
Looking into the past no better presenter to do it with. Thank you for posting.
Wonderful presentation, thankyou.
I hope to see this presenter frequently. I very much enjoyed this segment.
Very interesting stuff
Thus has parallels with the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol. Perhaps throwing statues of your enemy into water is a more ancient protest than we think.
Discovered by a schoolboy who will not be named. Why? I would like to know his name. He was clearly cheated out of his prize and the recognition for finding it. At least preserve his name and tell us who he was.
Fantastic! Thank you.
A lovely talk, simply presented. The river Alde, as in Aldeburgh is usually pronounced 'awld'.
That was fascinating!!
Wonderful. Thank you.
Curators Corner is the best piece of entertainment in the last 10 years...
I could watch/listen and learn from this expert for hours !! I hope there are many more such videos!! Incredibly informative/brilliantly presented_______
Ancient Rome still rules at least in the category of a fascinating subject!!__|
This is great, thanks for posting! One suggestion: do some audio balancing. The presenter's voice is very quiet compared to the rest of the sound (the music).
Great video. I rely like the emphasis on the symbolism rather than focusing on how realistic it is.
Finally something that someone left behind in Britain and not stolen from a colonised country.
Also could make you think, reflecting on the time you yourself were colonised and tried to resist.
very interesting and entertaining!
in this video you can see why the coins became heavier and heavier as Nero got older.
Gold. As always.
I love the head casually tucked in the bookshelf
boadicea camped near where i grew up, on the suffolk side of the river stour (the border between suffolk and essex), between sudbury and bures. maybe it was the night before
That Statue of Boudicca and her daughters is the most beautiful to me!
thankyou for sharing this 🙂 x
Hello my name is Door Stopper... 🙃
It was a great presentation and Mr Thorsten Opper is a pleasure to listen to. Thank you!
Excellent job
👏👏👏 Thank you very much!
Great talk, thanks so much from old New Orleans 🤓
Love every second
Excellent Thankyou
Excellent
Talking of bringing Emperors back to life, the experiments in AI to put flesh on the statue heads (search for Mystery Scoop Roman Emperors) is a novel approach - looks like they will have to tweak such recreations to take account of perspective.
Gazing into the eyeholes more like. When statues lose their eyes it always gives them a rather unsettling look.
Fascinating
Fascinating 🖖🏼
Thorsten is a national treasure and he isn’t even British
What is he Chinese?
@@Mynipplesmychoice German or Austrian, I assume by his name you fucking fool
@@Mukkki alright so I’m guessing your Chinese by your reaction… do u know karate?
@@Mukkki cause I just got my yellow belt
He talks about the Iceni revolt. I wonder how much imperial tax revenue was going to the Vitellian camp, which controlled northern Gaul, and how much of it was disrupted by this event.
Going to the exhibition on Saturday!
Lucky you
I love this series.
Well, at first I was sure the head was of Claudius, but a little digging showed that while Claudius and Nero shared the small chin and large ears, the brow ridges are different, and the relationship between nose and mouth are different, and then Nero had sort of a knob on his chin which Claudius didn't have. In fact, Claudius' chin was almost non-existent. So, exactly as the curator said, the profiles clear up the identity.
Can’t say I am as convinced. That looks like every image of Claudius I have seen and not one of the images of Nero.
@@genadearagon8977 Look at the ones when Nero was very young -- he looked a whole lot like Claudius, only with a sort of knob on his chin. I wish the curator had explained how they decided it was Nero.
Oh god, the progression of those coins LOL. Nero really turned into a little porker.
Nero is one the greatest actors of all time, how can u be so disrespectful?take it back and say your sorry
he so obviously liked nam-nam
This is definitely the most Julio-Claudian looking depiction of Nero I've seen.
I bet whoever poked out the statue's eyes got a rush of satisfaction.
How interesting!
An interesting talk.
Very interesting.
You wonder if they changed artists sculpting for this head bust, it's just so different to every other one ever done! The others and the 3D human render rebuild is quite incredible to see! Looks nothing like his statues
Fascinating video!
Would love to visit the BM to view the Nero exhibit.
BTW, 8:17 Does anyone see the resemblance of Daniel Craig in the bust of Claudius?
For the last 50+ years the British Museum have told me this is Claudius so it is quite difficult to see it now as Nero but Thorsten makes a good case. The museum still describe it as "Claudius or Nero" so I am not the only one sitting on the fence.
Could there be more of the statue still in the river?!
Where did they find Nero's head? This is fascinating information; what I would not do for a time machine, thank you for your hard work and sharing.
The curator describes how the artifact was discovered. Starts @ 07:35. Even more fascinating... starting @ 14:00, he details how the head likely became severed from the body and eventually discarded. Worth the listen!!
@@johnd.hollandivd.c.4449 Thanks, missed that part 🍺
@@johnd.hollandivd.c.4449 He also explains how placing objects of value in lakes and rivers was common in the ancient world. It may not have been seen as "throwing away" but as an offering analogous to burning on an altar, as a means of gifting it to the gods or spirits. The Celts and Vikings did this in Europe, and so did South American cultures.
The placement of the head of Augustus was ambiguous. Burying it in a temple in Meroe gave it respect, but burying it under stairs there did the opposite.
Roman and Greek History, Etc.
If you're into “Roman” stuff Michael Curtis Ford's “Gods and Legions is the book to read. If you're into history I suggest you get Ammianus Marcellinus' History. The ass kicker here is that Marcellinus actually went to battle with Emperor Julian. The Loeb Classic is almost an adventure novel all by itself.
As far as Gladiators go a couple of “definitive” books are The Way of the Gladiator by Daniel P. Mannix and Spartacus by Howard Fast. Here are books from my library. Ass kickers every one.
Ammianus Marcellinus History Loeb Classical Library
The Battle for Gaul by Julius Caesar Illustrated edition by Anne & Peter Wiseman.
Caesar: The Civil War by Jane F. Gardner
Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars by Robert Graves
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
The Way of the Gladiator by Daniel P. Mannix
Spartacus by Howard Fast
Julian by Gore Vidal
Gods and Legions by Michael Curtis Ford
The Ten Thousand by Michael Curtis Ford
The Last King by Michael Curtis Ford
Marius had long ago showed us that the legionary has a weapon that is the bane of the civilized world, one more formidable than the dual-edged Roman short sword, more effective than the bronze-headed javelin, of greater defensive strength than the concave bronze-sheathed shields. It is a weapon in which the legionary is trained from his first day of induction and which he uses daily, in peacetime or in war, on the march or hunkered in camp under siege from flaming missiles. And upon their arrival at The miscyra, every able-bodied Roman immediately whipped out this most fearsome of all weapons:
The Legionary's shovel.
Before even breaking to rest or scouting for supplies, the Roman troops had unpacked their shovels and commenced digging, and the dirt flew, and the dust rose. In the space of an afternoon, a Roman camp for thirty thousand men had been constructed just beyond range of our catapults. Before dark it had been ringed on all sides with a trench twelve feet deep and three feet across, the dirt thrown up into an embankment ten feet high inside the ring. Topped with a thick palisade of sharpened stakes. Inside, four sturdy walls were constructed of felled trees, guarded by squat log towers twenty feet high, stationed every fifty feet and surmounted by bolt-hurling field catapults. Inside, a space of a full two hundred feet was left between the walls and the tent line, a distance calculated to prevent our missiles and burning arrows from reaching the tents. This space was occupied by prisoners, cattle, plunder and supplies. Withing a few hours, the Romans had constructed a stronghold that would be the envy of a lifetime's work of many civilizations poorer then theirs. A fortress impregnable.
Yet this was not a permanent stronghold they had built. This was the Roman's usual daily campsite, Every day of a legionary's working life he would dig such a trench, construct such an embankment, hew trees, and build such palisade. All to be torched at sunrise, when the legions marched off to their next encampment. Javelins, when thrown, may miss their mark entirely. Shields may cave upon impact with a Scythian battle-ax; and a sword, though reliable at close quarters, still dulled, broke upon ribs. Or shivered if struck upon armor. But the shovel...the shovel was the legionary's best friend, his most faithful protector, the one weapon that allowed him to sleep soundly at night, behind his magnificent trenches and embankments. The shovel could stop a cavalry charge cold, stymie hordes of barbarians. Rome conquered not with its brutal leaders, not with the strength of its soldiers, not with the ingeniousness of its weapons...but with the most rustic, pigheaded, inglorious, gods-bedamned tool of them all...the shovel.
Michael Curtis Ford “The Last King
Read one of the best books you'll ever read; Gods and Legions”
The Sword of Attila by Michael Curtis Ford
The Fall of Rome by Michael Curtis Ford
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Tides of War by Steven Pressfield
The Virtues of War by Steven Pressfield
Thucydides: History of the Peloponesian War.
Last of the Amazons by Steven Pressfield
Alexander the Great by Paul Cartledge
The Spartans by Paul Cartledge
Eagle in the Snow by Wallace Breem
The Eagle and the Raven by Pauline Gedge
The Last Legionary: Life as a Roman Soldier in Britain AD 400 by Paul Elliott
Gladiator: The Roman Fighter's (Unofficial) Manual by Philip Matyzak
Legionary: the Roman Soldier's Manual by Philip Matyszak
On Roman Military Matters (De Re Militari) by Flavius Vegetius Renatus
Recently reading about Nero & what I read surprised me. Apparently his gov. or reign was rather popular. And it is said he was rather popular also.