Marcus nonius balbus biography examples
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The Roman Marble Equestrian Statues
of Marcus Nonius Balbus, Senior and Junior.
First Century BC.
Buried by the Eruption of Vesuvius in 79 BC.
Both excavated from the front of the Basilica at Herculaneum in
Height cms approx.
National Archaeological Museum, Naples.
I include this Roman piece as an example of an ancient equestrian statue. The study of these statues is outside the remit of this blog but I am posting these two for comparison.
The head is a replacement based on fragments of the original shattered by a bullet in during the revolt against the Bourbons when a short lived Neapolitan Republic was established.
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The Roman Marble Equestrian Statue
of Marcus Nonius Balbus Junior.
The h
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10 People from Pompeii and Herculaneum Whose Lives Can Be Revived
When the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum, the towns became inadvertent time capsules for the långnovell world. Artifacts and buildings allowed archaeologists an insight into everyday Roman life that books alone could not convey. However, it is the victims of the eruption who genuinely fascinate people- especially those whose sista moments are preserved as body casts. However, an eternity preserved in plaster or a museum fryst vatten no kind of immortality. These people have lost their individuality because we do not know their names.
Names do survive in the two towns. A shop meddelande from Pompeii tells us it was owned bygd an outfitter named Marcus Vecilius Verecundus. Elsewhere, graffiti declares the gladiator Celadus was “the girls’ idol” while we know that the politically forthright barmaids of Asellina’s tavern: Aegle, Smyrna, and Maria were Greek, Syrian and Jewish from
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A statue of M. Nonius Balbus
As you explore the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, sooner or later you will happen upon a marble equestrian statue. The little plaque fixed to the (modern) base of the statue states simply that it is a portrait of Marcus Nonius Balbus, and that it was found in the Forum area at Herculaneum. For some reason, the plaque adds that the statue was originally donated by the inhabitants of Nuceria (today Nocera Inferiore near Naples), but this isn’t correct, as you will see in a moment.
But before I turn to the statue itself, perhaps a brief word on the man’s name. “Balbus” is a common cognomen in Roman times and literally means “stammerer”. Perhaps the man indeed had a stammer, or had stammered at some point in his life, but more likely it was a nickname that he had simply inherited, in the same manner that Roman emperors would sport the cognomen “Caesar”.
Evidence from inscriptions reveal further information about the man. Originally from Nuceria