Thread by @ale_heinemann

I give you a small thread on a, possibly overlooked, piece of #ClassicalReception in late 19th century Italy.

Some may have stumbled upon the notice of the rediscovery of an honorific shield for national hero Giuseppe #Garibaldi

The shield was kept at the Rome's Museo del Risorgimento from where it disappeared in 2000 and was now found in a private dwelling.

theguardian.com/world/2019/dec…

A few facts: this is a bronze shiled of some 50kg and measuring 118cm in diameter according to press releases. Dedicated by Sicilian cities in 1878 it features a small imago clipeata of Garibaldi's, and various references to his campaign for Italy's national unity.

A series of features strongly recall the clipeus or clupeus virtutis dedicated to Augustus by senate and people of Rome (SPQR) in 27 B.C.

On the 1878 shield's umbo, or central knob, Garibaldi's image is surrounded by an oak wreath, suggestive of the corona civica Augustus famously received for having saved the Roman citizenship.

The outer ring is decorated with the coats of arms of major Italian cities and allegoric figures representing mercyfulness, justice, glory and strategic genius. (I'm taking this from the Repubblica, where they are given as carità, giustizia, gloria and scienza strategica)

This is the La Repubblica article.

repubblica.it/cronaca/2019/1…

These allegories seem to be taken in a pretty straightforward manner from Augustus' shield of virtues honoring his virtus, clementia, iustitia and pietas.

The last of the Augustan virutes, piety towards gods and fatherland finds no correspondent, and this comes as no suprise.

After all, national unity had been conquered against the declared will of the Pope and the State of the church and the early Italian republic is fiercely anti-clerical and secular.

Augustan overtones are nothing new in the celebration of Garibald's towering figure. At times he had been hailed as "father of the fatherland", the title Augustus received in 2 B.C.

Antonio Ximenes was the autodidact Sicilian sculptor who made the shield. His work is makredly neo-classical in stlye and subject matters. Three of his sons bore the illustrious classicizing names Ettore, Eliodoro and Empedocle.

But could he have known of Augustus' clipeus virtutis? That's actually a tricky question, since the shield is mentioned nowhere in classical literary sources. Its only explicit mention is a passage in Augustus' Res Gestae, edited by Mommsen in 1865.

Either directly from there or through some trickle-down effect Ximenes will have learned of the shield. He may also have thought of a scutum (shield) dedicated to Constantine in 312 at Milan by the Northern Italian cities on behald of his virtues. (cf. Paneg. Lat. 12 (9) 25,4)

There is some evidence for a (second) shield for Augustus with a portrait, as well: denarii issued by L. Mescinius Rufus in 16 BC have been interpreted accordingly. (photo: British Museum)

The dedication of shields to Garibaldi is not an isolated phenomenon.

The classical references of Ximenes' Garibaldi shield must have been obvious to the contemporaries: The shield was indeed placed inside the Capitoline Museum, whence it migrated to the Museo del Risorgimento only at a later stage.

Got longer than planned, this one, but that's it.

Thanks and merry Christmas everybody!