Dr Sophie Hay Profile picture
Jun 1, 2021 19 tweets 20 min read Read on X
So I went to the #NeroExhibition @britishmuseum... Image
You cannot have a #NeroExhibition without the back story. Cue Augustus (and his swooshy locks), Caligula (and his cute eyelashes) and a few of the other Julio-Claudians before we meet the protagonist: Nero. #NeroExhibition ImageImageImageImage
From a curtain fringe to full on foppish curls (and a fuller chin) #NeroExhibition ImageImageImageImage
Senatorial scribes at work.
An altar dedicated to Q. Flavius Eunus’ two sons who had achieved the rank of senior clerks but had both died in their twenties. I’m assuming it’s the two sons who have broken the fourth wall and aren’t concentrating on task in hand. #NeroExhibition ImageImageImage
Astonishingly fine detail on this marble relief of a meeting of the Praetorian Guard - you really feel like you’re eavesdropping. #NeroExhibition ImageImageImage
Couldn’t have been happier to see this fresco from #Herculaneum in the #NeroExhibition. Having only encountered it recently it was thrilling to see in person the woman writing as the men look on.

ImageImageImage
Nero in #Pompeii. You can only imagine my delight.

An anonymous Roman scratched into the wall of the House of G. Julius Polybius a record of a visit made by Nero and his wife Poppaea to Pompeii - specifically the Temple of Venus and the offerings they made. #NeroExhibition ImageImageImage
A painted stucco relief from the House of the Meleager, #Pompeii. Anyone else a little unsettled by the fact the figures in relief that have lost their colour resemble the plaster casts made of the victims of the eruption? #NeroExhibition ImageImageImageImage
For lovers of Roman coins & Portus, the port of Rome, this is a treat.
Shown are the 2 curving moles of the Claudian harbour, one of which both @stephenjohnkay and I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for...

Narrator: they found it
cambridge.org/core/journals/… #NeroExhibition ImageImageImage
Love this fresco for the fact the main protagonists frame a rather empty scene. Orestes and Pylades on the left with King Tauris seated on the right. Iphigenia is there too in shades of shadowy brown...
From the House of the Citharist, #Pompeii. #NeroExhibition ImageImageImageImage
A non-collapsible boat. Not designed for Nero’s mother then...
Detail of a fresco from #Pompeii. #NeroExhibition Image
Military triumphs & tribulations.
A jaunty looking statue of Nero in military garb, a staggering find of horse regalia with Pliny’s name stamped on it, and a fine cuirass sported by Nero.
Then the blood runs cold on the sight of chains used on enslaved Britons. #NeroExhibition ImageImageImageImage
Skewed view of #Pompeii.
Relief from the household shrine in the House of Caecilius Iucundus depicting the devastating effects of the AD 63 earthquake in the Forum of Pompeii. Detail of the Arch of Augustus and the Temple of Jupiter.
#NeroExhibition Image
Not a #NeroExhibition without a bit of damnatio memoriae...
An inscription announcing some games in honour of Nero at the amphitheatre in Puteoli (Pozzuoli) #EpigraphyTuesday ImageImage
Fun and games.
A pair of glorious terracotta panels. One shows a charioteer approaching the turning posts in a circus (and trying to avoid the fallen contestant) and the other an animal hunt with traces of the original paintwork. #NeroExhibition ImageImage
‘What an artist dies in me!’
— Nero
From the House of the Dioscuri #Pompeii a theatrical performance acted by men dressed as ladies. The perpetual pantomime dames of the Roman World. #NeroExhibition ImageImageImage
To end, a bit more damnatio memoriae for good measure. The final insult that a portrait of Nero is later re-sculpted to depict Vespasian - a few telltale leftover Neronian curls on the back of the head are the giveaway.
2nd image: britishmuseum.org/collection/obj…
#NeroExhibition ImageImage
And what better to listen to on the subject of #Nero than of course the dynamic duo of @holland_tom and @dcsandbrook waxing lyrical on @TheRestHistory podcast?
For those wondering what this panel from a triumphal arch might have looked like painted, your curiosity can now be sated...

Thanks to @chapps for finding this work by AutisticKnight on Reddit. Image

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More from @pompei79

Oct 8, 2022
The Roman villa at Positano - another casualty of the AD 79 eruption and buried under metres of ash and pyroclastic material. That green background colour is a sheer delight and the ghostly white stucco figures and animals added to the fresco are in relief and pop out at you.
The sheer force of the eruption captured for perpetuity in the collapse of the wall and roof as well as in the crack in the wall painting like a fault line that shifts the upper part of the wall laterally. And in all of that the wooden door survived—the void now cast in plaster.
The Roman villa lies under the church & access to it is through the room lined with 18th century putrefying stalls where dead bodies were placed in order to drain them before burial. The display is exceptional & sympathetic to both the eras of history in this small space.
Read 4 tweets
Nov 30, 2021
Sad to hear of the recent death of architect Nicholas Wood. I worked with him in Pompeii and his watercolours recreated the magic of the Roman houses we were studying. He even incorporated me as a human scale (past and present) for the cross-section of the House of Ceres
He worked with us on the House of Amarantus in which we were excavating and produced this plan of our discovery of the mule and dog in the front room and the Cretan wine amphorae stacked in the atrium. The mule & dog are featured in our Amarantus book cambridgescp.com/Array/buy-book
His interest in Pompeii was boundless and he was best known for his model of the House of the Tragic Poet which he recreated with eye-watering attention to detail.
I sincerely hope the model found a good home… theclassicslibrary.com/house-of-the-t… @StephenJenkin
Read 4 tweets
Oct 24, 2021
Was it on this day in AD 79 that Vesuvius erupted and buried #Pompeii, #Herculaneum and the other Vesuvian sites in volcanic debris?

Probably!
Evidence such as ripe pomegranates and the remnants of a recent grape harvest in wine-pressing rooms found in the ancient Vesuvian sites certainly suggest an autumnal date rather than the traditional August date recorded in a medieval copy of Pliny’s account of the eruption.
A charcoal inscription uncovered in #Pompeii contains the date ‘XVI K Nov’—16 days before the Kalends of Nov—equating to 17th Oct. No year is mentioned but the impermanence of charcoal suggests it *may* have been written close to the time of eruption.
Image: @MassimoOsanna
Read 5 tweets
May 15, 2020
This fabulous documentary explores the recent excavations in Region V in #Pompeii. It really brings together our understanding of the individual finds but also of the neighbourhood. Brilliant and compelling viewing. @pompeii_sites @MassimoOsanna
https://t.co/iFeViWHjlh
Didn’t think I’d be adding to this thread for a while but thanks to @MassimoOsanna a fabulous and previously unseen fresco from Region V excavations in #Pompeii has been revealed: Ariadne being abandoned by Theseus on the shores of Naxos. Wow.
Images: instagram.com/p/CHvqzLopq3W/… ImageImageImageImage
A close-up of that extraordinary decorative design...
Read 12 tweets
Apr 26, 2020
A very brief history of Pompeii in plans:
Historically, the hill that covered the ancient city of #Pompeii was known as ‘La Civita’ – the settlement.
Gaultier 1754
raremaps.com/gallery/detail…
#cartography @_MiBACT #viaggioinitalia #ArTyouReady #paesaggioitaliano
While excavation of #Pompeii was in its infancy plans of the city were being made and I love that they are barely identifiable as being the ancient city we see today.
Lapatie 1776
Piranesi 1792 (detail)
La Vega 1800

#cartography for @_MiBACT #viaggioinitalia
Under the auspices of French rule at the start of the 19th cent, excavations in #Pompeii opened up huge swathes of the ancient site & the city walls were uncovered revealing the extent of the urban area.
Unknown 1800
De Jorio 1825

#cartography for @_MiBACT #viaggioinitalia
Read 10 tweets
Apr 1, 2020
A really lovely series of short films dealing with various aspects of #Pompeii featuring a lot of unseen footage from the new excavations in Region V.
In French but the images speak volumes.
Courtesy of @Inrap_ActuGE & via @rogueclassicist
inrap.fr/mediatheque/re…
This fabulous documentary explores the recent excavations in Region V in #Pompeii. It really brings together our understanding of the individual finds but also of the neighbourhood. Brilliant and compelling viewing. @pompeii_sites @MassimoOsanna
https://t.co/iFeViWHjlh
Didn’t think I’d be adding to this thread for a while but thanks to @MassimoOsanna a fabulous and previously unseen fresco from Region V excavations in #Pompeii has been revealed: Ariadne being abandoned by Theseus on the shores of Naxos. Wow.
Images: instagram.com/p/CHvqzLopq3W/… ImageImageImageImage
Read 5 tweets

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