| Where to start! The sadism reflected in rejoicing over dead bodies! Those Galatians, or Gauls, were my distant relatives. Now they lie dying for the aesthetic pleasure of these urban pigs!?! Sacrilege when they stormed the treasury at Delphi? but fine for Romans and Greeks to plunder and loot the temples and treasuries of the WORLD!!! O tempora, o mores, as once was said by an orator whose tongue was hung up on the Rostra by Augustus' one-time political crony. |
Or maybe you didn't catch the terracotta decoration on the sides of the podium. How about the one with Hercules and Apollo struggling for the Delphic tripod ... and what was Hercules' offense! Afflicted with disease he went to Apollo at Delphi for a prescription and was denied; so he forced the issue. Shame on him, right? And why do we find the theme here (along with the monumental gold tripod inside this temple to Augustan political propaganda)? Because Augustus fancied himself the new Apollo and Marcus Antonius had billed himself as the new Hercules. Augustus won at Actium just as Apollo won at Delphi. Please! Do we really need this comic-scroll approach to art and politics? Grow up, Rome!