Published 2025-01-13
Keywords
- Spurius Cassius, Ceres, statue, adfectatio regni
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2025 Miguel Herrero Medina
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
According to the testimony of Lucius Calpurnius Piso, contemplated in the work of Pliny the Elder (Pliny, Nat. Hist. 34.14.30), the censors of the year 158 BC not only would they have ordered the removal of all the statues that were located around the Roman forum, with the exception of those that had been placed by order of the Senate or the Roman people, but they would also have given the order for the statue of Spurius Cassius to be destroyed. This last determination is especially strange considering that the death of that former Roman consul had taken place more than three centuries earlier. This article analyzes what the origin of said statue could have been, what meaning it would have had for Roman citizens and, above all, why its destruction would have been ordered.