Preferred Citation: Kuttner, Ann L. Dynasty and Empire in the Age of Augustus: The Case of the Boscoreale Cups. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  c1995 1995. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft309nb1mw/


 
3— The Peoples of Empire

Africa

The innermost figure, with the elephant headdress, is Africa. This headdress first occurs in Ptolemaic royal iconography, on Alexander the Great or the Ptolemies themselves; it then passes to Sicilian coinage, which first uses it for personifications; from there it passes to Roman coinage.[11] During the Republic this type appears as Africa, starting in 71 B.C. (RRC 402); thus Africa should be the bust trodden by a heroized Augustus on a Vienna gem.[12] This headdress can later denote Egypt, and many so name the spectacular emblema dish in the BR hoard,[13] but a contemporary, similar bust definitely has Africa's attributes.[14] As Africa, the BR cup figure is (unlike Egypt) a Roman possession of longer standing, like Gaul or Spain; the Republican evidence and the nature of the other two personifications mandate the figure's identification as Africa.


3— The Peoples of Empire
 

Preferred Citation: Kuttner, Ann L. Dynasty and Empire in the Age of Augustus: The Case of the Boscoreale Cups. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  c1995 1995. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft309nb1mw/