A Lecture by Dr. Bridget Buxton
The Peter H. von Blanckenhagen Memorial Lecture**
Archaeological Institute of America

Monday, February 6, 2012
Nunemaker Auditorium
Monroe Hall, 3rd floor
8 p.m.
free admission and free parking on campus
Co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Classical Studies program and the New Orleans Society of the Archaeological Institute of America

The Prima Porta Augustus is the most famous and recognized marble statue from the Roman Empire, and a potent symbol of the triumph of the West over the East. The statue's message is articulated in detail through the central scene on the emperor's cuirass, where a bearded barbarian returns the lost eagle standard of a Roman legion to an armored figure. From the time of its discovery in the nineteenth century, the scholarly consensus was that the eagle depicted here represented one of the standards lost to Parthia by Crassus and Mark Antony, and recovered by Augustus in 20 BCE. Fooled by Augustus' own propaganda, moderns have seen only what we expected to see, when in fact close analysis of the cuirass proves that it does not reference the so-called Parthian standards at all. In this illustrated lecture we will explore the archaeological and historical evidence that proves the Prima Porta statue was commissioned to commemorate another entirely separate event that occurred on the northern frontier many years after the Parthian standards were returned. Overshadowed by disgraceful defeat and the treachery of one of Augustus' closest friends, this event was later artfully covered up and forgotten by our written sources. In fact, without recovering the 'body' of the Prima Porta Augustus, we might never have discovered the truth about the emperor's lost eagle - a story that will completely change the way we look at Rome's most famous statue.

Dr. Bruxton is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Rhode Island. She received her PhD. in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology from the University of California at Berkeley. She specializes in underwater archaeology and has worked at underwater sites off the coasts of Turkey and Greece as well as in the Libyan and Black Seas.

** The Archaeological Institute of America established a permanent annual lecture in memory of Peter H. von Blanckenhagen.
Von Blanckenhagen (1909–1990) was born in the Latvian city of Riga, then under the Russian czar. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, his family fled to Germany, where he was educated in classical archaeology. In 1947 von Blanckenhagen came to the United States as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago; he returned to Germany but later emigrated and in 1956 became an American citizen. Best known for his expertise in Roman painting and sculpture, he had a long and distinguished career during which he published numerous books and articles and held several eminent lectureships. Among the accolades bestowed upon him were the Commander’s Cross of the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany (1981) and the AIA’s Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement (1982).

At his death, von Blanckenhagen was the Robert Lehman Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. An inspired lecturer, he introduced a generation of students to classical art.
The Peter H. von Blanckenhagen Memorial Lecture was generously endowed by one of his former students, Elizabeth Bartman, and her husband, Andrew Solomon. The Lecture is given annually on a topic related to Greek or Roman art and archaeology.