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Victoria (mythology)

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Roman goddess of victory

Victoria
Goddess of victory
Victoria (or Nike) on a fresco fromPompeii,Neronian era
Symbol	Golden sandals, wings, wreaths
Temple	Temple of Victory,Palatine Hill
Equivalents
Greek	Nike

Inancient Roman religionVictoria was the deifiedpersonification of victory. She first appeared during thefirst Punic War, seemingly as a Romanised re-naming ofNike, the goddess of victory associated with Rome's Greek allies in the Greek mainland and inMagna Graecia. Thereafter she comes to symbolise Rome's eventualhegemony and right to rule. She is a deified abstraction, entitled to acult. But unlike Nike, she has virtually no mythology of her own.

History and iconography

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Victoria first appears during thefirst Punic War, as a translation or renaming ofNike, the Greek goddess of victory in peace or war. Nike would have become familiar to the Roman military as a goddess of Rome's Greek allies in the Punic Wars. She was worshipped in Magna Graecia and mainland Greece, and was a subject of Greek myth. Around this time, various Roman war-deities begin to receive the epithetvictor (conqueror) orinvictus (unconquered).^[1] By the late republican and early imperial eras, Victoria had become a popular civilian and military goddess, both in association with other deities and in her own right. In 294 BC she was given atemple on thePalatine Hill. It was used to store war-booty, and it hosted theMagna Mater's statue while her own temple was under construction. Victoria had several other shrines throughout Rome. In Imperial-eraTimgad,victoria victrix (conquering victory) was given credit for Imperial successes.^[2]

Victoria's coin images and cult images are probably based on an originalcult image used in her temple. Her cult images show her in the attitude of a winged woman who steps forwards, supported on a globe, and holds aloft (or offers) a wreath or a palm-branch, not symbols of war but of triumph, and a peace that was consequent to victory. Other images show her as human-sized, driving atriumphal war-chariot, or in free-standing statuary, standing on the right-hand palm of a much larger figure, typically Rome's supreme god,Jupiter, or war-godMars, orRoma, divine personification of the Roman state.^[3]^[4]

The goddessVica Pota is sometimes identified with Victoria, but is almost certainly too ancient for her iconography to have been influenced by Greek Nike, so is treated as a separate deity. Victoria is one of many Roman deities associated with the Sabine goddessVacuna.

With the ascendancy of Christianity, Rome's religious affairs and institutions remained under the authority of the ruling emperor aspontifex maximus, whether he was Christian or pagan. On the whole, Senates still respected, or at least allowed the performance of pagan sacrificial rites deemed essential to Rome's well-being, including the sacrifice to Victoria at her Senate-house altar before every meeting. This had been an essential procedure ever since the altar had been given byOctavian, in 29 BC.^[5] In 379 the Christian emperorGratian refused the post ofpontifex maximus, and abolished state support of Rome's traditional deities and rites. In 382 he had Victoria's altar removed from her temple at theCuria Julia. They had been removed before, byConstantius II, and had been returned after protest. This time, despite widespread anger and anxietie, shared by officials at the highest level, they were not restored.^[6]^[7]^[8]

Winged victories

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Winged figures, very often in pairs, representing victory and referred to aswinged victories, are common in Roman official iconography, typically hovering high in a composition, and often filling spaces inspandrels or other gaps in architecture.^[9] These represent the "spirit of victory" rather than a full-blown deity. Pairs of winged victories continued to appear after theChristianization of the Roman Empire and gradually evolved into depictions of Christianangels.^[10] A pair, facing inwards, fitted very conveniently into thespandrels of arches, and have been very common inTriumphal arches and similar designs where a circular element is framed by a rectangle.

Gallery

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Victoria on top of theBerlin Victory Column. Cast byGladenbeck, Berlin)^[11]
Gold coin ofConstantine II depicting Victoria on the reverse
Intaglio inlapis lazuli representing Victoria, 100 - 200 A.D., found in TongerenGallo-Roman museum, Tongres
Victoria Romana fromHadrian's Library,c. 18 BC
Roman goddess Victoria in Arretine Ware fragment
Victory of Brescia, Roman bronze sculpture found inBrescia

References

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^Beard, M.,North, J., Price, S.,Religions of Rome, Volume I, illustrated, reprint, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp.69.ISBN 0-521-31682-0
^Beard, M.,North, J., Price, S.,Religions of Rome, Volume I, illustrated, reprint, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp.69, 323.ISBN 0-521-31682-0
^Hölscher, Tonio (1967).Victoria Romana: Archäologische Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Wesensart der römischen Siegesgöttin von den Anfängen bis zum Ende des 3. Jhs. n. Chr (in German). Mainz.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Hill, Philip V. “ASPECTS OF JUPITER ON COINS OF THE ROME MINT, A.D. 65-318.” The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society 20 (1960): 115–125.http://www.jstor.org/stable/42662717. accessed December 23, 2020
^Bellinger & Berlincourt (1962). "Victory as a Coin Type".American Numismatic Society.149:1–68.
^Sheridan, J. J., "The Altar of Victory – Paganism's Last Battle." L'Antiquite Classique 35 (1966): 187.
^Ambrose Epistles 17–18; Symmachus Relationes 1–3.
^Beard, M.,North, J., Price, S.,Religions of Rome, Volume I, illustrated, reprint, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp.372-374.ISBN 0-521-31682-0
^"Winged Victoria Spandrels".google.com. Retrieved5 August 2015.
^Doyle, Chris (2015).'Declaring Victory, Concealing Defeat: Continuity and Change in Imperial Coinage of the Roman West, c. 383 – c. 408', in G. Greatrex, H. Elton (eds.) Shifting Genres in Late Antiquity. With the assistance of Lucas McMahon. Pp. xvi + 341, ills. Farnham, United Kingdom: Ashgate. pp. 157–71.ISBN 978-1-4724-4348-9.
^"Oscar Gladenbeck (1850–1921)".ISSUU.com. 6 April 2013. Retrieved18 June 2015.