Ancient Greek Art of War

Warfare used to be a usual occurrence in both the ancient Rome and Greek and thus war was a familiar theme in most of their ancient arts. Most monuments and sculptures of war were considered grand and they were celebrated victories and the power these two communities had. Such war arts were therefore created to award highly important individuals or important historical events that occurred. Ancient Greek artworks of war rivalries include fallen warrior from temple of Aphaia, the Pergamon altar,the Riace bronzes, goddesses from the east pediment of the Parthenon, marble metope from the Parthenon, Zeus or Poseidonwho are gods from the sea, the siren vase, the Motya charioteer,the Dionysus cup, and mask of Agamemnon. Romans on the other hand had Augustus of Prima Porta, the spear bearer (Doryphoros), column of Marcus Aurelius, altar of Augustan peace (arapacisAugustae), Didrachm of Rome, and Sarcophagus which depicted the triumph of Dionysos and the seasons.Some of these monuments exist to date for view in various state museums.This essay is going to cover the significance of fallen warrior from temple of Aphaia, the marble metope from the Parthenon on Greek’s side and Roma’scolumn of Marcus Aurelius, and the altar of Augustan peace.

The Fallen Warrior from Temple of Aphaia

This is a carved marble that is considered as one of the mystical images of human.This sculpture was composed in 510 BCE during the battle between the Greek and the Trojans. The statue of a fallen warrior shows a strong man falling heroically while sitting and leaning back in unison to his last breath.It shows the soldier’s unwillingness to surrender even at the point when he is brutally wounded. The soldier is depicted as making an attempt to rise again with the support of the shield and this shows his strong will to serve the Greece(Tyson, 2011). The sculpture creates the feeling of integrity to ordinary Greeks in those days and it instilled sense of respect to the gallant soldiers that fought bravely during those eras.

Figure 1;Image of the Fallen Warrior from Temple of Aphaia

The Marble Metope from the Parthenon

This art portrays violence as one of the favourite motif of ancient Greek artists which was set up on the traditional stories of the Trojan War. It contains the drawing of a centaur holding the human by the throat and the human with the right fist punches the centaur on the cheek. Centaurs are common in the Greek mythologies. Centaurs are half-human and half-horse creatures in thattheir body including the torso is of a horse while the head and arms are of a man. They were believed to be the young ones of Ixion who was the king of the Lapiths, and Nephele. In this art, the centaur pictured is called Nessus (Jones, 2014). Nessus in the Greek mythology was a renowned centaur that was murdered by Heracles. His poisoned blood in turn killed Heracles.Heracles was the child of Centauros and he fought in the combat with the Lapithswhich made him a boater on river Euenos(Cartwright, 2012).

Such art made the experience of war with Persia and Greek cities a reality. The human fighting a centaur is amazingly real in themessage it carries. It somehow shows that Greeks were not afraid to challenge anyone in any kind of battle;their rivals had to be worthy challengers.

Figure 2; Photo of sculpture of The Marble Metope from the Parthenon

Column of Marcus Aurelius

This column art was made in honor of emperor Marcus Aurelius who made victorious military crusade towards the Germans and the tribes of Samartia. This art stands at a total height of about 46 meters including its underground base height.The spiral column has drawings illustrating the specific military campaigns of Emperor Marcus Aurelius around the years of 175 BCE and 172 BCE (Jones, 2014). The drawings exhibit the particular fascinatingbattle events he encountered while some shows how the emperor was speaking to his group of soldiers. There aresome other more symbolic representations with better built qualities.

Figure 3;Picture showing the Column of Marcus Aurelius

Altar of Augustan Peace (Ara PacisAugustae)

Alter of Augustan peace was erected in honour of Emperor Augustus on his return from his successful campaign in the 13th centuries BCE in the areas of Gaul of Spain. This Roman art is considered to be one of the finest sculptures (Brouwers, 2018). This art is enclosed by extending walls with two entrances in the eat-west orientation. The walls are having fine sculptures with outstanding works of art. The major themes in these sculptures and paintings on the altar depict theme of peace and some civic rituals associated with the Romans. This piece of art depicts Romans as peace advocates rather than just brutal conquerors. During the tenor of Emperor Augustus, it is said that Romans cherished and maintained long periods of peace.

Figure 4 showing the altar of peace

The ancient Greek and ancient Romans engaged in various conflicts where Rome finally conquered Greek in between 350 and 200 BC. Several of Roman arts skills are borrowed from the Greeks (Aicher, 2004). The four pieces of art shows engineering skills of these two ancient empires and such skills enabled artists to find genuine ways of showing their appreciation for their war achievements.

Works cited

Aicher, Peter, “Rome Alive: A Source Guide to the Ancient City,” 2004, http://archive1.village.virginia.edu/spw4s/RomanForum/GoogleEarth/AK_GE/AK_HTM            L/MA-015.htmlAccessed 28 Oct. 2018

Brouwers, Josho. ”The Altar of Peace: The PaxRomana made manifest,” 2014.Ancient World Magazinehttps://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/altar-peace-pax-romana-made- manifest/Accessed 28 Oct. 2018

Cartwright, Mark. ”Parthenon,” 2012,Ancient History             Encyclopaediahttps://www.ancient.eu/parthenon/Accessed 28 Oct. 2018

Jones, Jonathan. ”The top 10 ancient Greek artworks”,2014,  The Guardian.             https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/aug/14/top-10-       ancient-greek-artworks-jonathan-jonesAccessed 28 Oct. 2018.

Tyson, Tracey. ”Introduction to Humanities: Fallen Warrior from the Temple of Aphaia at         Aegina”, 2011, https://hum120.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/fallen-warrior-from-the-      temple-of-aphaia-at-aegina/Accessed 28 Oct. 2018