I suoi principali interessi riguardano l’epigramma greco e latino, letterario ed epigrafico (dalle origini fino ad Ausonio), l’elegia ellenistica e romana, la Appendix Vergiliana e il dramma senecano.

Ha organizzato diversi Convegni internazionale, pubblicandone gli Atti (

An Excellent Foreigner: Titus at the Sanctuary of the Paphian Aphrodite

Alessandra Bravi

https://doi.org/10.60983/003-3.3

ABSTRACT

 The visit to the sanctuary of Paphian Aphrodite had great strategic significance for Titus’ rise to power. The repercussions produced in the concrete field of monuments erected to glorify the new dynasty were perceptible to visitors from all over the world who came to Rome and visited the great complex dedicated to the Pax oecumenica by the Flavians. The presence of Venus, who in Roman culture has deep ties with Pax, is manifested in the sacred garden structure of the Templum Pacis. Pliny mentions a statue of this goddess in the visual display of this sanctuary. Figures of her retinue, such as the Pseliumene by Praxiteles, were also set up in this area. The presence of the goddess of love is implied also by the garden provided with water canals and flowerpots filled with Gallic roses, probably sacred to Venus. These planting pots recalled the sacred garden of Aphrodite: a recondite space, built through images of the world of Aphrodite, the smells of trees, the open sky: it conveyed the sense of a sacred space which was perceived in the oldest sanctuaries of Aphrodite: “Going to Cyprus she entered the sweet-smelling temple / in Paphos, where are her temenos and fragrant altar”.