Mapa Agryppy, Res gestae Divi Augusti i kontrola nad rzymskim orbis terrarum

Abstract

Marek Wipsaniusz Agryppa był autorem niezachowanych do dziś „commentarii” (dzieła geograficznego) jak również mapy ówczesnego świata (łac. orbis terrarum). Autor artykułu stara się wskazać na cele i idee, jakie przyświecały powstaniu tej mapy i na jej swego rodzaju komplementarność z Res gestae Divi Augusti – katalogiem dokonań Oktawiana Augusta rozpowszechnionym z jego rozkazu w całym cesarstwie rzymskim. W ujęciu autora oba te dzieła to znamienite przykłady polityczno-imperialnej propagandy.

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a friend and son-in-law of Octavian Augustus, was the author of the (not extant) geographic work. Interestingly, Pliny the Elder preserved in his Natural History (3.16–17) the information that Agrippa was also – by order of the same Octavian Augustus – the author of the map of the then world (Latin: orbis terrarum). This map then found its way into the portico of Agrippa’s sister, a structure completed after Agrippa’s death by Octavian Augustus himself; reproduced, it was later to be sent to the major towns and cities of the Roman empire. The author of this article attempts to reconstruct the rationale behind the decision to create this map. One clue would be The Deeds of the Divine Augustus – an extant list of the military achievements of the princeps, discovered in the form of an inscription in the temple at Ancyranum in Galatia (today’s Ankara), and hence also called Monumentum Ancyranum. The emperor’s catalogue of accomplishments – circulated by his order throughout the Roman empire – is a prime example of political-imperial propaganda. The author of the article shows that Agrippa’s map had the same character: it was, on the one hand, a graphical “attestation” and “confirmation” of the control over the territories conquered by Augustus as a result of the wars, which were to constitute the Roman oikumene from then on; on the other hand, it was a manifestation of the desire to “organize” the world over which Rome took control after defeating the Ptolemies.