Ivories Ancient and Mediæval

by William Maskell

Another diptych of Flavius Petrus, a.d. 516, has this inscription within a large circle: “I, the consul, offer these presents, though small in value, still ample in honours, to my [senatorial] fathers.” This is given by M. Pulszky, in his essay on antique ivories. The same writer quotes the often-cited decree of the emperor Theodosius; by which, because of the honour attached to the receiving of these diptychs, the presenting of them by anyone but the ordinary consuls was forbidden. The law ought not to be omitted here: “Lex xv. Codex Theodosianus, tit. xi. De expensis ludorum. Illud etiam constitutione solidamus, ut exceptis consulibus ordinariis, nulli prorsus alteri auream sportulam aut diptycha ex ebore dandi facultas sit. Cum publica celebrantur officia, sit sportulis nummus argenteus, alia materia diptycha.”

During the period when these ivory diptychs were in use or fashion, that is (so far as we know) from the first or second centuries to the sixth, the office of consul was entirely in the hands of the emperors, who conferred it on whom they would, and assumed it themselves as often as they thought fit. Augustus was consul thirteen times; Vitellius proclaimed himself perpetual consul; Vespasian eight times; and Domitian seventeen. The consuls, therefore, gradually became mere ciphers in the state. It is true that they presided in the senate and on other public occasions with all the ancient forms; and the mere title, down to the extinction of the western empire, was nominally the most exalted and honourable of all official positions.

The most complete list which we have of the existing consular diptychs is given by professor Westwood in a carefully written paper read before the Oxford architectural society, and printed in their proceedings for 1862. These are supposed to have been all identified, and, in most instances, by the inscription on the ivory. Nevertheless, we must still acknowledge to a grave doubt about more than one:—

A.D.
1.	M. Julius Philippus Augustus. In the Meyer collection at Liverpool. One leaf	248
2.	M. Aurelius Romulus Cæsar. In the British museum. One leaf	308
3.	Rufius Probianus. At Berlin. Both leaves	322
4.	Anicius Probus. In the treasury of the cathedral of Aosta. Both leaves	406
5.	Flavius Felix. Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris. One leaf	428
6.	Valentinian III. In the treasury of the cathedral of Monza. Both leaves	430
7.	Flavius Areobindus. At Milan, in the Trivulci collection. Both leaves	434
8.	Flavius Asturius. At Darmstadt. One leaf	449
9.	Flavius Aetius. At Halberstadt. One leaf	454
10.	Narius Manlius Boethius. In the bibl. Quiriniana at Brescia. Two leaves	487
11.	Theodorus Valentianus. At Berlin. Both leaves	505
12.	Flavius Dagalaiphus Ariobindus. At Lucca; both leaves. At Zurich; both leaves.
	And in private possession at Dijon; one leaf	506
13.	Flavius Taurus Clementinus. In the Meyer collection at Liverpool. Both leaves	513
14.	Flavius Petrus Justinianus. Bibliothèque Impériale, at Paris; one leaf.
	And at Milan, in the Trivulci collection; both leaves	516
15.	Flavius Anastasius Paulus Probus Pompeius. At Berlin; one leaf.
	The other leaf in South Kensington museum.
	Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris; both leaves. And Verona; one leaf	517
16.	Flavius Paulus Probus Magnus. Two in the Imperial library at Paris; each one leaf.
	Another, so attributed, in the Mayer collection at Liverpool; one leaf	518
17.	Flavius Anicius Justinus Augustus. At Vienna; one leaf	519
18.	Flavius Theodorus Philoxenus. Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris; both leaves.
	And in the Mayer collection; one leaf; very doubtful	525
19.	Flavius Anicius Justinianus Augustus. At Paris	528
20.	Rufinus Orestes. South Kensington museum. Both leaves	530
21.	Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius. In the Uffizii, at Florence; one leaf.
	The companion leaf is in the Brera, at Milan	541

A few remarks may be of use to the student with reference to some of these important diptychs. The leaves of no. 3 now form the covers of a manuscript life of St. Ludgerus. This diptych is erroneously named by Labarte as the most ancient known to exist.

Of no. 5, the other leaf was lost or stolen during the French revolution of 1792.

Mr. Oldfield, a very high authority, suggests that no. 6 should be given to Valentinian II., in which case the date would be about a.d. 380. The earlier date is supported by the great beauty and admirable execution of the diptych.

No. 7 has no inscription: it bears a monogram which contains all the letters of the name Areobindus. It is engraved in the Thesaurus of Gori.

No. 8 was formerly in the church of St. Martin at Liége, and it was long supposed to be lost. Professor Westwood, however, has found the greater portion of one leaf, used as the cover of a book of the gospels in the royal library at Darmstadt. This, probably, is not a fragment of the Liége diptych, but of another of the same consul. The two leaves are engraved in Gori.

A folio volume of more than 200 pages was edited by Hagenbuch in 1738, containing a number of learned essays on the diptych of Manlius Boethius, no. 10. It has at the beginning engravings of both leaves: and the consul is represented on one in a standing position; on the other, sitting and holding the mappa in his right hand. The inscription is unusually obscure: how much so may be judged from the fact that the editor of the book has collected more than half a dozen different interpretations of it. Some of them are amusing. The inscription on one leaf runs thus: NARMANLBOETHIVSVCETINL, on the other, EXPPPVSECCONSORDETPATRIC. The members of the Academy at Paris, to whom the difficulty had been referred, proposed to read “Natales regios Manlius Boethius vir clarissimus et inlustris ex propria pecunia voto suscepto edixit celebrandos consul ordinarius et patricius.” But a more probable reading is, “Narius Manlius Boethius vir clarissimus et inlustris, expræfectus prætorio, præfectus, et comes, consul ordinarius et patricius.” Again, against this last some have disputed that the PPP meant three times prefect, and CC twice consul.