The sacrarium of Heius
Verrines II 4 is sometimes known as “On Statues” (De Signis) because of the formidable catalog of art that it contains. [177] It opens with a theft from the household of Gaius Heius in Messana (Verr.
II 4.4-28). Heius's house is not a temple, but the orator leaves no doubt that its statuary has religious significance.[178] Verres can only appreciate the objects that pique his interest as expensive and beautiful works of art, but others primarily view them as sacred artifacts. This dichotomy is already woven into the orator's setting of the scene (Verr. II 4.4):Erat apud Heium sacrarium magna cum dignitate in aedibus a maioribus traditum perantiquum, in quo signa pulcherrima quattuor summo artificio, summa nobilitate, quae non modo istum hominem ingeniosum et intellegentem, verum etiam quemvis nostrum, quos iste idiotas appellat, delectare possent, unum Cupidinis marmoreum Praxiteli; nimirum didici etiam, dum in istum inquiro, artificum nomina. Idem, opinor, artifex eiusdem modi Cupidinem fecit illum qui est 'Thespiis, propter quem Thespiae visuntur; nam alia visendi causa nulla est. Atque ille L. Mummius, cum Thespiadas, quae ad aedem Felicitatis sunt, ceteraque profana ex illo oppido signa tolleret, hunc marmoreum Cupidinem, quod erat consecratus, non attigit.
There was in the house of Heius a sacrarium of great renown passed down from his ancestors and very old. In it there were four very beautiful statues of the highest workmanship and greatest distinction, which could delight not only such a refined and intelligent man as Verres, but even one of us, whom he calls commoners. One of these marble statues was a Cupid of Praxiteles—I learned the names of the artists, of course, while I was making inquiries about Verres. The same artist, I think, made a Cupid of the same kind, which is in Thespiae. It is why people visit Thespiae, since there is no other reason to see the town.
And the famous Lucius Mummius, although he removed the “Women of Thespiae” (which are at the temple of Felicitas), and other unconsecrated statues from that town, did not lay hands on this marble Cupid, since it was consecrated.[179]The part of Heius's house where the Cupid is housed is identified as a sacrarium. This is only the second occurrence of the word in extant Latin literature, but Cicero offers no further explanation as to the nature of the space.[180] [181] The closeness of the word sacrarium to the adjective sacer, sacred, conveys its most important property: it is sacred.11 Next the sacrarium is identified as a place passed down by Heius's ancestors. The age of the space, which Cicero stresses with the pleonastic phrase a maioribus traditum perantiquum (“passed down from his ancestors and very old”), shows that it has been used for worship for a long time. The sacrarium is primarily important as an ancient place of religious reverence. Cicero then switches to looking at the situation from Verres's point of view. For him this is a place where beautiful sculptures are kept, including one by Praxiteles. Cicero presents it as rather odd that Verres would concentrate on the artistic qualities of the objects. In fact, the orator himself states that he only learned the name of the artist in the course of his investigations. This statement is indicative of the orator's general approach to art in the Verrines: at various points in the speeches he claims to be ignorant about art and attributes his scant descriptions to a lack of knowledge.[182] The fact that he, like most well-to-do Romans, collected works of art is set aside, and instead he claims to know only one thing about the objects: their religious value. Verres, by contrast, is entirely ignorant about the sacred dimension of the works of art that he takes.[183] For him the Cupid is only a marble sculpture by Praxiteles. Cicero does not give us a precise description of the object. Furthermore, as Beth Innocenti (1994) has shown, Cicero's decision to limit himself to only short descriptions of objects allows him to put a greater emphasis on discussing Verres's actions. The orator draws in and shocks his audience with tales of the former governor's depravities. What is therefore important about the treasures in Verr. II 4 is how Verres views them and, especially, how he interacts with them. The speech has plenty of descriptions, just not of the works of art.[184] The lack of artistic ekphrases in the Verrines, however, not only serves to categorize the defendant’s crimes and to free up space for an extended discussion of the his behavior. It also shows that although they are the works of famous artists and extraordinarily beautiful, they are only secondarily objects of art.[185] They are certainly beautiful enough to be appropriate expressions of religious devotion.[186] Their physical appearance, however, matters far less than their religious function. Moreover, the rhetorical choice helps Cicero portray Verres as someone who only pretends to be interested in art: what he actually cares about are beauty and precious materials, the only aspects of the works of art in the speech that receive extended comment. The reference to Praxiteles and his statue in Thespiae therefore does not primarily certify the high artistic quality of Heius’s statue. As Marie-Karine Lhomme (2008, esp. 59-60) has argued, it is also a dubious attempt to give the Cupid sacred credentials that go beyond its placement in a sacrarium. Her argument rests on a close analysis of Cicero’s mention of Lucius Mummius’s sack of Thespiae. The conqueror, the orator emphasizes, did not lay hands on Praxiteles’s statue because he knew that it was consecrated. The Roman general therefore becomes a model of how Romans should behave toward a Cupid by Praxiteles: they should recognize its sacred status and leave it alone.[187] It also implicitly means that the object that Heius has declared sacred by placing it in his sacrarium has its sacredness confirmed by a Roman general’s treatment of such an item. Through their common artistic heritage, Cicero suggests, the two statues also share a sacred status that Verres should have recognized.[188] We cannot say with confidence whether the orator's effort to elevate Heius's Cupid to the religious status of the famous statue from Thespiae was convincing to the speech's ancient audience.[189] Cicero, however, has plenty of other evidence that he is dealing with a sacred artifact (Verr. II 4.5): Verum ut ad illud sacrarium redeam, signum erat hoc quod dico Cupidinis e marmore, ex altera parte Hercules egregie factus ex aere. Is dicebatur esse Myronis, ut opinor, et certe. Item ante hos deos erant arulae, quae cuivis religionem sacrari significare possent. But to return to that sacrarium, there was the marble statue of Cupid, which I am talking about. Elsewhere there was a Hercules marvelously fashioned out of bronze. The sacred nature of the space again moves into the foreground when Cicero gives us more details about what the sacrarium looks like.[190] This is a place of active worship, as also emphasized by Cicero's quick shift from initially calling the objects that Verres takes statues (signa) to calling them gods (dei).[191] The former governor does not just take sculptures, he takes gods. There is only one object that he leaves behind in the sacrarium: an old wooden statue of Bona Fortuna. As the orator explains: “That man [Verres] did not want to have her in his house.”[192] He is not interested in anything that does not have a high material value. The detail of the disregard for the statue of Bona Fortuna therefore brings into focus that sacredness is not a quality that the former governor can appreciate: he is not looking for gods to worship, but for items of decor. Cicero does not deny that the statues removed by Verres are remarkable objects of art and therefore also have a nonreligious value. He tells us that people came to visit Heius's house to see them: “When any of us Romans came to Messana, they were accustomed to see these [statues]. They were available for viewing by everyone every day; the house was as much decorated for its master as for the community.”[193] What is implicit, however, is that the objects are also to be treated with religious reverence. Guests experience something that is akin to a tour of a sanctuary. By discussing the visitors to Heius's sacrarium, Cicero conjures up a scene similar to Herodas Mime 4. Here two women named Phile and Cynno visit a sanctuary of Asclepius. Although they have come to deliver a sacrifice to the god, this activity is not the focus of the mime. Instead, Cynno acts as Phile's guide to the precious works of art kept in the sanctuary. The orator then turns his attention to Verres's claim that he bought the objects from Heius and makes a lengthy argument that these are not items that anyone would be likely to sell (Verr. II 4.8-16). Religious scruples dictate that these objects should not be treated as commodities.[195] Moreover, should Heius have for some reason decided to abandon his religious concern, the price that Verres claims to have paid for the objects is laughable given their artistic quality (Verr. II 4.14).[196] The former governor therefore is not only unable to detect the religious significance of objects, he is also not a knowledgeable and ethical art collector. Therefore the Heius narrative provides an effective opening for the Verr. II 4 in two ways: first, it shows Verres dismantling a place of religious expression in his quest for beautiful things to possess. Second, it highlights that the former governor has a unique value system: he can appreciate neither the religious reverence that Heius feels for the statue nor does he know what price to pay for a work of art. Both those who worship statues and those who trade in them can be outraged by Verres's conduct. Verres's goal, so Cicero frequently tells us, is acquisition. The later display of the works of art that he gathers is not his concern.[197] When the former governor acquires them, therefore, the statues become mere stuff. Moreover, whereas in the sacrarium the Cupid and the other works of art could easily be admired by visitors, they are now hidden in the dark recesses of Verres's house. The former governor cannot recognize a sacred space, disrespects objects whose sacredness has been confirmed by other Romans, does not know what an art collector should pay for artifacts, and has no regard for the conventions of displaying works of art. Cicero's Verres is in every way a cultural and religious outsider.