ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the other major Roman innovation to the trophy-concept: the landscape trophy, which apparently originated as early as 121 B.C.E., according to Florus, but which truly blossomed in the late Republic and early Principate. Each of the two monuments that are the focus here were constructed for Octavian/Augustus. The first was built in Nikopolis in northwestern Greece, at the site of Octavian's victory over Antony and Cleopatra. The other is far to the west, lying on the border between Gallia Narbonensis and the Italian peninsula. The differences between these two monuments are telling: the ‘Greek’ monument was constructed to resemble a Greek sanctuary, while the ‘Gallic’ monument was constructed primarily to be large, imposing and visible from a great distance.
These differences were the result of divergent reactions to local culture. Both the trophies at Nikopolis and La Turbie were meant as Roman claims to ownership of land and people: however, each was tailored to suit its audience. Thus, at Nikopolis the trophy acknowledged the ‘civilized’ easterners and flattered them with its mimicry of their architecture, while at La Turbie the trophy responded to the ‘barbaric’ nature of the westerners by hailing them through the forest with a gleaming marker that could be understood by indigenous viewers as an encroachment on and statement of ownership of their territory. Ultimately, the landscape trophy may be reduced to a formula of civilized east versus uncivilized west.
