A girl? Controversy around the pompelo togada statue

«There are two important arguments (which indicate that it is a female representation). The statue carries a long robe to the feet under the toga and only female figures were thus representedto girls or women. By written sources, we know that The Praetexta toga that you saw was carried by only the girls, single and free bornthat is, those that had Roman citizenship, even puberty or until they got married, ”he emphasizes in telephone conversation with ABC. According to their explanation, the adults carried a stole (‘Stola’) on the tunic and the children, when they became adult men, wore the ‘virilis’ robe, without the red strip. For the clothing and the height of the statue, 1.27 meters, the German specialist calculates that it represents a girl between 10 and 12 years.

The teacher remembers that «When the statue was found at the end of the 19th century, it was said that it was feminine»And the historian Julio Altadill then identified her with the goddess Ceres. The togada figure, now exposed in the Navarra Museum, holds in the right hand Wheat spikes that «always relate to Ceres, the goddess of fertilityor with Proserpina, her daughter, who was kidnapped by Jupiter and entered the Hades, the world of the dead. The poppies and wheat spikes were a very usual attribute in female statute, ”continues this expert, who rejects that the figure holds a cloth called ‘La Mappa’ or an ‘Aspergillum’, as other scholars have proposed. He says that this utensil was known to sprinkle with water in religious ceremonies “and does not correspond.”

“By its typology”this doctorate at the University of Colonia with a thesis on the statute representation of individuals in Hispania, Date the piece in the first half of the 1st century DCbefore what had been dated so far. He argues that the current aspect of the statue is not the original. When he found during some excavations in Pamplona in 1895, «he had three large holes, which in the 80s were covered, but for a 1911 photograph we know where those holes were and that his draped had as a bow that fell ahead of the belly. It is not the type of toga that was rebuilt, He wore another type of toga, another draped. For its original parts, for the folds and for how the tunic falls on the feet, the statue is of the first half of the 1st century DC ». Marks-Jacob is inclined to think that it dates «of the period 1-37 DC, of ​​the Tardougustea-Tiberiana era».

In his opinion, it is possible that the statue counted was a representation in A funerary monument for a girl. «It was found in the Viejo de Pamplona helmet, not in a necropolis, but the bronze statues were taken to melt to the center of the cities in the late ancient times. Maybe it was what happened and the statue escaped that destiny of being melt, ”he says. However, the expert believes more likely that It will be part of «a family honorary monument, erected in the Julio-Claud forum of the city, which in Flavia was integrated into a forum that was built new ».

As explained by mentioning the Excavations directed by María García-BarberenaAt the end of the III DC there was a great fire and the inhabitants of Pompelo dismantled the forum. «The statue was among the remains of that Flavio forum, although it is older. Maybe it was at the end of the III DC between the debris of the Flavio Forum and thus survived ».

The archaeologist García-Barberena confirms ABC that «There must have been a commercial, non -legal forum », prior to the built in Flavia erawhen the population promoted as a municipality, since reused structural remains have been found. However, it indicates that it would be Located «much more east of the area where the togada statue appeared». The bronze piece was found “in the context of the collapse of the Flavio forum” so he thinks more likely to date that chronology, even more so if it represents an individual. “There are many questions, many nuances that have not been resolved,” he says.

«Legal and iconographic problems»

«This hypothesis is not new. Marks-Jacobs has maintained it since 2005” and “None of the experts in Roman statute in Spain shared it for all the serious problems that it implies from the legal and iconographic point of view, ”he says Luis Romeroresearcher Juan de la Cierva at the Complutense University of Madrid, citing the The researcher’s intervention at the V meeting of Roman sculpture in Hispaniawhich was published in 2008 with the title ‘The female statues in Hispania: considerations about the concept of citizenship seen through external signs’.

Thanks to the study ‘A Rediscovered «Togatus» from pompelo‘That this archaeologist and historian published with Rubén Montoya in the’ Archeology Notebooks’ of the University of Navarra in 2015, the statue returned to Pamplona in 2022 as a loan and was finally acquired by the Regional Government in 2023. The owner of the work, an American collector, read the article and put in touch with Romero, who warned the service of the government Navarra He had more than a century in an unknown whereabouts.

In that study, Romero indicated that it is a male bronze statue of a togado character, one of the thirteen preserved throughout the world (in the Iberian Peninsula only another is known, the periote togate), dated in the first half of the second century. Thus he still thinks years later.

«It is true that the statue presents iconographically particular aspects, such as the object of the hand and the final treatment of the tunic, which completely covers the feet. Moves away from the typical togate representation», Says this expert. “But in classical sources such as Cicero and Suetonio” we have witnessed the Tunica Talaris, a long male and short -sleeve tunic, “says the historian, in charge of presenting the statue to the specialists who participated in the XI Roman sculpture meeting in Hispania held on October 17 at the Navarra Museum and organized by the UNAV. “Goethe was the only one who raised this discordant voice and gave his opinion in Petit committee,” he recalls.

In Romero’s opinion, «There are arguments of all kinds to invalidate this proposal». The main one is that “the toga is the symbol of the Roman citizen” and if “the children of Roman citizens wore toga praexta, they carried a pendant, the noise, so that it was clear that they were not yet Roman citizens.” «A girl could not wear the togait can’t be a girl, ”he says.

“To say that a Roman woman can wear a toga creates a legal problem” because “there is no classic source that speaks of women who carry toga, or archaeological records,” continues this expert. In his opinion, Marks-Jacobs enters contradictions because “it is based only on iconography and on the other hand says it is a ‘unicum’, that there is nothing similar.”

Romero admits that the element that carries the statue could be spikes, “but it is strange that you carry several that are united” and also disagree with the change of chronology of the piece. «It is impossible for it to be from the archaeological contexts”He argues, since the statue was found during excavations on Navarrería Street,” probably at number 16, and a few meters away, in the Plaza de la Navarrería the forum terrace wall of the forum was excavated, very well dated in Flavia era. ”

For this historian there is no doubt that the construction of the forum is from Flavia era (from 69 to 96 AD). Although “there are previous contexts in other points of Pamplona, ​​not in this area” and “We do not know if there was a previous forum», Adds Romero, who waits for the publication of Marks-Jacobs’s investigations to argue his response in another article.

Neither Javier AndreuProfessor of Ancient History and director of the Diploma in Archeology of the University of Navarra, agrees with the interpretation of the study of Marks-Jacobs, nor “most of the authorized opinion.” At the XI Roman sculpture meeting, «there was only one discordant voice, that of Hans Goette, to the general proposal of interpretation: a male togado, yes, with a rare finish at the bottom of the toga and with an object difficult to identify in one of his hands. But no one doubted that it was a manly representation, ”he says.

In this meeting, Andreu recalls that colleagues such as Professor Pedro Rodríguez Oliva, from the University of Malaga, or Isabel Rodà, of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​stated that the object that carries in the hand the statue was, indeed, a wheat spike – and not an aspergilum for ritual ceremonies – and that the representation, being manly of prosperity that sometimes carries this type of attribute ». He assures that both Romero and He has spoken with some “and reaffirm that a woman is not.”

Andreu also coincides with Romero in the problems that the dating raises in the first half of the 1st century, given the flavio context in which the statue was found, and in the legal argument that, in his opinion, invalidates the proposal. «If the boys were not allowed to wear toga before the age of 16, is it really possible that they were allowed to take it to girls? In addition, the chest brand under the toga is missing, which is usually a usual element as an attribute of female representations. Think that the Roman is a markedly masculine society and in which the brands of social distinction -in this case of citizen condition -were quite rigid, as well as the separation of the way of dressing the women -with Stola -of the men -with Toga, if they were citizens -».

«It right tracks Carmen Marks that is a Unicum, without parallel. Because it is impossible that there are … », adds the professor, who states that in the sources are there allusions to that feminine use of the Praetexta toga, essentially masculine. «Everything comes from an interpretation of the iconographic representations that she considers feminine. But in the sources (Suetonio, Plinio) there is news of processes against individuals who usurpose the toga ». In his opinion, the female reading of the TOGA “is the most difficult reading possible.”