Was anime real once?

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Yes

>>2820209
qcs et nusquam locus museum ad vigilate ad-amiculos tua anime locales.

WE

is there any achievement that was not invented by black people`?

>>2820305
WUZ

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>>2820280
>writing latin in lowercase
kill yourself

>>2820341
>Writing 'Latin' in lowercase
Kill yourself.

>>2820322
WEEBS

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Late Roman Emperors, especially those of the Tetrarchy and the following Constantinian dynasty, are indeed very often depicted with very large and intensely staring eyes, with the larger than life portrait of Constantine the Great at the Capitoline Museum in Rome just as one very famous example. While this emphasize on the eyes certainly is part larger stylistic trends of the age it most probably also has some kind of symbolic meaning. It is also not necessarily limited to imperial portraits but also shows itself on other depictions like those of provincial grandees or local administrators. For example this marble head from Ephesos probably shows a man called Eutropius who was honored around the middle of the 5th century AD for providing the funds for the marble pavement of one of the city’s streets. It is quite stylized and an emphasize on the eyes is again noticeable.

>>2820382
Previous generations of scholars have tended to explain this feature as a sign that the depicted emperor is supposed to be especially in tune with the spiritual world that lies beyond the material. This fits with a larger pattern to explain stylistic changes in Late Roman art with a heightened spirituality of the age that also manifested itself in the rise of Christianity and the new influence of Holy Men and Women on society. A famous exhibition from the years 1977/78 at the Metropolitan Museum in New York that showcased some of the most important pieces of Late Antique art was even called “The Age of Spirituality”. According to the great Ernst Kitzinger our portrait from Ephesos “conveys with great power the consuming intensity of one man’s awareness of the supernatural world” (E. Kitzinger, Byzantine Art in the Making (1977) p. 80). The equally influential André Grabar ascribes to it “a spiritual grandeur of quite exceptional order” (A Grabar, Byzantium (1967) p. 226). And viewpoints like this are indeed corroborated by ancient sources. For example Eusebius of Caesarea explains Constantine the Great’s uplifted gaze on his coin portraits like this:

>>2820354 you got me with that one

>>2820384
>How deeply his soul was impressed by the power of divine faith may be understood from the circumstance that he directed his likeness to be stamped on the golden coin of the empire with the eyes uplifted as in the posture of prayer to God. (Eusebius, Vita Constantini 4,15)

However modern scholarship is a lot more careful with such sweeping statements that are able to explain all kinds of stylistic trends with an all encompassing zeitgeist. For example in 1999 R. R. R. Smith wrote about these older methods of explanation the following:

>A wide range of late antique portraits and other images have intense expressions and large staring eyes for which the traditional view seeks an all-embracing interpretation in the period's changed relationship with the divine. Thus enlarged eyes come to mean the same thing for emperors, philosophers, generals, governors, and anybody else. But visual expression of this kind did not have absolute meaning - the same images, signs, and styles could and often did mean different things according to the time, place, and context of their use. (R. R. R. Smith, Late Antique Portraits in a Public Context: Honorific Statuary at Aphrodisias in Caria, A.D.300-600, Journal of Roman Studies 89 (1999) p. 185)

>>2820391
To gain insight into the context in which the great imperial portraits of the fourth century AD were commissioned it helps to look at some literary sources which describe how Late Roman emperors wanted to be seen by their subjects. The following is an excerpt from an oration that was probably held in 289 AD at the court in Trier before emperor Maximian
>But far greater are those services which you have rendered in place of thanks when the imperium was bestowed upon you: […] to stand on such a lofty summit of human affairs as to gaze down, as it were, on every land and sea, and to survey in turn with eyes and mind where calm weather is assured, where storms threaten, to observe which governors emulate your justice, which commanders maintain the glory of your courage […] (Panegyrici Latini 10,3)

A later oration held around the year 310 AD also at Trier in front of Constantine the Great includes this passage:
>For it is a wonderful thing, beneficent gods, a heavenly miracle, to have as emperor a youth whose courage, which is even now very great, nonetheless is still increasing, and whose eyes flash and whose awe inspiring yet agreeable majesty dazzles us at the same time as it invites our gaze. (Panegyrici Latini 6,17)

>>2820394
And the entrance of Constantius II into the city of Rome from the year 357 AD is described by Ammianus Marcellinus like this:

>Accordingly, being saluted as Augustus with favoring shouts, while hills and shores thundered out the roar, he never stirred, but showed himself as calm and imperturbable as he was commonly seen in his provinces. For he both stooped when passing through lofty gates (although he was very short), and as if his neck were in a vice, he kept the gaze of his eyes straight ahead, and turned his face neither to right nor to left, but (as if he were a lay figure) neither did he nod when the wheel jolted nor was he ever seen to spit, or to wipe or rub his face or nose, or move his hands about. (Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 16,10,9-10)

From the end of the third century AD onwards it had become increasingly important for emperors to portray themselves as larger than life, remote figures that towered above their subjects. Their unflinching and all seeing gaze is an integral part of this picture which is repeated several times in the sources. It is very likely that this was also intended to be reflected in the official portraits of the rulers.

Now the local grandees that were honored with their own statues couldn’t adopt this style of imperial self representation wholesale as showing themselves on equal footing with the emperor would have become dangerous for them very soon. However, like the oration in honor of Maximian describes it, they were supposed to “emulate the emperor’s justice”. Working tirelessly for the common good is a virtue that Late Roman honorary inscriptions ascribe to local governors all the time. For example the inscription which accompanied the portrait of Eutropius from Ephesos praised his “sleepless labors”. The emphasize on his large open eyes on his portrait was probably supposed to reflect this very quality.

>>2820382
>>2820384
>>2820391
>>2820394
>>2820397
>blatant shitposting thread becomes one of the more informative threads on /his/
well damn
I'm always skeptical of the idea that stylistic trends have longstanding meaning. Maybe the coin-makers had a reason for making their eyes big but I feel as though later artists and craftsman were just following artistic trends