An Augustan trend towards Dionysos
Résumé
The opposition between Apollo and Dionysus, as Nietzsche fixed it, could seem to be confirmed in Rome through the « war of images » between Octavianus and Marcus Antonius. However, texts and images from Augustean period tend to show that Dionysus is not rejected, but easily integrated into the new esthetic and religious design of the Principate. This paper highlights this phenomenon by studying the décor of the so-called auditorium of Mecenate, compared with contemporaneous frescoes from Rome, Latium and Campania.