Serena Connolly (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
In his Compositiones, a first-century CE collection of pharmaceutical recipes, Scribonius Largus notes that a number were used by members of the imperial family. Of these, three recipes, described at chapters 59-60, were for dentifrices that were used, so he tells us, by Octavia (sister of Augustus), Livia (wife of Augustus), and Messalina (wife of Claudius), respectively. In this paper, I apply to these recipes a model from the field of modern consumer research in order to demonstrate that they can further our understanding of the personas that developed around members of the imperial family.
I apply to Scribonius’ dentifrice recipes and their imperial endorsements the meaning transfer model first set out by McCracken in 1989, which remains the most popular and widely cited of the four major celebrity endorsement models (Schimmelpfennig and Hunt 2020). McCracken argues that the qualities recognized in the persona constructed around a celebrity (e.g., the individualism, courage, and grit in the cowboy persona of actor John Wayne) are transferred to a product s/he endorses (e.g., Camel cigarettes).
I first approach the dentifrices that resulted from the recipes as marketed products and the three imperial women as modern celebrity endorsers; the record of their usage is, in McCracken’s terminology, implied endorsement. Applying the model in reverse, I then examine the qualities communicated in the claimed benefits, ingredients, and preparations of the dentifrices and show how those can be used to discern some qualities in imperial women’s personas.
For example, we are told that the recipe for a dentifrice used by Livia will result in shining white and strengthened teeth. Discussions of teeth in the Elder Pliny and scattered references in Martial reveal that discolored and weak teeth were common among Romans, especially as they aged; osteoarchaeological analyses of dental evidence (Becker; Fejerskov) concur. Following McCracken, we can infer that with the strong white teeth she is assumed to have thanks to the dentifrice, Livia’s persona is endowed with youth and health.
Turning to the recipe’s ingredients, vinegar and pellitory-of-the-wall are effective against toothache when boiled together, according to Dioscorides 3.73; along with salt, an abrasive, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial, these ingredients are traditional, simple, widely available, and apparently effective in mitigating the effects of the caries well-attested in the population. Livia’s persona is correspondingly imbued with tradition and simplicity, along with botanical knowledge. But exotic nard, which supplies fragrance, connotes luxury; Livia is therefore also connoted as enjoying a luxury lifestyle. The recipe’s complex multi-step preparation reinforces that impression.
I conclude by noting that this and the other imperially endorsed recipes in Scribonius, when set alongside statuary, coins, and other media, contribute to furthering our understanding of the personas constructed by and around members of the imperial family (e.g., Barrett; Harvey; Wallace-Hadrill; Norena; Zanker). This paper also contributes to recent work in the small but growing field of Scribonius studies (most recently Jocks; Jouanna-Bouchet; Sconocchia).