The Elephant in the Atrium: Conquest, Interpretation, and the Image of Caelestis

summary: In the Roman context, female figures crowned by the ears, tusks, and trunk of an elephant are commonly interpreted as images of the personification of Africa. This article argues that, in some cases, the ancient viewer would have understood these images to be the goddess Caelestis, sometimes associated with Juno. I trace a Roman iconographic program that conflated the genii ("divine spirits") of the territory of Africa and the city of Carthage with the goddess. I thus both provide a new reading of some controversial images and use the visual evidence alongside the linguistic to reframe how the relationships between Africa, Caelestis, and Juno were understood, seen, and portrayed at the intersection of religion and territorial conquest across the Roman world.