The vandalism and destruction of the Eden Park Capitoline Wolf on June 17th is both disheartening and troubling.

The Capitoline Wolf is not simply a monument, a statue to a war hero, president or otherwise famous person.  The original Capitoline Wolf statue is a work of art that resides in the Capitoline Museum in Rome.  Cincinnati’s faithful replica of this statue, publicly displayed in Eden Park, is also a work of art, and albeit a copy, a meaningful copy of a cultural artifact.  Vandalizing a work of art is different from vandalizing a statue of a famous, or infamous, person; it is the equivalent of burning a book.  The Capitoline Wolf has been a highly valued cultural artifact esteemed across millennia and cultures.  In addition to sculptures, the ancient Romans even put the symbol on their money.

In addition, the destruction of the Eden Park Capitoline Wolf is disturbing because it has become a recognizable symbol of our city of Cincinnati.  For decades, it has sat prominently in a beautiful city park overlooking the Ohio River, a park that is home to gardens, fountains, a theater, an art museum, and a gathering space for all from lovers on a solitary walk to the annual Juneteenth celebration.  Eden Park itself is a public work of art and meaningful to Cincinnati and its residents. 

I do not know the motives of those who vandalized the Eden Park Capitoline Wolf, but perhaps the most troubling aspect is that it is difficult not to take it as a rejection of the principles for which the statue stands.  The Capitoline Wolf is a political symbol, signifying civic virtue, just government, and courage.  The statue depicts an important moment in a dramatic story tied to the foundation of Rome.  The twins, Romulus and Remus are being nursed by the wolf because they were cast adrift, Moses-like, in a basket on the Tiber River, at the command of their great-uncle Amulius, who had driven Numitor, the rightful king and his own brother, from the throne of the city of Alba Longa.  Looking to remove all potential rivals and legitimate heirs, Amulius wanted Romulus and Remus, the grandsons of Numitor, dead and ordered the new-born twins cast into the river, but rather than drowning they floated to shore and were nursed by the wolf, who fortuitously found them on the banks of the river; they were then found and raised by a shepherd and his wife.  When they grew to adulthood, they returned to Alba Longa, the city of their birth, and restored the rightful ruler, Numitor, and drove the usurper from power.  The tale is an archetypal one, and if one prefers Disney to Roman history, then consider the Lion King.  The Capitoline Wolf statue captures the turning point in the story, when the vulnerable infants are rescued on the banks of the river, a moment of hope that justice will prevail. 

The full story of Romulus and Remus is a complex one.  Romulus and Remus grew up to found the city of Rome, but in its foundation, Remus was murdered, either by Romulus himself or his supporters.  The Romans could have conveniently removed Remus from the story or portrayed him simply as a villain; yet they did not and he remained as an important reminder of the possibilities of civil strife, even between brothers. 

The Eden Park Capitoline Wolf statue also has its complexities and controversies; some have recently called for the statue to be removed.  The statue was given to Cincinnati by the “Il governatore di Roma” in 1931 when Italy was governed by Benito Mussolini and his fascist government.  This is an inconvenient truth, but also not the full story, as the “governor of Rome” was not Mussolini but Francesco Boncompagni Ludovisi, a complex figure himself who would go on to aid the allies during World War II.

Yes, fascists have claimed and no doubt still want to claim the image of the Capitoline Wolf, and therefore we may want to distance ourselves from such images and cultural artifacts, but if we cede all that fascism and other forms of hatred and domination want to appropriate, then we will be left with nothing. 

The statue of the Capitoline Wolf and Romulus and Remus is an image of hope for a better future.  The vandalized Eden Park Capitoline Wolf statue is now an image of despair, two starving infants abandoned by those who should have cared for them.  Perhaps a fitting image for our increasingly brutal age when school children are murdered in their classrooms while men with guns stand in the hall doing nothing; when our public servants are harassed and threatened with violence for simply doing their jobs.  As anyone who has followed the shooting in Uvalde or the January 6th Committee hearings will observe, we need images and models that provide us with examples of courage and civic virtue.  The Capitoline Wolf can be one such model if we read it right.  Efforts are being made to restore the statue. If they are successful, then the statue will truly be a gift to the city from its own citizens and a demonstration of our shared values.

Resources

Livy, The History of Rome, Books 1-5. Translated by Valerie M. Warrior. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2006.

Thomas E. Strunk. “Mussolini Thought History Began with Him.” Cincinnati Enquirer, January 17, 2020.