Invisible Romans (61 page)
Authors: Robert C. Knapp
20. A slave is beaten. Striking a slave with a rod was a common form of punishment and control.
21. Slaves serving in an urban household. In preparation for a Dionysian festival feast, a slave carries bread in a flat basket.
22. Collars such as this one were supposed to assure the quick return of a runaway slave. It is inscribed: FVGI. TENE ME. CVM REVOCAVERIS M(EO) D(OMINO) ZONINO ACCIPIS SOLIDVM (ILS 8731). I have run away. Hold me; when you will have brought me.
23. A procuress. Go-betweens, both male and female, facilitated the trade of prostitutes by supplying (mostly) women to customers, and managing those women if they were part of a brothel.
24. A brothel cubicle. The small room indicates it was intended only for the business at hand. The concrete bed presumably had a mattress and coverings of some sort. There may have been a stool or other wooden furniture as well.
25. Courtesans. High-class prostitutes of the elite were participants in elaborate entertainments in the homes of the wealthy. Here they wear typical dress, a tunic which slips easily off the shoulders, and a pallia, or cloak, of fine cloth which, too, falls away easily.
26. The Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater) in Rome was the most famous venue for arena entertainments and executions. It was completed in ad 80 and seated around 50,000 people.
27. Provincial amphitheaters. There were over two hundred amphitheaters scattered throughout the empire. Some were small, some were temporary wooden structures, but many were large and elaborate, as this one at Pompeii shown in a fresco which also narrates the riots between citizens of Pompeii and Nuceria in ad 59.
28. Gladiatorial contest. The
retiarius
, a fighter with a net and short sword, has cast away the net to deal the final blow to his adversary, a
secutor
, or ‘pursuer’.
Retiarius
vs
secutor
was a specialty paring in the arena.
29. A beast hunt. A local magnate named Magerius celebrated his beast-hunt games with a grand mosaic. In the center is a slave holding a tray of prize money, rewards for the willing
bestiarii
(wild beast fighters).
30. Gladiators duel in these two mosaics now in Madrid. A
secutor
gets the best of a
retiarius
while the judges observe to insure the rules are followed.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Seeing the Invisible
2 Lives of Their Own: Ordinary Women
3 Subjection and Survival: The Poor
9 Beyond the Law: Bandits and Pirates