The Victorious Charioteer-Mosaics

!"#$%&'()*&)+,$-".*&)(##*$)/$0),.&',$./1$2#3.(#1$0)/+4#/(,5+(")*6,78$9.("#*&/#$0:$;:$;+/

The Victorious Charioteer on Mosaics and Related Monuments*

KATHERINE M.D. DUNBABIN

(Pls. 5-9) Abstract

The representations on Roman mosaics of the victorious charioteer of the circus may be compared with similar representations in other forms of Roman art, both major and minor. Certain standard types are established which are repeated with only slight variations in different media and at widely different times and places. Common models must underlie these types, but the individual craftsmen or workshops evidently exer- cised their own choice over the details. These types include the charioteer driving his quadriga in profile, at a walk or at a gallop, and the same turning to face the observer, although the horses are still in profile, as well as the standing figure crowning himself. The most common type on mosaics shows the frontal quadriga, with the horses arranged more or less schematically to left and right; it is first found in the mid-third century, but becomes especially common in the fourth century and later. A similar schema is used for other figures in Roman art, especially in the late Empire, most frequently for the chariots of Sol and of the Emperor. It is mistaken, however, to assume from the similarity of pose that the circus charioteer was intended to be identified symbolically with either of these figures, despite connections between the circus and both the imperial and the solar iconography; rather the pose comes to be adopted for numerous victorious and triumphant figures. The significance of the charioteer is as an image of victory, as a bringer of good luck and felicitas; for this reason it is common to find the charioteers from all four factions represented simultaneously as victors.

The use of stock motifs in which a figure or

group of figures is repeated in nearly identical form on works too far removed in time or space for direct imitation to be possible is one of the most characteristic features of later Roman art. The artists and craftsmen-painters, sculptors of reliefs and sarcophagi, mosaicists, workers in pottery and other industrial arts, gem engravers, designers of coin and medallion types-frequently shared a common repertoire, disseminated throughout the Empire. The use of such a standard repertoire is most easily seen in the common patterns followed for mythological scenes, which are normally assumed to go back to major Hellenistic prototypes. However, the same procedure can be observed with specifically Roman themes, established in the repertoire at a much later date. Among the most popular of these Roman themes are figures and episodes from the games, widespread especially in the western regions of the Empire. In what follows I propose to examine the treatment on mosaics of one of these themes, the representation of the victorious charioteer of the circus races. This subject is frequently found on mosaics in the western Empire; analysis of these mosaics and of their relationship to works of art with the same subject in other media should cast light on the method of work of the Roman craftsmen and on the use they made of their materials.

The popularity of scenes from the circus in Ro-

* In addition to the standard abbreviations set forth in AJA 82 dunaise, Belgique et Germanie (Paris (1978) 3-10 and 84 (1980) 3-4, the following are used here: 1909) CMA suppl. II A. Merlin and R. Lantier, Catalogue Inv.Tun. P. Gauckler, Inventaire des mosa- du Musie Alaoui, supplement II ques de la Gaule et de l'Afrique II,

(Paris 1922) Afrique Proconsulaire (Tunisie) Hafner, Viergespanne G. Hafner, Viergespanne in Vorder- (Paris 1910)

ansicht (Berlin 1938) Inv.Tun.suppl. A. Merlin, Inventaire des mosaiques Inv.Alg. F.G. de Pachtere, Inventaire des mo- de la Gaule et de l'Afrique II, Afrique

saiques de la Gaule et de l'Afrique Proconsulaire (Tunisie), supplement III, Afrique Proconsulaire, Numidie, (Paris 1915) Mauritanie (Algirie) (Paris 1911) MRNA K.M.D. Dunbabin, The Mosaics of

Inv.Gaule I G. Lafaye, Inventaire des mosaiques Roman North Africa (Oxford 1978) de la Gaule et de l'Afrique I,i, Nar- Reinach, RPGR S. Reinach, Ripertoire des peintures bonnaise et Aquitaine (Paris 1909) grecques et romaines (Paris 1922)

Inv.Gaule II A. Blanchet, Inventaire des mosarques The numbers in parentheses, e.g. (no. 8), refer to entries in the de la Gaule et de l'Afrique I,ii, Lug- Appendix.

66 KATHERINE M.D. DUNBABIN [AJA 86 man art led to the emergence of a number of standard schemata for representing the victor. The driver is normally portrayed in his chariot, holding the palm and wreath as emblems of victory, and driving a team which almost always on the mosaics consists of four horses.' The first distinction to be drawn is between scenes which show the race in progress in the arena, with the leader marked out as victor, and those where there is no scene of the race as a whole, but the victor is shown in isolation. Sometimes charioteers from all four factions (or from two) are represented as victors, but they are then regularly placed in separate panels or compartments. An ap- parent exception, with more than one victor shown in a circus setting, is a mosaic from Carthage (no. 3), which is discussed below. A different set of crite- ria may be used to classify the iconography of the chariot and its driver. The chariot may be represented (W) in profile, with the horses either at rest or galloping forward, or (X) frontally. The charioteer himself may likewise be (Y) in profile or (Z) frontal, but the schema XY, the profile charioteer in the frontal chariot, does not occur in Roman art. In schemata WY and WZ, various minor divergencies of detail are possible, for example in the position and gait of the horses, and an intermediate three- quarter view for the charioteer can be adopted. The fully frontal schema XZ is a quite distinct type, and the one most common on mosaics; its origins, parallels, and sub-groups are discussed more fully below.2

In two further schemata the charioteer is no longer in the chariot. In one (T), he stands on foot, holding up the wreath and palm or placing the wreath on his head. This type, though common elsewhere, is rare on the mosaics. Also rare is a

schema (V) which shows the victorious charioteer on horseback, as usual with wreath and palm.3

Of the scenes showing the race in progress in the arena, the fullest version appears in the Great Cir- cus mosaic at Piazza Armerina (no. 13). The victorious charioteer still brandishes his whip, but has reined in his horses; the magistrate, accompanied by a trumpeter, stands in front of him to hand him the palm of victory (pl. 5, fig. 1).4 Both horses and driver are facing forward in a natural position, toward the magistrate. But in the mosaic of the Small Circus at Piazza Armerina (no. 14), where the race is parodied by children driving pairs of birds, the victor is handed the palm by a child behind him; he turns back to receive it, so that his body is frontal, while the chariot and birds are still in profile.5 In other versions, the winning charioteer already holds one or both of the emblems of victory, as seen on a small mosaic from Carthage (no. 4), which shows the race inside the circus building. Three charioteers are still racing around the spina, the fourth gallops in the opposite direction, holding a palm (pl. 5, fig. 2).6 He was probably imagined as performing his victory lap after receiving the palm, and he faces, in almost full profile, in the direction in which the horses are moving (schema WY). The schema WZ, with the charioteer frontal in a profile chariot, appears on a mosaic from Sainte-Colombe (no. 21). Here the elements of the circus setting have disappeared; four chariots are placed separate- ly against a plain white ground. Three are still racing, the fourth is at rest, its driver turned to face the spectators and holding the emblems of victory.7 There are few examples in other media of scenes of the race in progress where the victor is actually being awarded the emblems of victory, as at Piazza

I Bigae are found occasionally in scenes which show the whole race in progress, but not on the mosaics which concentrate on the representation of the victor. Nor do we find representations on the mosaics of the exceptional teams of six or ten horses which are mentioned sometimes in inscriptions, though ten-horse chariots do occur on works in other media: see, e.g. infra ns. 84, 110. 2 Pp. 70-78. The system of classification which has been adopted here is inevitably somewhat too schematic and ignores the slight variations in the poses of both charioteers and horses which are used to give greater vitality to the figures.

3I do not discuss here other charioteer motifs such as the figure on foot leading a single horse, seen, for example, on the four mosaic panels from Baccano (M.P. Tambella, in G. Becatti et al., Mosaici antichi in Italia, Reg. 7a, Baccano: Villa romana [Rome 1970] 71-79, nos. 26-29, pls. 22-25); or the half-figure in front of his horse, found on the contorniates (A. and E. Alf6ldi, Die Kontorniat-Medaillons I [Berlin 1976] 156-64, pls. 193- 201), but not, to my knowledge, on mosaics. With neither of

these motifs is the charioteer normally marked out as victorious, though occasionally a palm may be added. Nor do I discuss the numerous representations of the victorious race horse by itself, without its driver.

4 G.V. Gentili, La Villa Erculia di Piazza Armerina. I mosaici figurati (Rome 1959) fig. 3, pl. 13; Gentili, "Le gare del circo nel mosaico di Piazza Armerina," BdA 42 (1957) 7-27, fig. 5.

S Gentili, La Villa (supra n. 4) pl. 40. 6 L.A. Constans, RA 1916. 1, 247-59; probably beginning of the third century. Tunis, Mus6e du Bardo, A.341. 7 Inv.Gaule I, 217 and plate; the date seems (from the style) to be late second or early third century. The inscription CLXXVI beside the victor perhaps refers to the number of victories won by an individual charioteer. 8 An exception is the so-called "Kugelspiel" from Constanti-

nople, on one side of which the victor of a race still being run by the other chariots behind him is greeted by a man with a palm, though he himself already holds the wreath (A. Cameron, Por-

1982] THE VICTORIOUS CHARIOTEER 67 Armerina.8 Generally the circus-sarcophagi and other monuments that show the race in a realistic setting distinguish the victor only by the acclamations of those around him, and perhaps by his gesture of triumph.9 However, on a child's sarcophagus in Mainz with Erotes racing bigae against a background of the principal monuments of the spina, the victor already holds the palm and radiate crown; he turns to face the beholder, though his horses are galloping forward in profile, and the race is still in progress behind him.10 The victor also appears in various scenes of the racing chariots which have a more conventional setting, or none at all; for example, on several glass cups of the first century A.C. Here the setting is reduced to extremely schematic renderings of the metae, the obelisk and the porta pompae; the leader, in the full profile WY schema, sometimes holds a wreath, occasionally also a palm." And a parodied version appears in the scene of Erotes racing pairs of gazelles in the frieze from the House of the Vettii at Pompeii; the victor, whose team is at rest, holds the palm over his shoulder and turns his body frontally.12

The charioteer holding the emblems of victory can also be seen as an isolated figure, without the rest of the race. On a mosaic from Thuburbo Maius (no. 24), a panel contains the horses standing in

profile and the charioteer turning toward the beholder in the WZ schema.13 A fragmentary mosaic from Carthage (no. 5) also had a central panel, in which there survive only the profile heads of the horses and an inscription above giving the name Scorpianus; nothing indicates how the charioteer was represented.14 The single charioteer is common in many other forms of art in both the WY and the WZ schemata. Thus, on the funerary cippus of T. Flavius Abascantus, from the Flavian period, the chariot of the auriga Scorpus is carved at the bot- tom, beneath the inscription; it is in the WY schema, with the horses, all identified by name, galloping to the right.15 Similar charioteers appear on lamps from the first century A.C. onward (pl. 5, fig. 3),16 and form a standard type on relief pottery, where wreath, palm and whip seem to be added or omitted at will.17 But on later lamps (late second- early third century) the WZ schema appears, with the charioteer frontal, although the horses still gallop to the right (pl. 5, fig. 4),l8 and a heroized infant on a sarcophagus-lid of the mid-third century, represented in the pose of a circus charioteer, is also nearly frontal.19 By the late fourth century, the variant versions are repeated extensively on the contorniates, with the WZ schema predominating over the WY.20

phyrius the Charioteer [Oxford 1973] 35, pl. 16). 9 For these, see L. Vogel, "Circus Race Scenes in the early Roman Empire," ArtB 51 (1969) 155-59; M. Lawrence, "The Circus Relief at Foligno," Ricerche sull'Umbria tardo-antica e preromanica. Atti del II Convegno di Studi Umbri, Gubbio 1964 (1965) 119-35; G. Rodenwaldt, "Romische Reliefs. Vorstufen zur Spitantike," JdI 55 (1940) 12-43, esp. 22-24. 10 C. Belting-Ihm, "Ein r6mischer Circus-Sarkophag," RGZM 8 (1961) 195-208, pls. 74-76, dated ca. 270-280. 11 E.g., L. Berger, Rdmische Gldiser aus Vindonissa (Basel 1960) 56-67, pls. 9, 10; cf. D. Harden, Archaeology 11 (1958) 2. On the glasses which show the full buildings of the spina as a background, the victor does not appear to be distinguished in the same way.

12 L. Curtius, Die Wandmalerei Pompejis (Leipzig 1929) 142, fig. 91; for an illustration of the whole, with groups of three trees at either end suggesting the metae, see Vogel (supra n. 9) fig. 1, p. 157.

13 CMA suppl. II, A.376; J. Salomonson, Romeinse Mozaieken uit Tunesie (Leiden 1964) no. 22, fig. 24; the date seems from the style to be third century. Tunis, Mus6e du Bardo. 14 From the Maison de Scorpianus, Inv.Tun.816. The date is mid-second century, with a probable terminus post quem of A.D. 126.

15 F. Cumont, Recherches sur le symbolisme fundraire des romains (Paris 1942) 457-62, pl. 45. The charioteer holds the wreath forward in his right hand, the palm back over his shoulder; on most other examples of this motif the palm is slanted forward, probably to make it stand out more clearly. 16 E.g., D.M. Bailey, A Catalogue of the Lamps in the British

Museum 2, Roman Lamps Made in Italy (London 1980) Q 920, pp. 173-74, pl. 16, fig. 58, ca. 30-70 A.C.: the horses are walking in profile to the left, the charioteer, also in profile, holds both wreath and palm in front of him; behind is a simplified rendering of the main monuments of the spina.

17 E.g., F. Oswald, Index of Figure-types on Terra Sigillata (Liverpool 1936-1937) nos. 1169, 1170, pl. 55 (both Antonine): the horses gallop to the right, the charioteer is in profile, holding up either wreath and palm or wreath alone, while the other hand holds the reins. Cf. also I. Huld-Zetsche, Trierer Reliefsigillata. Werkstatt I (Bonn 1972) 127, types M 33a (in profile to right, horses galloping, holding wreath and palm in front of him); M 33b (the same figure, but without wreath and palm, though once with whip). The types are used either singly or in repeated groups, and belong to the second half of the 2nd century. On the applique medallions from the Rh6ne all possible variants are found, with the charioteers galloping to the right (or occasionally to the left), holding one or more of palm, wreath and whip, driving quadrigae or bigae (P. Wuilleumier and A. Audin, Les midaillons d'applique gallo-romains de la vallee du Rhone [Paris 1952] 81-83, nos. 117-25, and pp. 139-44, nos. 252-68); their production seems to extend from the late second to approximately the late third century (Wuilleumier and Audin, 14).

18 E.g., Bailey 2 (supra n. 16) Q 1366, pp. 356-57, pl. 79, fig. 60, dated ca. 175-225 A.C. For a discussion of charioteers on lamps and further parallels, see pp. 57-58. I am grateful to Dr. Bailey for his help on questions concerning lamps. 19 Cumont (supra n. 15) 463, fig. 98.

20 Cf. Alfoldi and Alfoldi (supra n. 3) 207-209, nos. 146-65. The horses either gallop or walk to the right; the charioteer

68 KATHERINE M.D. DUNBABIN [AJA 86 When more than one victor is shown, different

schemata may be combined. Thus, on a mosaic from Trier (no. 26) four charioteers, all with palm and wreath, are placed in separate compartments. One is in the fully frontal XZ schema, but the others are variations on the WY and WZ schemata, although there is a tendency to turn the charioteers to a three-quarter view (pl. 6, fig. 9).21 More often, however, when several victors appear, all are in the same pose. Usually this is the XZ schema discussed below, but in a painting from the Caseggiato degli Aurighi at Ostia (Reg. III,X,1) two charioteers who drive bigae are both in the WZ schema; they ad- vance at the gallop towards one another (pl. 5, fig. 5).22

The schema classified as WY, the profile charioteer in the profile chariot, seems to be the oldest of the sub-groups under discussion; both galloping and standing or walking horses are found with it. Sche- ma WZ, the charioteer who turns frontally while his chariot and team are still in profile, makes one early appearance, in the gazelle-race parody in the House of the Vettii. Otherwise, he appears to be confined to the late second century or after. His popularity at this later period is clearly a product of the general Late Antique taste for frontality. Unlike the full profile renderings, the frontal victor is much

more conscious of the onlookers; he frequently ne- glects the reins tied around his waist, as he holds up the wreath ostentatiously in his right hand, the palm prominently forward in his left. There may have been originally a distinction between the frontal pose used with the horses at rest, when the moment represented is likely to be that in which the victor receives the applause of the crowd immedi- ately after he has been awarded the prizes, and that where the horses are galloping forward. In the lat- ter, the sense is probably that of the victory lap; the victor rides around the course, while the crowd pelts him with flowers, garlands, and sometimes more substantial marks of favor.23 Since, as is argued below, one of the functions of the figure of the charioteer on mosaics was often to serve as an image of victory, which should attract the gifts of good fortune and prosperity, the choice of this particular moment was appropriate.

The two other schemata where the charioteer is no longer in his chariot may now be considered. The version (T) in which the charioteer stands on foot holding wreath and palm is common in the minor arts, and is found on lamps,24 pottery and terracottas,25 and gems,26 and occasionally on the contorniates.27 It is closely related to a type used for victorious gladiators and athletes.28 The charioteer

almost always looks back over his shoulder, turning his body almost frontally; he holds palm, whip, and sometimes wreath. Frequently he is accompanied by his name or by an acclamation. See also infra n. 87, for the frontal XZ schema on contorniates.

21 K. Parlasca, Die r6mischen Mosaiken in Deutschland (Berlin 1959) 27, pl. 25,1; see infra pp. 72-73.

22 R. Calza and E. Nash, Ostia (Florence 1959) 54, fig. 64. The two who are shown are from the green and blue factions; Calza suggests that there may originally have been a correspond- ing painting showing the other two factions. The suggestion that the building may have been the seat of a sporting association, although attractive, is not necessary, given the frequency of charioteer representations in quite different contexts. The painting is dated by Calza to the period of construction of the building, the middle of the second century, but I do not know if this can be regarded as more than a terminus post quem.

23 The practice of pelting victors at the games with flowers, garlands and sometimes more substantial marks of favor such as garments, is recorded by a number of ancient authors; many pas- sages were already collected by I. Casaubon, commentary on Suet. Nero 25 (1611). Eratosthenes (FGH 241 F 14 = sch. Eur. Hec. 573), and, from a similar source, Clem. Alex. Paedag. II, 72,1, describe this victory round (lyeplypds), and Plato mentions it in the last sentence of the Republic (X, 621 c-d: Kal' ErE~Lsh rhT a0Aa avrfijs KOJ.CcpeOa, W"OreIp oi LLK#dPO po wEpLayeLpoLEvOL). A number of ancient grammarians comment on the Republic passage; e.g. Ael. Dionysius a30 Erbse; Timaeus, Lex.Plat. s.v.

7rEpLayEpdrLpEVr; Photius Lex. 413,20 Porson = Suidas 7r1054 Adler; Ps-Didymus in E. Miller, Milanges de littirature grecque (Paris 1868) 403. On the Byzantine practice, see Cameron (supra n. 8) 48 and references there. 24 E.g., D. Ivanyi, Die pannonischen Lampen (Budapest 1935) 86, no. 720, pl. 26, 5; J. Banko, OJh 25 (1929) 123, n. 13, fig. 45; R. Zahn, ZfN 24 (1904) 355-66, fig. on p. 357. On Bailey, Catalogue 2 (supra n. 16) Q 1385, pp. 363-64, pl. 82, fig. 60, of the second half of the second century, Victoria stands behind the charioteer and holds the reins of a horse only the tip of whose muzzle can be seen.

25 On a money-box from a Roman workshop of the late 1st- early 2nd century: E. Rohde, CVA Gotha 2, 51, pl. 95. For terracottas, cf. H. Goldman, Excavations at Gdzliu Kule, Tarsus 1, The Hellenistic and Roman Periods (Princeton 1950) 360-61, nos. 424-25, pl. 244.

26 E.g., H.B. Walters, Catalogue of the Engraved Gems and Cameos, Greek, Etruscan and Roman in the British Museum (London 1926) no. 2131, p. 221, pl. 26.

27 Alf6ldi and Alf6ldi (supra n. 3) 212, no. 199, pl. 201,2-4, holding whip, wreath and palm. On the columns or cylinders which surround the victor on several of these works, and the big jewelled crown which sometimes replaces the wreath, see J. Meischner, "Preiskrone und Preiszylinder," JdI 89 (1974) 336-46.

28 Gladiator stelae are listed in L. Robert, Les Gladiateurs dans l'Orient grec (Paris 1940) 47-48; a close parallel is his no. 34, p.

1982] THE VICTORIOUS CHARIOTEER 69 either holds the wreath up, or places it (or a large crown) on his head; he is often surrounded by prizes, moneybags or coins, with altars or small columns in the background, and may be attended by acclaiming figures. The moment illustrated is clearly that in which the victor has just been awarded the prizes, and displays them to the applause of the crowd. On the mould for a large rectangular lamp formerly in the British Museum, the standing victor is flanked on either side by a victorious charioteer in a quadriga moving toward him, and the major monuments of the spina appear in the background.29 The schema seems to be rarer in the larger scale arts, but is found at least once on mosaics, at Doug- ga (no. 9). Here the charioteer stands alone in a circle in the center, holding the palm and whip but no crown, while his horses are in panels around the edge (pl. 6, fig. 6).30 In sculpture the schema appears on one late monument, on one side of the "old base" of Porphyrius in Constantinople: the hero holds wreath and palm, and is acclaimed by putti.31

Less common is the schema (V) where the victor appears on horseback. Several of the circus-sarcophagi show on their sides a single horseman brandish- ing a wreath.32 Cameron has argued that this figure, who also occurs on the "new base" of Por- phyrius, must be interpreted as the victor performing his lap of honor, not in his chariot but mounted on his lead-horse.33 The theme occurs only once, to my knowledge, on a mosaic: on the black-and-white

mosaic from Prima Porta (no. 15). Here the race between two bigae is shown below; above the victor gallops to the right, his body turned almost frontally. A bystander with a whip salutes him, and the acclamation LIBER NICA is written above (pl. 6, fig. 7).34

The schemata so far discussed can be traced back to the first or second centuries A.C. They could be varied through a series of small changes: whips, wreaths and palms included or omitted, subsidiary figures and setting combined in various different ways, slight alterations in poses, intermediate three- quarter views adopted. Together they made up the stock-in-trade of craftsmen working in a wide variety of media, and all over the western half of the Empire.35 They are so common in the industrial arts, for example on relief pottery and lamps, that it seems likely that these mass-produced objects played a major role in their distribution. The designs for larger scale arts such as mosaic might have been distributed independently, in the form of special copy-books, or simply through the training of mi- grant craftsmen. But the hypothesis should also be considered that there was cooperation among the workers in the different crafts, and that the mosaicists derived their patterns also from those e- volved for pottery workshops, or even from copying the objects themselves. The sources of the various schemata must also be hypothetical, but monuments to popular favorites and possibly large scale paint-

94, from Philippoupolis. For athletes, cf. some of the figures from the Baths of Caracalla, M.E. Blake, "Mosaics of the Late Empire in Rome and Vicinity," MAAR 17 (1940) 111, pl. 28, and compare the children crowning themselves on three child- sarcophagi with palaestra scenes, Cumont (supra n. 15) 469-70; pl. 46,2,3, and fig. 100.

29 H.B. Walters, Catalogue of the Greek and Roman Lamps in the British Museum (London 1914) no. 1398, p. 211, fig. 330, apparently now lost.

30 A. Merlin and L. Poinssot, "Factions du cirque et saisons sur des mosaiques de Tunisie," in Milanges Charles Picard 2 (= RA 1949) 739-42, fig. 1. Tunis, Musee du Bardo, Inv. 2749. A similar figure, also holding the palm and whip but no crown, appears on an inlaid bronze diptych leaf in the Louvre: K. Weitzmann ed., Age of Spirituality (New York 1979) no. 94, p. 103.

31 Cameron (supra n. 8) 43, pl. 13. The statue of the standing charioteer in the Vatican holding a palm, which Cameron quotes as a parallel, is so heavily restored as to be unreliable; the arms are entirely restored (G. Lippold, Skulpturen des vaticanischen Museums 3.2 [Berlin 1956] no. 619, pp. 91-92). But there is an ivory statuette in the British Museum of a charioteer holding a

palm in a similar position; the right arm is broken, but enough remains to show that it was stretched out (F. Baratte, BAntFr 1971, 185-86, n. 5; pl. 23,1).

32 E.g., C. Belting-Ihm, RGZM 8 (1961) 205-208, nos. 9, 14,17,19.

33 Cameron (supra n. 8) 44-49, pl. 2. 34 Blake (supra n. 28) 96, pl. 17.1; Cameron (supra n. 8) 45.

Probably Severan. In the scene of the race below, the leader is named as L[.... ], and must be intended to be identified as the victorious Liber greeted above.

3s Two fragmentary mosaics from Greece show that the theme was not unknown in the eastern part of the Empire, though on neither is the charioteer himself preserved. In Argos (no. 1) four horses in profile survive, with their names beneath (Ch. Kritzas, Deltion 29 [1973-74] Chronika 242, fig. 157q, pl. 166b); Kritzas suggests the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century, which seems to me too late. And at Thessaloniki (no. 22) an even more fragmentary panel contained three horses in profile, and the inscriptions aplpa and rvovppit; one cannot, I suppose, ex- clude the possibility that these might have belonged to a mythological chariot-scene (M. Karamanoli-Siganidou, Deltion 25 [1970] Chronika 371-72).

70 KATHERINE M.D. DUNBABIN [AJA 86 ings in Rome in the early Empire would have been appropriate.36 Once the basic schemata were established in the repertoire, the variations introduced depended largely on extraneous considerations or on the whim of the craftsman.

However, the most common schema for the victorious charioteer on mosaics in the later Empire was none of those so far discussed, but the schema classified as XZ: the charioteer advancing full-face, in a frontal chariot. Before examining the works which adopt this schema, I must first briefly examine the origin of the motif of the frontal chariot and its wider history in Roman art. THE FRONTAL CHARIOT

The representation of a four-horse chariot advancing head-on, with the horses seen in frontal view, is a familiar motif in archaic Greek art. Its history was traced by Hafner from the extremely schematic, rigidly frontal and static treatment found on black-figure vases, where the horses are lined up side by side with their hindquarters invisible, to the more three-dimensional renderings adopted in art of the classical period.37 On the later works, although the chariot still advances head-on, the horses are no

longer seen absolutely frontally; instead, a foreshortened three-quarter view of the horses' bodies is adopted, and they diverge to right and left in two symmetrical pairs, turning their heads alternately outward and inward. In general, the frontal schema was not popular in two-dimensional art in the classical period, and a profile or three-quarter view of the chariot was preferred. In the Hellenistic period the frontal schema is very rare, but enough examples survive to show its persistence; its main use after the archaic period is for the chariot of Helios (often shown rising from the waves), and for that of Nike.38 In Roman art, the motif enjoys a revival. It is still rare during the early Empire, but Victoria in a frontal biga, holding up crown and palm, appears on a painting from Pompeii,39 and the rising Sol on the breastplate of several Julio-Claudian cuirass- statues, in place of the more common Gorgoneion.40 From the second century on, Sol/Helios in the frontal chariot becomes popular, and is found on gems,41 lamps,42 paintings43 and mosaics.44 With the adoption of the cult of Sol Invictus, and its importance in the imperial religion, the motif un- dergoes a great expansion, and is found frequently on coins from the beginning of the third century

36 For statues and monuments to charioteers in Rome, see references in L. Friedlander, Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms'? 2 (ed. G. Wissowa, Leipzig 1922) 26-27.

37 Hafner, Viergespanne 3-60 (archaic) and 61-82 (classical and Hellenistic, "Flaichendarstellungen"). 38 On the chariot of Helios, cf. (in addition to Hafner) K.

Schauenburg, Helios (Berlin 1955) 70, n. 320; and AntK 5 (1962) 58, n. 80; E. Zervoudaki, Deltion 30,1 (1975) 1-20, esp. 7-10. Although well attested monuments with the frontal quadriga from the Hellenistic period are rare, they do exist, e.g., the Hellenistic (ca. 200 B.C.) relief from Larissa in the Louvre, with the rising sun at the top: F. Messerschmidt, StEtr 3 (1929) 523, pl. 58 (cited by Schauenburg, Helios 39, n. 354). Hafner argues for the survival of the motif in the art of the Diadochoi on the basis of its appearance in the art of the eastern Roman Empire, and of its expansion to the Indian art produced under Hellenistic influence (Viergespanne 73-76). For its use in Iranian and Sasa- nian art and in India, see M. Bussagli, "The Frontal Represen- tation of the Divine Chariot," East and West 6 (1955) 9-25.

39 Reinach, RPGR 144, 7 (= W. Helbig, Wandgemrniilde der vom Vesuv verschiitteten Stddte Campaniens [Leipzig 1868] 185, no. 939, from the Casa di M. Lucrezio); compare the similar figure of Victoria in a frontal biga on a mosaic from the frigidari- um of the Baths of Trajan at Acholla (Tunisia), of the early second century (G. Ch. Picard, "Les mosaiques d'Acholla," Etu- des d'Archeologie Classique 2 [1959] 85, pl. 21).

40 K. Stemmer, Untersuchungen zur Typologie, Chronologie und Ikonographie der Panzerstatuen (Berlin 1978) 158 and nos. V 1 (pl. 34, 1), VIIa 1 (pl. 64), VIIa 2 (pl. 65, 1-2); VIIa 3 (fragmentary; pl. 65,3). 41 E.g., P. Zazoff ed., Antike Gemmen in deutschen Samm-

lungen 3 (AGD, Wiesbaden 1970) Kassel 157, p. 236, pl. 105; AGD 4 (Wiesbaden 1975) Hamburg 81, p. 389, pl. 266; both 2nd century.

42 E.g., Walters, Catalogue (supra n. 29) no. 1052, p. 157, fig. 210, of second century type, from Alexandria.

43 Thus probably in a grave in Rome, known from a drawing, F. Weege, JdI 28 (1913) 185-86, fig. 28; and at the center of a vault from Hadrian's Villa, also known only from a drawing of Ponce (K. Lehmann, "The Dome of Heaven," ArtB 27 [1945] 7, and 6, n. 38 on the question of the reliability of the drawing).

44 On the mosaic from Mtinster-Sarnsheim, of the mid-third century, where the chariot of the Sun-god, with the horses pranc- ing forward and upward, is framed by the circle of the zodiac: Parlasca (supra n. 21) 86-88, pls. 84,2; 85,2; 86-87. Similar representations of the Sun-god in his chariot in the circle of the zodiac appear on synagogue mosaics in Palestine (see R. Hach- lili, "The Zodiac in Ancient Jewish Art," BASOR 228 [1977] 65-66, figs. 2-6). In the 4th century synagogue at Hammat- Tiberias, the rendering is still recognizably that of Sol Invictus; in the 6th century synagogues at Beth-Alpha and Na'aran he is stylized into an almost abstract rendering, and even more em- phatically frontal. On the vault of the Tomb of the Julii under St. Peter's, the Christianized Sun-god drives his chariot in an unusual conflation of the frontal and profile schemata: the driver is frontal, but the two surviving horses, although placed in front of the driver, are in profile to the left, a wheel of the chariot visible behind their legs; O. Perler, Die Mosaiken der Juliergruft imrn Vatikan (Freiburg in der Schweiz 1953) 13-32, 41-43, pls. 2-3.

45 Hafner, Viergespanne 73-74, ns. 36-37, lists examples (cov- ering both Sol and the imperial chariot) from the late second

1982] THE VICTORIOUS CHARIOTEER 71 on.45 The form in which it now appears is no longer that of Sol rising above the waves; instead he stands full-length in the chariot, one hand raised in a gesture of power, the other holding a globe, representing the power of the ruler of heaven.46

The triumphal iconography of the Empire also adopted and developed the motif of the frontal chariot. Again the profile chariot is at first more common, although the frontal chariot is occasionally found in the early Empire in representations of imperial victory.47 Here again, however, it is from the late second century on that the type begins to become standardized, and it is common on the coinage of the third and fourth centuries.48 Not only is the Emperor shown in the frontal chariot, accompanied and crowned by Victoria, in representations of the Triumph itself, but he is also seen in this way in scenes of the pompa of the circus.49 At the same time, the assimilation of the imperial chariot to that of Sol Invictus also begins, producing by the late third century the type of the Emperor alone in the chariot, his hand raised in the same gesture of power as Sol himself.50

In these scenes several methods are adopted for representing the horses. A fully foreshortened frontal view is occasionally found, but often the horses are split into two pairs to right and left. Hafner dis- tinguishes three types in Roman art: A, where the

outer horses converge in a type of reverse perspective; B, where the horses diverge outward, but only the front halves of the horses are shown, and the hindquarters suppressed; and C, the commonest, where the two pairs diverge symmetrically to either side.51 In the last schema, the extent of foreshortening varies, and sometimes an approximate three- quarter view is adopted; often, however, the horses are parted at an angle of 180 degrees, with the bodies of the inner pair in full profile, the forequar- ters of the outer pair visible beyond them. The heads, although occasionally also foreshortened, more often are turned in profile in a symmetrical grouping, the outer pair facing out, the inner pair in. I adopt Hafner's typology in what follows, but with a further distinction of his Type C into C1, where the horses are still foreshortened in three- quarter view, and C2, where the horses are fully deployed to either side.

Not only is the imperial triumphator represented in this way, but the same schema is adopted for his lesser counterpart, the consul advancing in his biga in the pompa circensis, as seen on the opus sectile from the basilica of Junius Bassus in Rome in the mid-fourth century.52 Various deities are similarly represented in triumph in this scheme: Dionysus,53 Neptune,54 Venus,55 Mercury,56 Cybele.57 Their chariots are often drawn, not by horses, but by other

century on. For other early examples of the frontal Sol, see G.M.A. Hanfmann, The Season Sarcophagus in Dumbarton Oaks (Cambridge, Mass. 1951) 247-49 and references there.

46 H.P. L'Orange, "Sol Invictus Imperator," SymbOslo 14 (1935) 86-114.

47 The frontal representation is used for images of the triumphal quadriga mounted on a triumphal arch from the very beginning of the reign of Augustus: H. Mattingly, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum I (London 1923) 102, no. 624, pl. 15,8 (29-27 B.C.; from the East). Cf. also Gaius Caesar crowned by Nike in a frontal chariot, on a coin of Augustus from Apameia: BMC Phrygia (1906) 93, no. 138, pl. 11,6. Cf. T. Holscher, Victoria Romana (Mainz 1967) 89 and 91, n. 547, pl. 14,6.

48 See references in Hafner, Viergespanne 73-74, ns. 36-37, and p. 118. It appears on the coinage of the eastern provinces from the late second century; in the west only in the third.

49 A. Alf61ldi, R6mMitt 49 (1934) 93-100, figs. 4 and 5 (medallions of Gordian and Philip); Holscher (supra n. 47) 84-90. 50 L'Orange, SymbOslo 14 (1935) 98, fig. 6,b & e; L'Orange,

Studies on the Iconography of Cosmic Kingship in the Ancient World (Oslo 1953) 143-45; R. Brilliant, Gesture and Rank in Roman Art (New Haven 1963) 177-81. The type reaches its fullest development under Constantine and his successors. Cf. also H. Seyrig, "L'attelage d6ploy6," Syria 18 (1937) 43-51, (= Antiquitis Syriennes, 2e Sbrie, Paris 1938, 85-94), on the question of the influence of Parthian and Sasanian art on the schema. For the history of the motif in the Byzantine period, see Camer-

on (supra n. 8) 17-28, esp. p. 22. 51 Hafner, Viergespanne 115-20. 52 G. Becatti, Scavi di Ostia 6, Edificio con opus sectile fuori Porta Marina (Rome 1969) 196-202; pls. 46, 1,2 and 81,2, and refs. there. 53 Frontal representations of the Triumph of Dionysus are found on a mosaic from the Maison de Tertulla at El Djem, of the early third century, where the (fragmentary) tigers drawing the chariot diverge to either side (L. Foucher, Decouvertes ar-

cheologiques a& Thysdrus en 1960 [Institut d'Archeologie, Tunis, Notes et Documents n.s. 4] 50, pl. 21); on a stucco in the vault of a hypogeum in Sousse (L. Foucher, Karthago 4 [1953] 88, pl. Ia); on a mosaic from the House of the Triumph of Dionysus at Antioch, dated by Levi to the Antonine period, where the two tigers are fully frontal and foreshortened (D. Levi, Antioch Mo- saic Pavements [Princeton 1947] 93-99, pl. 16c); on a mosaic from Corinth (0. Broneer, AJA 39 [1935] 61, pl. 17,2), where the odd objects in the foreground (Broneer's "cloud effects"), from which emerge the foreparts of the panthers and the satyrs flanking the chariot, suggest to me a possible contamination with the sea-creatures who draw the chariot of Neptune, whose tails are sometimes rendered in a similar way; and on several Egyp- tian textiles (V. Lenzen, The Triumph of Dionysos on Textiles of Late Antique Egypt [Berkeley and Los Angeles 1960]). For the more common profile representation of the Triumph of Diony- sus, see Dunbabin, BSR 39 (1971) 52-65.

54 Neptune advances frontally in a chariot drawn by two or four sea-horses on African mosaics from La Chebba of the sec-

72 KATHERINE M.D. DUNBABIN [AJA 86 animals or mythological creatures: panthers or tigers for the chariot of Dionysus; sea-horses or Tri- tons for that of Neptune; rams for Mercury; lions for Cybele; elephants for the chariot of Venus on a well known painting from Pompeii (and also used sometimes for the imperial chariots). But the animals are frequently assimilated in pose to the horses of, a quadriga, even to the extent of repeating the same position of the heads turned alternately outward and inward in Type C2. So for one figure after another, the early imperial motif of the divine chariot in procession in profile yields to, or at least is joined by, that of the frontal chariot."8 The taste for frontality is, of course, one of the most marked characteristics of Late Antique art-the motive un- doubtedly to present the figure, whether divine or imperial, in his most impressive aspect for the view- er. But the forerunners occur well before the Late Antique period, as shown by the use of the frontal pose on the Augustan Neptune cameo and the elephant quadriga of Venus from Pompeii.59 It is clear that in Roman art the frontal rendering of the divine and the imperial chariot is known from the time of Augustus on, but its use is limited during the first two centuries of the Empire; from the early third century onward its popularity expands enor- mously. In the earlier versions, moreover, the animals drawing the chariot may be shown in foreshortened frontal view, or converging in Hafner's

Type A, or in a still three-dimensional version of the diverging Type C1; the fully schematic Type C2 is characteristic of most of the renderings from the third century on.

THE FRONTAL CHARIOT ON CIRCUS MOSAICS

The circus charioteer was also assimilated to the frontal schema. His earliest appearance on mosaics seems to be on a pavement from Trier (no. 25). It comes from a house beneath the Kaiserthermen, and is dated, on combined stylistic and archaeological grounds, to around A.D. 250 (pl. 6, fig. 8).60 A single frontal charioteer is shown at the center of an ornamental design, with the inscription POLYDVS COMPRESSORE, Polydus with his lead-horse Compressor. The horses are represented with fairly naturalistic foreshortening; although they are split into two pairs, they are not symmetrically displayed, and the angles at which their heads are turned are varied. The lower part of the chariot is visible behind the horses' legs, and the wheels are in reason- ably correct perspective. Compared to approximately contemporary coins of the frontal chariot of Sol or of the Emperor, the impression is much more naturalistic and three-dimensional.

A second mosaic from Trier comes from a building beneath the Landesmuseum (no. 26; pl. 6, fig.

ond quarter of the second century (Inv.Tun.86); from the Mai- son de Neptune at Acholla, of the third quarter (S. Gozlan, MonPiot 59 [1974] 116-19, fig. 51); and, accompanied by Am- phitrite, from Constantine, of the first half of the 4th century (Inv.Alg.226; F. Baratte, Catalogue des mosai'ques romaines et paleochretiennes du musee du Louvre [Paris 1978] no. 6, pp. 28-40, figs. 23-24). On a fragmentary mosaic from Adana, in Cilicia, the same schema is used, with two frontal Tritons drawing the chariot (L. Budde, Antike Mosaiken in Kilikien 2 [Reck- linghausen 1972] 24, pls. 29-30). A version of the same schema is found already on the Late Augustan Vienna cameo, where the triumphant Augustus-Neptune is drawn in his chariot by Tri- tons, all represented frontally: H61scher (supra n. 47) 181, pl. 1,12. 11 Venus in her elephant-quadriga, the animals converging toward the center (Type A), on the painting from Pompeii: A. Maiuri, Roman Painting (Lausanne 1953) pl. on p. 147. Venus also appears in a frontal chariot, this time drawn by four Erotes arranged symmetrically in two pairs, on a mosaic from Thubur- bo Maius (S. Gozlan, BAC n.s. 12-14 [1976-1978] Fasc. B, 43-4, fig. 11).

56 Mercury in a chariot drawn by rams on a gem in Berlin, in the Type A schema: A. Furtwdingler, Beschreibung der geschnit- tenen Steine im Antiquarium (Berlin 1896) 112, no. 2381, pl. 22, quoted by Hafner, Viergespanne 38, n. 22.

17 P. Friedlinder, Documents of Dying Paganism (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1945) 30-31, pls. 10-11, identifies as Cybele

the central figure on two Egyptian textile panels in Leningrad and New York. This identification is rightly questioned by Len- zen (supra n. 53), who identifies the figure as Dionysus. Cybele in her lion-chariot does, however, appear frontally on a coin of Cibyra in Phrygia of A.D. 220: (H. Seyrig, Antiquites Syriennes 2 [1938] 90; pl. 6,10), and as an akroterion on the tribunal represented on the Great Circus mosaic at Piazza Armerina (Gentili, BdA 42 [1957] 23, fig. 22).

58 The frontal schema with the symmetrically diverging animals is also adopted in mediaeval representations of the chariot of Alexander carried to heaven by griffins; cf. C. Settis-Frugoni, Historia Alexandri elevati per griphos ad aerem (Rome 1973) 81-82, 147-207.

59 Supra ns. 54 and 55. 60 W. Reusch, "Wandmalereien und Mosaikboden eines Peri-

stylhauses im Bereich der Trierer Kaiserthermen," TrZ 29 (1966) 216-22, pls. B,32-36; for the date, see pp. 220-22.

61 Parlasca (supra n. 21) 26-27, pl. 25,1. Parlasca suggested a date in the Severan period, on the grounds of style; this must be revised in the light of the investigations of K.-P. Goethert and K. Goethert-Polaschek, "Das Gebaude mit dem Monnus-Mosaik. Die Ausgrabungen unter dem Rheinischen Landesmuseum Trier von 1884-1962," Festschrift 100 Jahre Rheinisches Landesmu- seum Trier (Mainz 1979) 69-96, who conclude that it must belong to the major building period of the end of the third or beginning of the fourth century. For the state of preservation of the mosaic (now reduced to a few very small fragments), and for

1982] THE VICTORIOUS CHARIOTEER 73 9).61 It contains four charioteers, all with palm and wreath, placed in separate compartments, with the bust of Victoria at the center; they are named SV- PERSTES, EVPREPES, PHIL[ .... ]S, and FOR- TVN(atus). All were badly damaged, but enough survived to show considerable variation in their placing. One, Superstes, is frontal, his two central horses apparently in a fairly accurate foreshortened frontal view, the outer horse on the left turned in toward the center as if in Type A. The compart- ment with Phil[....]s was the most severely damaged, but appears to have been in the WZ schema, with nearly frontal charioteer and profile horses, except that here the horse on the extreme right apparently converged inward, as if in the frontal Type A. With the other two, both horses and driver are in three-quarter view to the right. The frontal XZ schema appears here only as a variant to the older profile and three-quarter views; and in the positions of both men and horses there is a search for variety rather than repetitive symmetry. Nor is the frontal charioteer singled out in any way, since all four are shown with the emblems of victory.62

Another example of the theme has been found in Britain, at Rudston in Yorkshire (no. 20; pl. 7, fig. 10).63 There is no archaeological evidence for the date; Smith suggests the second quarter of the fourth century. The charioteer is in a circle in the center, surrounded by busts of the Seasons and by panels containing birds; he is not named. The horses diverge symmetrically in two pairs, in the Type C2 schema, though some degree of foreshortening survives; the curved front of the chariot is seen clearly above them, but the wheels are not visible.

It is in the western Mediterranean area, however,

that the theme appears most commonly on mosaics. Three examples have been found in Italy; two, one of them known only from a drawing, in Spain; at least five in North Africa. It is unlikely that any is earlier than the late third century, and most belong to the fourth or fifth. The earliest Italian version is probably a polychrome fragment from Rome, now in the Museo Arqueol6gico Nacional in Madrid (no. 17a; pl. 7, fig. 11).64 The horses are in foreshortened three-quarter view, with slight variations in their positions; the body of the chariot is visible behind the horses' legs, the wheels are foreshortened. The charioteer holds the whip and palm, but no crown, and is accompanied by two men, one of whom acclaims him. The companion piece to this is in the WY schema: the charioteer facing to the left, the horses all in profile; a sparsor and another man acclaim him (no. 17b). The figures are mounted as separate panels in a frame which is clearly not orig- inal, and they have undergone considerable resto- ration. It is not clear how they are to be connected with a pavement from the Via Appia in Rome, known from a drawing, which showed the race in progress in the arena.65 A third, and similar, panel in Madrid, however, certainly belonged to the Via Appia pavement (no. 17c; pl. 7, fig. 12).66 It shows the horses galloping to the right, with the charioteer turned frontally. It is possible, therefore, that we have here the remnants of a pavement in which the figures were shown in the arena, but all holding the palm branch (no wreaths), and in varied poses, frontal and profile. However, the state in which the fragments have come down to us obviously prevents any definite conclusion.

A mosaic in the Museo Nazionale in Rome, from the Via Imperiale (now the Via Cristoforo Colom-

its reconstruction, see L. Dahm in Festschrift 100 Jahre Rhein- isches Landesmuseum Trier, 107-10. 62 For this representation of four victors simultaneously, see infra pp. 82-83. 63 D.J. Smith, Roman Mosaics from Rudston, Brantingham and Horkstow (Hull 1976) 6 and 17, pl. I and cover; a date towards 350(?) is suggested by Smith in J. Munby and M. Henig, eds., Roman Life and Art in Britain. A Celebration in Honour of the 80th Birthday of Jocelyn Toynbee (Oxford 1977) Part 1, 132, no. 92, with reference to a forthcoming publication of the Rudston mosaics. Now in the Transport and Archaeology Museum, City of Kingston upon Hull. It is possible that there was another British example on a destroyed mosaic at Colerne in Wiltshire, discovered in the 19th century; the description speaks of "a chariot, with a charioteer, and four horses abreast," and inscription above, possibly SERVIVS or SEVERVS (E.W. God- win, ArchJ 13 [1856] 328-32).

64 A. Blanco Freijeiro, "Mosaicos romanos con escenas de circo y anfiteatro en el Museo Arqueol6gico Nacional," ArchEspArq 23 (1950) 138-39, figs. 12-14; Madrid, Museo Arqueol6gico Nacional no. 3,604; the companion piece is no. 3,602.

65 T. Ashby, "Drawings of Ancient Paintings in English Col- lections. Part I, The Eton Drawings," BSR 7 (1914) 22-24, nos. 35-40, pl. 10; for the unreliable drawing of the whole, cf. Rei- nach, RPGR 292.

66 Museo Arqueol6gico Nacional no. 3,603; Blanco Freijeiro (supra n. 64) 138, fig. 13. Blake, MAAR 17 (1940) 113, thinks that the two separate charioteer fragments may originally have formed part of the larger pavement; certainly they resemble closely the other Madrid fragment which does come from it, but it cannot be proved. She also suggests a date in the third century or later for all the fragments; I should be inclined to place them in the second half of the third, or (at the latest) the very early fourth.

74 KATHERINE M.D. DUNBABIN [AJA 86 bo), is rather crudely executed in the black-and- white technique, except that the charioteers wear colored tunics (no. 18; pl. 7, figs. 13,14).67 Four quadrigae race down each side; there is no setting. On one side three of the chariots are racing in profile, but the first is shown frontally. The charioteer holds up his whip, but nothing else. His name is written above him, as are those of the others, sometimes accompanied by the name of the lead-horse. On the opposite side three of the chariots again are in profile, but the second one is shown frontally, and the charioteer holds the palm and a crown; he is greeted with the acclamation AERI NIK(a). Here the frontal schema is used deliberately to iden- tify the victor, in contrast to the racing chariots in profile.

The third Italian example is from the so-called Palace of Theodoric in Ravenna (no. 16).68 The peristyle here contained, alongside various hunting scenes and venationes, four panels with quadrigae. All are badly damaged, but the chariot of the Greens is sufficiently well preserved to make it clear that the usual Type C2 schema was followed. At least one of the four charioteers held up a crown and another held a palm and some other object; the rest are too fragmentary to tell. Names are written below the horses; one is complete, GENEROSVS beside the chariot of the Greens.

In Spain, two charioteers are shown on a pavement from Merida (no. 12; pl. 8, figs. 15,16).69 Both are completely frontal, with the horses fully deployed in the standard Type C2, and the base of the chariot and the wheels are seen behind the horses' legs. The charioteers are in almost identical poses, and both hold a large palm. Both are accompanied by acclamations: MARCIANVS NICHA and PAVLVS NICA. All the horses have palms on their heads, and those of Marcianus also wear bells around their necks. Marcianus' lead-horse is also

identified by name as INLVMINATOR, and has the stable mark GETVLI; his fellow-iugalis appears to be marked with a small krater on the flank. The style both of the figures and of the ornament makes a date in the second half of the fourth century probable.

The second Spanish example, from Italica, is known only from a very inadequate drawing (no. 10).70 There were various figured and ornamental motifs, including the Seasons and animals, one panel with two horses and a rider who holds a wreath, and another with a charioteer in a frontal quadriga. The horses are split two and two, but all turn their heads to the left. The details of the drawing, however, cannot be trusted.

The area where the frontal charioteer was most firmly established in the mosaic repertoire was North Africa. The best known, and most detailed, is a mosaic from Dougga (no. 8; pl. 8, fig. 17).7' The rendering is a classic illustration of the basic Type C2 schema. The horses are deployed symmetrically, with the bodies of the two inner horses only slightly foreshortened, their heads curving in, and the outer horse in profile. Between them the curved rim of the chariot can be seen; in it the charioteer, on a sub- stantially larger scale than the horses, is shown from the hips up. His head is turned slightly to the left. His costume is rendered with careful attention to detail: a broad belt lacing across the front (a sub- stitute for the more usual rib-bindings),72 a pre- dominantly green tunic with clavi down the front, segmenta on the shoulders, and rich bands of ornament on the long sleeves. On his head is a round helmet with padded rim. In his raised right hand he holds the whip and a laurel wreath; his left rests on his hip, holding a palm branch against his shoulder. The reins pass over the rim of the chariot, and then around the charioteer's waist. The two inner horses have their names, AMANDVS and FRVNITVS,

67 Museo Nazionale Romano, Inv.124-705; K. Parlasca, in Helbig4, III (1969) 52, no. 2151, suggesting a date in the middle of the fourth century.

68 G. Ghirardini, MonAnt 24 (1916) cols. 752-55, fig. 10; F. Berti, Mosaici antichi in Italia, Reg. 8a, Ravenna I (Rome 1976) no. 15, pp. 41-42, pls. 13-14, A2. Berti suggests tentatively a date in the mid-5th century for the mosaics of the peristyle (the penultimate period), partly on the basis of the presumed history of the building (p. 6); I do not think the early 5th century should be excluded. None of the objects held by the charioteers are completely clear in the fragments; Berti suggests that one holds up his helmet, but it seems more likely that it is a crown.

69 A. Blanco Freijeiro, Mosaicos romanos de Merida (Corpus de Mosaicos romanos de Espana I, Madrid 1978) no. 43, pp. 45-46,

pls. 77-78, 104. 70 A. Garcia y Bellido, Colonia Aelia Augusta Italica (Madrid

1960) 135-36, pl. 18; Blanco Freijeiro, Mosaicos romanos de Italica 1 (Corpus de Mosaicos romanos de Espafia II, Madrid 1978) no. 41, pp. 53-54, pl. 76.

71 Inv.Tun. 540 and plate; A. Merlin, MelRome 22 (1902) 74-77, pl. 3; cf. also A. Merlin and L. Poinssot, Melanges C. Picard 2 (RA 1949) 732-38. Tunis, Mus6e du Bardo, A.262. The style suggests a date in the second half of the fourth century; I suspect that it may belong toward the end of this period.

72 For a discussion of this costume, see H. Sch6ne, "Statue eines r6mischen Wagenlenkers im Vatikan," JdI 18 (1903) 68- 71; M.P. Tambella, in G. Becatti et al. (supra n. 3) 74-75.

1982] THE VICTORIOUS CHARIOTEER 75 written above their heads; all wear plumes of various plants, and other vegetal motifs are scattered around, notably a couple of hederae by the charioteer's head and shoulder. In the top left-hand corner, above the charioteer, is the inscription EROS / OMNIA PER TE, presumably addressing the charioteer; to the right is a schematic rendering of the carceres.73

The Dougga mosaic is probably not far removed in date from a mosaic from the Dermech region of Carthage, discovered and excavated by the Tunisian Institut National d'Archeologie et d'Art; the sub- sequent excavations on the site by the University of Michigan have established a date for it around 400- 420 A.C. (no. 3; pl. 8, fig. 18).74 Four charioteers, one from each faction, are here shown standing within arches formed by the gates of the carceres, with their names written above them in Greek: EY- QYMOL, AOMNINOI, EYOYMIE, and KE4A- AON. All turn their heads towards the center in two balancing pairs, but otherwise are in identical pose. Their raised right hands hold only the whip, the left the end of the reins; but a jewel-studded crown floats in the field beside them to the left, a palm branch to the right. The costumes are care- fully rendered, with both broad laced belts and separate lacings around the chests, and round helmets beneath which the hair shows. The lower part of the panel is destroyed, and nothing is left of the horses and chariots except the rim of one chariot, and traces of the vegetal plumes on the heads of two of the teams of horses. If the horses were in the fully deployed position, the discrepancy in scale between them and the charioteers must have been enormous, given the space available; it is possible, of course, that the horses were foreshortened to an

extent without parallel on mosaics of this date, or that they were in the abbreviated Type B pose.

Four charioteers appeared again on another Car- thage mosaic, from the Byrsa, which is known only from fragments and a drawing; it can hardly be earlier than the late fifth century, and could well be sixth (no. 2; pl. 8, fig. 19).75 The floor was divided by an interlace pattern into a series of medallions and "cushions," each with a different subject. The majority contained hunting scenes, but in the first row was a figure probably to be identified as the personification of Carthage, together with the Sea- sons(?). In the next row were the charioteers, their names BENE[nat]VS, QVIRIACVS, CIPRIANVS, and CE[le]RIVS written above them. The fragment with Quiriacus is preserved in the Louvre; Cipri- anus is shown clearly in the drawing; the other two were badly damaged, but it is clear that all followed the same schema. All were advancing frontally, with the horses fully deployed in the Type C2 pose. The top of the chariot is visible between them, the wheels behind their legs, detached and in sideways view with only the slightest attempt at foreshortening. If the drawing may be trusted for the details, they differed in their depiction of the emblems of victory, with only Quiriacus holding both crown and palm, Ciprianus and Celerius holding only the palm, Benenatus holding neither.

Two other African examples may be added. One, from Thina, showed the four charioteers within wreaths inside compartments of guilloche (no. 23). They wore the faction colors and were represented frontally; the green charioteer held a crown, the blue "an unidentifiable object." Plants flanked them, perhaps the plants of the Seasons, but the descrip- tions differ on this point.76 The other is from Khen-

73 See infra pp. 78-79, 81. 74 J.H. Humphrey ed., Excavations at Carthage 1975 con-

ducted by the University of Michigan I (Tunis 1976) 30-31, pls. 12-13, color pls. 1d,2. Though the charioteer mosaic was lifted before the Michigan excavations in the house began, the fragment of border adhering to its left side showed that it had formed part of the acanthus mosaic of the triclinium, dated archaeolog- ically to ca. 400-420 A.C. (slightly later than the date suggested in Humphrey, Carthage 1975, 8-9; the latest dating evidence will be published in forthcoming reports of the Michigan excavations). The use of Greek in Carthage at this date, and in a context of this nature, is somewhat surprising. It is most unlikely that the mosaicist was a Greek immigrant, since in other respects the mosaic belongs in the tradition of the Carthage workshops. Whether the patron was of Greek origin, or the charioteers came from the eastern part of the Empire (as suggested by J.H. Hum- phrey, Carthage 1975, 13), or there was some other reason for the choice, I am unable to determine. Domninus and Euthumius

occur as charioteer names in Rome on the contorniates and on curse-tablets (e.g. Alfbldi and Alf6ldi [supra n. 3] nos. 149, 154, 164, 167, 172-76, 181, 185, 189, pp. 208-11; R. Wiinsch, Seth- ianische Verfluchungstafeln aus Rom [Leipzig 1898] nos. 20-31, pp. 23-44, 58-62; Cameron [supra n. 8] 172-73); Euphumos and Kephalon are not, to my knowledge, known in similar contexts.

75 Inv.Tun.598; A. Rousseau, RA 7 (1850) 260, pl. 143 (drawing of the whole); P. Gauckler, MAntFr 63 (1904) 165-78, pl. 3; for the fragment in the Louvre, Baratte (supra n. 54) no. 38a, p. 77, fig. 70. The very debased figure-style is impossible to date precisely, but is certainly no earlier than the advanced fifth century.

76 Inv. Tun. suppl.29a; R. Massigli, Musee de Sfax (Musees de 1'Algerie et de la Tunisie 17, Paris 1912) no. 16, p. 7. Massigli describes the plants as "des roses, des palmes, des grappes de raisin," but in Inv.Tun. "epis" have replaced palms, and the plants are called seasonal. Massigli considers the mosaic later

76 KATHERINE M.D. DUNBABIN [AJA 86 chela, a crudely executed work in poor condition, for which a date after the mid-fourth century seems to be probable (no. 11).77 There is one charioteer, in the usual pose; his right arm is held high, although it is not clear if he is holding anything, his left holds the reins against the chariot pole. The horses are splayed out in full profile to either side, against a background scattered with roses.

From the mosaics showing the circus charioteer in the XZ schema, one may conclude that the motif was known from the middle of the third century, although most of the examples belong to the fourth or fifth, and at least one (no. 2, from the Byrsa, Carthage) could be sixth. Most come from the western Mediterranean area, where artistic repertoires were in general closely linked during the later Em- pire; the northern examples form a group apart. On the earlier pavements, an attempt is made to show the horses more or less foreshortened or in three- quarter view, and to introduce some variety into their attitudes; the frontal schema may be combined with others shown in the older, profile view. On the later mosaics, from about the mid-fourth century onwards, the fully deployed Type C2 is generally adopted, usually with the symmetrical positioning of the horses' heads. Small variations are found in the way the three attributes, crown, whip and palm, are held, and one or even two may be omitted. THE FRONTAL CIRCUS CHARIOTEER IN OTHER MEDIA

The motif of the circus charioteer in a frontal quadriga was not invented for use specifically on mosaics, and its appearance in the other arts must be considered before any conclusions can be drawn about its origins or significance. It is rare in sculpture, with two notable, although late exceptions. These are the two bases of Porphyrius from the hippodromus at Constantinople, dated around 500, the principal examples extant of honorific charioteer monuments (pl. 9, fig. 20).78 The statues of Por- phyrius which crowned them are lost, but must

have represented him standing. On three sides of the "old base" and all four of the new, the large upper field of the relief is occupied by the figure of Porphyrius advancing frontally in his quadriga, usually accompanied by one or more Victories (who sometimes crown him), or by a Tyche, and holding crown, palm and whip. On the new base, and on one side of the old, the horses are represented in a fully foreshortened frontal view; on the other two sides of the old base they are deployed in the Type C2 schema, with their heads in the usual symmetrical positions. The fourth side of the old base shows Porphyrius standing with crown and palm, one of the alternative schemata (T) examined above.79 Here we have clearly, as Cameron has seen, a survival in Constantinople of the western tradition of circus art; both the versions of the frontal quadriga and the standing charioteer in fact repeat motifs already familiar for centuries. There must have been many similar honorific statues of victorious charioteers in Rome itself (and probably elsewhere); although none have survived, it seems plausible to suggest that they made extensive use of the various motifs which have been examined, and even that the motifs may have been originally developed for such a context.

In painting there is one example known from Rome itself. In a cubiculum in the Catacomb of the Jordani was an arcosolium containing the bust of a man framed in a laurel wreath on the end wall, between two women (probably Muses) holding ro- tuli, and flying Victories with palm and wreath on either side of the front. Two frontal quadrigae, with the charioteers holding up crown and palm, were placed one on each side of the lower part of the vault, and winged horses, eagles and other figures were also represented (pl. 9, fig. 21).80 Most of the details are known only from a drawing, but where they could be checked they appeared to be accurate; the style seems to suggest the late third or early fourth century. The charioteers appear here entirely outside the context of the actual circus races, in a

than the second century; I know of no evidence for dating it more precisely.

77 J. Lassus, Recueil de Constantine 71 (1969-1971) 45-55 (esp. pp. 48-49). Lassus suggests the early fourth century for the mosaic of Venus from the same house, which is more easily datable on a basis of style, and considers the charioteer later than this; he believes it to be a later insertion into the decorative pavement in which it is set. The middle or second half of the 4th century seems the most probable date, but it could be still later. The charioteer does not wear the normal circus costume, but a

richly embroidered tunic. 78 Cameron (supra n. 8) esp. pp. 12-28. 79 Schema T; supra pp. 68-69. 80 Hypogeum under the vigna Massimo (Via Salaria Nuova):

Cumont (supra n. 15) 465-67, fig. 99; J. Wilpert, Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms 1 (Freiburg im Breisgau 1903) 523-28; 2: pl. 145,2. For the location in the Catacomb of the Jordani (not of Thraso), see A. Nestori, Repertorio topografico delle pitture delle catacombe romane (Vatican City 1975) 17-21, no. 2.

1982] THE VICTORIOUS CHARIOTEER 77 funerary setting; the emphasis is simply on victory.81

Other examples of the motif are found in the minor arts, principally on works associated either with Italy or with North Africa, the two main areas where it appears on mosaics. On the African pottery of the late Empire the motif has been found on two different types of material. It is used as an applique on the interior of bowls of sigillata chiara C,a; one good example is in the Louvre, another in Mainz, and fragments with the same subject are in Berlin and Sousse (pl. 9, fig. 22).82 The execution is careful: the horses, although split symmetrically, retain a slight degree of foreshortening, and the wheels appear behind them. The head of the charioteer is in three-quarter view; he holds the wreath and palm. The date is the middle or second half of the fourth century. As moulded decoration, the motif is found in the interior of rectangular dishes of sigillata chiara D (Hayes, Form 56); examples are in Berlin and Hildesheim.83 The dates for these are the second half of the fourth or early fifth century. The execution here is crude and summary; the splayed horses are completely in profile, in the full Type C2 arrangement. All attempts at perspective rendering of the chariot have been abandoned, so that it is broken down into a series of unrelated parts. It is noteworthy that the usual schema is here reversed; the charioteer has his left hand raised with the whip (no crown), the palm rests against his right shoulder. In the mould, the arrangement would have been the normal one.

Another group of objects enables us to take the motif back to the third century in the minor arts too. These are the terracotta matrices for the production of objects in some unknown material; the greatest number of these has been found in Ostia.84 Most illustrate scenes or figures from the games or theatrical performances, and the suggestion that they were connected in some way with festivals

seems plausible. Among them, one group showed on one side the victorious charioteer in a quadriga, frontal with crown and palm, the horses split symmetrically but in three-quarter view (Type C1), accompanied by a horseman to the left who similarly holds crown and palm. On the other side, the charioteer was represented in a chariot drawn by ten horses. He himself is frontal in the usual pose, but the horses are all in profile to the left. On another version, the ten-horse chariot is itself represented frontally; the schema is exactly that of the quadriga, with the foreparts of the other horses simply added at either side. Material of similar type has been found in Africa (and in other western provinces), and Salomonson has shown that some at least of the matrices were produced in African workshops; however, none of the charioteer type, to my knowledge, has been found in Africa, and the concentration in Ostia may suggest a Roman origin.85 The date for the series appears to be the first half of the third century.

Roman also are two gold-glasses on which the group appears.86 On both, the horses are in symmetrical three-quarter view, and the charioteer holds the whip (but no crown) in his right hand, the palm in his left (at least on one). On one the charioteer and all four horses are named, on the other the charioteer and one horse. In format they resemble the objects on which the motif is found most frequently, the contorniates, which again are produced almost entirely in the city of Rome.87 The frontal charioteer is a common figure on the reverse of the contorniates, and appears throughout their period of production in the second half of the fourth and early fifth century. The charioteer is frequently identified by name, sometimes with the addition of his faction, sometimes in the vocative with the acclamation NICA or VINCAS; occasionally one or more of the horses are named as well. The same figure-type may be used with different names, but the types are

81 For the significance, see infra p. 83, n. 117. 82 F. Baratte, BAntFr 1971, 178-92, pls. 31-32; Louvre no. CA 5920; cf. J. Salomonson, Voluptatem spectandi non perdat sed mutet (Amsterdam 1979) 42, n. 56. For the bowl in Mainz,

see Weitzmann (supra n. 30) no. 98, p. 107. 83 J. Salomonson, Oudheidkundige Mededelingen Leiden 43 (1962) 64, pls. 17,1; 18,1. Berlin Staatlichen Museen, Inv. 4885; Hildesheim, Pelizaeus Museum, Inv. 2200.

84 A. Pasqui, NSc 1906, 360-62, figs. 2-3; M. Floriani Squar- ciapino, "Forme Ostiensi," ArchCl 6 (1954) 88-89; pls. 18,6; 19,1 a & b.

85 J. Salomonson, "Rimische Tonformen mit Inschriften,"

BABesch 47 (1972) 88-113; for the dates, see p. 100. 86 R. Garrucci, Vetri ornati di figure in oro (Rome 1864) 180- 83; pl. 34,2-4 (pl. 34,3 gives a fragment of a third glass showing part of two horses only). For a gold-glass with the profile rendering of the quadriga, the charioteer turned half-frontally (Schema WZ), see J. Engemann, Jahrbuch fiir Antike und Christentum 11/12 (1968/1969) 15-16, pl. 3,b; Weitzmann (supra n. 30) no. 96, pp. 104-105.

87 Alf1ldi and Alf6ldi (supra n. 3) 209-11, nos. 166-91, dis- tinguishing 27 different types. Cf. also A. Alfildi, Die Kontorni- aten (Budapest 1942-1943) 43-48, for a discussion of the significance of contorniates with circus scenes.

78 KATHERINE M.D. DUNBABIN [AJA 86 not all identical. There are slight variations in the pose; the charioteer's head may be frontal or turned to left or right; he may hold both whip and crown or only one of the two; the horses may all be deployed in full profile to either side, or, more often, the inner pair turn their heads inward. All these correspond to the slight differences which have been observed in the other objects discussed. The contorniates show clearly, therefore, the extent to which the motif had become common currency by the late fourth and early fifth centuries.

The motif survives in Byzantine art, as shown, not only by the Porphyrius monument (and the Kiev frescoes discussed below),88 but also by two textiles probably to be dated in the seventh-eighth centuries. One, of which there are fragments in Aachen and Cluny, shows the charioteer holding only the reins, his horses converging (Type A), with figures holding whip and crown approaching from either side.89 On the other, from Miinsterbilsen (in Brussels), the horses are completely deployed in full profile to either side, the charioteer has both hands raised holding a whip in each, and Erotes holding crowns are on either side.90 Although there are differences of detail between the textiles and earlier examples, I think there is no doubt that it is the charioteer of the circus, not the Emperor or a divine figure, who is shown on both, and that the motif is directly descended from the Roman versions of the theme.91

The XZ schema, with the charioteer frontal in a frontal quadriga, is set clearly apart from other ways of representing the victorious charioteer. In the first place, it is apparently more common in the larger scale arts, especially on mosaics, than in the minor arts, if we except the contorniates. Moreover, the great majority of the works on which it appears derive from a limited area: Italy (especially Rome) and North Africa (principally Africa Proconsularis), even though the earliest surviving mosaics come from Germany, outside this area. The motif goes back to the third century both on mosaics and in the

minor arts, but apparently no earlier, and it is most common on works of the fourth and fifth centuries; it survives in the Byzantine art of the hippodrome until a much later date. Here again we may suspect, although we cannot prove, that large scale circus art in the form of commemorative monuments, paintings, and the like, in Rome itself contributed largely to the establishment of the type in the repertoire. It looks as if it were the favor of the patrons, the wealthy provincial householders and the senatorial classes who commissioned the contorniates, which was mainly responsible for its diffusion, rather than the workshop practices of the craftsmen themselves. The question of the influence of the two figures whom the frontal charioteer most closely resembles, Sol and the Emperor, on the development of the motif, is considered further below.92 CHARIOT SCENES AND THEIR ARCHITECTURAL SETTINGS

On two of the North African mosaics the frontal victors are combined with elements of the arena setting, even though the race itself is not shown. One is the mosaic from Carthage, Dermech (no. 3; pl. 8, fig. 18), where the four charioteers are standing beneath archways which are clearly intended for the gates of the carceres. The arches are filled with semicircular grilles, divided by yellow bars into five sections which contain a scale pattern in alternating colors of red, black, yellow, green and red. They rest on columns, two half-columns at the sides and three complete in the center, with smooth gray shafts and Corinthian capitals formed of two care- lessly drawn rows of leaves topped by a pair of volutes, an abacus at the top. The bases of the columns are destroyed, as are the tops of the arches and the area above them. The carceres also appear on the mosaic of the charioteer Eros from Dougga (no. 8; pl. 8, fig. 17). Here they are not related to the figure of the charioteer, but run slanting across the top right corner: five archways, flat-roofed, with a small pedimented tribunal above them. The

88 See infra p. 81. 89 Cf. H. Peirce and R. Tyler, L'Art Byzantin 2 (Paris 1934)

46-47, 130, pl. 187a; for the date, see D. Talbot Rice and J. Beckwith, in Masterpieces of Byzantine Art (Edinburgh-London 1958) no. 56, pp. 28-29.

90 Talbot Rice and Beckwith (supra n. 89) no. 49, pp. 25-26, suggesting a Syrian origin.

91 This is the conclusion of Cameron (supra n. 8) 22-26, pls.

26-27. 92 Baratte, BAntFr 1971, 189-92, suggests (following Salomon-

son) that the cups and plates with charioteers were a cheaper equivalent of missoria and diptychs, and commissioned in Africa by the same senatorial patrons who commissioned the contorniates; a model to be copied would have accompanied the commis- sion. For Sol and the Emperor, see infra pp. 84, 86.

1982] THE VICTORIOUS CHARIOTEER 79 arches contain simple grilles; the columns have plain shafts, slab-like capitals, and no bases; the gates, a single-jambed railing, stand open.

These renderings of the carceres may be compared with those on scenes showing the race in progress in the arena. Although many monuments, for instance most of the circus-sarcophagi, show only the spina with no further details of the setting, some show a fuller setting, with the carceres run- ning down one side. These features are represented with slight variations on a number of reliefs from Italy of the second and third centuries. On the well known relief with a magistrate and his wife in the Lateran collection, the carceres run slantwise across the right end, while the center is taken up by a chariot racing in front of the spina.93 The arches (four in all) are filled with gridded grilles, and above them is a flat-topped masonry superstructure. The gates are double-jambed and latticed, the columns have simple block capitals, and the herms in front are clearly rendered. On the relief from Foli- gno with a lively scene of eight quadrigae racing around the spina, the carceres run aslant across the upper left corner (pl. 9, fig. 23).94 Eight arches are represented here (although the farthest two are largely hidden behind the metae), and the magistrate in his tribunal is seated above them. The lattice-work of the gates is indicated simply with squiggles, and the arches now contain curving arabesques. The herms are again clearly portrayed, and completely cover the columns. On a fragmentary relief in the British Museum, with part of a race of Erotes driving bigae (the team that survives consists of a pair of hounds), the four carceres fill the left end, at a slight angle to the main plane.95 The gates, apparently slatted, are half-open, the grilles in the arches again form arabesques, the herms cover the columns. Similar is a fragmentary

relief from Velletri, where men are operating the gates.96 Again there are arabesque-grilles, slatted doors, and large herms; the race itself is not shown on the fragment.

A similar rendering is found on a lamp of the late second or early third century in the British Mu- seum.97 Within the confined space of the top of the lamp are represented four chariots racing in the arena in the center, with the monuments of the circus ringing them around. Beneath them are the spina and its monuments; on the left rows of spectators; and to the right the carceres: four arches, their upper part filled with grilles (shown as a grid), the lower by the double-jambed lattice-work gates. The arches rest on columns, in front of which are placed herms.98

Most of the circus-mosaics which show the race in the arena include the carceres as part of the setting, with the details on most of them differing only slightly. The small mosaic from the Hill of the Ode- on in Carthage, dating around A.D. 200, places the race most unusually within a completely enclosed oval building with a double-arcaded facade (no. 4, pl. 5, fig. 2).99 Down the right side, within the en- closure, run the carceres, four on either side of a central open archway. The small scale prevents the inclusion of much detail, but each is fitted with a grille-type gate. Much more detail is shown on two large fourth century mosaics. At Gerona in Spain, the carceres run down the right end of the pavement, at right angles to the scene of the race.100 In the center the magistrate sits, raising the mappa, in the tribunal, under a flat entablature resting on two Corinthian columns. On either side are three open- ings, arched, with a flat superstructure decorated with a vegetal frieze. The arches contain no grilles, the gates, formed of railings, stand open, there are low herms in front of the columns. The fullest rep-

93 G. Rodenwaldt, "R6mische Reliefs. Vorstufen zur Spitan- tike," JdI 55 (1940) 12-22, pl. I. Probably Trajanic.

94 Rodenwaldt (supra n. 93) 23-24, fig. 9; Lawrence (supra n. 9) 119-35, suggesting a date in the mid-3rd century.

95 A.H. Smith, Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum 3 (London 1904) no. 2319, pp. 328-30, fig. 47; it is broken at both ends. Vogel, ArtB 51 (1969) 158, argues that it formed part of a frieze showing Erotes racing bigae drawn by various animals, of which parts survive in several museums, from the island villa in Hadrian's villa.

96 K. Zangemeister, AdI 42 (1870) 262-63, pl. N,2. 97 Bailey 2 (supra n. 16) Q 1349, p. 351, pl. 77, fig. 58, dated

ca. 175-225 (not 1st century A.C., as dated by Walters [supra n. 26] no. 626, pp. 94-95). For parallels, see Bailey (supra n. 16) 57.

98 Walters (supra n. 26) calls them Caryatids, but the parallels with the other monuments to be discussed show that they are herms.

99 Supra n. 6. 100 A. Balil, "Mosaicos circenses de Barcelona y Gerona," Bol-

lettino de la Real Academia de la Historia 151 (1962) 257-349, esp. 258-70, pls. 24-37. The closely related Barcelona mosaic also discussed by Balil (pp. 270-83) is damaged at the left end, and it is not possible therefore to tell if the carceres were represented on it.

80 KATHERINE M.D. DUNBABIN [AJA 86 resentation is given on the Great Circus at Piazza Armerina (no. 13).101 Here the carceres curve across one apsidal end of the pavement, leaving a space behind them where the charioteers are preparing. One side is damaged, as is the large central archway, above which is the temple-like tribunal with a gesticulating figure inside, and the lion-chariot of Cybele in frontal view as an akroterion. There are six arches on the right; their superstructure is flat- topped, with statues along the top, and decorated with stripes of red, yellow, and blue. The arches are all filled with a grid-type grille, and rest on smooth Corinthian columns; the gates, a simple lattice, stand open against a green ground. The herms here stand, not directly before the columns, but a little distance in front of them. A mosaic from Italica, known only from drawings, clearly had a similar rendering, although the details may not be reliable.102 The carceres curve across one end, with the tribunal in the center under a gabled roof, and a flat roof above the rest. On the left side are five archways, on the right six, all filled with grilles. The gates, apparently slatted, are open, and the herms entirely cover the columns. A debased rendering of the theme is also found on a mosaic from Gafsa in southern Tunisia, which is probably Byzantine.103 The top is occupied by the spectators framed in arches, and down the right side run four smaller arches, slightly askew, which are presumably the carceres. They are shown simply, without grilles or gates, resting on columns with spiral shafts and simple slab capitals. Under them stand nude figures, apparently acclaiming the race, though they might conceivably be intended for statues.

In the "Palace of Theodoric" at Ravenna, the theme of the circus with the carceres appeared on

mosaics at two successive levels in the peristyle, both of them known only from tiny fragments. The earlier consists only of a thin strip, preserving a few traces (arm, whips) of the charioteers in the arena, and, at one end, parts of two of the arches of the carceres, closed by lattice-work gates (which apparently fill the curve of the arch as well); masonry rises above them to a flat roof and there is no sign of the herms.104 The fragments from the higher level, part of the same pavement as the frontal charioteers (no. 16), are only a little more extensive.105 There are remains of figures of horsemen and apparently of fighting men in the arena, and several fragments of the carceres from one end. These show arches filled with arabesques, and lattice-gates half- open with attendants operating the opening mecha- nism. On one fragment a herm stands in front of the pillars; above is a tribunal containing two figures, and a tiled roof. Within one of the carceres can just be made out a quadriga waiting for the start, although the details can barely be distinguished.

Two other representations on mosaics belong in a different tradition. On the circus-mosaic at Lyons, probably of the last quarter of the second century, the whole structure is shown as made of wood.106 The editor is in a small box over the central en- trance, and on each side are the four flat-topped, timber-framed carceres, closed by wooden gates. And a mosaic from Volubilis with the parodied theme of the chariots drawn by pairs of birds has across the left end a curving wall seen as if from outside; on the inner side five grilled gates stand open, with semicircular protrusions between them for which there seem to be no parallels.107

In general, most of these representations of the carceres follow a common tradition, but there is considerable variation in the details. Certain basic

101 Gentili, La Villa (supra n. 4) fig. 3, pl. 7; and BdA 42 (1957) 7-27.

102 Garcia y Bellido (supra n. 70) 135, pl. 17; and ArchEspArq 28 (1955) no. xvi, p. 12, fig. 8; Blanco Freijeiro (supra n. 70) no. 43, pp. 55-56, pls. 61, 68.

103 Inv.Tun. 321 and plate; the crude and linear style is most unlikely to be earlier than the sixth century.

104 Berti (supra n. 68) no. 12, pp. 37-39; pl. 10,2; she suggests the beginning of the 5th century, but it could be earlier. 105 Berti (supra n. 68) 17, pp. 43-45, pls. 16-18, A3; she dates this level to the mid-5th century; I suspect that this is too precise. The circus buildings were also represented on a fragmentary mosaic from Luni (brief description, with photographs of details,

by A. Frova, in Archeologia in Liguria. Scavi e scoperte 1967- 1975 [Genoa 1976] 36, figs. 27-28); the rows of seats and the central tribunal were shown, but there is no mention of the

carceres. 106 Inv.Gaule II, 712; H. Stern, Recueil general des mosarques de la Gaule, 2, Lyonnaise, 1. Lyon (Paris 1967) no. 73, pp.

63-69, pls. 47-54. 107 R. Thouvenot, "Maisons de Volubilis," Publications du Ser-

vice des Antiquites du Maroc 12 (1958) 66-69, pl. 16,1; for the theme, see R. Hanoune, MelRome 81 (1969) 244-54. The date cannot be established precisely; it could be late second or third century. It is possible that the carceres are also to be seen on a mosaic from Seville with racing chariots: at the top of one fragment is a double curving line which could be meant for an arch or a gate. But the