Gladiator Mosaic Vandalised on the Appian Way, Rome

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Gladiator Mosaic Vandalised on the Appian Way, Rome

Dalu Jones
 
 
 
A 2nd-century Roman bath-house excavated in the spring at Santa Maria Nova on the Appian Way, near the Villa dei Quintilii, has turned up two remarkable mosaic floors from the caldarium and tepidarium. These focus on a racing horse called Invictus, obviously a revered horse of the age, a referee known as Antonius, and Montanus, a retiarius gladiator who holds his fighting net in one hand and a trident in the other. Depicted in the act of leaping on his opponent, one of his shoulders is covered by a galerus cuirass. Montanus was a popular name in the reign of the emperors Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180) and Commodus (AD 180-193) amongst followers of a Christian heretic from Phrygia brought to Rome by Marcus Aurelius. The Montanus sect then moved to North Africa, where one of its distinguished members was the early Church Father Tertullian. Such images of gladiators are rare in the Imperial period: a famous example was found in the Baths of Caracalla and another near the Via Casilina, now paving a room in the Museum at Villa Borghese in Rome.

The Santa Maria Nova baths must have been built just before or during the reign of Commodus, who was infamous as a great lover of gladiatorial fights and who entered the arena for sport himself. The latest discovery was made in an area of 3.5 hectares recently acquired by the Italian government next to the 24-hectare Villa dei Quintilii that the emperor Commodus misappropriated after eliminating the Quintilii brother owners. The baths are situated at the fifth mile of the Appian Way, where the city of Rome ended and Albano began (and where a funerary pyramid near the monumental nymphaeum of the Quintilii still awaits excavation).

Regrettably, the ancient heritage in this part of ‘downtown’ Rome remains unprotected. The immediacy of safeguarding the monuments and ongoing excavations was dramatically proved at the end of April, when vandals destroyed the lower part of the bath-house mosaic scene showing Montanus while attempting to steal it. Part of the tepidarium walls were also pulled down. Carabinieri are now investigating the crime to find the culprits and determine whether this is a case of theft or a warning to archaeologists not to work in an area where illegal building over protected zones of archaeological value continues to be a very serious problem. The archaeologist and scholar, Adriano La Regina, was appointed President of the Appian Way Archaeological Park in the spring precisely to counteract the damage produced by traffic and unlawful activities, including waste dumping and rife prostitution along the magnificent ancient road, monuments, and tombs that line and surround this ancient highway.
 
 
http://minervamagazine.com/news.asp?min_issue=JUL_AUG2007#0

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Photo captions: 2nd-century AD mosaics from a Roman bathhouse excavated at Santa Maria Nova on the Appian Way. A referee called Antonius supervises a fight with Montanus



a retiarius gladiator who holds a fighting net in one hand and a trident in the other. This panel was subsequently destroyed by treasure hunters trying to steal the floor. Photo: Ufficio stampa Electa per la Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma.
 
 

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