Columbia Center for Archaeology Seminar

Joe Sheppard “Guardians of the threshold: the image of the gladiator and its protective function at Pompeii”

Friday January 24th

4.10pm.

951 Schermerhorn Ext

This paper draws on recent archaeological research into domestic religion and magic throughout the Roman Empire (Bowes 2016; Wilburn 2018) in order to explain the significance of a handful of paintings and statues of gladiators in Pompeii from locations beyond the amphitheatre. I begin from the observation that these images are limited to transitional spaces—immediately next to front doorways or in the corridor leading to the apodyterium of the suburban baths—often in combination with a household shrine. Like the phallic, animal, and martial imagery decorating other entrances and facades in Pompeii, these figures should be understood in the context of preventing intruders from crossing the threshold. Finally I turn to the many bronze helmets and greaves found in the Quadriporticus of Pompeii, embossed and engraved with symbols of victory (e.g. a palm branch) or tutelary divinities (e.g. Mars, Athena). This iconographic schema helped condition the gladiators donning the armour into participating as fully as possible in a highly ritualized spectacle of combat, whose outcome would ultimately be decided by the spectators in attendance. The transformative power of this experience is revealed quite remarkably in a few specimens where gladiators themselves have crudely incised into the surface of their armour further images of divine assistance, victorious foliage, or defensive equipment. At least some of the gladiators in Pompeii may thus have created their own protective talismans not unlike those produced by local spectators next to their doorways.