Part 5

Near this tablet are several Roman dedications. Three curious silver-gilt plaques, probably of the second century after Christ (Nos. =133-135=), found at Heddernheim, near Frankfurt-on-Main, were dedicated to Jupiter Dolichenus. At first merely a local god, originating in the town of Doliche in Commagene, near the Euphrates, he later acquired considerable popularity throughout the Roman Empire, and his worship was carried far and wide by the Roman legionaries, who were largely instrumental in conveying these Oriental worships to the West. The silver tablet illustrated (No. =133=; fig. 44) shows Jupiter Dolichenus in a shrine, holding thunderbolt and sceptre, with the eagle at his feet. The inscription, written in somewhat defective Latin,[27] runs: "To Jupiter, best and greatest, of Doliche, where iron has its birth. Dedicated by Flavius Fidelis and Q. Julius Posstimus by command of the god on behalf of themselves and their families." As often in late Latin inscriptions, E is written ||. Another tablet (very fragmentary) shows the god in trappings of war, holding double-axe and thunderbolt, and standing on a bull (No. =135=). He is being crowned by Victory. The presence of mines in North Syria will account for the recurring phrase, "Where iron has its birth." A series of similar dedications to Mars and Vulcan, which were found at Barkway in Hertfordshire, is exhibited in the Room of Roman Britain. Examples are shown in Case 104 of a third series (No. =136=, fig. 45), part of a great hoard found at Bala Hissar (Pessinus) in Galatia. These have figures of Helios, Selene, and Mithras. The last-named deity was the Persian god of light. He did not thoroughly win his way into the Roman world until the second century after Christ. But, once established, he proved himself of far-reaching power. Mithraism had in its ritual many points of resemblance to that of Christianity, and in the third and fourth centuries after Christ proved a most formidable rival to the spread of Christian doctrines. A memorial of Mithras is seen in the large bronze tablet (No. =137=) in Case 105. Its top is decorated with knife and libation-bowl. The inscription, of about the third century after Christ, tells us that it was dedicated to Sextus Pompeius Maximus by priests of Mithras. He had held offices in the Mithraic priesthood.

There are several small bronze tablets in Case 105 with dedicatory or religious inscriptions. Among them may be mentioned No. =138=, offered to Juno by a freedman named Q. Valerius Minander, and No. =139=, an oval bronze seal with a design representing the Emperor Philip (244-9 A.D.; mentioned above, p. 10, in connection with the bronze _diploma_), his wife Otacilia, and their son Philip. The inscription shows that the seal belonged to the religious society of the Breisean Mystae, who apparently sealed on behalf of the city of Smyrna, where was a synod of the Mystae of the Breisean Dionysos. No. =140= is the result of a vow made by Hedone, the maid-servant of M. Crassus, to Feronia, a goddess closely connected with freedmen and freedwomen.[28] Her temple at Terracina, on the west coast of Italy, was specially associated with the manumission of slaves. It is likely, therefore, that Hedone's vow had something to do with her manumission. Dedications were made for safe journeys by land or by sea. In No. =141=, dedicated by P. Blattius Creticus to Jupiter Poeninus, whose sanctuary was at the summit of the Great St. Bernard Pass, we have one of a number of offerings by travellers encountering the dangers of the Alps. In No. =142= we have a votive offering in the shape of a bronze plate, made to the _Lares_ or gods of the house by Q. Carminius Optatus. The Lares are represented in art as youthful male figures, holding a _cornucopia_ or horn of plenty, and a plate (_patera_) [see Case 52 of the Bronze Room, and No. =143=]. The offering of a plate was peculiarly appropriate, for with the _Penates_ these gods were supposed to ensure the food-supply of the family.

In Case 106 note the series of lead figurines (modelled on both sides). They represent warriors with helmet, cuirass, shield, sword, and greaves. These figurines (No. =144=), probably of the seventh to sixth centuries B.C., were found at Amelia (Ameria) in Umbria. It is probable that they are of a votive character, though it has been suggested that they are the prototypes of the modern tin soldier. Very similar figurines have been discovered near Sparta, on the site of the Menelaon, and more recently on the site of the temple of Artemis Orthia by members of the British School at Athens.

=Superstition and Magic.=--As the simple faith in the gods decayed in the Greek and Roman worlds, compensation was largely sought in the dark rites of superstition and magic. The antiquities in Cases 105, 106, indicate some of the forms which such superstition took. Prominent among them was the practice of writing down curses on lead or talc with a view to the injury of those against whom the writer conceived that he had a grudge. These tablets were called in Latin _defixiones_, because they were supposed to fix down, as it were, the hated enemy. The imprecations written on them usually run in formulae, and the gods implored to work the ruin are naturally those of the nether regions. In later times especially, all manner of obscure and barbarous demons are introduced. The examples of these tablets here exhibited probably belong to the last three centuries before Christ. They come from various quarters--Knidos, Ephesus, Curium in Cyprus, Kyme in S. Italy, and Athens. Those found by Sir Charles Newton at Knidos may be taken as typical. In one case a certain Antigone, in order to clear herself from the charge of having attempted to poison Asklepiades, invokes curses upon herself if the accusation be true. In another, Artemeis devotes to Demeter, Persephone, and all the gods associated with Demeter, the person who withholds garments entrusted to him. These tablets (No. =145=) appear to have been nailed to the walls of the sacred precinct of Demeter, where they were found. In the case of a tablet from Athens, the iron nail, which fastened it to the wall is still preserved.

Nails themselves were highly esteemed as instruments of magic. Ovid, for instance, says that Medea (the typical witch) made waxen effigies of absent foes, and then drove nails into the vital parts.[29] Examples of magical nails are seen in the series of bronze nails (No. =146=) covered with cabalistic inscriptions and signs, and sometimes showing a strange mixture of Judaism and Paganism, as when Solomon and Artemis are invoked together. They may be attributed to the Gnostics, a sect which arose in the second century after Christ. Their claim was that, by a combination of various religious beliefs, they arrived at the only true knowledge of divine things. The magic nail has in one case (No. =147=) been used to fasten a bronze lamp, decorated with a head of Medusa, into a socket.

On the shelf above will be noticed a number of bronze hands (No. =148=; fig. 46). They are right hands, represented with the thumb and first two fingers raised. On them are numerous magic symbols in relief, such as the snake, the lizard, and the tortoise. The hand illustrated (fig. 46) is covered with such signs, prominent among which are the serpent with the cock's comb, the pine-cone, the frog, and the winged caduceus. One of the hands bears the inscription "Zougaras dedicated me to Sabazius in fulfilment of a vow"; another "Aristokles, a superintendent, to Zeus Sabazius." Sabazius was a Phrygian and Thracian deity, whose worship was widely spread in the Roman world. There can be no doubt that these hands were intended to avert the evil eye. Sometimes the hands have instruments connected with the ecstatic worships of the East depicted upon them, such as the Phrygian flutes, the cymbals, or the sistrum. Case 106 contains several specimens of the last-named instrument. It was composed of a handle and loop-shaped metal frame, across which passed several movable metal rods. When the sistrum was shaken the curved ends of the rods came into violent contact with the sides of the frame and produced a metallic clang. The sistrum was used by the Egyptians in their religious rites, and particularly in the worship of Isis. With the introduction of that worship into Italy in the first century B.C., the Romans became familiar with it. Apuleius, a writer of the second century after Christ, mentions silver and gold sistra, as well as bronze. A silver example is here shown (No. =149=). The decoration is often elaborate, a favourite ornament for the top being the group of the wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, or the recumbent figure of a panther.

To the same class of amulets as the votive hands must be assigned the terracotta model of a mirror, covered over with numerous objects of magical virtue (No. =150=). Several of these are well-known attributes of deities, _e.g._ the thunderbolt, the trident, the club, the crescent, and the caduceus. The object of these amulets seems to have been to propitiate the deities whose symbols are represented on them.

=Implements and methods of Worship.=--(83) _B.M. Inscr._, 955; (84) _C.I.L._, VI., 180; (85) _C.I.L._, VI., 30689; _Mus. Marbles_, X., pl. 53, fig. 1; (86-87) _Cat. of Lamps_, 1407, 1408; (91) Cf. Mazois, _Pompei_, III., p. 22; Daremberg and Saglio, fig. 5; (92) Helbig, _Homerisches Epos_, 2nd ed., p. 353; (95) _Athen. Mittheilungen_, xxvi, p. 325; (96) _Class. Rev._, II., p. 297; (97) _Cat. of Vases_, III., E 114; (98) _Cat. of Vases_, II., B 633; (99) _Guide to the Casts_, 327; (100) _Cat. of Lamps_, 159; (101) _B.M. Inscr._, 1033; (102) _Forman Sale Cat._, 1899, No. 55, pl. 2.; (103) _B.M. Inscr._, 678; (105) _Excavations in Cyprus_, p. 112; (106) _Cat. of Terracottas_, C 614; (107) _Excavations in Cyprus_, p. 113; (110) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 888.

=Votive Offerings.=--(111) _B.M. Inscr._, 34; (112) _B.M. Inscr._, 139; (113) _Excavations in Cyprus_, p. 64; (114) _Cat. of Sculpture_, II., 1311; (115) _Cat. of Sculpture_, II., 1312; (116-120) _Cat. of Sculpture_, I., 799-812; (121) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 891; (123) _Cat. of Sculpture_, I., 798; (124) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 237; (125) _B.M. Inscr._, 165; _Cat. of Bronzes_, 261; (126) _B.M. Inscr._, 1102; (127) _ibid._, 1094; (128) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 3208; (130) _ibid._, 253; (131) _B.M. Inscr._, 958; (132) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 318; (133-135) _Bonner Jahrb._, CVII (1901), p. 61 ff., pls. 6, 7; (137) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 904; (138) _ibid._, 899; (139) _ibid._, 887; (140) _ibid._, 897; (141) _ibid._, 895; (142) _ibid._, 906; (144) Cf. Tod and Wace, _Sparta Mus. Cat._, p. 228; _B.S.A._, XII., p. 322 ff.

On votive offerings generally, cf. Rouse, _Greek Votive Offerings_, passim.

=Superstition and Magic.=--(145) Newton, _Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus, and Branchidae_, p. 719 ff. On these _defixiones_ generally, see Audollent, _Defixionum Tabellae_, Paris, 1904; (146) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 3191-3194; cf. Daremberg and Saglio, _Dict. des Ant._, s.v. _Clavus_; (148) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 874-876; cf. _Arch.-ep. Mitt._, II., p. 44 ff.; (150) _Cat. of Terracottas_, E 129; _Journ. Hell. Stud._, VII., p. 44 ff.

For Greek religion, see Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_; for Roman, Warde Fowler, _The Roman Festivals_.

[Footnote 17: [Greek: Hiaros pantôn theôn hode bômos.]]

[Footnote 18: Similar objects have been found in the Catacombs. Cf. Seroux d'Agincourt, _Sammlung d. Denkmaeler d. Sculptur_, pl. viii., fig 27.]

[Footnote 19: Cf. [Greek: obelos trikôlios] as the measure of a sacrificial perquisite, in the inscriptions of Cos. Paton & Hicks, _Inscrr. of Cos_, No. 37, l. 53; No. 40_b_, l. 14.]

[Footnote 20: _Strom._, v. 566.]

[Footnote 21: _Il._ xxiii. 141 f.: [Greek:

stas apaneuthe pyrês xanthên apekeirato chaitên, tên rha Spercheiô potamô trephe têlethoôsan.] ]

[Footnote 22: [Greek:

Tô Apollôni tô Priêlêi m' anethêken Hêphaistiôn.]]

[Footnote 23: [Greek: Lophios m'anethêke.]]

[Footnote 24: [Greek:

Tas Hêras hiaros | emi tas en pedi|ôi Qunisqo|s me anethê|ke hôrtamo|s wergôn | dekatan.]]

[Footnote 25: Inscribed: [Greek:

Tô Panepi m' anestase Sôkydês].]

[Footnote 26: ii. 153.]

[Footnote 27:

I(ovi) O(ptimo) M(aximo) Dolicheno, u|bi ferrum nascit|ur, Flavius Fidelis et Q. Iulius Posstim|us ex imperio ipsi|us pro se et suos (_sic_).]

[Footnote 28: Cf. Livy, xxii. 1, 18: ... ut libertinae et ipsae, unde Feroniae donum daretur, pecuniam pro facultatibus suis conferrent.]

[Footnote 29: Ov., _Her._ vi. 91 f.]

VI.--ATHLETICS.

(Wall-Cases 107-108.)

Athletic and pugilistic contests were already developed on Greek soil before the Homeric Age. Thus we have a steatite vase from Crete (_see_ Cast in First Vase Room) with boxers in all positions. A pair of boxers (of about 1100 B.C.) from a vase found at Enkomi in Cyprus is shown in fig. 47 (No. =151=). In the Homeric poems athletic contests frequently occur, but only as isolated and unorganized events, without rules or system. It was only at a much later date that the games were organized on lines corresponding to those of modern sport. At Olympia, the great festivals were said, according to tradition, to have begun in 776 B.C., and it was from that year that the Greeks calculated their dates, reckoning by the periodical return of the meeting every fourth year.

The events at the games which may specially be called athletic were six in number: the _pentathlon_ (or "five contests") was a competition made up of the jump, the foot-race, throwing the _diskos_, throwing the javelin, and wrestling.[30] The pentathlon was decided by a system of "heats," and the victor enjoyed a great reputation as an exceptional "all-round" man. The _pankration_ was a combination of wrestling and boxing, which tended to develop the type of heavy professional athletes.

The victorious athlete was held in high honour by his native city. The prize at the games was indeed of no value--at Olympia it was a crown of wild olive--but on his return home the victor entered the city in triumph, feasts were held and odes were sung in his honour, he was maintained for the remainder of his life, and his statue was set up in the place where his victory had been won.

We will first deal with the events of the _pentathlon_ in order:--

_The Jump._--For the ancient jumping contests the competitors used jumping-weights (_halteres_). Their use is shown on the vase, E 499 (No. =152=). One youth is about to leap, another stands waiting, and the trainer holds a short switch. On the vase E 561 (No. =153=) a youth is also on the point of leaping. Examples of the jumping-weights are shown. The pair in lead (No. =154=) are of a type which is seen not infrequently on Greek vases, consisting of blocks of lead widened at each end. The weight for the left hand, which is completely preserved, weighs 2 lb. 5 oz. (_cf._ also fig. 52). With this pair may be compared the cast of a single stone jumping-weight (No. =154*=) found at Olympia and now at Berlin (fig. 48). It differs from the pair just described, and resembles the type described by Pausanias,[31] who travelled through Greece in the second century of our era, as forming half of an elongated and irregular sphere. It probably dates from about 500 B.C. Another type is represented by a remarkable but cumbrous example in limestone, from Kameiros in Rhodes, a long cylindrical instrument with deep grooves for the thumb and fingers, to give a firm hold (No. =155=; fig. 49).

_The Foot Race._--A somewhat conventional foot race of armed hoplites is shown on the vase B 143. This is a Panathenaic amphora, that is, one of the two-handled vases, won, as the inscription on the other side states, at the games at Athens. They always bear on one side a figure of the patron goddess Athena, on the other a representation of the contest in which they were won. Many examples may be seen in the Second and Fourth Vase Rooms.

_Throwing the Diskos._--This was one of the oldest and most popular contests at the great festivals. It was already known in Homeric times, and we read of Odysseus using a disc of stone, and of one of iron hurled at the funeral games in honour of Patroklos; but all existing examples are in bronze except a lead disc at Berlin which cannot have been used in athletics. The diskos was used, not like the modern quoit, with the object of hitting a mark, but with a view to throwing as far as possible, as in the modern contest of putting the weight.

Existing discs vary considerably in size and weight, and were doubtless made to suit various degrees of strength, like modern dumb-bells or Indian clubs. The plain bronze example in this Case (No. =156=) weighs as much as 8 lb. 13 oz. The small disc (No. =157=; fig. 50), which was dedicated by Exoidas to the Dioscuri after a victory over his Kephallenian competitors[32] (cf. above, p. 49), weighs only 2 lb. 12 oz. The weight used at modern athletic sports weighs 16 lb. and has been put 48 ft. 2 in.

Diskos-throwing reached its greatest popularity in the sixth and fifth centuries, and it is to the middle of this period that the remarkable votive disc here shown (No. =158=; fig. 51) may be assigned. It is engraved with finely-incised designs, representing on one side an athlete with jumping-weights; on the other, another holding a hurling-spear[33] in both hands. This disc weighs rather more than 4 lb. The method of handling the disc will be readily understood from the bronze figure and representations on vases exhibited in this Case; they should be compared with the copies of the famous Diskobolos of Myron in the second Graeco-Roman Room and the Gallery of Casts.

_Javelin-Throwing and Wrestling._--These sports are frequently shown on the Panathenaic vases already described (p. 60). Other games of a varied character also occur, and we find such contests as tilting from horseback at a suspended shield, the torch-race, and races in full armour depicted. A specimen (B 134 in the Second Vase Room) shows four athletes engaged in four out of the five contests of the _pentathlon_ (cf. also B 361 (No. =159=) in this Case).

_Boxing_, one of the most ancient contests (see above, fig. 47), was long practised at the games with gloves of ox-hide, which was torn into long strips and bound round the hand. Such wrappings, like modern boxing-gloves, were intended rather to protect the wearer than to injure his opponent. At a later date, probably in the fourth century B.C., a more dangerous glove was introduced, in the form of a pad of thick leather bound over the fingers. This new form must have inflicted severe wounds; it is apparently used by the two African boxers in terracotta seen in this Case (No. =160=). But in the decline of the Roman Empire, when the brutality of the spectators had to be satisfied at all costs, a still more cruel glove was invented, which had a heavy addition in metal, and must have been an appalling weapon. See the fragment in terracotta (No. =161=, fig. 52). A cast from a terracotta relief (No. =162=) shows a statue of a victorious boxer.

FIG. 53.--PRIZE VASE FROM THE GAMES OF ONOMASTOS (NO. 163). 1:6.]

The other objects in this case are less directly connected with athletics; the most noteworthy is a large bronze caldron (No. =163=, fig. 53), of about the sixth century B.C., which was found at Kyme, in South Italy, and was given as a prize at games held in that district. It is inscribed: "I was a prize at the games of Onomastos." He was doubtless a wealthy citizen at whose expense the contests were arranged, a form of public service very common in Greek cities. A piece of corrugated tile (No. =164=) comes from the floor of the palaestra (wrestling place) at Olympia.

(151) _Cat. of Vases_, I., 2, No. C 334; (153) cf. Jüthner, _Ant. Turngeräthe_, p. 3 ff.; (154) Furtwängler, _Olympia_, IV., (_Die Bronzen_), p. 180; (156) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 2691; (157) _ibid._, 3207; _B.M. Inscr._, 952; (158) _Cat. of Bronzes_, 248; (160) _Cat. of Terracottas_, D 84, 85; (162) _ibid._, D 632; (163) _I.G._, xiv. 862; (164) Adler, _Olympia_, II. (_Baudenkmaeler_) p. 115.

On Greek athletics generally, see _Greek Athletic Festivals_, by E. N. Gardiner.

[Footnote 30: Summed up by Simonides (cf. Bergk, No. 153) [Greek: enika halma, podôkeiên, diskon, akonta, palên]. ]

[Footnote 31: v. 26, 3.]

[Footnote 32: [Greek:

Echsoida(s) m' anethêke Diwos Qouroin megaloio: chalkeon hôi nikase Kephalanas megathymous.] ]

[Footnote 33: The lines on this side appear to have been worn down and re-cut, but the restorer has misunderstood the spear, and left it as a single fine line.]

VII.--GLADIATORS AND THE ARENA.

(Wall-Case 109.)

Gladiatorial combats were not native to Rome, but had long been known in Etruria as an adjunct to funeral ceremonies, and were probably introduced thence into Rome by way of Campania, where the amphitheatre of Pompeii is the oldest in existence. The first show of gladiators at Rome took place in 264 B.C., but only three pairs of combatants were engaged in it. In course of time the number of gladiators increased, and such contests were given with greater frequency, although they remained a mere accompaniment of funeral ceremonies until 105 B.C., in which year they were for the first time offered as official amusements to the people. During the empire, gladiatorial shows were organised on a vast scale, and amphitheatres were built in all the provinces. It was inevitable that the influence of Christianity should make such exhibitions impossible. But it was not till nearly a century after the Emperor Constantine had recognised Christianity as a state religion, that Honorius put an end to the exhibition of gladiators in Rome (404 A.D.).

The serious combats in the Roman arena were announced by a procession and a preliminary fight with the weapons used in practice. This mock struggle excited the men, and made them ready for the terrible trial of skill which followed. Lots were drawn, and the combatants arranged in pairs, but sometimes _mêlées_ were planned, in which large numbers were engaged. It was possible for a man to draw a bye, and so to fight only with the winner of a previous round; probably, however, a gladiator seldom fought more than two fights in a single day.