A Guide to the Exhibition Illustrating Greek and Roman Life

by British Museum. Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities

Fig. 10.—Bronze Corn-Ticket (No. 20). 1:1.

Official Emblem.—The relief in Case 99 shows the Fasces (that is, the axes and the rods tied in a bundle) which were carried by the lictors before the higher Roman magistrates.

Slavery.—The circular bronze badge (No. 21) shows the Roman method of dealing with runaway slaves after the softening influence of Christianity had begun to make itself felt. In earlier times the runaway slave had been punished with the cruel penalty of branding. Apparently from the time of Constantine onwards an inscribed badge was substituted, authorising the summary arrest of the slave if he were caught out of bounds. The inscription on the badge exhibited runs: "Hold me, lest I escape, and take me back to my master Viventius on the estate of Callistus."

Two other objects may perhaps be brought into connection with slavery. The scourge (No. 22), with its lash loaded with bronze beads, was frequently used for the punishment of slaves. It is the horribile flagellum of Horace. A scourge very similar to the present is seen on a relief in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, representing a high-priest of Kybele, whose devotees were in the habit of scourging themselves in the service of the goddess.[⁷] The pair of iron fetters (No. 23), found in 1813 in a cave behind the Pnyx at Athens, bear a close resemblance to those worn by a bestiarius or beast-fighter represented on a relief from Ephesus exhibited in Case 110, (Cat. of Sculpt., II., No. 1286).

Fig. 11.—Slave Badge (No. 21). 3:5.

Two small bronzes (No. 24) show dwarf slaves undergoing the punishment of the cangue, in which neck and wrists are fixed in a board.

(1) Cat. of Bronzes, 264; Hicks and Hill, Greek Hist. Inscr., No. 9; (2) Roberts, Gr. Epigraphy, No. 297; (3) Cat. of Bronzes, 263; B.M. Inscr., 953; (4) Cat. of Bronzes, 262; B.M. Inscr., 954; (5) Cat. of Bronzes, 333; (6) ibid., 334; (7) to (10) ibid., 329-332; Hicks and Hill, 151; I.G., II., 886, 901, 885, 908b; (11) Jahrbuch d. Arch. Inst., II., p. 161; (12) B.S. Athens Ann., V. pl. 5, fig. 112; (13) B.M. Inscr., 1155; Cat. of Bronzes, 250; (14) B.M. Inscr., 948A; Journ. of Hellen. Stud., II., p. 77; (15) Roberts, Gr. Epigraphy, No. 286; (17) Cat. of Bronzes, 319; I.G. XIV., 594; cf. Hermes, III., p. 298 ff.; (18) Eph. Epigraph., IV., p. 185; C.I.L., III., Suppl. i., p. 2000. On the diplomata generally, see Smith, Dict. of Ant., and Daremberg and Saglio, Dict. of Ant., s.v.; (19) Cat. of Bronzes, 901; C.I.L., XV., 7166; Hübner, Exempla, No. 915; (20) Cat. of Bronzes, 3016; C.I.L., XV., 7201; Klio, Beiheft III., p. 21; Philologus, XXIX., p. 17; (21) Cat. of Bronzes, 902; C.I.L., XV., 7193.

[1:] Pol. i. 1, 8.