SECTION OF FRESCO DECORATION, 305-306 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN, IN SITU In a side entrance to the main block of the bath complex which once opened onto one of the two huge exercise yards or palæstræ, one small piece of original fresco decoration survives on the upper part of a wall by the curve of the vault. It's not in particularly good condition and should be properly restored to clean it and give its colour back. What is visible is a meander pattern alomg the edge of the vault, in black against a red background. A tripod on a stand at right flanks an ædicule in false perspective, with a pedestal bearing an urn sticking out at centre, a column with delicate looped bands around it, a lower frieze with a griffin which continues the line of the pedestal, and within the ædicule a red triangular panel and traces of a larger dark panel beside it. The rough brick walls below would have been clad in rich marble panels.

This #FrescoFriday, let's go to the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome to check out the one remaining piece of #fresco decoration from 305-306 CE, in a room that may have served as a side entrance into the now-vanished #palæstra. #AncientBluesky 🏺

ALTAR TO HERCULES, 140 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This altar was found when the artificial hill called the Monte di Giustizia, where today's piazza dei Cinquecento now lies, was demolished in order to build Termini train station in the late C19. It was broken into pieces which were all found and put back together. The fairly good C2 formal script says L(ucius) Antonius / Caricus Hercul(i) / d(onum) aram d(edit). / Imp(eratore) T(ito) Aelio Anton(ino) / Pio III, M(arco) Aelio / Aurelio Caesare co(n)s(ulibus). "Lucius Antonius Caricus gives this altar to Hercules as a gift. Titus Aelius Antoninus Antoninus Pius emperor (and consul for the third time) and Marcus Aelius Aurelius Caesar (consul for the first time)". On the side of the altar we can see a splendid pig, with bristled spine and downturned head, apparently content to submit to being sacrificed. A similar porcine offering is on the other side.

Putting the #pig into #EpigraphyTuesday with this altar from 140 CE dedicated to Hercules by one Lucius Antonius Caricus. Lovely #Antonine formal script and on both sides, a high #relief showing a splendid pig, the unfortunate sacrifice. From the #BathsofDiocletian. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS OF TITUS FLAVIUS TROPHIMAS, C. 1OO-140 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This interesting sarcophagus shows that artisans could have bespoke sarcophagi, which were not exclusively for the rich. At centre is a tabula with an inscription in Greek explaining that this is the coffin of T. Flavius Trophimas, a Greek Roman citizen (perhaps an imperial freedman) from Ephesus, "panmousas" or a cultivator of every art. It was commissioned by his friends Lucius Atilius Artemas and Claudia Apphias, both also of clear Greek origin. To the right of the tabula is a scene with two musicians, the one at far right beating a tambourine, the other in only a loincloth, playing a double flute and holding another flute. Both musicians are dancing in time with each other. On the other side of the tabula, a man is winding a rope from hanging skeins of fibre, while at far left is the deceased, seated as he makes a shoe, with a cupboard topped with wooden shoe-forms suggests his workshop. The inclusion of music in this sarcophagus relief suggests that the deceased, and/or his friends, were devotees of Isis, as the instruments being played frequently form part of representations of Isaic ceremonies.

#SarcophagusSaturday returns us to the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome with this box from #OstiaAntica of the earlier C2 CE, made for a Greek shoemaker from #Ephesus. At left we see him at work, seated with a shoe in his hands, next to a ropemaker. At right, two musicians play. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS WITH CLIPEI, C. 200-250 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This adult-sized sarcophagus was found in a tomb in the same cemetery at the corner of via Portuense and via Belluzzo which we can visit in the Drugstore Museum, which displays tombs A and B. This sarcophagus comes from tomb D, also found in 1967 but not part of the museum. It is a tub form (a lenòs) coffin in expensive Proconnesian marble with its distinctive grey stripes. When it was found, it contained the skeleton of a ten-year-old child. The sarcophagus is made of symmetrical strigilations divided down the middle, and on both sides of the front are a clipeus, at left of the face of Helios, at left that of Selene, the gods of the sun and moon. Both faces are the same, and represent the face of the deceased, passing from day to night.

I think of you night and day. #SarcophagusSaturday offers us a #sarcophagus striking in its simplicity, now in the #BathsofDiocletian but originally in a #necropolis along the ancient #viaPortuensis outside #Rome. #Helios has a radiate crown and #Selene a crescent moon. #AncientBluesky 🏺

COLUMN BASES, C. 304 CE. COURTYARD, S. MARIA DEGLI ANGELI Behind a large dark chapel in S. Maria degli Angeli is a little courtyard occupying part of the natatio or swimming pool of the Baths of Diocletian. Here is a random collection of marbles from the Baths, including a sarcophagus (surely from after the abandonment of the structure), a piece of marble decoration in the form of a shield, and two column bases which flank a rectangle of marble, possibly another base. These are among the few remaining pieces of the decoration of the natatio after it was thoroughly despoiled over the course of the Middle Ages and into the C17. Strangely, bases are among the rarest survivals from ancient Roman buildings, perhaps because they were easily moved and reused, or burned in the lime kilns.

For #SpoliaSunday, we're on site in the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome looking at #spolia from the same Baths, in a part that belongs to the church of #SantaMariadegliAngeli and not to the @MNR_museo. This courtyard has an odd jumble of ancient #marble. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS WITH CLIPEUS AND EROTES, C. 250 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This sarcophagus, found in Ostia in 1894, has an autumnal quality, with two Erotes carrying game, the one at left with two marsh birds, the one at right holding a hare by the hind legs. Baskets of harvested fruit stand next to them. Two Erotes on either side of the central clipeus are looking at their colleagues with the game. Between their feet are comic masks. Under the clipeus are two more birds pecking at the ground. The curious thing here is that the portrait in the clipeus has been recarved, and now shows an older boy's face, but remnants of carved hair from the original portrait suggest that the child was a young initiate of Isis.

#SarcophagusSaturday brings us a medium-quality #sarcophagus from #OstiaAntica, now in the #BathsofDiocletian, made for a child initiate of #Isis and later recarved for an older boy. #AncientBluesky 🏺

CHILD'S SARCOPHAGUS WITH EROTES MAKING ARMS AND ARMOUR, C2 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This small sarcophagus was found in 1900 during excavations for the Tiber embankment at the level of the Ponte Rotto and is missing one short side. It might have been reused to repair the bridge. It refers to its child occupant with its use of Erotes, and we might imagine the deceased was a boy, given that these Erotes are busy making weapons and armour. At left, a badly-damaged Eros works the bellows of the forge, inside which a high fire burns. This is a quadrangular structure with a vaulted hood. A group of three Erotes is concentrated on hammering out an indecipherable item, probably a sword. At centre, where we would expect a clipeus with a portrait of the deceased, another Eros is hammering out a round shield held up on the right by an Eros who is standing as if holding a clipeus. At right, a final group of three Erotes is struggling mightily to carry a helmet.

Are these #Erotes working for the Department of #Defence or the Department of #War? For #SarcophagusSaturday we're pondering children working at the #forge, in this small #sarcophagus at the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome. All the recognisable items are armour. So... Defence? #AncientBluesky 🏺

PHALLIC EX VOTO, C7-C5 BCE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN In a case which is unfortunately unlabelled, a series of archaic terracotta decorations and ex votos from shrines in the ancient Latial towns of Antemnæ, Lanuvium, and Satricum are displayed. One ex voto, given in fulfillment of a vow by an afflicted man after he was cured, is this honestly rather enormous phallus and scrotum. It's also unclear how it's hanging there in this glass case, giving it a slightly eerie quality as it seems to hover over the rest of the displays.

How's it hangin'? No, literally, how is this #terracotta #exvoto of a #phallus, for #PhallusThursday, seeming to float in its display case in the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome? Maybe it's powered by #BDE. Large Phallus Energy. @ljtrafford.bsky.social #AncientBluesky 🏺

EXEDRA WITH FLOOR MOSAIC, 306 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN Along the north-east boundary wall of the Baths of Diocletian were four exedræ or curved extensions, of which only the two southern ones survive. This shallow exedra was entirely blocked off by a solid wall (now pierced by a modern opening) and access to it was via two discreet little rooms on either side. The large space covered by the geometric black and white mosaic pavement we see here was open to the sky, and a colonnade created a cover along the curved back. We can stiill see some of the structures that would have been under the sloped roof. This was a huge forica or latrine. The mosaic design spreads outward from a semicircle containing vines, and is made of hexagons and diamonds, with flowers in the hexagons. Each shape is framed by a triple black line, and the shapes distort the further away they get from the centre, imitating the effect of coffers.

#MosaicMonday offers us a surprise reveal in the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome: for the first time in many years, the authorities have removed the covering of this astonishingly intact black and white #mosaic in the shallow #exedra off the modern entrance #garden. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS WITH VICTORIES AND EROTES, C. 140-150 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This Antonine sarcophagus is in almost pristine condition, thanks to a recent cleaning which has, correctly, kept traces of red in the wings of the two Victories. The lid riser has a central tabula or place for an inscription, though one was never carved in, and on either side are hunting scenes rendered in crisp relief. The riser's right side shows Erotes, or children, chasing deer into a net toward the centre, while at left similar Erotes or children are goring a little bear at far left while another, on horseback, is about to drive a spear into a deer, with the action moving rightward toward the centre. The main box has a central clipeus or tondo with an unfinished portrait of the deceased being held up by two beautiful winged Victories. Below the clipeus are two crossed cornucopiæ. To right and left, groups of three Erotes are performing sacrifices.

I've got a blank space, baby, and I'll write your name. #SarcophagusSaturday takes us to the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome to admire a mid-C2 white #marble box which has everything except the occupant's identity. #Erotes are hunting on the lid and piously sacrificing below. #AncientBluesky 🏺

BRONZE MASK OF DIONYSUS (?), C. 100 BCE. DELOS, ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM This unusual bronze and copper mask was found in a well on the Cycladic island of Delos, the holy island where Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis, near the Agora of the Compitaliasts laid out in about 125 BCE in the heart of the Delian emporion. Only 25 cm high, the lower two thirds of the mask is made up of a voluminous curly beard. Above it is a man's face with a discontented expression, somewhat squeezed visually between the beard and a forehead ribbon decorated with vine leaves, holding back a dense mass of curly hair. He also has two little horns, indicating his divinity. This mask probably decorated the handle of a bronze vase. The Agora near which this was found was a centre for Italian cults, and was built shortly after the Roman conquest of Greece. The vase might have belonged to any number of syncretic cults, perhaps that of Osiris-Dionysus. But as an artwork in its own right, it's magnificent.

#ReliefWednesday takes us to #Greece, specifically #Delos, via a 2023 exhibition at the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome to marvel at the #bronze mask of a divinity who seems to be mostly #beard. Never has #ancient art so reminded me of a Dwarven king out of #Tolkien. #AncientBluesky 🏺

LARNAX WITH FEMALE FACE, 240-220 BCE. MUSEO DELL'ARTE SALVATA, BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This third cinerary urn found in an illicit excavation in the locality of S. Donnino outside the Umbrian town of Città della Pieve is much simpler than the other two from the same tomb belonging to the women of the aristocratic Pulfna family. It's a quite simple box in a local tufo whose lid has no effigy of the deceased but is a simple flat slab, on the front of which is a long inscription both incised and painted in red. I can't find a translation of this, but I can make out the name Pulfna on it. The corners of this box are carved like pilasters, and extend below it to make short legs. At centre is a strange female face, carved in an almost childlike way, with bulging eyes, triangular nose, and irregular mouth. She is probably a Medusa, with brown painted hair below an unpainted and jagged crown (?). Two symmetrical S-volutes flank the head, on a painted brown background.

For #SarcophagusSaturday we're back one last time at the #MuseodellArteSalvata at the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome, to see a strange #Etruscan #cinerary #urn or #larnax saved from the clandestine antiquities market by the #Carabinieri. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO FRAGMENT, C1 CE. MUSEO DELL'ARTE SALVATA, BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This beautiful piece of fresco work is of unknown origin, probably Neronian in date. It was handed in to the police by its owner in 2025. Here we have the black space of the wall, carefully pieced back together, divided horizontally by a band of red-framed rectangles with alternating acanthus curls in gold and little scenes with mythological creatures. The central vertical axis is made of a gold candelabrum with more vine curls that enclose a green background (very faded) and then, further up, a red background in a sort of heart shape with the central cornet of the candelabrum dividing it in two. A second cornet blossoms out of the first, and atop it is a grey dove clutching an olive twig that extends to either side, inclining upward, a play on the more usual swag of a garland. Below the central band, on the vertical axis, is a richly-caparisoned head with a vine-leaf crown, perhaps Dionysus.

#FrescoFriday leads us back to the #MuseodellArteSalvata at the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome to look at another #fresco fragment of mysterious provenance, full of delightful details. If only we knew where to look for the rest of this splendid room!

CYLINDRICAL RELIEF WITH DANCERS, C. 50 BCE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This large (168 cm in diameter) marble cylinder was discovered in 1908 in an excavation along the via Prenestina which was first a necropolis and then, not long after this work was made, incorporated into the grounds of the villa of Maecenas. It's formed of seven curved marble panels, missing an eighth. Each panel is decorated with a dancing maiden in relief, some facing left, others right, with their feet in motion. They are all wearing a long peplos with a belt directly beneath the breasts, clinging to their upper bodies and floating free below. They also wear a cloak or himation, which they sometimes wrap around their bodies and sometimes hold over their heads, letting it billow out in a velificatio. A wide band above their heads has a vine relief on it, permitting us to give this work a Dionysiac interpretation, but we really don't know if it was part of a tomb or perhaps was the base of a tripod or another object dedicated to Dionysus.

#ReliefWednesday takes us back to an exhibition about the #Roman idea of #time, held in the usually-closed Aula IV of the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome. These dancers moving around a cylindrical #marble monument may imply the circular passage of the seasons, in a #Bacchic context. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SHEET BRONZE HANDS, C7 BCE. MUSEO DELL'ARTE SALVATA These hands were crafted from a single sheet of bronze, folded along the edges of the elongated fingers, with embossed nails and thumbs curved outward. The partially closed wrists bear holes for attaching the plates. Similar pairs of bronze (or other metal alloy) sheet hands have been found in many tombs in Vulci, dating to around the C7 BCE, often associated with very rich funerary equipment. Traces of textile on them and their positions suggest they were parts of composite statues made from various materials, with metal sheets over perishable cores. These may be the earliest attempts at full-round statuary, meant to represent the deceased and symbolically restore their lost physical presence after cremation.

One of the most surprising displays in the #AulaOttagona of the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome is this pair of bronze #Etruscan hands, which were probably part of an effigy of the deceased in a tomb in the #Vulci area, at the beginning of Etruscan sculpture. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO FRAGMENT, C1 CE. MUSEO DELL'ARTE SALVATA, BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This piece of wall fresco was handed in to the Carabinieri by its owner earlier in 2025, an occurrence that is ever more frequent. However, its provenance is unknown. It has a black background. At centre, a grey square turned 45° to make a diamond shape sits at the junction of two decorative bands, like ribbons. The horizontal one is made of a gold-yellow zigzag, and the resulting triangles are filled with stylised evergreens. The vertical band has a dark red background with gold floral decorations, and is attached to the central frame with golden hooks. Above and below the horizontal band are two garlands of olive branches. At the very centre is a face, perhaps a mask, wearing a gold diadem.

This beautiful black-grounded #fresco is now on display at the #MuseodellArteSalvata in the #AulaOttagona of the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome. It dates to around the reign of #Nero and might come from the region of #Pompeii, but we don't know. Illegal #excavations destroy context. #AncientBluesky 🏺

AMBER PLAQUE WITH EOS AND KEPHALOS, C5 BCE. MUSEO DELL'ARTE SALVATA This plaque, which may have decorated a belt or other item of clothing, is unfortunately of unknown provenance, somewhere in southern Italy. It was repatriated in 2023 with the help of the New York District Attorney's Office. On it, we see two figures embracing, a slightly larger female figure at left, who is holding the nude male figure at right, even clutching his raised forward thigh. These lovers have been identified as Eos, goddess of the dawn, who kidnapped the handsome Kephalos despite him already being very much in love with his wife Procris, which explains the aggressive possessiveness of Eos. After many a misadventure, Kephalos and Procris were reunited, but first Kephalos fathered several children on Eos. Love the one you're with!

#ReliefWednesday takes us to the #MuseodellArteSalvata at the #BathsofDiocletian to admire an #amber #relief of a goddess embracing a mortal with lustful intent. The figures' eyes are strangely reminiscent of #Mesopotamian art. #AncientBluesky 🏺

LARNAX WITH THE KILLING OF TROILUS, C. 210 BCE. MUSEO DELL'ARTE SALVATA In 2015, news of the discovery of a hypogeum in the territory of Città della Pieve in Umbria, in the agrarian zone of San Donnino, began to filter out, as photos of objects from inside the tomb came to the attention of the Carabinieri. A raid on buildings of the owner of the land in question in April 2024 discovered an astonishingly rich haul: this was the tomb of the women of the powerful gens Pufna. All the grave-robbed property was taken into custody by October 2024. Here the lid shows a reclining woman in painted alabastrine gypsum, with golden jewelry, leaning on her elbow, a patera or offering plate in her other hand, resting on her knee. The box itself shows a violent scene from the Trojan War, the death of Troilus at the hands of Achilles, the one-man murder machine of the Iliad.

#SarcophagusSaturday takes us to the Octagonal Hall of the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome, where a fresh catch of repatriated and captured #antiquities has reopened the #MuseodellArteSalvata. The traces of #polychromy on this #Etruscan #cinerary #urn add to the beauty of the work. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FUNERARY INSCRIPTION OF P. AELIUS PYRAMUS, C. 150 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This beautifully-carved epitaph belongs to Publius Aelius Pyramus, head doorman (præpositus ostiariorum) of the imperial palace. From his name we know he was a freedman of Hadrian's, but we don't know where this intact slab was found. His inscription says that he built the tomb for himself, his wife, and his young son who died before him, and for his freedmen and freedwomen and their descendants, but that if his own line died out, the tomb could be used by his successors as head doormen and the members of the "collegium ostiariorum Caesaris nostris", that is, the guild of imperial doormen, on condition that they did not let strangers usurp the tomb. This is interesting because it shows the concentric circles of relationships between individuals: first, the man and his wife and son, then his other descendants, followed by his freed slaves, then the citizen children of his freed slaves, and then members of his work association. We get a sense of a social web. If we multiply this for the other members of other guilds, we can see that for these citizens, a sense of membership in transverse associations could create a more stable, less lonely urban environment.

A lovely #funerary #inscription rounds off this #EpigraphyTuesday in the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome, belonging to one Aelius Pyramus, chief doorman of the #imperial #palace. It gives us a sense of the concentric relationships between a #Roman and his family and workmates. #AncientBluesky 🏺

CAPITAL WITH APOTHEOSIS OF AN EMPRESS, 161-165 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN Lost and abandoned in one of the collapsed halls of the Baths of Diocletian is this single spectacular column capital, 1.2 metres tall and 90 cm in diameter, ie huge. On two opposite faces of the upper part of the Corinthian-style column are two busts. The male bust has completely lost its face and most of its head, but it is being lifted up to Olympus by an eagle. On this side, a more intact female head can be identified as Faustina the Elder, the deified wife of Antoninus Pius, and hence we can identify the male bust as that emperor, deified after his death in 161 CE. Just as Antoninus is being carried by the eagle, symbol of Jupiter, Faustina is being supported by a peacock, symbol of Juno. Both these portraits represent the apotheosis of their subjects. This was discovered at a site 19 km outside of Rome along the via Aurelia, at a site called La Bottaccia which had been yielding ancient statues to excavators since the C17, plausibly an imperial villa, a rest stop on the way back from the seaside, or even an Augusteum. This site would probably reward further archaeological examination.

For #ReliefWednesday this time we're back at the huge disorganised repository of the #BathsofDiocletian, to discover a most unusual #column #capital with two damaged #imperial #portraits where you'd expect the #Ionic part of a #Composite capital to be. #AncientBluesky 🏺 +ALT

SARCOPHAGUS WITH CLIPEUS AND EROTES, C. 250-300 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This large white Proconnesian marble sarcophagus has a simple theme: love, love, love. Against a smooth background, two mourning Erotes (or genii) are leaning on their downward-turned torches, symbols of death. Two further Erotes, on a larger scale than the other and truly chubby, occupy both sides of the front, flying with wings spread and legs kicking as if swimming. On the ground at left is a quiver, and at right a bow. The heads of the Erotes are punctuated by the short drill, giving body to their hair. The two main Erotes are looking away from the clipeus, as if in sorrow at the end of love. The husband and wife in the clipeus are shown in formal dress: he is wearing the toga contabulata, with its distinctive chest band, and she is generously built and wearing a clinging dress. But her face was never finished.

Love is in the air in today's #SarcophagusSaturday, as we stumble upon a huge two-person #sarcophagus in a ruined hall of the #BathsofDiocletian. Crossed #cornucopiae below the #clipeus suggest the fruitfulness of love. But the wife's face was never carved. #ClassicsBluesky 🏺

Poet Sappho. #BathsofDiocletian #Sappho #poet

MARBLE BLOCK, C1 CE, REUSED AS STANDARD MEASURE, C. 450 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN One of the most ancient towns on the Lazio coast south of Ostia was Laurentum, built, as its name implies, in a forest of laurels. The ancient via Laurentina connected it to Rome; its name gave us the names Laurentius/ Lorenzo/ Laurent/ Lawrence, and Laura. It was destroyed in the C3 BCE by the Romans, and refounded by Augustus as Vicus Augustanus Laurentium, with a forum and grand public buildings serving an increasingly populous shoreline now largely covered by the presidential estate of Castelporziano. With the decline of the empire in the C4 and the devastations of the C5, evidently at least one marble building was so ruined that a block could be taken from it and hollowed out as a standard measure for wine or grain. The badly worn inscription identifies the reuser as [Flavius Rufus] Opilio, urban prefect in 450. He was later Consul of the West in 453. This block was found at Castelporziano in the 1870s, so we know that even in decline the ancient centre of Laurentum had mercantile life in the C5. The text of the inscription reads "Opilio v(ir) c(larissimo) et inl(ustris) / pr(a)ef(ectus) urb(i)s adque (!) / [p]atric(iu)s fecit" (CIL XIV, 2046).

For #SpoliaSunday I didn't have much to go on for this obvious standard measure in the entrance garden of the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome. No label, just some #lateantique #epigraphy. What I found, to my surprise, was a thread reaching back into the dawn of #Roman history. #ClassicsBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS WITH PHAEDRA AND HIPPOLYTUS, C. 190 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This splendid sarcophagus was found in 1931 along the via Prenestina, during the construction of via Muzio Attendolo in today's Pigneto district. It was found almost completely intact, with its rooflike lid with tragic masks at the corners still atop the box. It recounts the tragic story of Phaedra and Hippolytus, which is not a very frequent subject for tomb sculpture - I only know of one other, at S. Clemente. Here we have a wonderful composition full of symmetry. At left is the Minoan princess Phaedra, sister to Ariadne and also half-sister to the Minotaur. She's married to her sister's former beau Theseus, king of Athens, but in love with his sexy yet indifferent son Hippolytus. She declares her love, he recoils, she claims he's raped her, Theseus banishes him, she repents and confesses but it's too late, Hippolytus has driven his horse off a cliff, woe all around. Anyway Phaedra is sitting on a chair facing right, with her maids around her, at left, while at centre the nude (but for a cloak) Hippolytus is preparing to ride off, shown twice: the left-hand version is holding the notice of banishment and is unfinished, therefore representing the deceased, while a fully-finished and idealised version is leading his horse away. At right, the third group shows bearded Theseus sitting facing left, having just received the news of the death of Hippolytus. He looks perplexed rather than distraught, and is looking at a nursemaid holding one of his infant sons by Phaedra, Acamas or Demophon, as if wondering whether Hippolytus was the real father. What message this has about the afterlife is a mystery to me, unless the message is "Don't go around heroically nude and then expect your stepmother not to lust after you", which seems awfully specific.

#SarcophagusSaturday takes us to the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome to admire a magnificent late-C2 CE #sarcophagus with the tale of #Phaedra and #Hippolytus, probably following the version of #Euripides which involves Phaedra's old nursemaid, who we see berating Hippolytus. Everyone looks pensive.

SARCOPHAGUS WITH DIONYSIAC SCENE, C2 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This remarkably well-preserved sarcophagus was found in 1961 during an excavation along the via Prenestina at largo Praeneste, today a nightmare of on- and off-ramps for a raised highway. It must have vanished below ground at an early date. Its Dionysiac theme evokes the transportation of the self after death, a pale shadow of which is provided by the effects of wine. At centre is a very drunk Dionysus being held up by two satyrs with two others ready to step in and help. All five are nude except for the god, who has a cloak covering one thigh. To the left, a Maenad is holding a torch, now missing, and she's conversing with a liknos-bearer: a liknos was a sort of scoop used in winnowing wheat, a symbol of prosperity. A final group on the left corner has a fully-dressed Maenad sitting on a rock facing us, and a nude satyr with his back to us, embracing. At the left corner, a Maenad is holding a pedum or foot squeeze-box, and a tambourine. To the right, a callipygian Maenad with her back to us is holding a cithara and the attention of a satyr who has two theatrical masks at his feet, and at the right corner Ariadne, lying on the ground with her back to us, is being unveiled by an Eros while Pan and a final Maenad look on. The cover shows Erotes at work gathering in the grape harvest.

#SarcophagusSaturday this week brings us to the #BathsofDiocletian where, in Aula XI, we can admire this remarkable #Dionysiac #sarcophagus from a necropolis along the ancient via #Praenestina. Dionysus and his drunken revellers were a common theme in #funerary #relief work in #Rome.