Beaker 1032

Beaker 1032

Gladiator Beaker, 1st century AD

Catalogue code: 048a (yellow green)

By far the most common of all the circus beakers, fragments from this design occur throughout the Western Roman Empire. Four pairs of gladiators are shown in various stages of combat. On the upper frieze are the names:

SPICVLVS ('Sting')
COLVMBVS ('The Dove')
CALAMVS ('Arrow',
or possibly 'Victory Palm')
HORIES ('Rising Sun')
PETRAITES ('Rocky')
PRVDES ('The Careful One')
PROCVLVS ('Hammer')
COCVMBVS (sic., probably a repeat of Columbus. It seems likely that Columbus is depicted both in combat and defeat on the same beaker).



Our reproduction is based directly on the intact beaker found at Chavagnes-en-Paillers, France, and now in the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY, as well as fragments from Colchester, Leicester, Wroxeter, Southwark, Kingsholm and London. For more information on this beaker see this article.

Height: 6.70cm   Diameter at rim: 7.60cm

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