A Bear Named Barbaros: A pierre errante from Apollonia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36991/PHILIA.202406Abstract
A grave altar from Pisidian Apollonia (Uluborlu), already published various times, is re-examined here. The authors provide a detailed study of the iconography of the altar, which is now on display in a park in Kızılcabölük, ca. 200 km to the west of Uluborlu. The altar is decorated with a dramatic scene, the death of a bestiarius, who is depicted being killed by a bear. The rocky, uneven terrain below the figures indicate that the bestiarius was killed either while trying to capture the bear, while training the animal or leading it to the amphitheater. The name of the bear (Barbaros) is afterwards discussed in the context of names used for wild animals.
Downloads
References
Berns – Ekinci 2015 C. Berns – A. Ali Ekinci, Gladiatorial games in the Greek East: a complex of reliefs from Cibyra, Anatolian Studies 65, 2015, 143–179.
Hrychuk Kontokosta 2008 A. Hrychuk Kontokosta, Gladiatorial Reliefs and Élite Funerary Monuments, in: C. Ratté – R.R.R. Smith (eds.), Aphrodisias Papers 4. New Research on the City and its Monuments (JRA Suppl. 70), Portsmouth, R.I. 2008, 190–229.
Robert 1940 L. Robert, Les gladiateurs dans l’Orient grec, Paris 1940.
Robert 1950 L. Robert, Hellenica. Recueil d’épigraphie, de numismatique et d’antiquités grecques VIII, Paris 1950.
Robert 1982 L. Robert, Deux épigrammes de Philippe de Thessalonique, JS 1982, 139–152.
Thonemann 2013 P. Thonemann, Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua. Vol. XI. Monuments from Phrygia and Lykaonia Recorded by M.H. Ballance, W.M. Calder, A.S. Hall, and R.D. Barnett, London 2013.
Toynbee 1948 J.M.C. Toynbee, Beasts and their Names in the Roman Empire, Papers of the British School at Rome 16, 1948, 24–37.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 PHILIA. International Journal of Ancient Mediterranean Studies
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The Philia Journal has undergone a significant update in its publication process since 2024. The journal, which was previously published only in print, is now published by Phoibos Publishing Company and is also available in digital format as Open Access.
The Open Access policy of PHILIA is fully aligned with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) principles. All articles published in PHILIA are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). This license permits all users to copy, share, and redistribute the articles, data sets, figures, and supplementary materials published in the journal on any platform, provided that appropriate credit is given to the author(s), the article title, the journal citation, and the DOI (Digital Object Identifier).
