On Captives under the Principate

Abstract

shows two barbarian captives sitting on aferculum, both men, their hands bound behind their backs, about to be hoisted into the air for display in a triumphal procession (Plate 1). The lower register of the Gemma Augustea shows two pairs of prisoners: to the left a long-haired and bare-chested man sits on the ground, looking defiant, his arms tied behind his back, while a woman sitting at his side rests her head on her hands seemingly exhausted as Roman soldiers raise a trophy in the background; to the right another man, again long-haired and bare-chested but also wearing a torque around his neck, kneels in pathetic submission as a soldier behind rudely drags along a female captive by the hair (Plate 2). A scene on the Column of Trajan depicts a Roman soldier bringing a captive before the emperor: the man's hands are again tied behind him and the soldier is pushing him along, one hand on the prisoner's back, the other on the back of his head (Plate 3). A memorable section of the Column of Marcus Aurelius presents two barbarian prisoners leaning forward with bowed heads and pinioned hands: under the supervision of Roman cavalrymen they are waiting for the raised swords of executioners to fall on their necks and they can see the corpses of two other already decapitated prisoners lying in front of them (Plate 4). One of the panel reliefs of Marcus Aurelius has another pair of captives being violently hauled before the emperor: a man has his long hair grasped from behind by a soldier who forces the prisoner's tormented face up to look at the emperor standing on a tribunal; the other, his face full of despair, has his arms in manacles and he is shoved along by another soldier whose burly arm stretches across his shoulders. A pedestal relief on the Forum Arch of Septimius Severus shows yet another captive in chains: but this time the man's arms are in front of him, and he has enough freedom of movement to allow him to clutch a captive infant to his chest as he walks forward with a fellow prisoner, their captors following on behind.1