Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (28.1987)

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6. TTie Virgin with the Child and the Apostles, from the Monastery of St. Apollon in Bawit, Cairo,
Coptic Museum (after B. Brenk, Spdtanłike und Friihes Christentum, Propylaen Kunst-
geschichte, Supplementband, I, Frankfurt a.M.-Berlin-Wien, 1977)

The front wali of the partly preserved Roman sarcophagus in a style of c. 260, represents the
victory of the Greeks over the Gauls in a large relief. The left part of the relief on the right-hand
side wali shows Nike-Victoria, a female figurę in a high-sashed peplos (Fig. 12)25. We cannot
see her left hand, in which she holds a bronze shield decorated with Gorgon's laurelled head.
The shield rests on a pillar, and the goddess is writing a votive text on it. A war trophy, the
shield, must have been elevated in a tempie, this is why Nike,s gaze is directed upwards. Pro-
ceeding towards the goddess at a quick pace, is a gladiator carrying off the palm, evidently the
victorious gladiator palmarum, who at the same time is a representative of defeated Gaul. Accor-
ding to Roman custom as a prisoner he was incorporated among the gladiators. His swift steps
towards the goddess of victory are a sign of his personal victory as a gladiator and, at the same
time, the Romans ruler's victory over his original nation. The index finger he puts to his lips
symbolizes a gesture of silence obligatory during the sacred ceremony performed by the gla-
diator.

25. L. Curtius, „Zmn Galliersarkophag in Museo Mussolini" in: Pisciculi. Studien zur Iteligion und Kultur des Altertums,
Munster i. W., 1939, p. 76—79; in the same sense this gesture is used during solenin proeession, shown on Southern frieze
of the Roman altar (Ara Pacis), founded by Emperor Augustus. Among women and children going in the proeession the
face of a woman appears, who while orders silence with the same Roman formuła: Favete linguis — presses the finger to
her lips — Th. Krause, Das rdmische Wellreich (Propylaen Kunstgcschichte, II), Berlin, 1967, p. 225, Fig. 183 b.

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