The barbarian Gladiatior: Gaul, Dacian or Captive Slav? Interpretations of the Sculpture of 'Dying Gaul' in the Capitoline Museum

• Authors: Kolendo J.
• Languages of publication: IT

Abstracts

EN

Since its discovery the famous sculpture of the 'Dying Gaul' in the Capitoline Museum had been generally considered a representation of a dying gladiator. Its interpretation as a barbarian - the Gaul - appeared no earlier than the late 18th cent. Byron (Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, IV, 140-141) saw in it a dying gladiator coming from Dacia, which became a communis opinio. For the Poles visiting frequently Rome in the 19th cent., however, this was a representation of the captive Slav dying in the amphitheatre, for the Dacians were at the time considered to be the Slavs and thus ancestors of the Poles. This interpretation, put forward for the first time in 1841 by the poet Józef Bohdan Zaleski, was accepted by other Polish writers, including Adam Mickiewicz, Teofil Lenartowicz, Józef Kremer, and Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Keywords

EN

CAPITOLINE MUSEUM; DYING GAUL

Discipline

• ARCHAEOLOGY: ARCHAEOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Archeologia
• Year: 2005
• Volume: 56
• Pages: 133-139
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Kolendo J.

• J. Kolendo, Uniwersytet Warszawski, ul. Krakowskie Przedmiescie 26/28, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

07PLAAAA01874012