LEAF OF THE AREOBINDUS DIPTYCH, 506 CE. MUSÉE DE CLUNY
This is one of two panels of a diptych celebrating the start of the consular year of Flavius Areobindus Dagalaifus Areobindus in 506. Areobindus was the richest and most powerful nobles of the court of emperor Anastasius I. He was a poster boy for "barbarian" assimilation into Roman society: of Gothic and Alanic descent, he wed Anicia Juliana, daughter of the western emperor Olybrius, and thus married into the imperial house of Theodosius. Here we see him on his consular chair, flanked by attendants, holding a sceptre in one hand and a mappa or ceremonial cloth in the other. When he dropped the mappa, it was a signal for the gladiatorial games to begin. In the lower register of this ivory panel we can see an arena with spectators in a curved row watching gladiators fighting wild animals, in magnificent detail.
For #ReliefWednesday we go to #Constantinople via #Paris to see the opening of the #consular games of the noble #Areobindus. The fight has already begun in the #arena below: man against animal, animal against animal, and a bear breaking into a wicker cage containing a prisoner.