The Carthage Circus Mosaic is a Roman mosaic dating from the 1st or 2nd century, discovered on the archaeological site of Carthage, in present-day Tunisia, in the first quarter of the 20th century.
Little is known about the archaeological context of the find, with archaeologists concentrating on the object itself, and little is known about the building that contained it, although it may have been a domus, given its location not far from a residential area now being developed as part of an archaeological park.
The work depicts both a circus seen from the outside and the show inside, offering a double perspective of the building and a representation unique in ancient mosaic art. The mosaicist depicted the building and its characters distortedly but in accordance with the aesthetic criteria of his time. The scene depicts a circus race coming to an end, a snapshot of the moment of victory for the Les Bleus team.
The mosaic, deposited in the Bardo National Museum immediately after its discovery, is considered by most specialists to be a representation of the city's circus, which left only faint traces on the archaeological site. This edifice in the capital of the African province was partially excavated in the 20th century, and the mosaic provides a plausible representation of the building. In particular, an exhaustive study of the way in which certain elements, such as the spina, were depicted, makes it possible to link the edifice to a series found in other cities in Roman Africa with the same type of entertainment building.
History and location
The mosaic is one of the important pieces on display at the Musée National du Bardo, located in the suburbs of Tunis, as part of the presentation of circus games.
Ancient history
According to Jean-Claude Golvin and Fabricia Fauquet, the work dates "at the earliest" from the 1st century; according to Hédi Slim, from the late 1st or early 2nd century; and according to Aïcha Ben Abed, from the 2nd century. Representations of entertainment buildings in the mosaics of provincial cities were undoubtedly inspired by nearby buildings. According to Mohamed Yacoub, the mosaics were the work of local artists.
The archaeological context is not well known, as the room was "poorly excavated". The mosaic was located in a small room interpreted as the vestibule within a building whose function is not specified, although it probably belonged to a domus, located in the area of a residential quarter, part of which is now preserved in the archaeological park of Roman villas.
Rediscover
The mosaic was found on the Odéon hill, a hundred meters from the theater and the Odéon, in March 1915, "at the bottom of the Dahr-Morali plot ". Following Alfred Merlin's intervention, it immediately joined the collections of the Musée du Bardo. The publication of the mosaic in 1916 gave no further details on the context of its discovery.
In the 1980s, the mosaic was identified as a combination of amphitheater and circus, and this theory was subsequently taken up by a number of specialists, including John H. Humphrey. However, it was rejected by several specialists in circus games and performance buildings, including Mohamed Yacoub and Jean-Claude Golvin, as no building of this combined form has been attested in the Roman Empire. Fights have indeed been documented in circuses, but amphitheaters could not have been used for races, as "the arena of an amphitheater [was] ridiculously small for even small-scale races to have been organized there".
Description
The mosaic depicts the circus building and what happens in the ring.
Composition
Measuring 2.70 m by 2.25 m, the mosaic is composed of marble and glass tesserae, the smallest being glass. The border is 0.20 m wide.
The artist uses perspective to show three sides of the building. A semblance of the building's shadow is shown, as well as the figures and quadrigas on the track, the shadow coming from the left of the building. The perspective used, "conventional with several points of view ", is aerial and oblique: it is the spectators' point of view that is adopted for the vision of the building's interior.
Its composition seems dictated by the layout and function of the room in which the work was found, and the presence of two doors, one to the south providing access to the building, the other to the west. For the artist, the aim was to "[accompany] [...] the turning movement that one would necessarily make when crossing the room" between the two doors, south and west, the curves being intended to accentuate it.
Description of the exterior building
The cirque de Carthage faces north-west-south-east and, according to Léopold-Albert Constans, "the moment chosen by the artist corresponds to the early hours of the afternoon".
The building is massive, with two storeys of arcaded galleries and an attic, 32 arched openings and two towers seen from the front. The roof of the top floor is also shown by Fabricia Fauquet.
According to some specialists, including Léopold-Albert Constans and Mohamed Yacoub, on three of the sides is a velum designed to protect spectators from the sun or bad weather, while the last side is not shown, either because this façade was oriented so as not to need it, or because of an artistic choice designed to show the tiers of the performance building. Only the spectators are protected, not the track. The velum's fastening system is also shown: it comprises transverse ropes with a horizontal separation. The mosaicist would have depicted the details of the fastening system according to Léopold-Albert Constans, with rings connected to pulleys and masts located in the upper parts of the building. More recent research, such as that by Fabricia Fauquet and Jean-Claude Golvin, refutes the existence of such a velum, due to the absence of rings allowing such an installation to be hung on equipment whose track would be too wide. The roof of the carceres would have been made of tiles and that of the cellara, pink and red in color.
At the bottom of the side from which the bleachers can be seen, the artist has depicted the seven vomitories. These vomitories are designed to lead spectators to their seats. Unusually, the artist has not depicted any spectators in this part of the building.
As the two buildings above the cavea are tetrastyle and pedimented, Leopold-Albert Constans identifies them as temples. The Circus Maximus, the Circus Flaminius and the Theater of Pompey all feature cult buildings. According to Mohamed Yacoub, these aediculae may have been referees' boxes or temples, although specialists are divided on the subject. One of the buildings would be the pulvinar and the other a temple "dedicated to a major circus deity" according to Jean-Claude Golvin, or Sol. The editoris tribunal is not represented.
There are also eight carceres to the north-west of the building, divided into two sections: the carceres are enclosed by gates and clerestory doors, and a wide passage separates the two sections. At the opposite end of the building is a triumphal gateway. The mosaic shows the porta pompæ wide open and larger than the carceres. Current experts on the building believe that there were twelve carceres and a porta pompæ similar to that in the circus of Maxentius. The mosaic does not depict any towers, known as oppida, although such installations have been identified on some circuses, such as that of Maxentius, but were not attested until the fourth century. Similarly, the representation does not include a secondary lodge built above the carceres.
Description of the runway and the show
The representation of the spina is only partly preserved on the right and divides the space representing the show in two. By symmetry, Jean-Claude Golvin and Fabricia Fauquet were able to propose a reconstruction of the representation of this lost part of the mosaic.
The central spina, which ends in a semicircle, stands out on the track, as does a bollard made up of three cones, the meta secunda, placed on a base. In the middle of the spina is not an obelisk, as in Rome, but a statue identified with Cybele seated on a lion, even though it has been partially lost; this divinity presides over chariot races. While traces of her crown remain, she holds a sceptre in one arm and the other is outstretched, perhaps towards the end of the race. The mosaic in Piazza Armerina, like the one in Barcelona, suggests the presence of an obelisk and a statue of Cybele for the Circus Maximus. The mosaic from the Villa of the Bull at Silin in Tripolitania shows only a representation of Cybele on a lion and refers to an "African circus", perhaps that of Leptis Magna, where the remains of a base that may have belonged to a monumental statue of a lion have been found. The statue of Cybele is in the middle of the spina on the mosaic, testifying to the divinity's "prime importance in Africa".
There are also basins on the spina. The podium of the spina has a concave shape at the end. The meta prima was located in the lacuna present on the work. In addition to the insured elements, the spina included a round temple and "one or two elements", perhaps a chapel and a monumental column. The spina was richly decorated with statues.
One column has a statue of Victory that has disappeared. Two other columns bear an architrave with a tower-counting system made up of seven dolphins. Parallel to this, in the gap in the mosaic, must have been an architrave bearing seven eggs. After the columns is a hexagonal aedicule called a fala by Constans. The revolution counter system, a "dolphin monument", was in the form of a gallows as on the Silin mosaic. The elements depicted on the mosaic are also present on the "iconography of the Circus Maximus", but a gap prevents us from confirming the presence of an obelisk. The building may have included "egg aediculae", which are included in the gap in the mosaic and have been documented on the Silin mosaic, the Lyon mosaic and the remains of the Merida spina.
Around the bollard run four quadrigas, one of which is going in the opposite direction to the others. Three quadrigas are going from right to left, and one of them is stopping. The quadriga that has completed the seven laps is the winner: it wears a palm and has the reins around its waist. The charioteers wear a helmet with a crest and the harnessed horses have a plume of feathers.
When the creta, the finishing line on which the referees stood, was crossed, the winner had to make a U-turn to be presented with the palm by a magistrate and prepare to parade in front of the stands; he then had to return to the carceres, to the left of the entrance gate: the charioteer in the mosaic stands back to slow his horses and prepares to ride around the meta secunda. A rider is standing in front of the winning quadriga: this is the jubilator or hortator (or, according to Mohamed Yacoub, the propulsor), whose job it is to encourage the winner.
The quadriga that came second was in the process of stopping, "with its body leaning heavily backwards", and joining the carceres, but had to stop at the invitation of a figure holding an amphora and a whip, a "track official", the morator ludi according to Léopold-Albert Constans or a sparsor according to Mohamed Yacoub: This person stops the quadriga by spraying the axles of the chariot and cares for the equines, giving them water to cool their nostrils. On the opposite side of the track, another morator (or sparsor), partially preserved, stops a quadriga whose driver raises his arm in acceptance of defeat. This is a normal intervention, as "the outcome of the race was already known". The third quadriga appears to be whipping its horses, hoping to win a place.
Interpretation
Distorted representation of reality
The "errors, anomalies and oddities" observed in ancient representations of buildings are linked to a problem of interpretation. The mosaic represents reality but in a distorted way, in particular the "cramped aspect of the attic" and without respect for proportions, as was customary in ancient representations. According to observations made during archaeological excavations, the attic was in fact high in reality, despite the partial nature of the excavations. The representation of the carceres is also inaccurate, with a smaller number than in reality: this corresponds to the habit of "reducing the series" often observed. Eight carceres would not have been enough to occupy the entire width of the building. The carceres identified during the excavations were between 5.50 m and 6 m wide and formed an arc of a circle, leaving a space of around 7 m for the porta pompæ. Similarly, the mosaicist represented only a small proportion of the bays in the performance building: only sixteen are shown in the work, a figure that bears no relation to their actual number. In this way, the mosaicist wanted to show only "the essential characteristics" of the building. The bays were also narrower than those depicted.
The rounded shape of the ends of the building may be linked to the primitive state of the performance building, as in Merida, before the carceres were rebuilt in the 2ndL 15 or 4th century. The plan of the building has a curved side and arched carceres on the opposite side.