Late 4th century sarcophagus

[Caballo]

This sarcophagus from the mid to late 4th century is in Split museum where I was lucky enough to be last week, and I don't recall it being discussed before?

It depicts the destruction of Pharoah's army in the Red sea but the troops are a mixture of more contemporary and possibly older styles e.g. Attic helmets.
I think I recall some discussion (by Graham Sumner??) on the armour? The central soldier is depicted as having some form of body armour with a distinct "dot"in the middle of each diamond shaped section. I don't believe that this was a lazy attempt to depict mail given the sculpture detail in the rest of the piece- but is perhaps a padded jack similar to a medieval coat of plates/ brigandine? A lot of other interesting detail as well, I thought.




I would thoroughly recommend a visit to Split (some cheap flights from UK by Easyjet). As a taster, here is the Roman Silver Gate.


Diocletian's Mausoleum on the left- now a Christian church. Inside the mausoleum the original frieze is still there showing (amongst other things) cherubs with oval flat shields.


And the vestibule of Diocletian's Palace-plus my family to give it some scale.