Scourging........whip

[john m roberts]

I can't post pictures, but if you go to Google Images and type in "Priest of Cybele" the first images that come up are of the tombstone I mentioned. The flagrum is not very big but is vicious-looking.

[S. Marcer]

john m roberts wrote:

The figure on the right seems to show a scabbard at the waist as well, but I can't make out what he wields in his right hand. This is a very enigmatic depiction. The presence of the "scourge" does make it seem like a ceremonial or ritual combat, but is it gladiatorial, or something else?

I think that the interpretation of the back is still uncertain (as well as for the weapon that holds the figure on the right). For Crawford this denarius belong to Titus Didius, tribune of the plebs in 103, praetor in 101 and consul in 98. The back shows a battle between two gladiators, one armed with a whip and the other armed with a stick. Even the "Banti & Simonetti. Corpus Nummorum Romanorum " speaks of gladiators. According to another theory, the back have a commemorative significance and would be probably linked to an episode of the first Servile War in Sicily (135 -132 BC). In this case the figure with the whip alludes to an ancestor that hit a rebel slave. Gianfranco Casolari in “I Denari della Repubblica Romana " think that the back of the coin represents : "the praetor T. Deidius, father of the monetary magistrate, who, in 135, hits a leader of the slaves with the flagellum".

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[Epictetus]

Well, that certainly looks like a cat-o-nine-tails type of whip. Good find.

[john m roberts]

Ligus,
Thanks for the further info. That sounds much more likely than a gladiator fight. The Roman commander, refusing to draw his sword on so ignoble an enemy, whacks him with a whip instead. It's a great symbolic gesture. Reminiscent of the first commander to go after Spartacus, who took along chains and neckrings for the slaves he was going to return to bondage. Didn't work out so well that time, though.

[Flavivs Aetivs]

The guy on the right in the second image looks like he's holding a giant toothbrush.

[john m roberts]

The part in front of the left-hand figure's face may be his hand gripping a sword hilt and the long part behind his head is its blade. Gallic swords were often depicted with rounded or squared-off tips.

[Timianus]

"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." (What movie?)

Why The Princess Bridge of course

[Athena Areias]

Or

The Bride Over the River Kwai

(Couldn't resist)