Lot 118
118
NEW COMEDY ACTOR REPRESENTING A SLAVE SEEKING SANCTUARY, seated on an altar with his legs and arms defiantly crossed, his head tilted to one side, wearing a short tunic with striped border, long-sleeved under tunic and long-legged tights, a comic mask with knitted eyebrows, snub nose and grimacing mouth, crowned with a wreath of ivy leaves, one side of altar damaged

Details
NEW COMEDY ACTOR REPRESENTING A SLAVE SEEKING SANCTUARY, seated on an altar with his legs and arms defiantly crossed, his head tilted to one side, wearing a short tunic with striped border, long-sleeved under tunic and long-legged tights, a comic mask with knitted eyebrows, snub nose and grimacing mouth, crowned with a wreath of ivy leaves, one side of altar damaged
5 3/8in. (13.6cm.) high

Lot Essay

This type represents a slave who has run away and has found sanctuary at an altar; he is commonly represented sitting on the altar listening to requests to leave it (cf. Terence's Self Tormentor, verse 975.

Cf. T. B. L. Webster, Monuments illustrating Old and New Comedy, Institute of Classical Studeies Bulletin Supp. 39, London, 1978, p. 124, pl. V; Fouquet, p. 154, pl. LXXXVIII, nos. 430-431

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