Crucifixion continued to be used as an execution method for the worst criminals until its abolition by the emperor Constantine in the 4th century, and the impact of seeing a figure on a cross is comparable to the impact today of portraying a man with a hangman's noose around his neck or seated in an electric chair. The donkey's head and crucifixion would both have been considered insulting depictions by contemporary Roman society. At the time, pagans derided Christians for worshipping a man who had been crucified. The inscription is usually taken to be a mocking depiction of a Christian in the act of worship. Later, the street on which the house sat was walled off to give support to extensions to the buildings above, and it thus remained sealed for centuries. The emperor Caligula had acquired the house for the imperial palace, which, after Caligula died, became used as a Paedagogium ( boarding school) for imperial page boys. The graffito was discovered in 1857 when a building called the domus Gelotiana was unearthed on the Palatine Hill. Dates ranging from the late 1st century AD to the late 3rd century AD have been suggested, with the beginning of the 3rd century AD thought to be the most likely.
No clear consensus has been reached on when the image was made. This may be a retort by an unknown party to the mockery of Alexamenos represented in the graffito. In the next chamber, another inscription in a different hand reads ΑΛΕξΑΜΕΝΟϹ FIDELIS ( Alexamenos fidelis), Latin for "Alexamenos is faithful" or "Alexamenos the faithful". Several other sources suggest "Alexamenos worshiping a god", or similar variants, as the intended translation.
#Boy with suspenders holding book plaster wall art from rome full
The full inscription would then be read as Ᾰλεξᾰ́μενος σέβεται θεόν, "Alexamenos worships God". ϹΕΒΕΤΕ can be understood as a variant spelling (possibly a phonetic misspelling) of Standard Greek ϹΕΒΕΤΑΙ, which means "worships". Or, it may be derived from Greek ἀλεξάμενος (alexamenos), which is the participle of the Greek verb ἀλέξω (alexo) meaning "to defend" as well as "to help" Beneath the cross is a caption written in crude Greek: ΑΛΕ ΞΑΜΕΝΟϹ ϹΕΒΕΤΕ ΘΕΟΝ, ALE XAMENOS SEBETE THEON. The name Alexamenos (and its Latinate variant Alexamenus) is also attested in the instances of Alexamenus of Teos, student of Socrates, and the general,Īlexamenus of Aetolia (2nd century BC), being composed of the common Greek compound elements of ἀλέξω ( alexo, "I defend, help") and μένος ( menos, "strength, bravery, power, etc."). To the left of the image is a young man – apparently intended to represent Alexamenos – as a Roman soldier or guard, raising one hand in a gesture possibly suggesting worship. In the top right of the image is what has been interpreted as either the Greek letter upsilon or a tau cross.
The image depicts a human-like figure affixed to a cross and possessing the head of a donkey or mule. Content Stone rubbing trace of the drawing The Greek inscription approximately translates to "Alexamenos worships god," indicating that the graffito was apparently meant to mock a Christian named Alexamenos. The image seems to show a young man worshipping a crucified, donkey-headed figure. It is hard to date, but has been estimated to have been made at around (A. It may be meant to depict Jesus if so, it competes with an engraved gem held in the British Museum as the earliest known pictorial representation of the Crucifixion of Jesus. The Alexamenos graffito (also known as the graffito blasfemo, or blasphemous graffito) : 393 is a piece of Roman graffito scratched in plaster on the wall of a room near the Palatine Hill in Rome, Italy, which has now been removed and is in the Palatine Museum.
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