Carnelian intaglio of a gladiator fighting a lion

Carnelian intaglio of a gladiator fighting a lion

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the Early Imperial period, a popular part of the gladiatorial games was the morning program in which armed gladiators called venatores (hunters) were pitted against wild animals. The Romans also liked to see different kinds of animals fighting each other.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Carnelian intaglio of a gladiator fighting a lionCarnelian intaglio of a gladiator fighting a lionCarnelian intaglio of a gladiator fighting a lionCarnelian intaglio of a gladiator fighting a lionCarnelian intaglio of a gladiator fighting a lion

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.