🐇A Roman charioteer for the ages 🦆What do good rabbits do in their spare time? Why it’s duck chariot racing! Purported to have been found at Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli, this scene sets the stage for great animal rivalries on the chariot racing circuit!#AncientRome #MosaicMonday #History

The mosaic panel shows a rabbit as charioteer, holding the reins while two ducks pull the chariot. The rabbit’s look of fierce determination is evident. The scene is framed by a simple geometric border with decorative diamond elements in each corner and a red oval in the middle top and middle bottom.

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[–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

@phistorians This is bringing a new angle to the ages-old "rabbit or duck?" conundrum. 😆

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    @phistorians I was not able to find any source of this one that is not on social media and doesn’t look like a repost of one of two pictures (one black and white, one in colour), and I don’t see it mentioned anywhere in Wikimedia article about the villa either, do you know any sources that are not on social media? commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Vil

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago

    @olena I am suitably doubtful of most of the social media info as well - for instance, I couldn’t confirm it as being held in the Louvre (a common attribution in the social media posts). I went with ‘purported’ as again the connection to Hadrian’s villa is also unresolved in my book. The style though, in terms of the mosaic work itself, is plausibly ancient based on my years of looking at examples of mosaics from across Roman history. It’s certainly the case that the provenance may be murky while the artefact itself is still ancient. I’m very open to being wrong though!

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    @phistorians I love it.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    @phistorians Rabbits - or Hares?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    @phistorians I love it. Glorious.

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