The Death of the Barbarian

Dying Gaul

Romans celebrated the defeat of the barbaric Other, and this means that there are various forms of Roman sculpture that depict a defeated barbarian. I've already touched on the Statue of the Capture Dacian. Statues of a similar form decorated much of Trajan's Forum in celebration of his conquest of Dacia. These sculpted barbarians are portrayed as passive in their defeat and suggest the inevitable romanization of the Dacian people. This form of subjugation implies a sort of "superiority" of the Roman people, but it also highlights a vital flaw in "barbarian culture:" the willingness to concede defeat. This was not the only way in which Romans depicted their victories over the Other. For example, the Dying Gaul is a sculpture that depicts the barbarian in a sympathetic manner. The statue is actually a marble copy of a Hellenistic sculpture that was likely commissioned in the third century BCE, but this does not detract from its meaning in a Roman context, regardless of the fact that it had a previous meaning. The sculpture itself portrays a mortally wounded Gaul in his last moments alive. He is clearly aware of his fate, and he has accepted it gracefully. With a tone that resonates with the modern Noble Savage trope, the artist at once portrays the assumed superiority of the Roman who dealt the blow, the nobility of the Gaul's grace in death, and the inevitability of the destruction of the barbaric way of life. While anachronistic, Richard H. Pratt's saying "Kill the Indian, save the man" sheds like on the metaphorical death of the "barbarian" that is implied in the sculpture. This kind of artwork can be found in empires throughout the ages, serving to maintain the superiority of the imperial way of life while also eliciting sympathy from the viewer. The conquest is deemed worthy by the perceived bettering of the barbarian society, and the barbarians are deemed worthy of bettering because they demonstrate qualities that are recognized as "good" by the Romans. Therefore, the complex narrative that is constructed in works such as the Dying Gaul rationalizes and justifies the violence and destruction that conquest demands.

Johns, Catherine. "Art, Romanisation, and Competence." in Roman Imperialism and Provincial Art. Edited by Sarah Scott, and Jane Webster. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Kellum, Barbara. "Imperial Messages" in The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture. Edited by Elise A. Friedland, Melanie Grunow Sobocinski, and Elaine K, Gazda. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Lepper, Frank and Sheppard Frere. Trajan's Column: A New Edition of the Cichorius Plates. Gloucester: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1988.

Pratt, Richard H. Kill the Indian, Save the Man, 1892.