Conserved in the Archaeological Museum of Turin is an unpublished marble statuette depicting
a Roman soldier smiting a barbarian captive. The soldier, in full armour including greaves, is grasping the hair of the prisoner seated by his side. The motive can also be found in reliefs, terracottas
and in a limestone statuette from Egypt, now in Liverpool. Egyptian provenance of the Turin statuette is attested by archive sources, presented here for the first time.
The Roman in armour is probably the emperor Caracalla.
Some events at Alexandria in the last
years of his reign, such as the massacre of the population and the outbreak of disorders, also involving some eikones (end of AD 215), provide a context for the birth of an iconographic type influencing both the Turin and the Liverpool sculptural groups. The destruction of some images of Caracalla as a factor in provoking his decision to slaughter the people of Alexandria is in particular investigated here.
