Animal combats (venationes) were a popular entertainment in the Roman world. Splashy panels of inlaid marble (opus sectile) commemorate these bloody contests in several buildings in and around Rome. Among the most well-known are survivals from the 4th century CE Basilica of Junius Bassus and, several decades later, the marble-revetted hall from Porta Marina at Ostia. On the face of it, the wall decoration from these sites memorializes typical Roman activities, but the panels expose the vast geography implicated in these combat spectacles. The brilliant stones used to render them came from lands as far off as the Caspian tigers and Asiatic lions they depicted. The iconography of the panels was also foreign: the animal combat, or symplegma (intertwining), is seen on works from pre-Achaemenid sculpture to Sasanian textiles, and most recognizably, at the Achaemenid palace at Persepolis, where a lion attacks a bull in relief on the Apadana stairway. Reading these panels through a Persianist lens illuminates the ways in which the Persepolitan model animated Roman themes and visual programs. Though they recalled events in the Roman arena, they also imparted political and astrological signification to the decoration by means of their Persian associations. By alluding to the Achaemenid empire, a great power of the past and a continuing rival in the form of the Sasanians, the Roman patron accrued to himself some measure of the veneration for this culture and showed himself able to communicate in an idiom legible to an international clientele.

中文翻译：

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波斯波利斯的回响：晚期罗马墙壁装饰的波斯语读物

动物搏斗 (venationes) 是罗马世界流行的娱乐活动。镶嵌大理石 (opus sectile) 的飞溅面板纪念罗马及其周围几座建筑中的这些血腥比赛。其中最著名的是公元 4 世纪朱尼乌斯·巴苏斯大教堂的遗迹，以及几十年后奥斯蒂亚波尔塔码头的大理石装饰大厅。从表面上看，这些遗址的墙壁装饰是为了纪念典型的罗马活动，但镶板却暴露了这些战斗场面所涉及的广阔地理环境。用来渲染它们的闪亮宝石来自遥远的土地，就像他们描绘的里海虎和亚洲狮一样。壁画的图像也是外国的：动物战斗，或 symplegma（缠绕），在从阿契美尼德之前的雕塑到萨珊王朝纺织品的作品中都可以看到，最容易辨认的是，在波斯波利斯的阿契美尼德王宫，一头狮子在阿帕达纳阶梯上攻击一头公牛。通过波斯主义的视角来阅读这些画板，可以阐明波斯波利斯模式如何激活罗马主题和视觉节目。尽管他们回顾了罗马竞技场中的事件，但他们也通过与波斯的联系赋予装饰以政治和占星术意义。通过暗指阿契美尼德帝国，一个过去的强大力量和萨珊王朝形式的持续竞争对手，罗马赞助人为自己积累了对这种文化的某种程度的崇敬，并表明自己能够用易于理解的成语进行交流国际客户。通过波斯主义的视角来阅读这些画板，可以阐明波斯波利斯模式如何激活罗马主题和视觉节目。尽管他们回顾了罗马竞技场中的事件，但他们也通过与波斯的联系赋予装饰以政治和占星术意义。通过暗指阿契美尼德帝国，一个过去的强大力量和萨珊王朝形式的持续竞争对手，罗马赞助人为自己积累了对这种文化的某种程度的崇敬，并表明自己能够用易于理解的成语进行交流国际客户。通过波斯主义的视角来阅读这些画板，可以阐明波斯波利斯模式如何激活罗马主题和视觉节目。尽管他们回顾了罗马竞技场中的事件，但他们也通过与波斯的联系赋予装饰以政治和占星术意义。通过暗指阿契美尼德帝国，一个过去的强大力量和萨珊王朝形式的持续竞争对手，罗马赞助人为自己积累了对这种文化的某种程度的崇敬，并表明自己能够用易于理解的成语进行交流国际客户。