Abstract

In the collections of the Princes’ Czartoryski Museum in Kraków a small (12.3 x 5.3cm) gilded silver plaque is kept. Its decoration is divided into two zones. In the upper one is an image of the kneeling barbarian captive and standing by him half-naked Victoria, who writes the words DEVIC BRITTA on a shield. In the lower one figures Mars, also half-naked, holding a trophy. A narrow frieze with a tripod flanked by two heraldic griffins separates both registers. According to the Nineteenth century scholars (Gregorutti 1877; Froehner 1897) the object was found in the ruins of the amphiteatre in Pula and is a part of a cheek-piece of a helmet that one should connect with wars against Britons during the reign of Septimius Severus. Of the same opinion was Polish armour-expert, Z. Żygulski jr. (1998). Another thesis says it could be a kind of Roman phalera. Following a new hypothesis (Gorzelany 2007, 2012) it is a fragment of a Roman sword scabbard, made during the reign of Claudius. In the author’s opinion, however, the object seems to be a fine fake. Neither shape nor decoration are typical of ancient objects. Half-naked figures of gods appear on coins and elements of armours, swords etc., but separately. And such a rich iconographic programme would be unusual for an ordinary soldier or centurion. In consequence, so decorated fragment of a helmet, phalera or a sword, should have belonged to the emperor or to the chief of Roman army or legion at least. But the inscription is faulty and the circumstances of the finding are also not entirely reliable. And the Second half of the Nineteenth century was, indeed, a true ‘gold age’ for falsifiers, producing for rich clients numerous spectacular objects decorated with freely combined motifs inspired by ancient coins and reliefs.