Agora Object: S 399
Inventory Number:   S 399
Section Number:   Ι 614
Title:   Base with Relief of Charioteer, Warrior and Quadrica
Category:   Sculpture
Description:   The base has been hacked away on top and in the back; great, rough cuttings extend from the central rectangular cutting on the top, presumably made when the base was first cut, to support what ever stood on it. The moldings at the back have been damaged and sliced away. At the center of the bottom the ends have been worn down as though by the rubbing of a rope. One piece of the lower molding on the front face has been broken away, but joins.
Originally, then, at the top of the block a molding (a half round crowned by a vertical fascia) ran around the entire four sides. At the bottom a cyma recta with a vertical face below edged front and back surfaces. At either end the surface was prepared as an anathyrisos, excluding the top molding, so that the molding must have projected over the upper surface of the adjacent, lower block, in either case.
On the vertical fascia at the top runs the inscription: ...Κ]ΡΑΤΕΣΕΟΡΤΙΟ[Π]ΕΡΑΙΕΥΣ
On the face of the stone a quadriga is driving left into an empty space at the left of the field. The charioteer stands in the car, with a warrior behind him apparently falling out backwards, shield on left arm and helmet on head. Presumably the reins were of bronze, as no trace of them remains.
The horses rear and prance so that all of their four heads and their legs show in varied positions. Of the picture they are the best done: the drawing of their heads and necks is still distinctly in the tradition of the best period. The chariot and its passenger, however, are in more summary style: the body and arms of the charioteer are flat and poor, the transition from front view (the head and the upper part of the breast) to side aspect (the arms and the lower part of the body) has not been realized: the left shoulder is sadly out of line.
The position of the warrior is also a difficult one: his left foot seems below the level of the floor of the car. The wheel of the charioteer overlaps the border at the bottom.
The block has been at least once reused, perhaps as a tethering stone for cattle (this would account for the hacking and for the rope marks). Originally, part of a bench or balustrade?
From the letter forms and style the base should date from the 4th century B.C.
Pentelic marble.
cf. Hesperia 84 (2015), p. 472.
Context:   Built into the original fill of the north tower against the north wall.
Handling:   Now that is has been cleaned it should be covered with a glass or plexiglass top to protect the surface from contamination and deterioration caused by atmospheric pollutants.
Negatives:   Leica, 3-317, 3-337, 3-338, 82-619, 86-20-34, 86-20-31, color slide
Dimensions:   H. 0.49; Lett. H. 0.012-0.014; W. 0.949; Th. 0.49, (of top and bottom moldings) ca. 0.06
Material:   Marble (Pentelic)
Chronology:   4th c. B.C.
Date:   28 June 1933
Section:   Ι
Grid:   Ι:10/ΛΕ
Bibliography:   Hippos (2022), pp. 152, 155.
    Museum Guide (2014), pp. 50-51, fig. 30.
    Guide (2010), p. 109, fig. 71.
    Camp and Mauzy (2009), p. 31, fig. 32.
    AgoraPicBk 16 (2003), p. 7, fig. 6.
    AgoraPicBk 25 (2003), p. 24, fig. 22.
    AgoraPicBk 24 (1998), p. 27, fig. 40.
    Guide (1990), pp. 207-208.
    Palagia (1980), p. 48, n. 266.
    Brandt (1978), p. 22, n. 10.
    Guide (1976), p. 203, fig. 102.
    Travlos (1971), fig. 26.
    Guide (1962), pp. 132-133.
    Hesperia 4 (1935), p. 380.
    AJA 37 (1933), no. 4, p. 542, fig. 3.
    Agora XIV, p. 121, pl. 66 a.
    Agora XVIII, no. C195, pl. 15.
References:   Publications (8)
Publication Page: Agora 14, s. 18, p. xvii
Publication Page: Agora 14, s. 261, p. 236
Publication Page: Agora 14, s. 348
Report Page: 2012 Excavations, s. 3
Images (25)
Card: S 399
Card: S 399