Propylaeum

Depictions of battles not only paint a picture of victory and defeat or of “friend” and “foe”, but also contain a tightly woven network of clues as to what makes the “enemy” actually an “enemy”, why it is necessary to fight him, or by which means victory is achieved.
The aim of this book is to identify these clues by analysing examples of battle reliefs from the Roman imperial era and from battle scenes in movies set in ancient Rome, thereby providing insights into the societal concepts and values of the time in which the depictions were created. The evaluation intends to differentiate current visual habits and expectations from the statements underlying the reliefs of the Roman imperial era and to provide impulses for a more immediate examination of ancient monuments.