Journal of Biblical Literature - Society of Biblical Literature

Figure 7. Relief of Claudius
defeating Britannia. Courtesy
of the New York University
Excavations at
Aphrodisias.
Friesen: Myth and Resistance in Revelation 13 293
From the third floor of the south portico, more than one-third of the panels
with imperial figures have been found and their approximate original locations
can be determined. 35 Four of the eleven extant panels merit discussion in
this context. Two of these four panels depict emperors defeating regions on the
margins of the empire. In one scene, the victory of Claudius over Britannia (43
C.E.) is portrayed in the following way (fig. 7). The emperor is nude in the style
of a hero or god, while Britannia is rendered as an amazon. Claudius has pinned
her to the ground. His left hand grasps her hair and pulls back her head, and his
right hand holds a spear (now missing) poised for the fatal blow. 36 The second
panel retells Nero’s victories over Armenia (54 C.E.; fig. 8). On this panel the
emperor is also a heroic nude figure and the opponent an amazon. The compo-
35 Smith, “Imperial Reliefs,” 100, 132.
36 Ibid., 115–17, pls. 14–15.