Ancient Romans Painted Horrifying Blood-Red Warnings on Wall Across Scotland古羅馬人的血色警示

湯姆·梅特卡夫

Ancient Romans used blood red， bright yellow and stunning white paints to illustrate dire warnings on the wall that separated them from the rebellious tribespeople of Scotland， a new study shows.

The painted warnings—including Roman eagles with blood-stained beaks， and the slain and decapitated bodies of the defeated victims of the victorious Roman legions1—were shown alongside Latin inscriptions on carved stone slabs placed along a Roman rampart2 in Scotland.

Archaeologist Louisa Campbell from the University of Glasgow says the carved and painted stone slabs would have served as “Roman propaganda” to local tribespeople north of the Antonine Wall， a fortified wall built across Scotland by the Roman legions during the reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius in the second century A.D.

Although the stone slabs are plain gray today， Campbell’s research shows that they were once brightly colored with naturally made paints， including red and yellow ochre， a red mineral called realgar， a red plant dye known as madder， a bright yellow mineral called orpiment and white lead.

The reds， in particular， were used to paint details， such as the cloaks of Roman soldiers， and to signify the bloody end in store3 for enemies of the Roman Empire. “The scenes depicted by the iconography demonstrate the power and might of Rome in a highly graphic manner，” Campbell told Live Science4 in an email.

The stone slabs， placed at intervals along the Antonine Wall， would have promoted the idea of Roman control of the region， both to the Roman armies and visitors from the empire， as well as to the indigenous peoples who lived around and north of the wall， she noted.

The stones were “a very visible message to the indigenous peoples of those regions that Rome is a powerful empire that will not tolerate any challenge to her authority，” Campbell said.

Warning stones

Campbell studied all 19 of the known Roman “distance stones5” found along the Antonine Wall， a fortification built by the Roman military to extend their control north of Hadrian’s Wall， which was constructed about 60 miles （96 kilometers） to the south after A.D. 122， during the reign of the emperor Hadrian.

The Antonine Wall wasn’t as long as Hadrian’s 84-mile-long （135 km） wall， but it was still substantial， running almost 40 miles （64 km）， from east to west between two deep river estuaries， or “firths，” on opposite sides of Scotland—from the Firth of Forth， today just north of the city of Edinburgh， to the Firth of Clyde， just a few miles west of Glasgow.

Campbell’s research included the two most famous stones from the Antonine Wall： the Summerston slab， which was found on a farm near Glasgow around 1694， and the Bridgeness Slab， discovered in 1868 near the town of Falkirk， at the eastern end of the Antonine Wall.

Both slabs showed grisly carved scenes of Roman cavalrymen running down6 indigenous northern warriors and guarding combatant tribespeople who had already been captured and bound， Campbell said.

The Bridgeness stone also showed a decapitated warrior in the midst of battle. Both ends of the warrior’s severed7 neck were once painted bright red to symbolize blood， Campbell’s research revealed. Ancient artists may have also highlighted a carved Roman eagle on the Summerston slab with blood-red paint， she added.

“I would suggest the red on the beak of the eagle （the symbol of Rome and her legions） symbolizes Rome feasting off the flesh of her enemies，” Campbell wrote in the email.

The Roman eagle on the Summerston slab also rests on the mythical figure of a capricorn， or sea-goat—the symbol of Rome’s Second Legion， who defended the wall in that area and who had dedicated the stone to the emperor Antoninus Pius， she said.

Rome’s final8 frontier

Despite its powerful propaganda messages， the Antonine Wall was occupied by Roman defenders only until A.D. 161， when Marcus Aurelius became emperor， and for a few years， from A.D. 208 to 211， during the reign of Septimius Severus.

Archaeologists don’t agree why the Romans failed to establish the Antonine Wall as the northernmost border of the empire， but in the early third century they abandoned it and withdrew to Hadrian’s Wall.

While many stone ruins are still visible along Hadrian’s Wall， many of the remains of the earth and wooden ramparts of the Antonine Wall are now hard to distinguish from the surrounding countryside.

But new archaeological research is helping scientists map the ancient wall. Patricia Weeks， an archaeologist with the government heritage agency Historic Environment Scotland （HES）， told Live Science that a survey using lidar technology， which uses laser light to map almost invisible distortions on the ground， along the full length of the Antonine Wall.

Data from this survey had been used as part of a study of the Antonine Wall by Nick Hannon， an archaeologist at Canterbury Christ Church University in the England， to explore relationships between different sites on the wall， and to try to identify any overlooked elements， such as additional9 small forts， Weeks told Live Science in an email.

The data from the survey and other work by archaeologists is being used to engage10 the public. Detailed 3D scans of artifacts from the Antonine Wall， including some of the distance slabs studied by Campbell， have been made public by HES at the Sketchfab11 3D website.

The survey data and 3D artifact scans have also been incorporated in an educational game about a Roman fort along the wall， and in an interactive augmented-reality12 tour of the Antonine Wall， to help visitors to the region better understand and visualize the ancient structures， Weeks said.

一項新的研究表明，古羅馬人曾用血紅、明黃和炫白的顏料為隔離墻上可怕的警示性圖案涂色，該墻將他們與桀驁不馴的蘇格蘭部族分隔開。

彩色的警示圖案包含血染尖喙的羅馬雄鷹，以及被獲勝的羅馬軍團屠殺后身首異處的殘兵敗將。警示圖案與拉丁銘文一起刻在石匾上，沿古羅馬人在蘇格蘭建造的一道防御土墻嵌放。

格拉斯哥大學考古學家路易莎·坎貝爾稱，這些刻有銘文和圖案的彩繪石匾是在向安東尼長城以北的土著居民進行“羅馬帝國政治宣傳”。安東尼長城是公元2世紀皇帝安東尼·庇護統(tǒng)治期間，羅馬軍團修筑的一條橫貫蘇格蘭的防御墻。

雖然這些石匾今天看來灰白無華，但坎貝爾的研究表明，它們曾經色彩鮮明，由天然顏料涂繪上色，包括紅黃赭石、紅色礦物雄黃、紅色植物染料茜草、明黃色礦物雌黃，以及白鉛。

在為細節(jié)上色時，紅色尤為常用，比如羅馬士兵的斗篷，以及與羅馬帝國為敵者終將得到的血腥下場等。坎貝爾在發(fā)給科學鮮聞網(wǎng)的電子郵件中稱：“圖案描繪的場景以極其生動的方式彰顯了羅馬帝國的強盛與威嚴。”

她指出，無論對羅馬軍隊和帝國訪客，還是對安東尼長城以北及附近的土著而言，這些沿安東尼長城間隔嵌放的石匾都會強化該地區(qū)受羅馬管轄的認知。

坎貝爾稱，這些石匾“極其形象地向這些地區(qū)的土著傳遞了這樣的信息：羅馬帝國國力強盛，其威權不容挑戰(zhàn)”。

警石

坎貝爾研究了沿安東尼長城發(fā)現(xiàn)的所有19塊著名的羅馬“里程石”。自公元122年起，羅馬皇帝哈德良敕令修建哈德良長城，后來，為加強對哈德良長城以北地區(qū)的控制，羅馬軍隊又在哈德良長城以北約60英里（96公里）處建造了另一道防御工事——安東尼長城。

安東尼長城長近40英里（64公里），長度上不及84英里（135公里）的哈德良長城，但仍很重要。安東尼長城橫跨蘇格蘭東西海岸，在兩個深深的河口（即“灣”）之間——東起今天愛丁堡以北的弗斯灣，西至今天格拉斯哥往西數(shù)英里的克萊德灣。

坎貝爾的研究包括安東尼長城上兩塊最著名的石匾：一塊是1694年前后在格拉斯哥附近一個農場發(fā)現(xiàn)的薩默斯頓石匾，另一塊是1868年在安東尼長城東端福爾柯克鎮(zhèn)附近發(fā)現(xiàn)的布里奇尼斯石匾。

坎貝爾介紹說，這兩塊石匾上雕刻的都是羅馬騎兵在北方土著戰(zhàn)士中奔突砍殺及押解被捆部族俘虜?shù)那樾?，畫面頗為血腥。

布里奇尼斯石匾還呈現(xiàn)了一個在戰(zhàn)斗中被砍掉頭顱的士兵的形象?？藏悹柕难芯勘砻?，在士兵殘顱的底部和殘頸的頂部均曾涂有象征血液的鮮紅色顏料。此外，坎貝爾補充道，古羅馬畫家還可能用血紅色顏料突出顯示了一只雕刻在薩默斯頓石匾上的羅馬雄鷹。

“雄鷹是羅馬帝國及其軍團的標志?？梢哉f，把鷹嘴染成紅色象征著羅馬帝國在啖食敵人的血肉。”坎貝爾在郵件中寫道。

她說，薩默斯頓石匾上的羅馬雄鷹棲息在一只摩羯身上——摩羯是黃道十二宮之一的神羊，也是羅馬第二軍團的標志，該軍團負責守衛(wèi)這一區(qū)域的安東尼長城，并以該石匾向皇帝安東尼·庇護致敬。

帝國最遠的邊境線

雖然其宣傳威武霸氣，但實際上，羅馬防軍對安東尼長城的占領只維持到了公元161年，即馬庫斯·奧雷柳斯成為羅馬皇帝的那一年;公元208年至211年，塞普蒂米烏·塞維魯統(tǒng)治期間，羅馬軍隊還短暫占領安東尼長城數(shù)年。

羅馬人未能將安東尼長城建成羅馬帝國最北邊境線，在3世紀初放棄了安東尼長城，退守哈德良長城——其原因為何，考古學家眾說紛紜，莫衷一是。

哈德良長城為石質結構，在其沿線至今還能看到許多殘垣斷壁;安東尼長城則不同，為土木結構，許多遺跡已與周圍鄉(xiāng)村混為一體，難以辨別。

然而，新的考古研究正在幫助科學家為古老的安東尼長城繪制地圖。政府文化遺產機構蘇格蘭歷史環(huán)境委員會（HES）的考古學家帕特里夏·威克斯告訴科學鮮聞網(wǎng)，科學家正在使用激光雷達技術對安東尼長城進行全程勘測，利用激光來測繪肉眼難以識別的地表畸變。

威克斯在寫給科學鮮聞網(wǎng)的電郵中稱，為探明安東尼長城不同遺址之間的關系，爭取識別此前遺漏的所有建筑單元，如尚未載錄的小型堡壘等，英格蘭坎特伯雷基督教會大學的考古學家尼克·漢農已經在其相關研究中使用了這些勘測數(shù)據(jù)。

這些勘測數(shù)據(jù)，連同考古學家的其他成果，正在吸引公眾的注意。經三維掃描，安東尼長城的部分遺跡，包括坎貝爾研究的某些里程石在內，已經制成細致入微的立體模型，由HES在三維網(wǎng)Sketchfab向公眾展示。

據(jù)威克斯介紹，這些勘測數(shù)據(jù)和三維遺跡掃描結果還被納入某個與安東尼長城沿線某羅馬堡壘有關的教育類游戲，在增強現(xiàn)實技術的支持下，用于對安東尼長城的交互式虛擬游覽，幫助該地區(qū)游客更好了解和直觀感受這一古代建筑。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者;工作單位：華北水利水電大學外國語學院）