L’epigrafia anfiteatrale dell’Africa tra venationes e sodalitates: l’apporto del mosaico di Smirat

The great mosaic emblem found in Smirat and exposed in the Museum of Sousse is
certainly one of the hermeneutical keys for understanding the phenomenon of African sodalitates and their significance in the organizational system of the venationes. The importance of the mosaic is heightened by the mixture, inside it, of pictures and inscriptions, one of which is of considerable length: images and inscriptions thus contribute to evoke precisely this act of municipal evergetism, simultaneously glorifying the dominus and editor of a show whose real performance is out of doubt. This essay runs therefore along the dual slope of the iconographic and epigraphic study, thereby contributing both to the construction of an updated synthesis on this document, and to the solution of some of its interpretative problems, particularly about the world of the African sodalitates.