Dalle venationes ai “giochi pericolosi": alcune testimonianze nei mosaici dell’Africa tardoantica

In this paper we will analyse a specific group of African mosaics with images of venationes to be dated in the fifth century, when it most probably occurs, for the first time, a widespread adherence to new forms of amphitheatral spectacles, the so called dangerous games, which will meet a wide acceptance especially in Constantinople in the early sixth century. The inscriptions provide more novelties on these “dangerous games”, particularly one of those attached to the Sitifis mosaics, that could become an occasion for debating about the costs of the new spectacles.