In the waning days of the Roman Empire, as Christianity began to spread throughout the empire, a woman of prominence was buried in what is now Montenegro. Her tomb, unearthed in the ancient Roman city of Doclea, held not only gold jewelry and glassware, but also a treasure unlike any other: a rare glass diatreta vessel—a “cage cup”—depicting a dramatic battle between a gladiator and wild beasts.
This remarkable find, more than 1,600 years old, gives us a glimpse into the artistry, values, and spiritual complexity of a time when Christianity and Roman culture coexisted and clashed. While the grave goods reflect status and wealth, they also raise questions about the soul of this woman and the world she inhabited—a world poised between pagan spectacle and the dawning light of Christian hope.
According to archaeologist Miloš Živanović, who led the excavation at the Doclea Koshturnica necropolis, the vessel is exceptionally rare. “Our diaterta is extremely rare—rarer even than the one in Plievlia—because it is figural,” Živanović said, as quoted by Arkeonews. The design features “a battle scene with wild feline animals, likely cheetahs, centered around a gladiator.” Known as a venator, the depicted figure would have been a beast-hunter, part of Rome’s brutal games.
The diatreta is an extraordinary example of fourth-century craftsmanship. These vessels were created by skillfully carving a delicate open lattice—like a cage—around the inner glass, with thin posts supporting the outer decoration. In this case, the intricate design does more than demonstrate technical mastery; it reveals what captivated the Roman imagination: power, danger, and spectacle.
Yet it is precisely that culture of violence which Christianity began to challenge. By the time this woman was buried, Christians were already denouncing the gladiatorial games as offenses against human dignity. Saint Augustine himself lamented how the bloodlust of the arena could seduce even the morally upright. And so, to find such a vessel—beautiful but bearing the image of death—in the grave of a Roman woman invites deep reflection. Was she Christian? Was she caught between worlds?
The site at Doclea has revealed more than 180 graves, many filled with goods ranging from coins and tools to jewelry and dice. In the newly discovered tomb, archaeologists found eight glass vessels, including “two gold earrings with green glass beads, and a necklace made of gold and jet beads,” Živanović told Ancientist. An iron spatula, bone tools, and even game pieces were also found—ordinary and extraordinary items alike, preserved beside the remains of a woman believed to have been “exceptionally tall,” an unusual trait for the time.
“All the findings,” Živanović concluded, “indicate she was a prominent individual of her time.” And while her bones were poorly preserved, her legacy remains in the form of this rare glass diatreta, whose vivid scene silently speaks of an empire that prized beauty, feared death, and stood on the threshold of conversion.
In such discoveries, we are reminded not just of Rome’s fading glory, but of how grace entered that world quietly, like light through stained glass—transforming lives, one soul at a time.
