I've placed this picture at approximately 200-500 A.D. During the late Roman Empire.
After Julius Caesar's death and the subsequent civil war (circa 27BCE), the Roman Republic
became an empire and remained so throughout it's declining years. While constantly fighting
various barbarian tribes, Romans found their allegiances steadily shifting. Some Barbarians
allied with Rome and became "Romanized", adopting some aspects of Roman dress and culture.
Others kept their beliefs and practices intact while maintaining peace with Rome.
At the same time, some barbarian tribes never became assimilated into the Roman Empire and
remained at war with them.
Increasingly, Rome adopted a policy of religious and cultural tolerance.
It wouldn't be unusual, in the declining years of the Empire, to see barbarians
intermingling with Roman citizens in a public setting, as shown in my picture.
During this time, Roman women wore their hair up more often, as in the picture below:
Whereas in earlier years, it was worn down more often. I tried to
capture some of that in my drawing.
The guy on the far left in the foreground is going to hurl. His girlfriend is rolling her
eyes thinking "Oh great, he's gonna puke again, hey who's the guy with his hand on me?" The
guy is just making his way through the crowd to see the dancing girls.
The couple above and to the right of
them: The "woman" is a crossdresser. The drunk guy she's talking to is in for a surprise.
The guy in the middle, far right is pointing to the guy, saying to
the guy next to him "THAT'S the guy I want you to whack."
The guy he wants killed is a bum and a mooch. He's asking the lady
"You gonna eat that?" He borrowed something from the pointing guy and didn't return it.
The guy directly above them is a Visigoth. That's an accurate design
for a Visigoth helmet of that time.
