C4: Maiolica dish: Mucius Gaius Scaevola before Lars Porsenna

This dish shows the story of Mucius Gaius Scaevola.  The earliest known reference to this popular story is in a fragment from a Roman history produced by mid-second century BC author Lucius Cassius Heminia. It was included in Ab Urbe Condita, a  history of Rome written by Titus Livius also known as Livy in 27-25 AD. During the siege of Rome by Etruscan King Lars Porsenna, Roman soldier Mucius Gaius stole into the enemy’s camp in order to kill the king. After mistaking an attendant for Porsenna and slaying him instead, Mucius Gaius was captured by the Etruscans and was ordered to be thrown into the fire.
Whilst being presented to the king, the solider adamantly declared his proud allegiance to Rome, stating 'I am Gaius Mucius, a citizen of Rome. I came here as an enemy to kill my enemy, and I am as ready to die as I am to kill. We Romans act bravely and when adversity strikes, we suffer bravely'. To prove such a claim, Mucius Gaius went on to declare that he was one of three hundred other Romains willing to give their lives for the city, before displaying such defiance by unflinchingly casting his right hand into a burning brazier. Impressed by such a courageous act, Lars Porsenna freed the soldier before bestowing him the title Scaevola (meaning left-handed). This tale of Roman heroism was a popular in Renaissance Italy. Other pieces of maiolica decoarted with the same subject are in the Wallace Museum, the British Museum and the Museum of Scotland.

Displaying such ancient acts of patriotism would have set a good example of behaviour within the Renaissance community.
Paola Tinagli observes in her study Women in Italian Renaissance Art (1997) that heroes from Roman Republican history, like Horatius Cocles and Mucius Scaevola, pointed the way to virtues suited to the defence of the republic, and were particularly significant to Republican Florence.