The rooster-headed man in a mosaic at Brading Roman Villa on the Isle of Wight is a mystery that has attracted a dizzying range of explanations since its discovery in 1879. Three broad theories have found favour — that he represents a deity, an exotic beast to be hunted, or a hunter either with a rooster-related name or mocking the emperor Constantius Gallus. In this article I outline the problems with these theories before offering an alternative explanation — that this figure is a damnatus, and the scene an imaginative execution, a so-called ‘fatal charade’. This suggestion both facilitates a more holistic interpretation of the mosaic, and rehabilitates earlier suggestions long summarily dismissed.
