A Too-Successful Damnatio Memoriae: Problems in Third Century Roman Portraiture

Abstract

A fine but badly mutilated portrait head in the Fogg Art Museum can be recognized as another replica of a type represented by two heads in Rome, both of which are damaged in a similar manner. These two heads have been identified as Macrinus, emperor in 217-218 A. C., but the advanced style of the Fogg replica, as well as the evidence of provenance, argues against this identification. The Fogg head has been dated as late as 260-280 A. C., but it is more likely that all three replicas are datable to a period slightly before the middle of the third century. At this time, both the naturalism which characterizes the two replicas in Rome and the subtly abstract patterning which is most obvious in the Fogg head could be found in portraits of the same individual. A secure identification cannot be established for the type, but it is possible that these portraits represent Timesitheus, the Praetorian prefect and father-in-law of Gordian III, or some other such powerful government official.