Four Roman portraits in the Piraeus Museum

Abstract

Among the local finds displayed in the Museum of Antiquities at the Piraeus are six Roman portraits, all of Pentelic marble and all unrestored. Two of them, a colossal head of Trajan (no. 270) and a colossal statue of Balbinus (no. 278), have already been fully edited. But according to the Director of the Piraeus Museum, Dr. Threpsiades, and to the best of the present writer's knowledge, of the other portraits two are still unpublished, two described without any illustration; and it is with Dr. Threpsiades' kind permission that all four are published here.I. No. E 4. Head of Claudius(Plate 67a–b)Total height: 48 cm.Height from crown of head to bottom of chin: 26 cm.Width across at greatest extent: 20 cm.Width from back to front at greatest extent: 24 cm.The sculpture depicts the head and neck, slightly over life-size, of an elderly man, in whom we can immediately recognize the Emperor Claudius. At the base of the neck is a rounded ‘tenon’, designed for insertion into a cavity between the shoulders of the now vanished body of a full-length statue. Claudius' face has sustained considerable damage. The nose has practically gone, only part of the side, and the hollow interior, of the right nostril remaining. The chin, lips, and right ear are bruised, the brow is marred by several abrasures, and the left ear is lost.