A Statue for an Imperial Child
Dr.Mahmoud El-fatatry*
This research concern about studying a statue for a child preserved in
A statue for a child in his early age [3], made from marble , it's height from the base 76 cm , his body is totally naked and seated on a rock, while resting his right hand on a bird, the left hand is broken at the elbow (fig.1). The head of the child came with a little bend to the right and through his fleshy round face we can observe that the curly hair is dressed well in tiny wisps, The crisp masses of hair worked over with drill took on soft to make an effect of light and shadow and in the middle of it there are three rolling braids appearing over a line of small ones over his forehead.
The eyes are widely open with engraved eyeballs which in it the pupils of the eyes strongly marked [4] showing that he is looking up towards the sky or to the future. Over the eyes, the eyebrow appears with its hair, while the small nose is damaged at the bottom over small closed lips to explain a full mouth and delicately curved into a quiet mood to reflect the peaceful reaction for the face, which came with a small heavy chin while the health of the child appears by making the two cheeks and lower part of the chin bouffant. Also, we can notice the improper size of the ears compared with the other parts of the whole face.[5]
Although this work represents a child, the sculptor made the muscles appear on his shoulders, arms and the breast by making determinate lines on these parts beside the part of the stomach. These features known in the reign of Commodus (180-193A.D.)[6], as representing in his portraits the new Hercules, and it shows in the technically of astounding bust the decline of the taste which shown in the excessive size of the bust which includes the whole of the chest and also both arms.[7]
The lower part of the statue shows the child seated on his backside, opening his two rods on a small organ to show that the sculpture is of a boy, the thigh lines are directed to the outside while the rest of his legs are directed to the inside until the two feet face each other, the right foot ending with its toes but the left appears with damaged ones.
The statue shows two ways of thinking on the part of the sculptor; the first shows the power of the body at its upper parts by making muscles. The second, on the other hand, shows the meaning of childhood by making the lower part of the body which includes the organ and the legs small and fleshy (fig.2).
Meanwhile, the back of the statue shows the typical hair dress and the rest of the body appears with simple lines to show that the child is still too young. In addition to this simplicity, the sculptor defined the backside of the child by making a long thin line in the middle of it (fig.3). So, both the front and the Back sides of this statue are engraved well in the round type in order to make the lookers can see the statue from all of its sides. According to this result this statue was made to put it in an open place.
In addition, the front side of the statue shows that the child is seated on a cloth with many bends, and at the lower part of the right knee of the child we can see a circle gathering the cloth as a pin jewelry or cinquefoil circular brooch[8], this shape of cloth is identical with a Roman cloth specialized for the Roman military leaders called “paludamentum” [9](fig.1).
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The bird, on which the child rests his right hand, has a damaged head. Looking at the statue from the front, we can see two small fingers of the right hand of the child lying on the broken face of the bird, but from the back of the statue it appears that the child was holding the whole head in his small hand, the rest of the bird’s body shows it is a bird of prey especially at the legs, while the form of his back shows that the bird is an eagle.
The present condition of the statue shows that there has been a recent restoration in several parts of it; at the neck, at the top of the right arm, beneath the stomach, in the upper and lower parts of the left leg, and at the upper part of the backside of the statue.
To determine the date of this statue, we can use the attributes which appear on the Statue. First, the material of the statue was from marble which not easely find in
Second, features of the face of the child, on how the sculptor made the eyes. He made them with an engraved eyeball with strong engraved pupils; this way of making the eyes came out into the Roman art at the middle of the second century A.D. at the time of the Emperor Antoninus Pious between A.D 138-161.[11]
Third, the paludamentum or general cloak which appears in the Roman art when the Emperor Claudius made his own statue at the middle of the first century between A.D. 41-54 [12] (fig.4), and it is widely spread among the Emperors statues since the time of the Antonine, at the time of Emperors Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180) and Commodus (A.D 180-192).[13]
According to these attributes, we can give a preliminary date to this statue about the second century A.D. But to make the exact date when this statue was made, at first, we should determine the answer of the following question: for whom this statue was made?
The powerful form of the body which the sculptor made and the bird of prey lead us to recognize the level of the Roman society to which this child belongs. He might have come from a wealthy level, and the paludamentum or the general's cloak tells us that he belongs to a military family, but the bird prey shows that he is not only a military member but also he is one of the military leaders.
To this point, the study leads to appoint the state of the child is wealthy and he could be a military leader, but for whom this statue was made and during which period of Roman art? The answer is for an emperor at his childhood who came from the Roman Military, according to two evidences.
The First evidence, which leads us to say that answer is that this child became an Emperor, is clear in the paludamentum or general's cloak which the Roman Emperors used to appear in their statues. Second, the eagle which the child rest on his hand is a symbol for the
When we look closely to the way of hair dressing of the child which came in tiny three rolling braids over the forehead, we discover that this way was used at the end of the second century and the beginning of the third century A.D. at the reign of the Emperor Septimius Severus A.D. 193-210. Here, this feature leads to a suggestion about this statue says: why this child can't be the Emperor Septimius Severus[15]himself in his childhood? (Figs. 5, 6)
This opinion can be in a strong suggestion, when we read about several opinions saying that the Emperor Septimius Severus came from
In the meanwhile, there is another way we can follow to approach to this opinion which appears clearly in his statue's hair style. When we know that the style of his hair is made as an attribute for the statues of the Ptolemaic god “Serapes” called Serapes type and this shape of the statues was known for this Emperor after he had visited
in addition to the appearance of hair dressing , there is another feature can be seen clearly in the statue, the appearance of the body's child which came totally naked , used by the Emperor Septimius Severus in another statue made for him in his middle age from bronze material preserved in Nicosia Museum in Cyprus [19](fig.8) .
But when we look back to the history of the Emperor Septimius Severus, We discovered that he was not a son of an Emperor but he was a military person came to the rule by encourage of the roman army.[20] While, our statue setting on paludamentum and rest his hand on an eagle which are symbols of military and Roman Imperial.
Others can say that this statue could be established for the Emperor Caracalla son of Septimius Severus [21]depending on the main features of the portraits of his when he was a child, such as the thick neck, the small full mouth and the heavy chin,[22] we can solve this argument and deny this idea when we compare this statue with the other statues made to Caracalla in his teens, especially his statue preserved in Cassel museum and the other one in Museo delle Terme No. 615.[23]
At the first sight of his statue, one can say it is identical with our statue, especially the way of engraving the eyeballs and the paludamentum which he is wearing, but when we look much closer we can define or observe a difference between the way of the hair dress of Caracalla's statue and our statue. For Caracalla it became a luxuriant head of hair, but in our statue there is little hair with three rolling braids over the forehead. Beside the way of dressing the hair, another important feature in his head appears in lively turn to the left shoulder in order to imitate Alexander The Great [24] but the head of the child came with a little bend to the right in calmness appear (compare: Figs. 1, 9,10).
Beside all these features, the general impression which we feel when we look at the portraits of Emperor Caracalla, even in his childhood or in his later years, is that there is anger, a feeling that appears through his eyes and the constriction of his forehead [25](figs. 11, 12). On the contrary, if we compare between our statue and the other statues made for Emperor Septimius, we find that both agree in the way the eyes are engraved and the dominant stigmata on their faces are calmness and peace (fig7).
Studies of portraits of children in the Severan period lead us to find that the famous children's statues and portraits on the monumental arch in
Although Geta had the agnomen of Caesar and Augustus during his life (189-211 A.D.), we find a rare of his own portraits. This condition refers to his elder brother Caracalla who indented to erase or destroy all traces which lead to Geta after his assassination.[28]
But when we compare this statue with another statue belonging to Septimius' son Geta (fig.13), which is persevered, in
- The way of engraving the eye brow.
- The way of engraving the eye's pupils are look upward.
- The healthy full chin of both statues.
- The outer edges of the lips which leaves a small hole in each side of the cheeks.
- The calmness which appear through the features of the face.
- The head of both is turning smoothly to the right.
All previous study of this statue leads us to determine the exact date of this statue which if it is true for Emperor Geta who born in A.D. 189 and died in A.D. 212 [29] and the statue appear in the third or fourth year of his life, so the probably sculptured in year A.D.192 or at least in A.D. 193.
It is clear that the Idea or the main purpose which stand behind making this statue, maybe to insure the relationship between the Emperor Septimius Severus and Cyrenaica which became under the Roman rule since the end of the first century B.C. after the will of Ptolemaic Apion the last Ptolemaic rulers of Cyrenaica in B.C. 96.[30] Also, maybe this statue give us a signal about the place of the city which Geta spent his childhood which could be
* Dr.Mahmoud Elfatatry, Lecturer of classical Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, faculty of Arts,
** When I was in Libya Between 2004 and 2007 to work as a Lecturer of Classical Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology , Faculty of Arts , Omar El-Mokhtar University In El-Bidaa city , I went in a visit to the El-Shahat Museum in January of year 2005 , which far from El-Bidaa about
Acknowledgement : For permission to study and take photos of this Statue and for every assistance ,I’m most grateful to The Manager of Antiquities for
[1]
Herodotus, Historia IV, 150-153; A. H. M. Jones: The Greek City from Alexander to Justinian, The Clarendon Press,
[2] Cyrenaica: It (now north-east Libya) was settled by Greeks from the seventh century B.C., and it became from that time onwards the fertile coastal plain and its hinterland plateau were controlled by the four long-established Greek cities of Cyrene, Ptolemais, Arsinoe and Berenice, to which a fifth, Apollonia, was added in the Hellenistic age, the myth of Cyrene’s foundation by Battus and the Cyrenaicans’ subsequent history could be seen to emphasis their Greekness in opposition to the Libyans of the region to create a distinction and value for those who were not Libyan:
F.Chamoux: Cyréne sous la monarchie des Battiades, Paris 1953, p.70; F.Sear: Roman Architecture, Routledge, London 1998 p.187; M. Goodman: The Roman World, 44 B.C.-A.D. 180, Routledge, London 1997,p. 276; R. Laurence: Cultural Identity in the
[3] Place of preservation: Elshahat archaeological museum , Reservation No. z 17021, archive No. 135
[4] Compare the way of engraving the pupils in the reign of Marcus Aurelius and Septimius Severus in :
A.H.Smith: A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities British Museum, Vol. III, (London 1904), p.249, Nos. 1463-1464; J.Charbonneaux: "Portraits du temps des Antonins", in Monuments Piot, t. XLIX, (Paris 1957), p. 68, pl. VI
[5] For the similar Ears which appears in the Reign of Emperors Claudius and Caligula in the first centaury A.D. See: A.Hekler: Greek & Roman Portraits, (
[6] J. Charbonneaux : op. cit., p. 76, fig. 11; K. de Kersauson: Catalogue des portraits romains, II, Portraits d’époque impériale, (
[7] Ibid., p.37
[8] To compare the shape of this cinquefoil circular brooch with a similar one ,See it on the bust of Septimius Severus : A.H.Smith: op.cit., p. 249, No. 1463
[9] Paludamentum: The generals wear a special cloak of red conspicuous. The paludamentum is, in fact, so decidedly the military cloak that the phrase "changing the toga for the " has become a regular way of saying "being suddenly called to arms":
William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
W.Smith:A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, (London, 1875), pp.853-4; W.S.Davis: A Day in Old Rome: A Picture of Roman Life, (Cheshire, CT 1961), p.86
[10] J.Bennett : Trajan , Optimus Princeps A Life and Times, Routledge, (
[11] A. Strong: Roman Sculpture from Augustus to
[12] A.H.Smith: op.cit.,Vol. III, p.153, No.1886
[13] A.Strong: op.cit., p.372, No.1918; D.E.Strong: “Septimius Severus at Lepcis Magna and
[14] The eagle was the carrier of Jupiter's thunderbolts and a sign of power, which was adopted as a symbol of the Roman emperor's victory, and was carried before the Empire's legions:
M.T.Boatwright, D.J.Gargola and R.J.A.Talbert : The Romans: From Village to Empire , (
University Press, New York 2004), pp.171,397
[15] The Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus was an African Leader, ruled the
[16] Historia Augusta: Vol. I, op.cit., p.371; W.Ball:
[17] J. Guey: “Lepcitana Septimiana VI”, R A 94, (1950), p.55 ; D. E. Strong, op.cit., p.27; A.F.Elmayer:
[18] Compare the features of Septimius Severus portraits in other statues in: B.François: " Les Portraits impériaux de Markouna et la sculpture officielle dans l’Afrique romaine" , MEFRA 95, 2, (1983), pp. 785-815; K.de.Kersauson: op.cit., n° 164, p. 358; A.R.Birley, op. cit., pp. 88-9; P.Southern: The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine, (Routledge, New York 2001), pp.42-43
[19] D.E.Strong, op.cit., p.33, pl. X
[20] M.Platnauer: op. cit., p. 38
[21] Caracalla: the elder son of Septimius Severus , In 198 the army was in high spirits, acclaiming Septimius Imperator for the tenth and eleventh time for these successful campaigns in
Historia Augusta: The Life Of Antoninus Caracalla, Vol. II,(1924), pp.3-31; M.Platnauer, op.cit., pp.48-53
22 F.Millar: The Roman Near East, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard 1993), pp.143-44, 472-481; P.Southern : op. cit., p.50, fig.5; F. Meijer: op.cit., pp. 74-76
[23] L. Budde: Jugendbildnisse des Caracalla und Geta, OrA 5, (Münster 1951),pls. 1,18; M.Platnauer : op.cit., pp. 21-36; D.S Potter :op.cit., pp.120-134
[24] A.H.Smith:op.cit., p. 166, No.1917; A.Strong: op. cit., pp.376-7, No.1918
[25] A.Hekler: op.cit, pp.272,290
[26]
P.Romanelli,
[27] Geta : was the younger son of Septimius Severus . in A.D. 198 he became a Caesar while his elder brother Caracalla share the rule with their father as Augustus . he was killed on his brother's hand ,Caracalla, in A.D. 211 : for further information about Geta :
Historia Augusta: The Life of Antoninus Geta, Vol.II, (1924), pp. 33-47; J.B.Ward Perkins: "Severan Art and Architecture at
[28] Historia Augusta: op.cit., Vol. II, pp.37-45; H.Blanck: Wiederverwendung alter Statuen als Ehrendenkmäler bei Griechen und Römern, (Roma 1969), p.111; D.S. Potter: op.cit., pp.133- 139
[29] J.Hazel : Who's Who in the Roman World, (Routledge, London. 2001),p.285
[30] A.R.Birley: op.cit, pp.88-9; A.Laronde: "Septime Severe et Cyrene", Bull. Soc.
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