Archive for 16 May, 2008

Oldest Known Bust of Caesar Found in Provence

May 16, 2008 4:10 pm

Oldest Caesar Bust FoundBritish daily The Guardian reported 15 May: “He was a military leader turned dictator who had such a complex about his receding hairline that he perfected the Roman comb-over and liked laurel crowns that disguised his bald patch.

In flattering posthumous portraits Julius Caesar was often portrayed as a dashing, healthy-haired, divine being. But now a realistic marble bust believed to be the oldest representation taken during his lifetime has been discovered at the bottom of the river Rhone in France.

The life-sized bust, which has thrilled French archaeologists, shows a man in his fifties with the receding hair said to have given him a complex after taunts from his battlefield enemies.

He also has wrinkles and lines that reflect the war-hardened life of the man who conquered Gaul and whose quest for power was largely responsible for turning the Roman republic into a dictatorship that would later become an empire.

The bust was discovered by French archaeologist divers scouring the bottom of the Rhone in the southern town of Arles, which Caesar founded in 46 BC, distributing land among his veteran legionnaires. It is believed the bust was sculpted between 49 and 46 BC, when Caesar was in his 50s, a few years before he was assassinated by nobles in the senate house.

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