BRONZE HEAD OF VALENTINIAN I OR VALENS, 365-366 CE. PALAZZO MASSIMO ALLE TERME Recovered in eight fragments, the head has been pieced back together. The emperor, whether Valentinian or Valens, wears a diadem band decorated with gemstones set between two strings of pearls. This type of ornament, a rosette-diadem, became a distinctive feature of late antique and Byzantine imperial portraiture. The head looks forward frontally, above the heads of the viewers, as someone who is far-seeing and responsible for the defence of the city. It is likely that this head originally belonged to the gilded bronze toga-clad statue found in the same area. This head thus serves as an example of the reuse and adaptation of earlier sculptures, renewed and updated with a later emperor's likeness for celebratory purposes, reaffirming the temporal continuity of imperial authority.

#SpoliaSunday continues with the very lacunar substitute head of the bronze #togatus of the Bridge of Valentinian. Only the eyes, an ear, some of the forehead, hair, and imperial diadem have been recovered. The #Tiber has its ghosts. #AncientBluesky 🏺

BRONZE TOGATE STATUE, 1-67 CE. PALAZZO MASSIMO ALLE TERME This statue was recently pieced together from 33 fragments found on the riverbed of the Tiber at the level of the C15 ponte Sisto, which was probably built on the foundations of the C4 pons Valentiniani, constructed by Valentinian I and his brother Valens in 365-367 on the site of a yet earlier bridge. Here we see the form of a man in a toga, perhaps a Julio-Claudian emperor, who seems to be coalescing into solidity from the past. Large traces of gilding remain on both the toga and the skin of this figure, who stands in an oratorical pose with his right hand stretched out. The statue's original head is lost, but pieces of a replacement head showing Valentinian I (or Valens) are displayed nearby. This was C4 Rome despoiling a monument of C1 Rome for propaganda purposes.

For #SpoliaSunday, a ghostly #bronze #statue of a #togatus, probably an #emperor, of the C1 CE, found in shards in the #Tiber at the site of the #pons Valentiniani in #Rome, rebuilt as the #PonteSisto: its head had been replaced by a portrait of #Valentinian I, from 365-366 CE. #AncientBluesky 🏺