The conqueror of French archaeologists
Photo: French Ministry of Culture
Has Julius Caesar been dredged up from a French riverbed? CBC News reports:
A bust found at the bottom of a river in Arles, France, may be the truest representation of Julius Caesar ever found. The marble sculpture of a man in his 50s, with facial wrinkles and a receding hairline, may have been carved from life. Archeologists say the bust dates from 49 to 46 B.C. when Caesar reigned and the town of Arles was founded. It also resembles official portraits of Julius Caesar from coins struck in his lifetime.
Agence France-Presse reports that the marble sculpture “was found with other artifacts” during excavations directed by French archaeologist Luc Long. And the French Ministry of Culture quickly put its imprimatur on the purported identity of the bust’s illustrious sitter. The French news agency quotes a ministry statement that this is “the oldest representation yet known of Caesar” and “typical of a
series of realistic portraits from the period of the [Roman] republic.”
Mary Beard, Cambridge classics professor and A Don’s Life blogger, is not convinced:
This sculpture is, I should say, a very nice piece of work—and looks
remarkably good for something that has been at the bottom of the Rhone
for a couple of thousand years. There is, I suppose, a remote
possibility that it does represent Julius Caesar, but no particular
reason at all to think that it does—still less to think that it was
done from life….I’m afraid it’s “start again” time on the explanations for this one.
Mary’s wit and wisdom have attracted her usual coterie of erudite commentators: Some 78 classicists and would-be classicists. have weighed in so far. One wag said of the homely mug:
If I had a face like that, would I want it immortalised in stone for all time?
I came, I saw, I guffawed.