Inv. Scu 548

The portrait represents a middle-aged man with the head briskly turned to right.

The hair, parted in the middle, falls in soft curls over the ears and neck; the beard is arranged in wavy, rather disordered locks. The wide, slanting eyes have iris and pupil incised.

The wild hair and peculiar features suggest that the personage shown here was neither Greek nor Roman; as a matter of fact, the type finds parallels in the portraits on coins of Barbarian kings who ruled in the Bosporan Kingdom in the 2nd century AD, and in particular of Titus Julius Rhoemetalces (AD 131/2 – 153/4) and Titus Julius Eupator (AD 154/5 – 170/1).

The identification of the portrait with either of these Oriental rulers, however, is highly uncertain; on the other hand, the fact that this same portrait is known through other two replicas (one in Modena, the other in Florence, presumably found in Rome near the Aventine), suggests that it featured a high-ranked personage.

The carving technique dates the sculpture to the mid-2nd century AD.

In the Capitoline Museum since the mid-18th century, the sculpture was first displayed in the Sala dei Filosofi (until 1930), then briefly located in the Sala terrena a destra (1930-1945) and finally moved to the Sala delle Colombe.