Getty Museum

Statuette of the Lar/Genius of Aurelius Valerius and Base

Date

A.D. 150–250

Medium

Bronze

Culture

Roman

Department

Sculpture

Institution

Getty Museum

Standing on tiptoe, this youth holds up a goat-headed rhyton in his right hand, while in his outstretched left he holds a patera. He wears a short tunic decorated with rows of triangles, which originally would have been inlaid, as would have his eyes. A long sash or mantle is knotted around his waist and looped over his arms. He is shod with tall, open-toed boots with animal-skin liners. His hair rises in an anastole at the front and falls to his shoulders below. The base has a border along the upper edge, and is inscribed with the phrase "To the Genius of Aur[elius] Valerius, praetorian soldier". The inscription is a mixture of Latin and Greek, written in Greek letters, and identifies the figure as the genius (protective spirit) of a specific soldier, Aurelius Valerius, who was a member of the praetorian guard.

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