Getty Museum

Bust of L. Licinius Nepos

Date

A.D. 1–25

Medium

Marble

Culture

Roman

Department

Sculpture

Institution

Getty Museum

An inscription identifies this stern-faced man with strong features and a receding hairline as L. Licinius Nepos. The back of the head was made from a separate piece of marble and is now lost. Two attachment holes are visible on the roughly finished surface of the large portion, as well as the remains of an iron dowel in one of them. The bust was made for display in a family tomb, as the inscription asserts, L. LICINIVS NEPOS / QVI HANC CASVLAM / FECIT (This is L. Licinius Nepos who made this little house [for his ashes]). A longer funerary inscription found near Porta Pinciana, outside Rome, in 1756, also names Nepos as the builder of the tomb and indicates that he was a tradesman.

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