Posted on 08/17/2008 5:18:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The head is 0.76 m in height (2.5 feet). It has large, almond-shaped eyes (only the tear ducts are rendered, not the iris or pupils as became usual during the reign of Hadrian) and fleshy thick lips. Its hair is parted in the middle of the front and taken in wavy strains below and around the ears toward the back. The rendering of the hair was done with only sparing sparing use of the drill, a feature characteristic for portraits of empresses in this, the Antonine, dynasty, in sharp contrast with the beards and curly hairs of their husbands. On top of the head is a circlet, a feature typical for most of Sabina's portraits, yet in this case the whole physiognomy of the face clearly indicates it is the empress Faustina the Elder, wife of Hadrian's successor Antoninus Pius.
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...
:’) If that head is Hadrian (rather than A.P.), I’m thinkin’, “not happenin’”.
Animula, vagula, blandula
Hospes comesque corporis
Quae nunc abibis in loca
Pallidula, rigida, nudula,
Nec, ut soles, dabis iocos...
P. Aelius Hadrianus Imp.
I understand all languages but Greek... and it’s all Gree- well, never mind...
Oh ... did I forget the translation? Sorry ;(
Little soul, roamer and charmer
Body’s guest and companion
Who soon will depart to places
Darkish, chilly and misty
An end to all your jokes...
Good emperor ... so-so poet.
:’) Once, as a gift, I gave a small cool little book, “The Sweetness of Honey and the Sting of Bees”.
Just try to keep some of the emperors away from that pig...
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