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Athena
Statue of Athena (The Athena Statue of Marquis Campana), the Roman copy of the 125/130 after a Greek original of the late 5th century BC, marble, 224 cm
The State Hermitage Museum, Inv. ГР-4157
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Plate (39.4 cm in diameter) manufactured on the Aegean island of Cos, ca. 600 BCE. Inscriptions in this battle scene identify the standing figures as Menelaus (left) and Hector, fighting over the body of the Trojan warrior Euphorbus. Homer describes this scene in Iliad 17 and tells us that Euphorbus was slain while attempting to strip the fallen Patroclus of his armor. The plate was found at Camirus (Kameiros) on the island of Rhodes. It is now in the British Museum.
Photo credit: ArchaiOptix/Wikimedia Commons
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~ Athena promachos.
Date: Probably a Roman copy of a Greek statue of the 5th century B.C. or of a Hellenistic original of the 2nd century B.C.
Medium: Marble
Provinience: Naples, National Archaeological Museum (Napoli, Museo archeologico nazionale); Herculaneum, Villa of the Papyri.
Source: ancientrome.ru
τὸν φρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώσαντα τὸν πάθει μάθος θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν. στάζει δ᾽ ἔν θ᾽ ὕπνῳ πρὸ καρδίας μνησιπήμων πόνος: καὶ παρ᾽ ἄκοντας ἦλθε σωφρονεῖν. δαιμόνων δέ που χάρις βίαιος σέλμα σεμνὸν ἡμένων.
“It was Zeus who set mortals on the path to understanding; it is his will that we must learn through suffering. When our turmoils seep into the mind through sleep, bringing memories of pain, we find ourselves growing in wisdom, whether we want to or not. Harsh is this blessing of the gods, seated upon their terrible thrones.”
— Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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The Greco-Roman theatre of Monte San Nicola in Campania is built into the side of the mountain and offers a gorgeous view of the surrounding countryside. It has an adjacent temple and it was probably in use between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD after which it was abandoned and forgotten. It was rediscovered in 2001 when a local historian noticed an outline of the ruins from an airplane after a recent bushfire had cleared the vegetation covering them.
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~ Apollo of the Cassel type.
Date: A.D. 125-150
Period: Imperial Roman
Medium: Marble (Paros marble)
Source: collections.louvre.fr
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The Astragal Players, from Herculaneum. Now in the Museo Nazionale, Naples.
This is a monochrome painting on marble, executed in the encaustic technique. Encaustic involves a mixture of pigment and beeswax, which is heated, applied to the surface, and burnished.
[…] This may be the moment when the contrite Niobe appeals to Latona to spare two of her unsuspecting daughters, Aglaia and Ilearia. She has offered her hand to Latona, but to no avail.
- Theodore Feder in Great Treasures of Pompeii & Herculaneum
More well-known examples of Roman encaustic painting are the Fayum mummy portraits. This work appears to be lesser known, at least in English. Its home museum in Naples notes that the modern monochrome is misleading, adding:
This painting is traditionally known as a marble monochrome, since only the sketched pattern with the ocher is visible to the naked eye. Recent investigations, however, have highlighted the use of more colors: the garments are pink and yellow, the sandals red and black, the hair black, and different color gradations fill the volume of the figures. (Translated from here).
Postquam Roma egressus est, fertur saepe eo tacitus respiciens postremo dixisse: urbem venalem et mature perituram, si emptorem invenerit.
"As Jugurtha left Rome, he looked back there in silence for a while, before at last remarking: 'That's a city for sale, and sure to perish if it finds a buyer.'"
— Sallust, Jugurthine War