Bust of a Man

Both the large size and the facial features of this bust testify that it depicted some important personage of the time. This is proved by the fact that another portrait of the individual is held in Thessaloniki. The mantle he wears instead of the customary tunic and toga, together with the coiffure and the beard, is clearly a conscious reference to Classical portraits of philosophers and poets. The sculpture was produced in Asia Minor, a part of Roman-occupied Greece which experienced a new golden age in the 2nd century, particularly from the rule of the emperor Hadrian onwards.