Well-preserved Roman statue found at Varna

An exceptionally well-preserved Roman portrait statue has been discovered in Black Sea resort town of Varna, Bulgaria. The statue dates to the late 2nd or early 3rd century A.D. and despite its age, has suffered only minor damage: a missing right hand and some worn areas on the face.

The statue was found during construction just outside the defensive walls of the ancient city in an area where a river once flowed in antiquity. It was lying on its back in a thick sand drift when the construction crew exposed it. The contractor immediately alerted the Varna Regional Museum of History to the find and archaeologists recovered the statue.

The sculpture is larger-than-life-sized and made of high-quality white marble. It depicts an adult man with a short beard wearing a neatly draped toga. He holds a scroll in his left hand. The statue stands on a plinth with a Greek inscription. The initial translation of the inscription identifies the person being depicted as one G(aius) Marius Hermogenes, but epigraphic experts are working on fully deciphering and researching the text now.

The ancient city of Odessos (modern-day Varna) was founded in the 6th century B.C. by colonists from the Greek city of Miletus. They built the city on the site of an earlier Thracian settlement going back to the late Bronze Age (13th-12th c. B.C.). It flourished thanks to its location on the Black Sea and proximity to gold and copper mines. Its prosperity peaked under the Roman Empire around the time the sculpture was made.

The toga and scroll suggests Gaius Marius Hermogenes was a prominent citizen, perhaps a magistrate, who could afford an expensive marble statuary portrait. The former riverbed outside the city walls where it was found was almost certainly not its original location. It’s possible the statue was deliberately tossed by Hermogenes’ political opponents. They can’t have been very vehement in their opposition, since the statue is intact. Most of the time statues destroyed for political/religious reasons lost their heads at least.

The statue is now at the Regional Museum of History where conservators will analyze, clean and stabilize it for future display.

* This article was originally published here