CIRCA 64-68 A.D.

Details

A ROMAN CARNELIAN RING STONE
Circa 64-68 A.D.
The flat oval stone engraved with jugate portraits busts of the emperor Nero superimposed over his wife Poppaea, the emperor with characteristic corpulent cheeks, heavy jowl, protruding chin, muscular neck and deep-set, heavy-lidded eye, wearing a laurel wreath in his wavy hair, the ties hanging in back, his hair long in back, with sets of short parallel locks along his forehead, Poppaea with heavy-lidded eyes, a long straight nose and a rounded chin, her neck covered in drapery and two curling braids, a triangular peak at the top of her head likely the tip of a stephane
5/8 in. (1.6 cm) long

Provenance

German Private Collection

Literature

Plantzos, "Nero and Poppaea on a Cornelian Ringstone" in Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 1993.

Lot Essay

This gem, of extremely fine quality, can be dated to within a very short time span. The style of Nero's coiffure as seen on the gem was introduced in coinage in A.D. 64. This confirms the identification of his companion as his wife Poppaea, whom he married in A.D. 62., rather than his mother Agrippina, whom he appears with on coins only early in his reign. Poppaea died in A.D. 65, and the gem is not likely to have been engraved much after her death, thus the likely date of the gem is circa A.D. 64-65.

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