CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

The sudden death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. lead to a lengthy power struggle among his Macedonian generals, collectively known as the Diadochs, or "successors." The rulers of the separate kingdoms that eventually emerged often presented images of themselves on their coins or in sculpture in marble or bronze in a style that evoked the portraits of Alexander. The Romans admired these Hellenistic royal portraits, and when originals were not available, copies would suffice, as evinced by the series of portraits from the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum. Certain identification of the ruler depicted is often illusive. That the present head is a Roman copy can be discerned from the few deeply-drilled channels in the hair. For a discussion of the portraits of the Diadochs see p. 64ff. in Smith, Hellenistic Royal Portraits. For the portraits from the Villa of the Papiri, several of which closely recall this head, see Mattusch, The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum, Life and Afterlife of a Sculpture Collection, especially nos. 4.35 (Demetrios Poliorketes?), 4.39 (Pyrrhos of Epirus?), and 4.43 (youthful Macedonian warrior).