CIRCA EARLY 1ST CENTURY A.D.

Livia Drusilla (30 January 58 BC– 28 September A.D. 29), wife of Rome's first Emperor Augustus, is easily recognized from her many surviving portraits in marble, on gems and on coins. While the physiognomic details of her portraits vary very little over her long life, the style of her coiffure does evolves over time. The hair style of this large and impressive garnet intaglio portrait of her compares to her coin portraits minted after the death of her husband in 14 A.D., during the reign of her son Tiberius, as can be seen on a coin minted circa 22-23 A.D. The accompanying inscription on the coin indentifies her as Salus Augusta, the personification of health (see no. 160 in J.P.C. Kent, Roman Coins). On our gem she has the addition of a crown of laurel, also seen on other gem portraits of her from this period, including a sardonyx cameo in The Hermitage, no. B14 in W.-R. Megow, Kameen von Augustus bis Alexander Severus.