Officers and Gentlemen

Abstract

In the time of Marcus Aurelius, a small group of officers in the Roman army and gentlemen with a high social status opted not to imitate the emperor’s exuberant hairstyle in their own portraits. These were all depictions in historical reliefs and on sarcophagi. Until now, the existence of similar images in the round had not been demonstrated. Two heads in Madrid and Epidaurus show that they do indeed exist. Both of them had been dated in the 3^rd cent. A.D. because of the combination of very short hair and a long beard. However, the »assimilated portraiture« methodology indicates that they would have been made in the third quarter of the 2^nd cent. A.D. This new chronological proposal is able to settle an old outstanding debt in Roman portraiture.