The face is framed by the beard and the hair, which falls in short curls high on the man’s forehead. There are three separate masses of hair here, one in the center made up of two separate tiers, and two at the sides. All are articulated with running drill grooves and the chisel. The forehead is plastically modeled with two horizontal bony masses, as can be seen in profile view. Upon the surface are incised horizontal furrows, both in the center of the forehead, and just over the eyebrows. Two short diagonal cuts at the inner ends of the brows add to the thoughtful and intense expression. The bushy hair of the eyebrows, cut in short curves, actually overhangs the eye in the center, where it is undercut. At the outer ends the fleshy folds beneath seem to hang over the edge of the eye. The pupil is a drilled pendent arc, the iris incised. Upper lid and tear ducts are clearly defined, as are the bags under the eyes. A chiseled channel cut above he upper lid creates an emphatic shadow. Two crow’s feet are incised at each corner. The nose, although heavily damaged, was clearly aquiline. The nostrils were large and deeply drilled. The mouth is all but engulfed by the heavy, curved moustache, neatly trimmed to follow the edge of the overhanging upper lip. Above the center of the lip the moustache is parted, leaving a small triangular bare spot. The mouth is small and seems tight. There is a short growth of beard under the lower lip, and then a bare area, before the voluminous thick curls of the chin. Here the beard falls in two tiers, one on the forward chin and one from underneath the jaw. Most of the curls are short. Deep drill runs make curving waves, but very sensitive chiseling is also used, especially to indicate the hair growing out from the cheeks. The ears have a large opening and are deeply drilled.

The back of the head is only roughly finished with a flat chisel to give the shape of the skull, and the two rows of curls on the nape. Below is a short stretch of neck before the diagonal break, which suggests that the head was part of a full statue rather than just a bust.

This magnificent head has been variously dated in the late 3rd and the late 4th to 5th C. A.D. It is here reaffirmed that the author and Hanfmann believe this to be a late 3rd. C. head, perhaps 270-300.

Marble.

Broken at lower neck. End of nose missing, also a few fragments of hair and small piece of l. ear. A few minor nicks elsewhere on surface.