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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 7996243, member: 128351&quot;]This bust now in Vatican was in the 18th c. in the Palazzo Nuñez Torlonia and was sold to the Vatican in 1791. The face is much mutilated : the nose, the ears, an eyebrow are modern restorations, the whole bust (cuirass, paludamentum) is modern. If it was a bust, we do not know what he was wearing (toga? peplos? cuirass? bare chest? knowing this would have helped identifying the man). Because this head is bigger than life-sized, we can reasonably suppose it was an important person with a high ranking official position. The style is clearly late 2nd - early 3rd c. But its identification with Caius Fulvius Plautianus is a mere hypothesis ! Cassius Dio wrote that there were many portraits of Plautianus, even more than portraits of Septimius Severus himself ! I don&#039;t know if such a statement must be taken at face value, but OK let&#039;s admit there were a lot of them... After his assassination by Caracalla, all of his statues and portraits were systematically destroyed, erased, cancel culture was a really serious thing at the time. The result is that not a single depiction we could surely identify with Plautianus is known today. </p><p>This larger than life bust was first identified with Pertinax. In the 18th c. ancient busts sold better and for much more when they were portraits of famous people, like emperors for ex. It was sold to the Museum as &quot;Pertinax&quot;. But there are many very good coins of Pertinax and art historians soon noticed this big bust did not really look like Pertinax. So, who? It could very well be a member of the imperial family : the father of Severus Alexander, or of Julia Domna, or even some high ranking official of the early Severian regime like Laetus for ex. Plautianus is a possibility, no more, and if you find in this man nothing common with Plautilla, it could be a reason to consider some other one. The Musei Vaticani should be more cautious when labelling this bust &quot;Plautianus&quot;.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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