Among the Ancients at the Met

Marble bust of Herodotos

A recent visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art offered an opportunity to linger among the antiquities of ancient Greece and Rome and contemplate the faces of men whose words and deeds have endured for millennia. Standing before their portraits made me think about how empires disappear, temples fall, and centuries pass, yet the questions that occupied the ancients are still very much our own.

Herodotos

“This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power.” ~ Herodotos, The Histories

Marble bust of Herodotos, the “Father of History”
Roman, Imperial period, 2nd century A.D.
Copy of a Greek bronze statue of the first half of the 4th century B.C.
Found in Benha, ancient Athribis, Lower Egypt.
Inscribed HERODOTOS.

Homer

Homer

“Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.” ~ Homer, The Odyssey

Marble head of Homer, the “Educator of Greece”
Roman, Imperial period, ca. 1st–2nd century A.D.
Copy of a Greek statue of the 2nd century B.C.

Socrates

Socrates

“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.” ~ Traditionally attributed to Socrates

Marble head of Socrates, the “wisest of all men”
Roman, Imperial period, 1st–2nd century A.D.
Copy of a Greek bronze statue of ca. 350 B.C., often attributed to Lysippos.

Epikouros

Epikouros

“Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.” ~ Epikouros, Letter to Menoeceus

Marble head of Epikouros
Roman, Imperial period, 2nd century A.D.
Copy of a Greek statue of the first half of the 3rd century B.C.

Caligula

Caligula

“Let them hate me, so long as they fear me!” ~ Attributed to Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus by Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars

Marble portrait bust of the Emperor Gaius, known as Caligula, or “Little Boots”
Roman, Julio-Claudian period, A.D. 37–41.

Marcus Aurelius

Young Marcus Aurelius

“The best way of avenging oneself is not to become like the wrongdoer.” ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Marble portrait of a young Marcus Aurelius, called Verissimus, meaning “Most True”
Roman, Antonine period, ca. A.D. 138.

Antoninus Pius

Emperor Antoninus Pius

“Blessed is the age that has no history.” ~ Traditional proverb, popularized by Thomas Carlyle; a fitting reflection on the remarkably tranquil reign of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius.

Marble portrait of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, the “Dutiful”
Roman, Antonine period, A.D. 138–161.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, September 7th Feast of Santa Regina