ASSIMILATION OF OLYMPIC VICTOR STATUES. 15 
a practice which was very common in imperial Rome.!. Thus many 
of the Hellenistic princes were pleased to have their statues assimilated 
to those of the heroic Alexander. One of the best examples of 
this process is furnished by the origi- | 
nal bronze portrait statue of such a 
prince, which was unearthed in Rome 
in 1884 and is now in the Museo delle 
Terme there (Fig. 5).2. It has been 
identifed as the portrait of several 
kings of Macedon and _ elsewhere,’ 
but the similarity of the head of the 
statue to heads portrayed on Mace- 
donian coins is only superficial.* All 
that we can say is that this beauti- 
ful work, representing the prince in 
the heroic guise of a nude athlete of 
about thirty years, belongs to the third 
century B.C., the epoch following Ly- 
sippos. The sculptor, wishing to com- 
bine the ideal with the real, appears to 
have copied the motive directly from 
a bronze statue by Lysippos, which 
represented Alexander leaning with his 
left hand high on a staff. The pose 
also recalls that of the third-century 
B.C. statue of Poseidon found on 
. 
LE. g., the well-known bust of the emperor Com- 
modus with the attributes of Hercules in the Palazzo 
dei Conservatori, Rome: Helbig, Fuehrer, I, 930; 
Baum., I, p. 398, fig. 432; Arndt-Bruckmann, Griech. 
u. roem. Portraets, 230; Hekler, Greek and Roman Por- 
taits, 1912, Pl. 270 a; Reinach, Ré>., II, 2, 583, 7. 
*Not. Scav., 1885, p. 42; Ant. Denkm., I, 1, 1886, ; 
Pl. V; Bulle, 75 and fig. 27, p. 141; B. B., 246; Helbig, Fic. 5.—Bronze Portrait-statue 
Fuehrer, I1., 1347, and references; Arndt-Bruckmann, of a Hellenistic Prince. Mu- 
Griech. u. roem. Portraets, Pls. 358-360; Hekler, Greek seo delle Terme, Rome. 
and Roman Portraits, Pls. 82-4; Collignon, II, p. 493, 
fig. 257; Murray, Hbk. Gr. Archeol., 1892, pp. 305 f., fig. 100; Lanciani, Ruins and Excavations 
of Anc. Rome, 1897, Pl. on p. 303; Reinach, Rép., II, 2, 548, 7; cf. Furtw., Mp., p. 364, n. 2, and 
Mw., p. 597,n. 3. The height of the statue is 2.08 meters, or 2.37 meters to the hand (Bulle). 
3E. g., Philip V, Perseus, Alexander Balas (who usurped the Seleucid throne in 149 B. C.), 
Demetrios I (Soter), of Syria (who reigned 162-150 B. C.), and Antiochos II, (Theos, who reigned 
261-246 B. C.), have been suggested. 
4See Imhoof-Blumer, Portraetkoepfe auf ant. Muenzen hellenischer und hellenisierter Voelker, 
1885, Pls. I, 6; ITI, 24; V, 21; VI, 29 and 31. 
®A small replica of this famous statue may probably be seen in the bronze statuette in the 
Nelidoff collection: Wulff, Alexander mit der Lanze, 1898, Pls. I, I]; Helbig, Fuehrer, II, p. 134, 
fig. 35. Onsupposed replicas,see Bernouilli, Das Bildniss Alex. d. Gr., p. 107; and Th. Schreiber, 
Studien ueber das Bildniss Alex. d. Gr., 4bh. d. philolog.-histor. Cl. d. k. saechs. Gesellsch. d. Wis- 
sensch., XXI, 1903, no. III, pp. 100 f. 
PN oe * 
* Sy 

