- Museum number
- 1805,0703.270
- Description
-
Carved marble statue of Mithras slaying the bull, attended by Cautes and Cautopates. The Latin dedication on the base is repeated in shortened form on the back of the bull. The upper part of the figure of Mithras is restored.
- Production date
- 2ndC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 77.50 centimetres
-
Width: 112 centimetres
-
Depth: 37 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Cook 2011, nr. 19:
A group of Mithras sacrificing a bull, with an inscription naming Tiberius Claudius Livianus as the owner of the slave who dedicated it.
Formerly in the collection of Cardinal Farnese in the Via Giulia in the sixteenth century. Recorded by Cittadini (1553-1627); seen by Bianchini between 1702 and 1707 (for references, see CIL VI, 30818). The statement in Bodleian Ms Add D 71, fo. 353, that it was found in the convent of SS. Giovanni e Paolo between the Palatine and the Caelian in 1776 must therefore be wrong.
Bought from the sculptor Giuseppini on 21 May 1768 for 120 Scudi (TY 8/2). In TY 10/2, it is listed under ‘Marmi comprati da diversi’ with ‘from Giuseppini’ added by Townley. In TY 10/3 (fo. 6), Townley gives the name as Angellini, perhaps a slip of the memory as in other places in that transcript.
Townley seems to have been not altogether happy with the piece since it was omitted from some of the parlour catalogues. Although it was kept indoors until at least the mid-1790s (Parlour Catalogue owned by Simon Townley), Combe found it in the yard (Supplement to 1804 catalogue and TY 18/4).
Drawings:
* Townley drawing 2010,5006.34, possibly by Stephanoff [I. D. Jenkins]
Bibliography:
- A Guide to the Graeco-Roman Sculptures in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities (Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum) (2 vols., London 1874 [2nd ed. 1879] and 1876), II, no. 56.
- A. H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Vol. III (London 1904), 87-9, no. 1721, fig. 11.
- LIMC, VI, 602 s.v. Mithras no. 168.
- CIL VI.718, 30818, 30728.
- On Ti. Cl. Livianus see Groag E. and A. Stein, ed., Prosopographia Imperii Romani, Saec. I. II. III. Part 2 (Berlin/Leipzig 1936), 211, no. 913.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2018 23 Feb – 22 Apr, Nashville, Frist Art Museum, 'Rome; City &Empire'
2018-2019 20 Sep-04 Feb, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, 'Rome; City &Empire'
2021 13 Feb-15 Aug, Belgium, Tongeren, Gallo-Romeins Museum, 'Rome; City & Empire'
2021-2022 Aug - Oct, China, Suzhou Museum, 'Rome; City & Empire'
- Acquisition date
- 1805
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1805,0703.270
