Page 170 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

156 Archaeological Review

Fig. 175 a (Fig. 175); two statues of standing women (without
heads and hands), perhaps depicting muses; a funerary
Male torso wearing armor. It monument in the form of a bust, lacking the head, of
apparently depicted one of Claudius Potens, who was the commander of Legio VI
the emperors or governors/ (the “Iron Legion” – Ferrata), whose camp was located
army commanders who was in Legio near Megiddo. Incised beneath the bust is a
positioned in Caesarea. End burial inscription in his memory that was erected by
of first or beginning of the Claudius Protianus, centurion of the Legio X, who was
second century CE. Marble the legal representative responsible for the property of
Potens together with three of his liberated slaves –
Hilarus, Damas, and Symphorus, who were among his
secondary heirs (Fig. 176a). Claudius Potens was their
patron. Among the bust statues on display is the head
of the tragedies playwright, Euripides (the back part
of the head has been damaged and its upper left side
is missing). Also found in Caesarea were busts of the
tragedies author Sophocles and of the philosophers
Olympiodorus and Carneades. Originally, they were
all probably placed in a public building, perhaps a
library.

b

Fig. 176a–b

a. Bust of Claudius Potens, commander of Legion VI Ferrata (The Iron Legion), with
a Latin burial inscription in his memory that was executed by Claudius Protianus

b. A headless statue of an emperor, governor, or provincial or municipal magistrate.
The clothing and the sword he is girded with indicate a military background. The
bundle of scrolls supporting his left leg from behind might indicate administrative
experience and legal education. End of third century or fourth century. Discovered
in the area of the Southern Palatial Mansion