Bust of a young man

The bust of a young man rising out of a whorl of acanthus leafs is of very high quality. It probably came from a workshop in Rome itself, rather than being provincial work. In view of its find spot, the bust is thought to have been part of the interior decoration of a rural villa in the vicinity of the Roman city of Celeia (Celje). Roman portraits are normally dated most reliably by hairstyle. The hairstyle of the bust from Podgorje pod Resevno is modelled on that of Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD), dating it to the early second century. It was long thought to be a portrait of one of the princes of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. It has been most often associated with Germanicus (15 BC to 19 AD), a nephew of Caesar Tiberius. It was therefore seized by the Germans during the Second World War, and given to Himmler, the infamous minister of the interior. According to the Nazis, Germanicus was the first person of the Roman world to have been named after the Germanic peoples. The English confiscated the statuette after the war and restored it to Slovenia.