Intaglio with Bust of Youthful Herakles

Large oval intaglio with slightly convex face and back. Bust of youthful, beardless Herakles facing left, his left shoulder bare and rotated so as to be viewed from behind. He has short curly hair, and wears a lionskin headdress with long wavy mane, the paws tied at the neck.

The type is repeated on a number of intaglios produced in the first century BC, and may be related to Pompey the Great. Ancient writers often compared Pompey to Herakles, who in turn promoted a personal association with the hero via coinage and the popularization of his cult at Rome. The same youthful Herakles type appears on the obverse of a series of denarii minted by Faustus Cornelius Sulla for Pompey in 56 BC, and the intaglios seem to have been produced in Rome and the East, where Pompey was popular following his campaign against Mithridates in 64 BC. The intaglios may plausibly have appealed to Pompey’s soldiers and political supporters in Rome.