Dig Uncovers Sculptures of Emperors

It's not often anymore that digs in Rome yield exciting results, yet such is the case with a recent find announced by Italy's culture ministry.

Seems a team of archaeologists have found, in an ancient fountain, a group of marble sculptures of some large import and value, specifically because they contain marble heads that represent members of the imperial dynasty of the emperor Septimius Severus.

He it was who brought stability and a bit of respectability back to the emperor's throne after the free-for-all reign of Commodus (made famous in the relatively recent Ridley Scott film Gladiator) and the Year of the Five Emperors. Severus it was also who made the empire a military monarchy: The commander of the largest of Rome's armies, he was named emperor by his troops and set about making the army more of a force than the Senate in Roman government.

This emperor also started a dynasty, named after him (Severan Dynasty), and it is those emperors who are represented on the sculptures just dug up.

The way in which imperial officials were buried in those days suggests to modern historians that the sculptures, found on land that also contained the remains of an expansive villa, represent the onetime presence of someone very important indeed. (Also found in the dig was a statue of Zeus.) Mere plebeians didn't have money to either buy or bury such sculptures, so the owner of the villa and the burial ground must have been wealthy or at least influential.

The sculptures will soon reside at the Diocletian Baths, under the auspices of the National Museum of Rome.