3-044-047 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Statuette of Mars-Cobannus, A.D. 125-175. Additional Info: A youthful figure wears a typical costume for the northern Roman provinces: a long-sleeved tunic, leggings, and a cloak fastened with a round brooch. On his head he wears a contemporary Roman helmet, rather than the classicizing headgear found on most Roman sculpture. The whites of his eyes are silvered and the irises drilled. The figure's pose looks odd now, but he originally held a spear in his upraised right hand and rested his left hand on a shield. The Latin inscription on the base reads, "Sacred to the venerable god Cobannus, Lucius Maccius Aeternus, duumvir, dedicated this in accordance with a vow." The statue probably represents Cobannus, a local deity who was equivalent to Mars, the Roman god of war. The family of Lucius Maccius Aeternus is known from other inscriptions in Gaul and must have been important, for a duumvir was one of the two chief magistrates of a Roman colony.