Portrait of Philip the Younger
- Biographic data
- 237 - 249
Co-emperor from 247 to 249. Son of Philip the Arab and Otacilia Severa - Date de création
- Between 247 and 249
- Material
- Göktepe marble, district 3 (Turkey)
- Dimensions
- H. 24,5 x l. 17 x P. 19 (cm)
- Inventory number
- Ra 73 h
This child, with his sweet and dreamy look, is apparently about ten years old. The very short haircut is typical of fashion during the middle of the 3rd century, and the hair is rendered by means of fine incisions, a sculpting technique developed during the reign of Philip the Arab. (244-249).
This statue portrait was believed to be that of Severus Alexandre (222-235) by some, but mainly it is thought to represent Philip the Younger, owing to its strong similarity with the emperor’s profiles on coins K. Fittschen, « Bemerkungen zu den Porträts des 3. Jahrhunderts nach Christus, » Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 84, 1969, pp. 198–236, en partic. p. 211, fig. 24 ; E. Rosso, L’image de l’empereur en Gaule romaine : portraits et inscriptions (Archéologie et histoire de l’art), Paris, 2006, p. 480-482, fig. 181., on which the small cowlick formed by the fringe at the side of the forehead is sometimes visible. Julius Philippus was elevated to the rank of Augustus in 247, at the tender age of ten. This event is undoubtedly at the origin of the creation of this official portrait, the full cheeks being evidence of his young age. His father Philip the Arab was assassinated in 249 by the Praetorian Guard (soldiers at the disposal of the emperor) or by the soldiers of Decius, his enemy and successor to the throne, and Philip the Younger, who was now twelve, immediately met with the same fate. The two short years during which he was able to exercise his functions as Augustus alongside his father were however sufficient for him to be honoured with a statue, raised in Narbonne by the colony of Béziers, as shown by the extant inscribed plinth E. Rosso, L’image de l’empereur en Gaule romaine : portraits et inscriptions (Archéologie et histoire de l’art), Paris, 2006, 389-390 ; O. Hirschfeld, CIL Corpus inscriptionum latinarum, XIII, Inscriptiones trium Galliarum et Germaniarum latinae, I-1, Inscriptiones Aquitaniae et Lugdunensis, Berlin, 1899, p. no 4227..
P. Capus
Bibliography
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To cite this notice
Capus P., "Portrait of Philip the Younger", in The sculptures of the roman villa of Chiragan, Toulouse, 2019, online <https://villachiragan.saintraymond.toulouse.fr/en/ark:/87276/a_ra_73_h>.