Augustus’s head from Brinje in its historical and archaeological context

Autori opisuju mramornu glavu iz Brinja, gdje se konvencionalno ubicira antički Monetium, i zaključuju da portret s tipičnim izrazom lica i rasporedom pramenova kose na čelu prikazuje Augusta (tip Prima Porta). Drže da tipološke karakteristike portreta jasno pokazuju da glavu treba datirati nakon 27. godine prije Krista, kada je Oktavijan imenovan Augustom. Misle da je glava bila dio počasnog kipa postavljenog u sklopu sustavne promidžbe lika i djela prvog rimskog cara.In the year 1965, on the southwest slope of the Humac hill near Brinje, Mr. Ivan Bićanić discovered a marble head of Octavian Augustus. This exceptionally important find remained however unknown to the wider scientific public for a long time. In the paper, the authors describe this marble head (Fig. 1–5), which has suffered a number of minor and major damages. Their conclusion is that the portrait with the typical facial expression and the arrangement of hair locks on the forehead indeed presents Augustus (Prima Porta type). They argue that typological characteristics of the portrait clearly show that the head should be dated after the year 27 BC, when Octavian was named Augustus. They hold that the head belonged to the statue of honour put up as a part of a well-thought and systematic promotion of the person and the personality of the first Roman emperor, i.e. that the public and official honouring of Octavian Augustus on Humac, the conventional locus of the Antique Monetium (Fig. 7), had been connected with the glorification of his military successes and victories won during the military campaign in Illyria 35–33 BC (Fig. 6). Since there exist no relevant archaeological data on the locality, the authors presume that Augustus’ statue of honour was officially put up in an appropriate and a carefully chosen place within a representative building or public space towards the end of the 1st century BC. The authors believe that archaeologists, local community and competent institutions will in near future, stimulated by the indeed fabulous and unexpected find of the marble head of Augustus and aware of the potential of the locality, invest the necessary effort and – by conducting concrete field explorations on Humac and its surroundings – collect new and relevant information needed for the reconstruction of the archaeological context and the perception of the cultural landscape of the Brinje area in the Antiquity