A ROMAN MARBLE FRAGMENT OF FOREPART OF A CAPRICORN

Circa 200 – 300 AD. A fragment from a marble relief depicting the forepart of a capricorn. Roman marble sculpture is usually anthropomorphic: emperors, prominent citizens, and deities are all familiar from marble busts, but animals are uncommonly depicted. As well as being the tenth sign of the zodiac, Capricorn was the birth-sign of the Emperor Augustus. Capricorn appears on a number of Augustan coins, and became the emblem of the Legio II Augusta when that legion assumed the name of the new emperor. The II Augusta were involved in the invasion of Britain in 43 A.D., and were based at Caerleon in Wales until the 3rd Century A.D.,Size: L:215mm / W:125mm ; 310gProvenance: Private UK collection; From an old London collection formed in the 1990s.