Roman Bronze Silenus Mount

Hollow-formed mount formed as a crescent with horse-head finial modelled with flying mane and mouth open; to the rear, a deep flared socket with dentilled rim. 106 grams, 63 mm



Acquired on the German art market, 1989-1995. with The Museum Gallery, 19 Bury Place, London, WC1A 2JB, 1998-2003. Property of a London based academic, 2003-present.

This is beautiful Roman workmanship, probably derived from Hellenistic prototypes, which finds comparisons in similar mounts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the British Museum. It could be a bed mount (for bed or triclinium) or a furniture element. It is also possible that it was a cart or chariot element.

A rectangular block with stamped mark 'LEGT I ITAL' (Legio I Italica) for 1st Legion 'Italic'; with collector's label 'Roman brick made by the Ist Italica Legion at Olpia Oescus on the lower Danube, one of Trajan's strategic bases prior to the invasion of Dacia in 106 AD. LEG I ITAL' 4.35 kg, 19 cm



From the collection of a late East Anglian teacher and antiquarian who retired to the Isle of Wight in Hampshire, UK. He amassed a large collection of objects between the 1960s-1980s. Accompanied by a previous catalogue identification card.

The Legio I Italica ("of Italy") was a Roman legion formed by Nero on September 20, 66 or 67 AD and active until the 5th century AD. Its emblems were the boar and sometimes the bull. There are many sources which name army officials employed in supervision of the construction and reconstruction of temples, baths, city walls, towers and gates. CIL VIII 2728, for example, is a letter by evocatus Augusti who was sent to solve engineering problems on a badly surveyed aqueduct at Saldae in the province of Numidia. Pliny (Epistulae X 17b, 39, 41, 61) repeatedly requested an army architect to be sent from Lower Moesia to help inspect some Bithynian building projects. Therefore it is not strange that tiles marked as belonging to a legion should be found all over the provinces.

With bulbous flat-bottomed base, tall neck and rolled everted rim applied trail zigzag handles to each side. 62.4 grams, 10.2 cm



Ex property of a late Japanese collector, 1970-2000s.