Details

LOT 0203

Very Large Roman Gold Ring with Engraved Head of the God Neptune and Warships

1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

1 1/2 in. (7.40 grams, 37.31 mm overall, 22.71 x 27.56 mm internal diameter (approximate size British Z+3, USA 13 3/4, Europe 32.57, Japan 31)).

A substantial hollow-form ring with a hexagonal plaque to the base of the hoop, expanding shoulders with a low-relief image of a standing nude goddess; raised oval bezel with an applied repoussé disc of a warship to each end; applied bezel with a chiselled image of god of the sea Neptune facing right, depicted with thick, lustrous beard and hair, the hair tied with a thin ribbon.

Provenance

Ex Angelopolo collection, Vienna.
Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s.
Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent.
Private collection, since the late 1990s.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12571-232087.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Literature

Cf. Chadour, A.B., Rings. The Alice and Louis Koch Collection, volume I, Leeds, 1994, items 140-144, for type of ring; cf. denarius of Sextus Pompeius in the British Museum, with head of Neptune and naval triumph, museum number no.R9266, in Grueber, H.A., Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum, vol.2, Coinages of Rome (continued), Roman Campania, Italy, the social war, and the provinces, London, 1970, no.15, p.562; for the type of represented warship cf. D’Amato, R., Republican Roman Warships 509-27 BC, Oxford, 2015, pp.38, 41.

Footnotes

The ring carries a rare combination of the god Neptune (Greek Poseidon) with two warships. This can only mean that it belonged to a navarcha, a commander of a fleet or a warship. In the turbulent era of the civil wars that followed the death of Caesar, important naval conflicts sealed the fate of the Roman Res Publica. Sextus Pompeius, son of the great Pompey, was able to build a naval power in the South of the Italian Peninsula, especially in Sicily, adopting the image of the god Neptune who - with an image very similar to that of our ring - was represented on the coins he minted, together with naval triumphs and warships.

The ships depicted on the ring belong to the Liburna type, protagonist of the famous battle of Actium in 31 B.C. They were smaller and faster ships, armed with 82 oars disposed upon two orders, about 33 meters long, with 114 oarsmen, 10-15 sailors, and 40 marines. The Liburna’s hull had a pointed, streamlined prow built for speed, as well a fully-detailed ram (rostrum).