PORTRAITS OF TIBERIUS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 April 1939, Page 7

PORTRAITS OF TIBERIUS

DISCOVERY AT THE VATICAN. Five large marble bas-reliefs, two of which bear portraits of the Emperor Tiberius in his old age, have just been brought to light by accident in a cellai of the Palace of the Chancellery in Vatican City. The building in question is undergoing restorations, and the workmen engaged on strengthening the foundations came upon the bas-reliefs all covered with dirt and muddy water at t depth of 16ft below the level of the cellar. The tablets measure about 6ft square, and as.soon as Dr Magi, of the Pontifical Academy of Archeology, had seen them he saw that two of the reliefs were portraits of Tiberius. It is known that an arch to the Emperor Tiberius was erected by Claudius near the site of the Theatre of Pompey and the Vatican archaelogists are con vinced that the five reliefs were part of the decoration of the monument. The cellar wh,ere the reliefs were found is narrow, and renders the work of extraction of the find difficult. Two of the bas-reliefs have already been brought to light and photographs of the portraits of Tiberius, which arc in a vigorous style of Roman sculpture have been published in the "Osservatore Romano.”