Thursday, May 15, 2008

Caesar's Bust is a Bust! (Well Maybe!)


Maybe the title of this post is a bit strong, but there is a growing perhaps immediate skepticism concerning the supposed oldest find of Caesar's bust.




The journalist and scholar in me should have known better and I thank Jeremy O'Clair for pointing me to a couple of websites (i.e. Mary Beard's and Rogue Classicism). It seems that the French Ministry of Culture maybe too quick in identifying this bust as Caesar's when it has been pointed out by the FMOC that the bust is "typical of the realistic portraits of the Republican era," and as rogue classicism points out that the bust does not even look like Julius Caesar!


Perhaps Rick Darby states it best:


Still, there is such a thing as intellectual honesty. Or humility in the face of what can't be known for sure. Even government culture ministries — no; especially government culture ministries — ought to keep to the straight and narrow and leave sensationalism to the tabloids.


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