Jones, Henry Stuart [Hrsg.]; Palazzo dei Conservatori <Rom> [Hrsg.]: A catalogue of the ancient sculptures preserved in the municipal collections of Rome: the sculptures of the Palazzo dei Conservatori (Text) (Oxford, 1926)

36

SCALAR, ig—III. i

IQ. KEYSTONE FROM A TRIUMPHAL ARCH (pi. 10).
H. .64 m., Br. -62 m. Parian marble. Unrestored.
The keystone is adorned with a figure of Minerva. The head and
r. arm are wanting. The 1. hand grasping the iong spear, a piece of
which is still visible, is much broken and worn. The goddess is clad
in a long tunic, and over it a mantle, caught up on the r. side into the
girdle. On her 1., in relief on the background, is a battle-axe; her shield
with the Medusa head, seen in perspective, leans against her left knee.
On her r. on the ground is the helmet, much broken and worn. The
figure stands on the acanthus roll of the volute.
From the Cortile of the University (Lanciani, Zzzz'zzr <37zrf ZTraprz/zAz.y,
p. go6, ZzzZ. Crwz. xliii (igig), p. 333).
Formerly the keystone of the 'Arco di Portogallo' (cf. Lanciani, Ar. rz?.,
A*. 7?. A. A. iv. 258) ; it appears in the drawings and engravings of that Arch, UfHzi,
2528 (by Giov. Antonio Dosio, reproduced in Dosio, LTZA Azwza.?
yglz'yMzag (1569), pi. 28); Bartoli, kWzzz'g, PI. 43 ; Windsor, 10783; Bartoli-
Bellori, Az'rzzj, pi. 48. The Arch was probably a medieval

III. SECONDO RAMPANTE
1. RELIEF REPRESENTING METTUS CURTIUS (pi. 13).
H. .49 m., L. .83 m. Pentelic marble. Unrestored. The slab is broken in a
horizontal line seen passing through the horse's legs.
One side of the slab is occupied by an inscription bearing the name
of L. Naevius Surdinus,prtz^/<?r zzzAr czAy z?/At a later date (see
below) the other side of the slab was used again for a relief. A warrior,
wearing a helmet with high plume, cuirass with and mantle
floating behind him in the wind, is riding to 1. into a swamp, which is
indicated by reeds in the background. The horse is falling forward on
his knees. The warrior holds a spear in his r. hand with the point
touching the ground, and on his 1. arm has a round shield with a Gorgon's
mask in the concave centre. A broad band passes round the horse's belly.
Farther to the 1. are high reeds. Wavy lines mark the swampy
ground.
Of the three versions of the legend of Curtius given by Varro (Z. Z.
v. 148) the relief represents that according to which the name Lacus
Curtius was derived from a Sabine leader Mettus Curtius, who in the
attack on the Palatine after the rape of the Sabine women nearly lost his
life in a swamp.
Probably a work of the end of the third or beginning of the fourth
century A. D. Helbig (Zz'Ar^r\ p. 423, no. 344) believed the relief to
date from the late medieval period, perhaps the time of Cola di Rienzo.
This theory was accepted by Jordan (ZrZ^WA^, 1- 2; p. 400), but
Furtwangler (qA rz'A) considered the relief to be antique and contemporary
with the inscription, which commemorates the rwzjzz/ of A. D. 30.
Recently Hulsen (Zrwz. ZZ7/. xvii (1902), pp. 322 ff.) has shown that the
relief cannot be contemporary with the inscription and assigned it with
great probability to the period of Diocletian, when extensive repairs and
new constructions were carried out after the destructive fire under Carinus
(283-4). He conjectures, in agreement with Furtwangler, that the artist
copied a monument of Italic art, which probably stood in the Forum as