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River God

This reclining youth is naked except for a cloak, now mostly lost, which was once around his lower legs. It is not clear which river he represents, but his pose imitates larger statues of the same date, which are identified by their attributes as gods of the Nile and Tiber. No identifying objects that this river god might once have held survive. His roughly carved back suggests that he was only seen from the front and he may originally have been a fountain decoration.

Found, appropriately, in the river Tiber, the surface of the face had been damaged by underwater creatures, but was later restored in plaster.

Date: around AD 1–200 
Find spot: River Tiber, Rome, Italy
marble

Object Number: GR.1.1887

see the online collections database