Cameo

Unknown

Rome, Italy

The young man depicted in this cameo is Gaius Caesar (20BC – 4AD), the adopted grandson of Augustus (63 BC -14 AD), the first emperor of Rome. Cameos of this quality were made in workshops closely associated with the Roman Imperial State and were given to members of the emperor's inner circle. The cameo was excavated in 1892 in the tomb of Marcus Probius Burrus c100AD-200AD, from a grave site in Grimde in Belgium. It is possible the cameo was given to a useful ally on the Imperial frontiers and then inherited by Marcus Probius Burrus who fashioned it into a brooch and was subsequently buried with it.

Earliest Rothschild collector: Baron Edmond de Rothschild; b.1845, d.1934

Credit: Gift of Dorothy de Rothschild, 1971

1 BC-4 AD {cameo}, 100 AD-200 AD {mount}

Onyx, gold, bronze

3565.7

Image and text © Waddesdon Manor, 2019