A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A PHILOSOPHER

Although once suggested to be the Greek philosopher Socrates, the facial characteristics do not conform to his typical portrait types, including the restored nose, which has erroneously been given the short, snubbed look of the famous philosopher. The beard shape and size, face shape with high cheekbones, heavy brows and intense gaze are all more reminiscent of portraits attributed to the Ionian philosopher Herakleitos. For a portrait of a man, possibly representing Herakleitos, in the Capitoline Museum, see G.M.A. Richter, The Portraits of the Greeks, Vol. 1, London 1965, pp. 80-81, fig. 111 (Arachne database no: 1075837). Richter points out that for an invented portrait type there might have been a number of different types.

Herakleitos of Ephesus flourished around 500 B.C. He was a pre-Socratic philosopher, interested in the structure of nature and the cosmos, rather than the politics and ethics of later philosophers. It is said that he dedicated his one and only work to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and that it was still there for all to read in the 2nd Century A.D. However by the time of the neoplatonic philosopher Simplicius of Cilicia, in the 6th Century the book was no longer available.