The Berkeley Plato: From Neglected Relic to Ancient Treasure, An Archaeological Detective Story

The Tivoli Plato

tions. By the middle of the twentieth century, sculptural representations (excluding the Tivoli six Sages) have only marginally increased. Indeed, for example, “there is no reliable portrait of Solon extant to show us how the Greeks imagined their great lawgiver to have looked.”54 Another point to be considered derives from a comparison of some of these inscriptions with that of the Berkeley Plato. The quality of the Berkeley Plato’s inscription is clearly finer and neater than that of any of the Tivoli Sages’, and the extreme ornateness of the upsilon and psi that is to be seen in some of them does not exist on the Berkeley Plato. Further, whereas the Berkeley Plato is made of Parian marble, the Tivoli Sages are made of Pentelic—at least when it is possible to discern the characteristics that set Pentelic apart. (See appendix A, note c.) Finally, the width of the Berkeley Plato herm shaft ranges from 0.266 m to 0.280 m, whereas the widths of the Tivoli six, which range from 0.313 m (Periander) to 0.331 m (Bias), are all significantly greater. It seems to me that the Berkeley Plato has every claim to belong to the family of the Seven Sages, but that it cannot be closely associated with the Tivoli examples. THE TIVOLI PLATO Given that the Tivoli square-omicron portrait herms comprise a series with one and only one example of each famous ancient,55 this conclusion that the Berkeley Plato does not belong to the Tivoli group actually became inevitable already in 1846. In May of that year a group of forty publicspirited , monthly-dues-paying citizens of the modern town of Tivoli— the Società al Ritrovamento di Cose Antiche in Tivoli—encouraged by The Berkeley Plato / 25 54. Richter 1965, 85. R. R. R. Smith, in his abridgment and revision of Richter’s Portraits of the Greeks (Ithaca 1984), 204–5, could still not refer to a sculptural representation of Solon. 55. There were multiple portraits of the same personage from the excavations at Tivoli (e.g., the Vatican Perikles, here fig. 76, and the Perikles now in the British Museum, inv. no. 459), but the letter forms are different, and only one example exists in each case of the square-omicron portrait. the works of diverting the Anio River (which were to be crowned by a papal visit later that year) and emboldened by successful excavations in March and April on the northeastern outskirts of the modern town, undertook an excavation to the south close to the place where the six Sages and other sculpture had been discovered in 1774.56 The discoveries of 1846 included another portrait herm of Plato (fig. 19), which has clouded the issue of the authenticity of the Berkeley Plato. Like the Tivoli Sages, this piece is made of Pentelic marble and has a similar width (0.321 m).57 It is particularly interesting that the neck is not broken but was worked in antiquity for the attachment of the head in a separate piece, whether in the original sculpture or as a later (but ancient) repair (fig. 20).58 26 / The Berkeley Plato 56. Viola 1848, 228–29 and 288–90. Their excavation seems to have been a little to the south or southeast of the 1774 discoveries (Viola 1848, 289): “Non in questi luoghi già cavati [i.e., left by the 1774 diggings], ma nella parte inferiore e più bassa del terreno tentava la società uno scavo.” For the enthusiasm surrounding the visit of Pope Gregory XVI, see Stanislao Viola, Feste in Tivoli e gita dell’immortal Pio IX in quella città del 14 ottobre 1846 (Rome 1846). See Smutny 1966, 3–5, for discussion and previous bibliography. 57. So far as I can tell, a number of details about this herm have not been reported . I give them here. The preserved height is 1.678 m, and the thickness is 0.235 m. The shoulder sockets have earth in them; the neck dowel cutting was filled with cigarette butts until recently (visible here in fig. 21), and there is a cutting for a hook clamp running toward the rear of the herm on each side. (See here fig. 19.) I suspect that these cuttings were made in modern times in order to secure the herm to a wall; they are broader and flatter than the typical ancient hook-clamp cutting, and I can imagine no position in which they might be...