Portrait of Demosthenes in the Princeton University Art Museum, August 2009

Portrait of Demosthenes
Roman, Flavian, ca. 69-96 AD
Marble

# Y1962-133

Famous for his speeches urging resistence to Macedonian control of Greece, the orator Demosthenes committed suicide when Athens and its allies were defeated by Macedon in 322 BC. Years later, around 280 BC, his nephew erected a bronze statue of Demosthenes at Athens. That work, now lost, provided the presumed model for more than fifty surviving marble copies, most dating from Roman times, when Demosthenes was revered as a defender of liberty and the greatest of the Greek orators. This head might have been displayed in the garden of a wealthy Roman, or formed part of the decoration in a public building or library.

Text from the Princeton University Art Museum label.