A Roman Marble Head of a Geta as a Boy

Depicting a very young boy with full cheeks and a pointed chin, a small fleshy mouth and a strait nose, his lidded eyes unarticulated, his hair combed forward, the individual strands delineated, breaking to the right and left at the center of his forehead, curling around his small ears and at the nape of his neck, the neck cut and splayed at the base for insertion. Locked in these thick cheeks, inquisitive eyes, and arrogant pout is very likely the youngest portrayal of Emperor Publius Septimus Geta ever discovered. Geta, despite being a thorough administrator and skilled military tactician was murdered by his throne--sharing brother, Caracalla. All inscriptions with his name were ordered defaced, but the coins minted during his reign as the Augustus of Briton have remained intact to give us an impression of his face. A sculpture of such caliber could only come out of an imperial workshop, and a face such as this could belong to none other than the doomed son of Septimus Severus. His shapely round face is the pinnacle of refinement and imperial presence. Even in his early youth, this emperor to be exuded gravity and intelligence far beyond his years.