Inlaid Figural Weight from Insula E1S6, Caesarea Maritima

Abstract

A bronze weight, square in shape and inlaid with silver, was excavated at Caesarea Maritima.
It belongs to a series of weights engraved with a pair of male busts identified as emperors.
Two possible identifications of the portrayal are considered in this article — (a) two emperors,
(b) two officials. Based on the type of fibula worn by the figures, the context of discovery,
the literary and epigraphic evidence and available comparisons to weights and other works of
art, the second alternative — of two officials — seems a more plausible identification for the
persons depicted on the weight.