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Monumentum

Marble busts from Formiae

Two marble busts of youthful figures with Phrygian caps, probably representing the torchbearers Cautes and Cautopates, from the Villa Borghese collection, found at Formiae.
 
The New Mithraeum
Updated on May 2026

TNMM 906 ↔ CIMRM 202

Two marble busts (H. 0.96), found at Formiae and obtained in 1902 by the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek at Copenhague (Inv. Nos 1905/6) from the Villa Borghese collection. Ny Carlsb. Glypt. Ant. Kunstv., Pl. IX, 122–3; Arndt-Amelung, Einzelaufn. 3874–77; Poulsen, Kat. N. C. Glypt., 105 Nos 122–3.

Bust of youthful person with Phrygian cap on the long curly hair. The tunica is fastened over the r. shoulder with a round brooch. Some small restorations in the cap, eyebrows, nose and lips.

These busts are usually considered to be representations of Attis, but as Franz Cumont properly observed they are most probably the busts of two torchbearers.

References

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