Editing Arles (section)

==Archaeology==
[[File:Presumed bust of caesar-RHO.2007.05.1939-IMG 9291-gradient.jpg|thumb|[[Arles portrait bust]]]]
{{Main|Arles portrait bust}}

In September–October 2007, divers led by Lucas Longas from the French Department of Subaquatic Archaeological Research, headed by Michel L'Hour, discovered a life-sized marble bust of an apparently important Roman person in the [[Rhône]] near Arles, together with smaller statues of [[Marsyas]] in Hellenistic style and of the god [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]] from the third century AD. The larger bust was tentatively dated to 46 BC. Since the bust displayed several characteristics of an ageing person with wrinkles, deep naso-labial creases and hollows in his face, and since the archaeologists believed that [[Julius Caesar]] had founded the colony ''Colonia Iulia Paterna Arelate Sextanorum'' in 46 BC, the scientists came to the preliminary conclusion that the bust depicted a life-portrait of the Roman dictator: France's Minister of Culture [[Christine Albanel]] reported on 13 May 2008 that the bust would be the oldest representation of Caesar known today.<ref>[http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/actualites/communiq/albanel/cesarles08.htm Original communiqué] (13 May 2008); [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/actualites/communiq/albanel/arles200508.htm second communiqué] (20 May 2008); [http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/actualites/index-com.html report] (20 May 2008)</ref> The story was picked up by all larger media outlets.<ref>E.g.{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/14/caesar.bust.ap/index.html |title=Divers find marble bust of Caesar that may date to 46 B.C. |website=[[CNN]] |access-date=2008-05-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605231523/http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/14/caesar.bust.ap/index.html |archive-date=2008-06-05 }}, CNN-Online ''et al.''</ref><ref>[http://programmes.france3.fr/des-racines-et-des-ailes/index-fr.php?page=emission&id_article=89 Video (QuickTime)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528215723/http://programmes.france3.fr/des-racines-et-des-ailes/index-fr.php?page=emission&id_article=89 |date=28 May 2008 }} on the archaeological find (France 3)</ref> The realism of the portrait was said to place it in the tradition of late Republican portrait and genre sculptures. The archaeologists further claimed that a bust of Julius Caesar might have been thrown away or discreetly disposed of, because Caesar's portraits could have been viewed as politically dangerous possessions after the dictator's assassination.

Historians and archaeologists not affiliated with the French administration, among them Paul Zanker, an archaeologist and expert on Caesar and [[Augustus]], were quick to question whether the bust is a portrait of Caesar.<ref>Paul Zanker, [http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,ra16m1/wissen/special/67/174544/index.html/wissen/artikel/74/176540/article.html "Der Echte war energischer, distanzierter, ironischer"]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529012528/http://www.sueddeutsche.de/%2Cra16m1/wissen/special/67/174544/index.html/wissen/artikel/74/176540/article.html |date=29 May 2008 }}, ''Sueddeutsche Zeitung'', 25 May 2008, on-line</ref><ref>[[Mary Beard (classicist)|Mary Beard]], [http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2008/05/the-face-of-jul.html"The face of Julius Caesar? Come off it!"], [[Times Literary Supplement|''TLS'']], 14 May 2008, on-line {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090321124022/http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2008/05/the-face-of-jul.html |date=21 March 2009 }}</ref><ref>Nathan T. Elkins, [http://coinarchaeology.blogspot.com/2008/05/oldest-bust-of-julius-caesar-found-in.html 'Oldest Bust' of Julius Caesar found in France?], 14 May 2008, on-line</ref> Many noted the lack of resemblances to Caesar's likenesses issued on coins during the last years of the dictator's life, and to the [[Tusculum]] bust of Caesar,<ref>Cp. this [http://www.aeria.phil.uni-erlangen.de/photo_html/portraet/roemisch/republik/benannt/caesar/caesar5.JPG image] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218040911/http://www.aeria.phil.uni-erlangen.de/photo_html/portraet/roemisch/republik/benannt/caesar/caesar5.JPG |date=18 December 2008 }} at the ''AERIA'' library</ref> which depicts Julius Caesar in his lifetime, either as a so-called ''zeitgesicht'' or as a direct portrait. After a further stylistic assessment, Zanker dated the Arles-bust to the Augustan period. Elkins argued for the third century AD as the ''terminus post quem'' for the deposition of the statues, refuting the claim that the bust was thrown away due to feared repercussions from Caesar's assassination in 44 BC.<ref>A different approach was presented by Mary Beard, in that members of a military Caesarian colony would not have discarded portraits of Caesar, whom they worshipped as god, although statues were in fact destroyed by the Anti-Caesarians in the city of Rome after Caesar's assassination ([[Appian]], ''BC'' III.1.9).</ref> The main argument by the French archaeologists that Caesar had founded the colony in 46 BC proved to be incorrect, as the colony was founded by Caesar's former [[quaestor]] [[Tiberius Claudius Nero (father of Tiberius Caesar)|Tiberius Claudius Nero]] on the dictator's orders in his absence.<ref>Konrat Ziegler & Walther Sontheimer (eds.), "Arelate", in ''Der Kleine Pauly: Lexikon der Antike'', Vol. 1, col. 525, Munich 1979; in 46 BC, Caesar himself was campaigning in Africa, before later returning to Rome.</ref> [[Mary Beard (classicist)|Mary Beard]] has accused the persons involved in the find of having willfully invented their claims for publicity reasons. The French ministry of culture has not yet responded to the criticism and negative reviews.