File:Uc2.ark 13960 t8rb76g72-seq 359 (cropped Marcia).jpg

English: Posidonius records that, in the grand Dionysiac Procession celebrated by Ptolemy Philadelphus, there marched Aglais, "wearing a peruke with a crest fastened upon it, sounding the trumpet" (Athenaeus, x. 58). Hence it may be inferred that this remarkable head-dress was an established article of costume, appropriated to certain divine personages. In this magnificent gem, the artist has certainly wished to represent an artificial head-covering, seemingly of metal, and not the natural hair. It has been conjectured that we have here a copy of the Pallas which adorned the lout pediment of the Parthenon. But, in this character, we probably have on the present gem the portrait of the Amazonian Marcia, for the face, in its stern beauty, is certainly not ideal, and agrees with that to be seen conjugated with Commodus upon his medallions, but in which she wears the helmet of Dea Eoma. Sard; drawn here of the actual size. There is a reduced antique replica of this in the Blacas Cabinet, a proof of the original importance of the subject. (Florence.)