I found these photos, together with the article below, on line this morning:
ROME (Reuters) - Officials on Tuesday unveiled a massive statue believed to be that of
Roman emperor
Caligula sitting on a throne and said it came from an illegal dig south of
Rome that may have been the site of one of
his palaces.
The statue, which
had been broken in several large pieces and a
head, was first found last January when Finance Police stopped it from being smuggled out of the country by boat at a
port near
Rome.
The operation led to the arrest of two so-called "tomb raiders" -- those who dig up the countryside looking for archaeological treasures to sell on the black market.
But more importantly, the arrests led police to the site near Lake Nemi, just south of
Rome, where
Caligula was believed to have
had one of
his imperial residences.
The statue, now cleaned of the earth that
had covered it for 2,000 years, shows parts of a robed
man sitting on an elaborate throne like the Greek god
Zeus.
Significantly, it shows a
man wearing a "caliga," shoes worn by
Roman legionaries and from where the emperor got the name by which he is known.
His real name was Gaius
Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus.
Caligula, who reigned from 37 to 41 A.D., has gone down in
history as a crazed and power-hungry
sex maniac who demanded that
his horse, Incitatus, be made a
consul.