The Empress with Two Heads

Abstract

In my paper I discuss the story associated with the head of the statue of Empress Livia from a temple dedicated to the emperor’s cult in Roman Narona (the present-day Vid). The head is kept in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. While in the main gallery of the museum its plaster cast is exhibited with a note explaining that the original head is currently on permanent loan in the Archaeological Museum of Split, but in the gallery with Roman antiquities the original head of the statue is displayed with a note explaining that it was obtained by a famous archaeologist Arthur John Evans during his travels to Dalmatia.

Not just the head of Livia’s statue, but also her body has been preserved. It is ‘temporarily’ kept in a huge wooden box in the public library of Opuzen while the main piazza is being reconstructed to realise Opuzen’s hundred-year long dream which will culminate in the opening of a new museum dedicated to Livia.

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V prispevku obravnavam zgodbo, povezano z glavo kipa cesarice Livije iz templja, posvečenega cesarskemu kultu, v antični Naroni (današnji Vid). Glava je danes v hrambi Ashmolejevega muzeja v Oxfordu. V glavni dvorani stoji njen mavčni odlitek s pripisom, da je izvirna glava v Arheološkem muzeju Split na posodo za nedoločen čas, medtem ko je v prostoru z rimskimi starinami stoji posebej razstavljena izvirna glava Livijinega kipa, s pripisom, da jo je pridobil znameniti arheolog Arthur John Evans med svojimi potovanji po Dalmaciji.

Poleg glave Livijinega kipa je ohranjeno tudi njeno telo, za katero v mestu Opuzen pripravljajo poseben muzej, ki naj bi predstavljal uresničitev stoletnih sanj njegovih prebivalcev. Stoletne sanje se, razumljivo, uresničujejo počasi, tako tudi v tem primeru. Tako je telo Livijinega kipa zdaj »začasno« shranjeno v velikem lesenem zaboju, postavljenem v prostorih mestne knjižnice.