CIMRM 431 - White marble statues of Cautes and Cautopates. North side of Palatine hill, Rome.

Two marble statues, Cautes and Cautopates, discovered in 1892 between the north side of the Palatine hill and the Via S. Teodoro. Whereabouts uncertain.

CIMRM entry

ROMA (Reg. X) 431. Two white marble statues (H. 0.51 and 0.47), found in 1886 "sotto il lato settentrionale del Palatino fra questo colle e la Via S. Teodoro".* At the moment probably in the Museum on the Palatine. Lovatelli in BCR 1892, 226ff and Pl. X; MMM II 206 No. 21 and figs. 33-34. 1) Cautes in Eastern attire and with upraised torch, cross-legged. At his feet a cock. Traces of red painting on base and sides. 2) Cautopates in the same attitude and attire. At his feet a bird (cock or owl). Traces of red painting.

* I.e. Found "under the north side of the Palatine between this hill and the Via San Teodoro".

Lovatelli writes:

The excavations undertaken in the year 1886 along and under the north side of the Palatine (1), between the hill and the Via S. Teodoro, revealed some buildings along the Clivus Victoriae *, whose use and destination were then unclear because the digging had not gone deep enough nor far along enough. In one of these was buried the two marble statues which we will discuss today, reproduced in plate X (2), ... Sculpted in Greek marble in a very decadent style, although they match they are of different heights, the one with uplifted face being 0.5m, while the other is 0.45m; ... 1. "Notizie degli scavi" (="News of the excavations"), 1886, p. 123. Online here. 2. Now in the storehouse of the new Museo Romano Nazionale at the Baths of Diocletian.

Lovatelli describes the animals as a cock and a dog.

* This is the sloping street up to the Palatine from the Velabrum on the West side.

Bibliography

G. Caetani Lovatelli, "Due statuette di ministri mitriaci", Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 20 (1892), p.226-234 and Pl. X.