Gold ring with carnelian intaglio portrait of Tiberius

Gold ring with carnelian intaglio portrait of Tiberius

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tiberius, stepson of Augustus, was already fifty-six years old when he became emperor in A.D. 14. His accession established the precedent of dynastic rule in Rome by the Julio-Claudian family. Despite long years of experience as a general and administrator under Augustus, Tiberius was not a popular ruler and spent the last ten years of his reign living in seclusion on the island of Capri.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gold ring with carnelian intaglio portrait of TiberiusGold ring with carnelian intaglio portrait of TiberiusGold ring with carnelian intaglio portrait of TiberiusGold ring with carnelian intaglio portrait of TiberiusGold ring with carnelian intaglio portrait of Tiberius

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.