Inscribed breast band of a horse, with a bust of Carian Zeus,

2nd century CE

This thick band of silver adorned with a high-relief bust of Zeus was originally part of a horse’s breastband. The god’s torso emerges from behind the roundel that contains him. He is nude except for a cloak draped over his shoulder and holds up a scepter, depicted in low relief. The god’s curly hair, beard, and moustache are carefully and plastically rendered, the beard bifurcated at the chin, the hair falling from a high cowlick to frame his face in wavy ringlets. He wears a wreath of oak leaves, the tips of which stand at the top, where they frame a miniature modius, a cylindrical headdress or crown. The inscription, which reads “Manteiosukaros,” may suggest that he is the Carian Zeus, the principle deity of southwestern Asia Minor, in present-day Turkey. The style of the letter forms in the inscription suggests a date in the second century CE.