New Augustan Head Found 5/9/06!

[Joe Geranio]

AUGUSTAN HEAD FOUND AT NEW VILLA

Rome, May 10 - A marble head of the Emperor Augustus has been found at a large and well-appointed Roman villa just discovered outside the capital. The head, practically a bas-relief, shows the emperor in profile in his middle years. It will shortly be taken to the newly refurbished Roman Antiquities Museum at Palazzo Massimo near Termini Station to be shown to the public. Also travelling from the dig site - north of Rome, not far from Hadrian's great villa - will be some 100 gold and silver coins. The head was found at the bottom of a well at the villa, a large (2,500 square-metre) property built between the second century BC and the first century AD. "We don't know who the villa belonged to," said dig leader Stefano Musco. "This is an area dotted with villas, because of its proximity to the administrative and cultural hub that was Hadrian's court". The villa also boasts "particularly fine" mosaic floors with characteristic geometrical designs, Musco said. Other finds were thermal baths, a warehouse and two entrance halls or atria. Augustus (63 BC-14 AD), the adopted son of Jiulus Caesar, was Rom