This frowning head with staring eyes can be identified with accuracy by comparison with coins, and from a bronze head discovered in the early twentieth century at the Ponte Sisto in Rome. The most notable and identifying feature is the diadem he wears, which was introduced about forty years earlier as a mark of the Emperor.
Through military strength and solid administration, Valentinian established himself as one of the last strong and successful leaders of the western Roman empire.
The original is badly damaged; the lower part of the face is a restoration
Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 1475
Purchased from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in 1933
Poulsen: Katalog over Antike Skulpturen Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, 522, pl. LXVI
Delbrück: Spätantike Kaiserporträts, 178-, pl. 78
Hekler: Greek and Roman Portraits, pl. 305b
Johansen, F: Catalogue of Roman Portraits in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (1994), vol.III, 178, no.78
Acquired in Rome in 1895