# The Met accessions a marble portrait bust of Gaius (14.37) as a public object

Date: 1914

## The fact

In 1914 the Metropolitan Museum accessioned a Julio-Claudian marble bust identified as Gaius (14.37), now a public collection page. The sitter did not sit in New York.

## Context

A museum head lets the public test the ‘monster’ caption against a court portrait type. Identification of imperial portraits is specialist and sometimes revised.

[Caligula](/people/caligula) is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Official edition, museum, or agency page and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: Met — marble portrait bust of Caligula (14.37) (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/248851; Metropolitan Museum of Art).

## Significance

A 1914 museum bust is a teaching-access path, not a verdict.

A 1914 museum bust is a teaching-access path, not a verdict.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Caligula: https://factrail.ai/people/caligula

## Drivers

- Digital Learning Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access

## Sources

- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/248851
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Caligula-Roman-emperor

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/cal-met-bust-1914