Pannonian cap

[aitor iriarte]

Hello Graham,
Just from personal observation. I've spent several hours in front of those statues. Everybody has seen pics of the Tetrarchs but very few people has observed them in detail...
In origin, each pair was standing on a huge porphyry column, on a console. When Venetians sacked Constantinople, they crudely sawed off the statues in three fragments for ease of transport.
There are several jewelled items portraited on the Tetrarchs: Belts, swords and shoes. None of them had insets, the jewels are simply represented in bulk.
The square holes in the pillei are roughly carved and, if you look at my pic, you'll see one additional hole at the back of the second man's pilleus, for the second 'finger' of the crane's pincer. Moreover, you'll notice that the pilleus of the fourth emperor broke during transport, due to the pressure, just at that point!

Aitor