Mars and Venus are documented in Portus through sculptures.
A statuary group of Mars and Venus was excavated in 1750 in the Isola Sacra necropolis. It was donated by pope Benedict XIV to the Capitoline Museums in the same year. The group has been interpreted as Marcus Aurelius and Faustina in the guise of Mars and Venus, or as a private couple and then belonging in a tomb. A similar group was found in Ostia, in the Hall of the Group of Mars and Venus (II,IX,3).
Group of Mars and Venus from the Isola Sacra necropolis. H. 1.88.
Capitoline Museums. SO IX, nr. 15. Arachne 15959. Photo: Wikimedia, Sailko.Three statues of Venus have emerged in Portus. One is in Munich. It was found in or before 1811. It is a copy of the Venus of Knidos by Praxiteles, and has been dated to the late first century BC.
Two more statues of Venus are in the Museo Torlonia. Of the first the torso only has been preserved, the second is also a copy of the Venus of Knidos.
Statue of Venus from Portus. H. 1.52 without and 1.74 with the plinth.
Munich, Glyptothek. Furtwängler 1910, 266-269, nr. 258. Arachne 12538.
Photo: Wikimedia, Bibi Saint-Pol.
Statues of Venus. H. 0.65 and 2.05. Museo Torlonia, inv. nrs. 4 and 146.
