Augustus_ The Life of Rome's First Emperor - Anthony Everitt [152]
Sextus Pompeius, Pompey the Great’s younger son, posed a serious threat to Octavian. His melancholy expression and his beard and mustache, which Romans only grew to mark some tragic event or personal misfortune, suggest that this portrait in bronze was completed after Sextus’ defeat at Naulochus in 36 B.C. and subsequent death.
A Roman warship with soldiers on board. This marble relief dates from the 30s B.C., and the crocodile by the prow suggests a reference to the sea campaign against Cleopatra that culminated in Actium.
Alexandria as it appeared in ancient times. The view is of Canopic Way, one of the city’s main avenues. In the foreground is the crossroads near which stood the tomb of Alexander the Great. In the distance the Heptastadion can be seen, the great causeway that led to the island of Pharos and created the city’s two harbors.
Cleopatra, a portrait in marble probably made in Italy when she was a young woman. It conveys something of the charm of her personality, which captivated Julius Caesar.
Augustus’ much-loved sister Octavia. A kindly woman, she brought up Mark Antony’s children, including those he had by Cleopatra. She never recovered from the death of her twenty-year-old son, Marcellus, in 23 B.C. The marble bust dates from about 40 B.C.
Augustus’ wife, Livia, in middle age. This study, made in her lifetime, evokes an efficient woman of affairs, discreet but decisive.
Augustus and Agrippa at the height of their powers. These marble busts were carved in the 20s B.C. They are realistic character studies that illustrate the two men’s different personalities—the one astute and calculating and the other energetic and determined.
The tall man in the center of this relief has been identified as Agrippa. His head is veiled in his capacity as a priest attending a ritual sacrifice. In front of him walk two religious officials, the flamines diales, with their pointed hats, and a lictor, or ceremonial guard, carrying the fasces, an ax inside a bundle of rods. The little boy holding onto his toga may be either his son Gaius or Lucius. The boy is looking back toward his mother, Julia. The man walking behind her is probably Mark Antony’s son Iullus Antonius, later to become Julia’s lover. The stone carving comes from the Ara Pacis Augustae, or Altar of Augustan Peace. Inspired by the friezes on the Parthenon, it was dedicated in 9 B.C.
A contemporary portrait of Tiberius as a young man setting out on a distinguished career as soldier and public servant.
Young Gaius Caesar, Agrippa’s son by Augustus’ daughter Julia, whom the princeps adopted and groomed as his successor. The marble bust dates from about the time of his consulship in 1 B.C. or during his eastern mission.
Agrippa’s last son, Agrippa Postumus, born after his father’s premature death in 12 B.C. The contemporary sculptor has captured a sense of danger and intensity in his youthful subject.
This onyx cameo, the Gemma Augustea, is an example of mendacious art at its finest. Made in A.D. 10 the seventy-three-year-old princeps is presented as a half-naked youth. He is seated next to a personification of Rome, beside whom stands Augustus’ grandson Germanicus. On the left Tiberius alights from a chariot. Beneath is a scene of defeated and humbled barbarians. The overall impression is of serenity and success. In fact, the mood at Rome was nervous and gloomy, for Augustus was just recovering from the greatest threat to his authority during his long reign, the loss of three legions destroyed in an ambush in Germany the previous year.
A fresco of an actor’s mask from a room in Augustus’ house on the Palatine Hill, which may have been his bedroom. The princeps enjoyed theater and, to judge by his last words, saw himself as a performer. He asked the people around his bedside: “Have I played my part in the farce of life well enough?”
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