Head of Caesar Augustus

Octavian Caesar, great-nephew to Julius Caesar (who was assassinated in 44 BCE), ruled Rome as its first emperor until his death in 14 CE, bringing stability and prosperity through innovative leadership and sharing of power with the Roman senate.

Born nine years after Augustus’s death, Pliny accordingly grew up in a world permeated by his legacy and likeness, and the Natural History is riddled with mentions of him. But Pliny also evenhandedly relates the hardships and setbacks Augustus endured, and even sneers at marital infidelities within the imperial family. About Augustus’s idiosyncrasies, Pliny remarks that “Rome is the only place in the whole world where there is a temple to a comet” which Augustus established after a “hairy star” (sidus crinitum) auspiciously appeared during the games for Venus Genetrix (2.93).

Portraits of Augustus were many and new ones were even made long after his death. This portrait is an example of the later, “Augustan” type, which derives its more idealized features from earlier Greek sculpture. Like all Roman marble sculpture, the portrait was originally painted to make it appear more lifelike. Vestiges of this color still remain in the eyes.

(Andrew C. Weislogel, “Wonder and Wakefulness: The Nature of Pliny the Elder,” exhibition organized by the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, curated by Andrew C. Weislogel and Verity J. Platt, presented at the Johnson Museum January 21–June 11, 2023)