Head of Emperor Augustus
ca. 14
The British Museum

Modelled and 3D printed from reference photographs by Daniel Pett of marble original
Augustus is one of the few personalities unanimously praised by history. Not in vain was he an example to all his successors. But before becoming the venerable Augustus, he had to overcome a multitude of obstacles and dangers, sometimes with the most perverse stratagems. His masterful use of political lies and propaganda enabled him to conceal his past, cloak himself in solemnity and deceive the whole of Rome with the establishment of the Empire. His own image was also a political construct: the imperishable Augustus, frozen in time at the age of thirty; a marble delusion that allowed a rather skinny man with unkempt hair to go down in history as a powerful figure with the aura that only the greatest rulers achieve.

 

 

Head of Empress Livia
25 – 1 BC
The British Museum
Modelled and 3D printed from reference photographs by Daniel Pett of marble original

Augustus and Livia were an atypical couple in ancient Rome. Their marriage was truly motivated by love, though power also played an important role. Together they managed to dominate the Roman world as no one had ever done before, and while he was praised by history, she was despised. Some sources tell us that Livia managed to eliminate the political heirs of Augustus to promote her son Tiberius and that she even went so far as to murder her 75-year-old husband with poisoned figs. Nothing could be further from the truth. The gossipy Suetonius and the perfidious Tacitus made sure to give us this distorted view of reality, as they could not stand a woman accumulating such power.

 

 

Head of Emperor Caligula
ca. 40
The J. Paul Getty Museum
3D modelling and 3D printing by Cosmo Wenman of a marble original

Branded a madman, Caligula is one of the characters who has suffered most from the scourge of those who rewrote his history. A somewhat tormented young man, he came to the throne with little experience and preferred to amuse himself and mock the senators rather than rule Rome. All of this, however, was magnified by authors such as Suetonius who, years after his assassination, reorganised his biography to emphasise the positive aspects first and leave the most despicable for last. The result is a mediocre emperor gone mad.

 

 

Head of Emperor Claudius. Reworked from a head of Caligula.
41 – 54
Capitoline Museums – Centrale Montemartini
Modelling and 3D printing from reference photographs of a marble original

It seems that Emperor Claudius pretended to be a fool more often than he appeared to keep himself safe in the shadows. A recent investigation has concluded that he was probably involved in the assassination of his predecessor, the detested Caligula. He arranged to be “kidnapped” by the Praetorians and “forced” to accept the throne against the pleas of the senators, for whom the imperial experiment had failed and clamoured for a return to the republic. At this point, Claudius’ lies were probably one of the most decisive aspects in leading to the consolidation of the Roman Empire as an institution.

 

 

Veiled head of Emperor Nero
54 – 55
Museo Nazionale Romano – Palazzo Massimo alle Terme
Modelling and 3D printing from reference photographs of marble original

Emperor Claudius was succeeded by Nero, a young man who began to reign at the insistence of his mother, Agrippina the Younger. Despite being more interested in singing and music, he took up the reins of the Empire under the advice of his mother and the stoic Seneca. Later, having discovered his power, he would remove them all, claiming his total freedom. The lacklustre emperor gave way to the unbridled artist, which plunged his reign into disaster and led to his suicide. Unfortunately, he is often only remembered for his alleged involvement in the great fire of Rome in the year 64, another of the great hoaxes of ancient history.

 

 

Head of Emperor Domitian
84 – 96
Museo Nazionale Romano – Terme di Diocleziano
Modelling and 3D printing from reference photographs of an original marble head

Domitian, unlike Nero, held out great hope to the Roman people. A cultivated and well-educated man, he led a prosperous reign that made him one of the best administrators Rome had ever known. However, due to his disagreements with the Senate, he was assassinated fifteen years after his accession to the throne; his memory erased, and his name associated with the greatest atrocities. It was a cruel propaganda campaign that even affected Caligula, Nero and Livia, and that was orchestrated by the supporters of his successor, Trajan, who, very astutely, did not hesitate to please the Senate. Only in this way, by manipulating history and sacrificing Domitian, could the new leader be extolled as the greatest emperor of all.

 

 

Silver denarii minted by Mark Antony with the emblems of the VI Legion and the cohort of the “speculators”
ca. 32 BC and 31 BC
Private collection

A decade after Julius Caesar’s assassination, the power struggle between Mark Antony and Gaius Octavian had become untenable. The former was an old-fashioned military man, the latter a genius of propaganda and political deception. In this context, Antony had silver denarii minted to pay his soldiers and boost their morale. These shown here were distributed just before his defeat at the naval battle of Actium (31 BC). A victorious Octavian then seized Antony’s coins to solve the terrible financial crisis that was about to crush him. But how to overcome the dishonour of using the propagandistic image of his enemy? By turning it to his advantage: symbolically, Octavian expressed that Mark Antony’s main legions were switching sides. An omen that the final victory was near.

 

 

Silver denarius minted by Augustus bearing the legends CAESAR AVGVSTVS (front) and OB CIVIS SERVATOS (back).
ca. 19 BC.
Private collection

Not even one year had passed since the battle of Actium where Mark Antony and Cleopatra were defeated at Alexandria, and Egypt became a Roman province. Octavian was then given the title of Augustus and deployed such effective political propaganda that he managed to deceive the whole of Rome. An example can be seen on this coin, where a civic wreath of oak leaves bears the legend OB CIVIS SERVATOS (for the salvation of citizens). Augustus thus boasted of having saved the dying Roman Republic. In reality, he was launching a one-man, authoritarian, life-long government that Rome had not yet known, but which was to become the essence of its entire civilisation: the Roman Empire.

 

 

Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus
186 BC
Kunsthistorisches Museum
Modelling and 3D printing from reference photographs of an original bronze plaque

Despite the biased perception of bacchanals as acts of unbridled lust, the reality is that they were a set of rites dedicated to the god Bacchus and practised only by women who, through wine, dances and contortions, sought to achieve a mystical relationship with the divinity. The cult originated in Greece and became popular in Rome at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. With the access of men to the rites and the multiplication of the celebrations, the political and religious elite became alarmed. Although they had no problem in allowing foreign cults – as long as the domestic gods were not neglected – they now viewed the uncontrolled situation with fear. Rumours of savage practices, murders and other atrocities spread, which led to their prohibition in 186 BC and lasted through the centuries.

 

 

Translation of the edict against bacchanals

The consuls Quintus Marcius, son of Lucius, and Spurius Postumius, son of Lucius, consulted the Senate on October 7 in the Temple of Bellona. Marcus Claudius, son of Marcus, Lucius Valerius, son of Publius, and Quintus Minucius, son of Gaius, assisted in drafting the decree.
Regarding the Bacchanalia the senators proposed to issue a decree as follows to those who are allied with us:
“No one of them shall have a place devoted to the worship of Bacchus : and if there are any who say that they have a need for such a place, they shall appear in Rome before the urban praetor ; and when the pleas of these men have been heard, our Senate shall make a decision regarding these matters, provided that not less than 100 senators are present when the matter is discussed. No Roman citizen or man of Latin rights or anyone of the allies shall associate with the Bacchae, unless they have appeared before the urban praetor and he has given permission, in accordance with the opinion of the Senate, delivered while not less than 100 senators were present when the matter was discussed.” The proposal passed.
“No man shall be priest of, nor shall any man or woman be master of, such an organization ; nor shall anyone of them have a common fund ; nor shall anyone appoint any man or woman to be master of such an organization or to act as master ; nor hereafter shall anyone take common oath with them, shall make common vows, shall make stipulations with them, nor shall anyone give them surety or shall take surety from them. No one shall perform their rites in secret; nor shall anyone perform their rites in public, in private, or outside the city, unless he has appeared before the urban praetor and he has given permission, in accordance with the opinion of the Senate, delivered while not less than 100 senators were present when the matter was discussed.” The proposal passed.
“No one in a company of more than five persons altogether, men and women, shall perform such rites; nor in that company shall more than two men or three women be present, unless it is in accordance with the opinion of the urban praetor and the Senate, as has been written above.”
You shall publish these decrees in public assembly for not less than three market days, that you may know the opinion of the Senate. For the opinion of the senators is as follows : “If there are any persons who act contrary to what has been written above, it is our opinion that a proceeding for a capital offense must be made against them” ; and you shall inscribe this on a bronze tablet, for thus the Senate voted was proper ; and you shall order it to be posted where it can be read most easily ; and, as has been written above, you shall provide within ten days after these tablets have been delivered to you that those places devoted to the worship of Bacchus shall be dismantled, if there are any such, except in case something sacred is concerned in the matter.
To be dispatched to the Ager Teuranus.