What the Empire Wanted You to See: Manipulation, Mythmaking, and Visual Control in Roman Imperial Art

The Augustus of Prima Porta is a full-length portrait statue of Augustus, the first Roman emperor; A well-preserved Roman period copy of the Doryphoros of Polykleitos.

Cupid on a dolphin (detail), Augustus of Primaporta, 1st century C.E; Detail of the breastplate, Augustus of Primaporta, 1st century C.E.; Detail of Sol and Caelus on the breastplate, Augustus of Primaporta, 1st century C.E.; Detail of Tellus on the breastplate, Augustus of Primaporta, 1st century C.E.

Rome’s first emperor grasped that marble could command belief as surely as legions commanded obedience. When Octavian emerged victorious from the civil wars in 27 B.C.E. and accepted the honorific title Augustus, he inherited a republic exhausted by faction and wary of monarchy. His response was not only political reform but visual persuasion on a scale no Roman leader had attempted. The marble statue known as the “Augustus of Prima Porta” condenses that strategy into a single, orchestrated image. Modeled on Polykleitos’ Doryphoros yet unmistakably individualized, the statue blends Greek heroic nudity (now modestly sheathed in ornamented armor) with Roman political narrative; the Parthian king returns the legionary standards on the emperor’s cuirass, flanked by Apollo, Diana, and cosmic personifications (Zanker 72–81). Cupid astride a dolphin, invoking Venus and the mythic descent of the Julian line, signals that Augustus’ authority is literally divine (Kleiner 58). The result is neither Greek copy nor Roman documentary portrait but a synthesis that naturalizes sole rule as the fulfillment of destiny, virtue, and universal order.

The Ara Pacis Augustae is an altar in Rome dedicated to the Pax Romana. The altar as reassembled, showing original western side; View of the opposite (eastern) side with Tellus Panel at the left and Roma Panel at the right; Ara Pacis: detail of the processional frieze showing priests at right and the Germanic hostage/guest (north face); Relief showing a sacrifice performed by Aeneas or Numa Pompilius; Roma, the personification of Rome; Ara Pacis: the so-called Tellus panel; Ara Pacis: processional frieze showing members of the Imperial household (south face); 7-9 Ara Pacis relief.

Illustration of the 1st part of the latin Res Gestae in the on the north wall of the pronaos of the Augusteum; 2nd part of the Res Gestae in the Monumentum Ancyranum on the south wall.

The program expands panoramically on the Ara Pacis Augustae (dedicated 9 B.C.E.). Floral friezes on the lower register at first appear decorative, yet their botanical specificity (acanthus, vine, poppy) evokes a golden age under Apollo and Dionysus, guarantors of Augustan prosperity (Galinsky 141–44). Above, processional reliefs depict senators, priests, and the imperial family walking in calm alignment. The presence of children, including possible heirs Gaius and Lucius Caesar, folds dynastic continuity into civic ritual, projecting Pax Romana as lived reality (Pollini 195–215). On the east wall, Tellus (or Pax, or Venus) sits amid tame animals and breezes, an icon of fertile abundance that conflates nature, myth, and politics (Becker). Bronze tablets of the Res Gestae once mounted nearby supplied a textual counterpart: image and inscription mutually reinforcing the Augustan narrative.

Augustus’ Hellenizing revival served several purposes. First, it distanced his visage from the harsh verism of late Republican elders, substituting serene symmetry associated with Greek Golden‑Age virtue (Zanker 14–26). Second, it elevated Rome’s cultural status in the Mediterranean by heralding a novum saeculum that was heir to Periclean Athens; an ideological pivot crucial for an empire policing an increasingly Hellenized elite (Galinsky 51–56). Yet Roman concreteness was not abandoned: individual features, shallow lines at the emperor’s eyes, a subtle part in his hair, anchor the divine veneer in recognizably human flesh (Kleiner 60–62).

Model of the ancient Campus Martius, seen near the lower left of the picture, around AD 300. When the Assembly of the Centuries used to vote on the Field of Mars in the Roman Old Republic, it had been an area outside the Pomerium, the exact boundaries of which have not been preserved. By this time, however, it was a perfectly rectangular field, surrounded by buildings very much inside the city proper.

The Pantheon and the Fontana del Pantheon, a landmark of the Campus Martius since ancient Rome; A view of the ruins of Temple of Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger); Largo di Torre Argentina, Temple A (to Juturna) in the distance, Temple B in the center. In the distant left, the Teatro Argentina; Temple A; Temple B; Temple C.

The Temple of Apollo Sosianus; Temple of Bellona; The plaza of the Circus Flaminius (left of the Theatre of Marcellus in the center), according to Italo Gismondi's model.

Public space became a didactic theater. In the Campus Martius, Augustus aligned his Mausoleum, an Egyptian obelisk–gnomon Horologium, and the Ara Pacis along a processional axis, turning topography into a dynastic map of time, death, and cosmic order (Favro 103–08). South‑east of the old Forum Romanum, the newly built Forum of Augustus enclosed a marble‑sheathed piazza flanked by porticoes of ancestral heroes, culminating in the Temple of Mars Ultor. Citizens crossing from the crowded Subura into this gleaming court literally walked through the genealogy of Rome; statues of Romulus, Aeneas, and the Julian line flanking the walkway, teaching history as civic choreography (Hurlet 240–53).

Remains of the Forum of Augustus with the Temple of Mars Ultor; The fireproof wall with Arco dei Pantani and the columns of the temple; Artist's rendition of Forum of Augustus.

Remains of the "Porticus Aemilia." We know that olive oil was stored here, because an inscription found in Ostia documents a procurator who was responsible for the oil in Ostia, Portus, and this warehouse: procurator ad oleum in Galbae Ostiae Portus Utriusque; Remains of the Horrea Agrippiana. The Horrea Piperataria was a warehouse for pepper and spices from Egypt and Arabia, built during the reign of Domitianus.

Concrete (opus caementicium) and vaulting allowed unprecedented architectural spans. In the Forum of Augustus, brick‑faced concrete exedrae carried high attic walls without dense colonnades, translating engineering bravura into ideological monumentality (Lancaster 11–37). Barrel vaults and annular buttressing achieved in Augustan storage buildings prefigured the later domes of Nero and Hadrian.

The Gemma Augustea is an ancient Roman low-relief cameo engraved gem cut from a double-layered Arabian onyx stone. It is commonly agreed that the gem cutter who created it was either Dioscurides or one of his disciples, in the second or third decade of the 1st century AD.

Religion sealed the pact between mortal and monarch. After the Senate deified Julius Caesar in 42 B.C.E., Augustus styled himself divi filius (“son of the god”) and encouraged provincial altars where Roma and his own numen were worshiped together (Fishwick 55–61). Gem engravings such as the Gemma Augustea visualize the emperor enthroned beside Roma under a star‑filled sky while soldiers erect a tropaeum below; cosmic and military authority conjoined (Casile‐Agnolini 83–88).

Marble portrait bust of Tiberius; Bronze portrait bust of Tiberius

Caligula, Marble bust, AD 37–41

Claudius as Jupiter

Portrait of Nero

Augustus’ successors inherited his iconographic toolkit yet adapted it. Tiberius largely retained Augustan classicism, signaling continuity (Pollini 286–91). Caligula briefly revived Republican nudity in portraits to evoke martial virtus (Kleiner 123). Claudius, mindful of physical disability, assimilated Jupiter’s mature features to project stability (Rose 114–22). Nero, by contrast, rolled coils of hair across his forehead and adopted a distant gaze, announcing philhellenic luxury and theatrical charisma (Elsner 155–63). These shifts reveal portraiture as a living negotiation between ruler, workshop, and audience.

Portrait head of Livia, wife of Emperor Augustus, circa AD 20.

Bust of Agrippina the Younger

Nero Agrippina aureus coinage

Imperial women likewise received calibrated representation. Livia’s portraits freeze her at ageless thirty‑five, smoothing wrinkles to model perpetual pudicitia (Milnor 204–10). Agrippina the Younger’s busts, by contrast, flaunt elaborate tiered coiffures and a boldly set jaw; visual shorthand for Julio‑Claudian lineage and formidable influence over young Nero (Wood 142–48). Coin portraits confirm the messaging: Agrippina appears face‑to‑face with Nero on aurei of 55 C.E., her presence legitimizing his claim.

Trajan’s Column is one of many public works commissioned by Emperor Trajan after he conquered Dacia (in modern day Romania) in 107 C.E., a victory that stretched the Roman Empire to its greatest size. The column, which also served as Trajan’s tomb, is over 100 feet tall and is decorated with a continuous spiral frieze commemorating the two battles against Dacia.

Giallo antico (antique yellow) is a precious yellow marble used first by the ancient Africans and later by the ancient Romans (which they called marmor numidicum (marble of Numidia). Flooring in giallo antico marble and pavonazzetto marble in Trajan's Forum in Rome (exedra behind the eastern portico); Floor in Opus sectile, Villa Adriana, Tivoli; Giallo antico from the Domus Tiberiana, Palatine hill, Rome.

Sample of portasanta marble from the Podesti Collection.

Technically, early imperial sculptors advanced beyond Republican drill work. Running drill created crisp shadows in hair; claw chisels feathered flesh tones; portrait eyes received drilled pupils and incised irises for heightened verisimilitude (Kleiner 35–41). Relief carvers developed continuous narrative: overlapping planes and carved undersides enliven the procession on the Ara Pacis and foreshadow Trajan’s Column. Colored marbles (giallo antico, portasanta) introduced under Augustus signaled imperial wealth and global reach.

The Appian Way, or Via Appia, is an ancient Roman road built between 312 BC and the 4th century CE.

Map of the Esquiline Necropolis (Puticuli). Puticuli were open pits used as mass graves for the poor in ancient Rome.

State architects like Agrippa oversaw massive projects, while equestrian families inserted honorific reliefs into public niches to align personal memory with imperial ideology (D’Ambra 66–68). Freedmen’s tombs in the Esquiline district echo Augustan classicism in miniaturized stucco façades, proving the style’s downward diffusion.

Punishment of Ixion in the House of the Vettii in Pompeii; Priapus Fresco (House of the Vettii, Pompeii); Cave Canem Mosaic & "Guard Dog Satire" (House of the Tragic Poet); Scene of a Man Holding a Scroll While Urinating (Pompeii, Unidentified House).

Official art chiefly affirmed power, yet ambiguity lurks. The re‑erection of the Pasquino Group (likely Menelaus and Patroclus) under Augustus could be read as patriotic heroism and tragic cost; subtle caution beneath triumphal display (Stewart 219). Pompeian wall paintings occasionally lampoon imperial figures, reminding us that image control faced an active, critical public.

Roman nilotic mosaic

Egyptian obelisks ferried to Rome became calendar markers; Nilotic tableaux in domestic frescoes exoticized the dinner rooms of Italian elites (Pollitt 310–15). Eastern garnets and pearls in cameo portraits offered portable trophies of global dominion; foreign luxuries recoded as Roman triumph.

Roman identity of the early empire thus fused Greek form, Italic resilience, and multicultural booty into a single visual discourse. Its durability is evident in later art: Hadrianic idealization, Constantinian spolia, Renaissance classicism, and neoclassical state capitals. Alberti’s treatises, Palladio’s villas, and Jefferson’s Capitol echo Augustan formulas of symmetry and civic virtue, proving that the visual logic Augustus devised to legitimize one-man rule could outlive, and out‑argue, the republic it replaced.

Early imperial art was a political technology as sophisticated as any decree or legion. By blending Greek harmony with Roman realism, engineering audacity with mythic genealogy, Augustus and the Julio‑Claudians forged an aesthetic of authority that made monarchy look like destiny and empire feel like peace. Later regimes and modern nation‑builders have repeatedly mined that visual grammar to cloak their own ambitions. The persuasiveness of the Prima Porta stance, the Ara Pacis scrolls, or the marble‑sheathed forum underscores an enduring lesson: power survives not only through force, but through images beautiful enough, and capacious enough, to let viewers see their own hopes reflected back in stone.

References:

Becker, Jeffrey A. Ara Pacis Augustae. Smarthistory, 2021, smarthistory.org/ara‑pacis‑augustae/.

Casile‐Agnolini, Annalisa. The Gemma Augustea: Iconography and Imperial Ideology. Journal of Roman Archaeology, vol. 30, 2017, pp. 83–101.

D’Ambra, Eve. Roman Art. Cambridge UP, 1998.

Elsner, Jaś. Portraits and Politics: Nero’s Image. In Art and Rulers in Imperial Rome, edited by Jasper Gaunt, Routledge, 2018, pp. 149–67.

Favro, Diane. The Urban Image of Augustan Rome. Cambridge UP, 1996.

Fishwick, Duncan. The Imperial Cult in the Latin West. Vol. 1, Brill, 2002.

Galinsky, Karl. Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction. Princeton UP, 1996.

Hurlet, Frédéric. The Forum of Augustus. In The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus, edited by Karl Galinsky, Cambridge UP, 2005, pp. 232–54.

Kleiner, Diana E. E. Roman Sculpture. Yale UP, 1992.

Lancaster, Lynne. Concrete Vaulted Construction in Imperial Rome: Innovations in Context. Cambridge UP, 2005.

Milnor, Kristina. Livia, Women, and the Public Image. Classical Philology, vol. 99, no. 2, 2004, pp. 201–15.

Pollini, John. The Ara Pacis Augustae: Visual Statecraft and Julio‑Claudian Dynasty. American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 118, no. 2, 2014, pp. 191–232.

Pollitt, J. J. The Art of Rome: Sources and Documents. Cambridge UP, 1983.

Rose, Charles Brian. Dynastic Commemoration and Imperial Portraiture in the Julio‑Claudian Period. Cambridge UP, 1997.

Stewart, Peter. Statues in Roman Society: Representation and Response. Oxford UP, 2003.

Wood, Susan. Imperial Women: A Study in Public Image, 40 BC–AD 68. Brill, 1999.

Zanker, Paul. The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus. Translated by Alan Shapiro, U of Michigan P, 1988.