Bronze head from a statue of the Emperor Hadrian
Roman Britain, 2nd century AD
Found in the River Thames near London Bridge (1834)
Hadrian (reigned AD 117-138) is famous as the emperor who built
the eighty-mile-long wall across Britain, from the Solway Firth to
the River Tyne at Wallsend: 'to separate the barbarians from the
Romans' in the words of his biographer. This head comes from a
statue of Hadrian that probably stood in Roman London in a public
space such as a forum. It would have been one and a quarter times
life-size.
The statue may have been put up to commemorate Hadrian's visit
to Britain in AD 122; Hadrian travelled very extensively throughout
the Empire, and imperial visits generally gave rise to programmes
of rebuilding and beautification of cities. There are many known
marble statues of him, but this example made in bronze is a rare
survival.
T.W. Potter, Roman Britain, 2nd edition (London, The British Museum Press, 1997)