Fun-filled gladiator activity book, £3.99
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In ancient Rome,
official portraits were an extremely important way for emperors to
reach out to their subjects, and their public image was defined by
them. As hundreds of surviving imperial statues show, there were
only three ways in which the emperor could officially be
represented: in the battle dress of a general; in a toga, the Roman
state civilian costume; or nude, likened to a god. These styles
powerfully and effectively evoked the emperor’s role as
commander-in-chief, magistrate or priest, and finally as the
ultimate embodiment of divine providence.
Hadrian, once a tribune (staff officer) in
three different legions of
the Roman army and
commander of a legion in one of Trajan’s wars, was often shown in
military uniform. He was clearly keen to project the image of an
ever-ready soldier, but other conclusions have been drawn from his
surviving statues.
Hadrian was the first Roman emperor to wear a full beard. This has usually been seen as a mark of his devotion to Greece and Greek culture.
One ancient
source even calls him graeculus, or ‘Greekling’. Beards
had been a marker of Greek identity since classical times, whereas
a clean-shaven look was considered more Roman. However, in the
decades before Hadrian became emperor, beards had come to be worn
by wealthy young Romans and seem to have been particularly
prevalent in the military.
Furthermore, one literary source, the Historia Augusta, claims that Hadrian wore a beard to hide blemishes on his face.
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