The Faces of Ancient Rome | Roman Art Series with Dr Gail-Nina Anderson

The Faces of Ancient Rome

We still talk about the “Classical profile”, but what did the Romans really look like? Across several centuries the art of the Ancient Romans shows that not everyone was blessed with a straight nose and chiselled chin. The variations created by age, gender, status and (as the Empire spread widely over foreign territories) race present a range of faces we might meet in the street. These representations also reveal a population that loved sitting for portraits, valued the individual and responded to the trends of fashion (yes, even the Emperor Hadrian.)