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Augustus from Prima Porta
Cat. 2290
This statue has been dated to the beginning of the 7st century A.D.
It was found in the ruins of the Villa of Livia, Augustus's wife, at Prima Porta on the via Flaminia.
It is a statue of the emperor himself, wearing a highly decorated cuirass and with his cloak (paludamentum) wrapped around his hips, in the act of addressing his troops (adlocutio).
The reliefs on the cuirass show a Parthian king in the act of returning to a Roman officer the standards lost by Crassus in 53 B.C. during the Battle of Carrhae; at the sides are figures from the two provinces of the empire.
The whole scene is inserted into a cosmic landscape: at the top one can see the personification of the Heavens in the centre, with the chariots of Apollo and Aurora alongside. At the bottom one can recognise Diana riding on the back of a hind and, in the centre, the goddess Earth.
The statue seems to have been inspired by the figure of the Doryphoros (spear-bearer) by the Greek sculptor, Polykleitos, of which there is a good copy in the New Wing (Braccio Nuovo).
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