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Statue of the Emperor Octavian Augustus
Rome
First quarter of the 1st century
H 185 cm
This statue was created after the death of Octavian (reigned 31st
BC-14 th AD), during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius. The
worship of the emperor began even during the lifetime of
Octavian (in 27 BC the Senate awarded him the title Augustus:
the Holy, divine Son, father of the native land, descendant of Venus
and Aeneas), and under his successors this became an official cult.
Here the emperor is represented as Jupiter, the supreme God of the
Roman pantheon, and this statue is a typical example of Roman
sculpture from the time of the Empire. The composition was adapted
from the celebrated sculpture of Zeus by Phidias, which allowed the
placing of the appropriate attributes in Augustus's hands: a Nike
and a sceptre. The sculptor preserved the emperor's portrait
features, but idealized them to create a formal cult statue.
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