Augustus from Prima Porta

Augustus raises an arm as if addressing troops. Beneath the gesture, his breastplate carries a second scene. Find the exchange at its centre, where a Parthian figure returns Roman military standards. The emperor's body gives that event a public setting. The statue was found at the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta and dates to the early first century AD. Augustus was Rome's emperor. He wears military armour, with a cloak gathered around his hips, but the decoration extends well beyond a soldier's equipment. Around the central exchange, figures associated with sky, sun, dawn and Earth place the political event within a larger cosmic order. You can move between the whole standing figure and the small figures on his chest. From a distance, the raised arm makes an address. Up close, the armour presents an account of Roman authority supported by gods and the ordered world. The statue's balanced stance also draws on the Greek sculptural model known as the spear-bearer.