Augustan Dynasty
We are very much in I, Claudius territory here, where for once the famed BBC TV series makes a handsome companion piece to Robert Graves’s book. These are the originals of the characters brought to such shockingly entertaining life by the likes of Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed, Siân Phillips, George Baker, John Hurt et al.
The Augustan Dynasty was tricky to research because those old Roman families only seemed to have about three names between them, and the only things that changed were the endings depending on whether it was a man or a woman. And it’s not always completely clear whose likeness we are dealing with. For instance, there seems to be a lot of confusion over which one was the slippery Praetorian guard Sejanus and which one, Tiberius. In the end I decided the Emperor Tiberius must be the one with the mean little mouth.
A lot of the men seem to have sticky-out ears (I can relate), which was possibly a family trait. Having said that, said family was so extended with adopted sons and dynastic marriages that sometimes the gene pool must have run very shallow indeed. Either that or the sculptors couldn’t get the hang of ears. But I can’t believe that, not when they could be so good at everything else.
Obviously a certain amount of idealisation was going on, and I suspect, in the case of Augustus at least, once the basic image had been arrived at – the calm, handsome, watchful, dignified one – that became the template for a whole raft of imitations and copies, churned out for distribution to the outposts of the Empire. Keener eyes than mine have also noted the presence of discreet rolls of fat around the elegant necks of some of the most distinguished matrons. Apparently these were perceived as an attractive feature at the time, denoting the kind of good health only prosperity and proper nutrition could confer, and they were even given a name – ‘rings of Venus’. Today’s equivalent might be something like the exaggerated embonpoint about the backside that Kim Kardashian and her ilk have made so popular, and which you might call, echoing the ancients, ‘Aphrodite’s arse’. You might; I wouldn’t.
Agrippa
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
63 BCE–12 BCE
Agrippina the Elder
Vipsania Agrippina
14 BCE–33 CE
Agrippina the Younger
Julia Agrippina
15 CE–59 CE
Antonia the Younger
Antonia Augusta
36 BCE–37 CE
Atia
Atia Balba Caesonia
85 BCE–43 BCE
Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustis
63 BCE–14 CE
Caligula
Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus
12 CE–41 CE
Calpurnia
76 BCE–?
Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus
10 BCE–54 CE
Drusus the Elder
Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus
38 BCE–9 BCE
Gaius Octavius
100 BCE–59 BCE
Germanicus
Germanicus Julius Caesar
15 BCE–19 CE
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus
2 BCE–41 CE
Julia Drusilla
16 CE–38 CE
Julia the Elder
Julia Caesaris filia
39 BCE–14 CE
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar
100 BCE–44 BCE
Livia
Livia Drusilla
59 BCE–29 CE
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius
83 BCE–30 BCE
Messalina
Valeria Messalina
c17 CE–48 CE
Nero
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus
37 CE–68 CE
Octavia the Younger
66 BCE–11 BCE
Scribonia
70 BCE–16 CE
Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus
42 BCE–37 CE
Tiberius Claudius Nero
82 BCE–33 BCE
Vipsania Agrippa
36 BCE–20 CE