Rome 1st Century BCE

The first man to hold the title ‘Emperor of Rome’ was Gaius Octavius or Octavian (Brian Blessed in the BBC’s marvellous I, Claudius [1976]), the adopted son of Julius Caesar, who took the name Augustus when he assumed power in 27 BCE. Before that, in the first century BCE, the ambitious general Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, aka Sulla, became the first man to seize power by force and become in effect dictator of the Republic. In between, the supreme leadership had been in the hands of a couple of triumvirates, the first consisting of Julius Caesar himself, Crassus and Pompey, the second comprising Lepidus, Mark Antony and the aforementioned pre-imperial Octavian. Their likenesses were there, scattered in marble shards throughout the museums of the world, and I’ve always loved a good Roman bust, so this seemed as good a place as any to start this little series of pencil portraits.

Sulla

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix

138–78 BCE

Crassus

Marcus Licinius Crassus

115–53 BCE

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus

106–48 BCE

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar

100–44 BCE

Lepidus

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

89–13 BCE

Mark Antony

Marcus Antonius

83–30 BCE

Octavian

Gaius Octavius

63 BCE–14 CE