Imperial portraits of Ancient Rome
While AI sometimes poses ethical, ecological, and even philosophical problems, it can also help us to extrapolate things that our own brains might struggle to imagine.
Essentially, apart from sculptures and coins, there is no trace left of the physical appearance of the great figures of ancient history. This is where numismatics becomes an extremely valuable reference, even making it possible to observe the physical evolution of their effigies over the course of time.
We have therefore attempted a little exercise here – perhaps a risky one – consisting of imagining how some of the most famous Roman emperors might have looked, with the support of AI and, above all, numismatics.
Since some of the information regarding their physiques is not necessarily known or reliably documented, we have taken the liberty (clarifying where this is the case) of extrapolating.
Augustus
Naturally, we couldn’t skip the first Roman emperor, who reigned from 27 BC to AD 14. This was a first attempt and, unlike in the case of the other portraits, we ultimately decided to keep the illustrative rather than the photographic rendering.
The coin on which it was based was a silver denarius minted in Lugdunum (Lyon) around AD 1, when Emperor Augustus was around sixty years old.
Despite that, the facial features engraved in the metal still appear youthful, firm, and strong-willed, and the rending is therefore a projection of a younger man, likely aged around forty.
Suetonius described him as having a rather dark completion with rather light hair. The portrait here may thus be a little inaccurate where the color of his hair is concerned. Pliny recorded that he had gray-blue eyes.
Moneta Augustus
Denarius, 2 BC-4 AD, Lugdunum, SPL-, Argento, Cohen:42
Nero
Also a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Nero and his very distinctive physique engraved on the coins bearing his effigy seemed a perfect model for trying to discover what he looked like.
Suetonius described him as being of average height and somewhat overweight, with blondish hair and gray eyes.
This particular emperor, sometimes unfairly disparaged, undoubtedly appreciated the finer things in life and reigned from AD 54 to AD 68.
The coin used as a model was an aureus struck in Rome in AD 63/64. He was thus approaching thirty years old.
Constantine I
A couple of centuries later, we could not overlook Constantine I, also known as Constantine the Great, who ruled from AD 310 to AD 337. His reign was marked by the First Council of Nicaea and his policy of favoring Christianity, but also his reunification of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Western Roman Empire and, of course, the founding of Constantinople.
This time, we decided to produce a three-quarter photographic representation rather than a profile view in order to emphasize the cleft chin found on various Byzantine statues.
His light eyes are purely speculative; we do not have any actual information regarding their color. However, in an anonymous manuscript from AD 364, he is described as having the hair and complexion of a redhead (though the translation may be open to debate). By extension, we have therefore opted for blue eyes.
The coin serving as a model was a bronze follis from the early 4th century. The emperor was approaching forty at that time.
Marcus Aurelius
Taking a step backward in time brings us to Marcus Aurelius, the most philosophical of the emperors, who reigned from AD 161 to AD 180 and was the author of Meditations, inspired by stoicism.
The coin serving as the model is a very rare example of a bronze sestertius struck by his predecessor, Antoninus Pius. At the time, Marcus Aurelius was approaching forty.
During this period, the fashion for emperors had shifted from clean-shaven to bearded.
We have opted for a more pronounced approach in the facial features and graying hair to illustrate the austere approach of his philosophy of life. There is no known description of his hair or eye color a priori, at least not from a reliable source.
Hadrian
Another little jump back in time takes us to Emperor Hadrian, the predecessor of Antoninus Pius and successor of Trajan. He reigned from AD 117 to AD 138 and was renowned as a peacemaker and great traveler.
The coin used as a model here was a bronze sestertius struck in Rome around AD 130. The emperor was a little over fifty at the time and died a few years later.
As with Marcus Aurelius, the fashion at the time was for a trimmed beard. And just like Marcus Aurelius, we have no real indication of his complexion or the color of his hair or eyes.
Some sources suggest that the pigments remaining on his statues would indicate brown hair and light-colored eyes, which is why we used this assumption for our representation.
Conclusion
This is a very partial selection, and we wondered beforehand about the value of such a visual reconstruction. Numismatics remains one of the main iconographic resources for these ancient historical figures.
As such, we thought it would be an interesting exercise to try and extract a more photographic vision from these coins. We hope that it has stimulated your imagination as much as it did ours.
This creative exercise was made possible thanks to the support of the AIs Midjourney and Firefly.
Sources
- https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/showthread.php?tid=24678
- https://reainfo.hypotheses.org/21149
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great
- https://medium.com/@davieco/were-roman-emperors-blonde-2255ec77d123
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian
- https://www.royaltynowstudios.com/blog/blog-post-title-one-pxydc-3e4k2-lwr6a-kleed-dxwc4-cr3nm-welff-kkp9h-lzwy8-gz3dk
- https://historum.com/t/physical-appearance-of-roman-emperors.36051/
