What Is This 2,000-Year-Old Roman Sculpture Trying to Tell Us About Power? | Sotheby's

Name: What Is This 2,000-Year-Old Roman Sculpture Trying to Tell Us About Power? | Sotheby's
Uploaded: 2026-09-26T12:37:38.413Z
Duration: 3 min 32 s
Channel: Sculpted Rome
Description: A 2,000-year-old Roman imperial marble sculpture from Sotheby’s Magnum Opus collection explores how art was used to communicate power and legitimize imperial authority. The sculpture was designed to remain in its temple context beyond the reign of a single ruler, while a distinctive bearded barbarian head symbolizes Rome’s conquering presence and the establishment of imperial power.

Sculpted Rome

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5 Video Views·Sep 26, 2026 #RomanEmpire #RomanSculpture #AncientRome

A 2,000-year-old Roman imperial marble sculpture from Sotheby’s Magnum Opus collection explores how art was used to communicate power and legitimize imperial authority. The sculpture was designed to remain in its temple context beyond the reign of a single ruler, while a distinctive bearded barbarian head symbolizes Rome’s conquering presence and the establishment of imperial power.

#RomanEmpire #RomanSculpture #AncientRome #RomanArt #AncientHistory #ArtHistory #ImperialPower #Archaeology #ClassicalArt #Sothebys

You're looking at a 2,000-year-old sculpture of a Roman marble torso of an emperor, dating to the Julio-Claudian period, the very beginning of the Roman Empire. This is trying to tell you something about power. Let me walk you through it. At the very top, we're looking at Sol, the sun god, and we know it's Sol because we have him here riding in his quadriga or his four-horse chariot, riding over the sea and announcing the beginning of the day. Most importantly, this is representing order over chaos. We have two female goddesses here, draped and winged, and that's Victoria or Nike to the Ancient Greeks, the deified goddess of the concept of victory. And in between them, we have what's called a tropaion. The tropaion essentially was a monument to the conquered victorious army built upon the abandoned weapons of the conquered. So we are looking at some abandoned shields that are built up in the center here. And the tropaion is this central thought in the ancient world that personifies the supreme power of victory and conquering. The audience for this sculpture would have been the newly conquered people of the town of Salona, which is roughly near the city of Split in modern-day Croatia. It's meant to symbolize the vastness of the power of this newly expanding empire. And what could be more powerful than a shrine composed of the literal abandoned weapons of your conquered enemies? The bottom of the torso is all about projecting prosperity and might, and we see it in these different decorated plates. So we have the ferocity of the empire communicated in these feline heads. We have these gorgoneons or medusa heads, which were meant to be apotropaic or warding the warding off of evil. And then we have these adorced ram heads, which would have symbolized fecundity and prosperity. There is one plate that is slightly different, and it happens to be my favorite. And it is the head of a bearded barbarian. And that one is signifying that the conquering presence of this newly established empire is omnipotent. So what are we not seeing here? Obviously, we are missing legs and arms, which is typical of sculpture. But I also want to call attention to this head, which is not here, but would have been separately made. And that was for a very specific reason. The sculpture was meant to remain in its temple context long beyond the reign of one ruler. So the head would be swapped out upon the ascension of the new emperor. The Romans at this period in time were asking, how does one convey power? How do you legitimize a new imperial structure? What iconography do you land on to communicate these things? This is Rome becoming Rome in a sculpture.