Augustus: The Augustus Of Prima Porta

The emergence of empires has led to the emergence of many wonderful things, which to this day continue to amaze us and has helped us unravel the past. All the wonderful things that occurred during the duration of these empires are displayed in artifacts in all sizes and shapes. The Roman empire demonstrates their leaders as powerful warriors, who created a vast empire by defeating their enemies in battle and then conquering the surrounding area. The Egyptian empire illustrates an empire with vast riches and leaders who portrayed themselves as having god-like abilities. The Byzantine empire displays artefacts of war and peace and their leaders believing they are chosen by God to rule the surrounding lands. The first imperial dynasty of China …show more content…
Augustus brought peace and prosperity to Rome, which therefore started the Roman empire as they would expand their borders and through military expeditions, they would conquer surrounding lands. The Augustus of Prima Porta displayed Augustus as the commander of the Roman army and was designed as a commemorative monument to his victories (Rose, C. B. 2005)). He is displayed in military clothing, in which he is carrying a consular baton and raising his right hand to address the troops. His armour demonstrates the territories that he has conquered such as Hispania, Gaul, Germania and Parthia. This is a significant object within the Roman empire because it displayed Augustus as a powerful leader, who has conquered his enemies and has respect of the Roman army. There is accuracy with Augustus ' features, however the sculptural portraits were an instrument of government propaganda and this was a central part of Augustus ' ideological campaign (Wallace-Hadrill, A. (1986)). Youth and strength were valued as signs of leadership and as the political function of the statue was very important, it would demonstrate Augustus as an exceptional figure and he was the best man to govern Rome. Ancient empires were built out of strong leadership and the statue of Augustus proved the theme that his dominance was portrayed through his sculpture. Another object which illustrated how the Roman …show more content…
An example of this is the Battlefield Palette, which may be the earliest representation of a battle scene (Dixon, D. M. (1989). It was part of a dozen or more ceremonial palettes of Ancient Egypt and includes some of the first representations of the figures that eventually became Egyptian hieroglyphs. The most notable description on the Battlefield Palette is the standard hieroglyph, and the man-prisoner hieroglyph. This gave rise to the concept of the nine bows, which is seen as the representation of foreign tribal enemies. This is a significant artefact because it represented Egyptian military power and demonstrated the growth of the Egyptian empire because they were defeating the enemies that surrounded them. Another artefact that displayed the Egyptian vast wealth was the Great Temple at Abu Simbel, which was completed around 24 years into the reign of Ramesses the Great (Feldtkeller, E et al. (2003). There are four colossal statues of the pharaoh, where they are wearing the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The entrance itself is crown by a bas-relief which is representing two images of the king worshipping the falcon headed Ra Harakhti. This God is holding a feather in his right hand, with Ma 'at, the goddess the truth and justice, in his left hand (Magi, G. (2001). This symbolises Ramesses throne name, User-Maat-Re and therefore demonstrates