Faces of the Roman Empire: From Augustus to Domitian

Arienne King

by Arienne King
published on 17 November 2020

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Caligula (Artistic Facial Reconstruction of Met Portrait)

by Daniel Voshart
published on 22 October 2020

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Caligula (Artistic Facial Reconstruction of Met Portrait) — View Full-Size Image

The reign of Caligula (r. 37-41 CE) was plagued by scandals, both personal and political. Though he had some minor achievements - such as annexing the Kingdom of Mauretania - his reign was marked by frivolousness and cruelty. Caligula’s rule ended when he was killed by the Praetorian Guard, a death which foreshadowed the end of many Roman emperors.

This reconstruction is based on a single bust from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is thought to be somewhat idealized. Traces of paint from surviving busts of Caligula are used as a reference for the color of his skin, hair, and eyes.

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Bibliography

Appearance of The Principate [Pt. II], accessed 18 Nov 2020.
Appearance of The Principate [Pt. I], accessed 18 Nov 2020.

License & Copyright

Original image by Daniel Voshart. Uploaded by Arienne King, published on 22 October 2020. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.