Best Ancient Roman

The Bust of Commodus as Hercules is an ancient Roman marble portrait housed in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. Created around 180 to 190 CE, the sculpture depicts Emperor Commodus, who ruled from 177 to 192 CE, in the guise of the mythological hero Hercules. The emperor is shown wearing a lion skin...

The Tusculum portrait is a marble sculpture widely considered one of the most authentic surviving likenesses of the Roman general and dictator Julius Caesar. Dated to approximately 50 to 44 BCE, the bust was discovered in Tusculum and is currently housed in the Museum of Antiquities in Turin. The sc...

The frescoes from Livia’s Villa at Primaporta offer a remarkably preserved glimpse into Roman aristocratic life during the Augustan period. These secco wall paintings depict an elaborate garden scene, creating a seamless illusion of depth and space. The detailed depiction of plants and architectural...

The Livia’s Garden Room is an Augustan-era fresco depicting a meticulously rendered garden scene. Created around 60 BC, it showcases innovative secco techniques – painting on dry plaster – to achieve a remarkably realistic illusion of vegetation within the Villa Livia at Palazzo Massimo in Rome. Thi...

The Bust of Constantine I is a collection of surviving marble fragments from a colossal acrolithic statue of the Roman Emperor Constantine, currently housed in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. The fragments include an oversized head, hands, feet, and arm segments that originally belonged to a seated...

The frescoes of the House of the Vettii are an extensive ensemble of Roman wall paintings preserved in a large residence at Pompeii. Created before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, they decorate reception rooms, service areas, and private spaces with architectural frameworks, mythological na...

A marble portrait bust of Emperor Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus, reigned 198–217 CE) is held in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. The bust exemplifies the distinctive Caracalla portrait type recognized in Roman art for its intense, furrowed expression and the characteristi...

The Palatine Hill is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is considered one of the city's most ancient areas. According to Roman mythology, it is the location where a wolf discovered the twins Romulus and Remus, who later founded Rome. Archaeological evidence shows human habitation dating b...

Virgil’s *The Aeneid* is a foundational Latin epic poem composed between 29 and 19 BC. It recounts the journey of Aeneas, a Trojan hero who established Rome through divine guidance and fraught encounters. The work explores themes of fate, duty, and empire building, offering insights into Roman value...

The Bust of Lucius Junius Brutus is an ancient bronze portrait housed in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. Traditionally identified as the legendary founder of the Roman Republic, the sculpture dates back to the 3rd or 4th century BCE. It is celebrated as one of the oldest surviving Roman bronze portr...

The Capitoline Brutus is a bronze portrait bust displayed in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. It is traditionally, though not definitively, identified as a depiction of Lucius Junius Brutus, the legendary founder of the Roman Republic. Dating to around the 3rd or 2nd century BCE, the artwork stands a...

The frescoes of the Villa of Oplontis decorate a large Roman residential complex at Torre Annunziata near Pompeii, traditionally associated with Poppaea Sabina. Buried during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, the villa preserves elaborate architectural paintings, especially examples of the Roman Se...

The Bust of Augustus in the Capitoline Museums is a Roman marble portrait of the first Roman emperor, Augustus. He ruled from 27 BCE until his death in 14 CE, establishing the Roman Empire. This bust is part of the extensive imperial portrait collection held in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. Sculpt...

The Boscoreale frescoes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art are Roman wall paintings removed from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor near Boscoreale, north of Pompeii. Painted during the first century BC, they are major examples of the Second Pompeian Style, which used architectural perspective, columns...

This marble portrait bust depicts the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, who reigned from 161 to 180 CE and is best known as the author of the Stoic philosophical treatise Meditations. It is housed in the Capitoline Museums in Rome and dates to the Antonine period. The bust is one of several surviving a...

The Domus Aurea frescoes are surviving wall and vault decorations from the palace complex built for the Roman emperor Nero after the fire of Rome in 64 CE. Their painted architecture, delicate figures, animals, plants, and fantastical hybrids became influential after Renaissance artists explored the...

The Villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase preserves delicate Third Style frescoes from around 11 BC, prized for refined mythological panels on black and red grounds, largely now in New York's Met.

The Odyssey Landscapes are fragments of a Roman wall-painting cycle discovered on the Esquiline Hill in Rome and now preserved in the Vatican Museums. Dating to the late Republican period, the surviving panels place episodes from Homer's Odyssey within expansive landscapes and identify figures with...

This marble portrait bust of Emperor Vespasian (r. 69–79 CE), founder of the Flavian dynasty, is held at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. Roman portraits of Vespasian emphasized his rugged, aged features and receding hairline, deliberately departing from the idealized Julio-Claudian sty...

Marble bust of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE) in the Capitoline Museums, Rome, reproducing one of the most widely copied portrait types of the late Roman Republic. Cicero was Rome's preeminent orator, lawyer, and statesman, whose speeches and writings became foundational texts of Latin prose. Th...

Marble bust of Emperor Hadrian (r. 117–138 CE) in the British Museum's collection. Hadrian was the first Roman emperor to be depicted with a full beard in official portraiture, a feature that became standard for imperial images for the following century. More surviving portraits exist of Hadrian tha...

This marble bust was discovered in the Rhône River near Arles, France, in 2007 alongside other ancient sculptures and is now held at the Musée départemental Arles Antique. Some scholars identify it as a contemporary portrait of Julius Caesar, dated to approximately 46 BCE near the end of his life, b...

The House of the Vettii is a richly decorated Roman residence at Pompeii associated with the freedmen Aulus Vettius Conviva and Aulus Vettius Restitutus. A celebrated frieze shows cupids performing adult trades and crafts, including activities connected with wine, metalworking, perfume, and commerce...

The Bust of Trajan is an ancient Roman marble portrait of Emperor Trajan, housed in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. Trajan ruled the Roman Empire from 98 to 117 CE, a period during which the empire reached its greatest territorial extent through military campaigns in Dacia and Mesopotamia. The sculp...

Villa Arianna is a large Roman residential complex at ancient Stabiae, near modern Castellammare di Stabia in Campania. It was buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE and was explored during excavations that began in the eighteenth century. The villa takes its modern name from a fresco...

The Bust of Livia Drusilla is an ancient Roman marble portrait currently held in the Louvre Museum in Paris. It depicts Livia Drusilla (58 BCE–29 CE), the influential wife of Emperor Augustus, who was the first Roman empress and mother of Emperor Tiberius. Rendered in the classical style, the sculpt...

The Bust of Nero is a Roman marble portrait sculpture housed in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. It depicts Emperor Nero, who ruled the Roman Empire from 54 to 68 CE as the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. The sculpture is an important surviving likeness of the emperor, characterized by i...

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen houses this marble portrait bust of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, known as Pompey the Great, who lived from 106 to 48 BCE. Pompey was a prominent Roman general and statesman who formed part of the First Triumvirate alongside Julius Caesar and Marcus Licinius Crassu...

Garum was a fermented fish sauce that served as a fundamental ingredient in the cuisine of ancient Rome and throughout the Mediterranean. It was produced by layering small fish and their organs with salt and herbs, allowing the mixture to ferment and cure in the sun over several months. The resultin...