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What did emperors look like? - marcos - 01-14-2012
I have searched the forum to be sure the following link is not yet published and I didn't found, but perhaps I mistake.
Anyhow, here an interesting althouogh speculative reconstruction of appearances of some roman emperors
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=What%20Did%20The%20Julio%20Claudians%20Really%20Look%20Like%20%20Reconstructions-%20Joe%20Geranio
p.s.
how is possible link a word within the message to a web site?
Re: What did emperors look like? - Vindex - 01-14-2012
Don't know about the technicalities but I think the reconstructions are groovy!!
Thanks for the link.EDIT: Just had a whizz round some of the other bits of the website. It's an excellent resource!
Re: What did emperors look like? - Nathan Ross - 01-14-2012
Amazing! Some of them are just colourised busts, of course, but a couple - Augustus and Seneca - are truly uncanny! Cleopatra looks interesting, although her costume seems to owe much (and leave little) to the imagination :wink:
I wish somebody would give this treatment to some of the more formidable later emperors - a Maximinus Thrax, or a Galerius, would look quite eye-opening...
Quote:how is possible link a word within the message to a web site?If you click the 'link' icon in the toolbar above your message editing box, you'll see two open bars. Paste the url for the link into the left one, and write the word(s) into the right. The word will appear as a link in the completed message.
Re: What did emperors look like? - Gaius Colletti - 01-14-2012
Very cool. Thanks!
Re: What did emperors look like? - Vindex - 01-14-2012
Quote:If you click the 'link' icon in the toolbar above your message editing box, you'll see two open bars. Paste the url for the link into the left one, and write the word(s) into the right. The word will appear as a link in the completed message.
Thanks for that too!
Re: What did emperors look like? - marcos - 01-14-2012
Quote:If you click the 'link' icon in the toolbar above your message editing box, you'll see two open bars. Paste the url for the link into the left one, and write the word(s) into the right. The word will appear as a link in the completed message.
just an attempt, then I delete this reply [url=http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=What%20Did%20The%20Julio%20Claudians%20Really%20Look%20Like%20%20Reconstructions-%20Joe%20Geranio]attempt
Re: What did emperors look like? - marcos - 01-14-2012
Quote:If you click the 'link' icon in the toolbar above your message editing box, you'll see two open bars. Paste the url for the link into the left one, and write the word(s) into the right. The word will appear as a link in the completed message.
Understood, thank you!
Re: What did emperors look like? - Gaius Julius Caesar - 01-14-2012
Those are very believable, and yes Cleopatra reminds me of a few women
Who fit the bill, to be honest!
Tiberius looks the part!
Thanks for the link Marco!
Re: What did emperors look like? - ANTONIVS MAGNVS - 01-15-2012
Forum ancient coins is an excellent web site. I must admit I've never seen that link before! Thanks for sharing. I've written a several Numiswiki articles for them, don't know how I missed it!
Re: What did emperors look like? - Lyceum - 01-15-2012
Interesting, don't fully understand the need for the North European colouring in some of them (and I've seen much better scholarly reconstructions of some of the faces) Kleopatra was surprising though, a very Aegean face. It's hard to associate it with her reputation.
Re: What did emperors look like? - Nathan Ross - 01-15-2012
Quote:don't fully understand the need for the North European colouring in some of themAugustus is described as having 'subflavum' ('blondish'?) hair, but 'his complexion was between dark and fair' (Suetonius, Augustus, 79) - so he probably shouldn't be quite as pale and golden as portrayed here. Nero, in fact, is reported (by Suetonius again) as having 'subflavo capillo' too, rather than the dark brown in the reconstruction. I can't find a source for Caligula's colouring, except that he was prematurely balding and very touchy about it... he does seem a bit too Germanic-looking here.
Quote:Kleopatra was surprising though, a very Aegean face. It's hard to associate it with her reputation.If you mean her 'reputation' from the movies, then it is very different! But she was a Ptolemy, and so supposedly 'pure' Macedonian (or at least would have appeared that way). It's a shame the depiction didn't try for the distinctive braided hairstyle though.
Re: What did emperors look like? - ANTONIVS MAGNVS - 01-15-2012
Well, Octavian was a skinny sickly runt of a "boy" as Antony would call him. Always falling sick at the wrong time. I would imagine he looked very pale and sickly. I think it's probably more realistic than the coins and busts of him looking manly and muscular.
Re: What did emperors look like? - Lyceum - 01-15-2012
Quote:Lyceum post=304028 Wrote:don't fully understand the need for the North European colouring in some of themAugustus is described as having 'subflavum' ('blondish'?) hair, but 'his complexion was between dark and fair' (Suetonius, Augustus, 79) - so he probably shouldn't be quite as pale and golden as portrayed here. Nero, in fact, is reported (by Suetonius again) as having 'subflavo capillo' too, rather than the dark brown in the reconstruction. I can't find a source for Caligula's colouring, except that he was prematurely balding and very touchy about it... he does seem a bit too Germanic-looking here.
Quote:Kleopatra was surprising though, a very Aegean face. It's hard to associate it with her reputation.If you mean her 'reputation' from the movies, then it is very different! But she was a Ptolemy, and so supposedly 'pure' Macedonian (or at least would have appeared that way). It's a shame the depiction didn't try for the distinctive braided hairstyle though.
One has to be careful of what one assigns to various colours and concepts in a foreign language. A good example might be Xanthos in Greek which certainly did NOT mean the blond we're taught to translate it as in school, especially since I believe Phyrros/Xanthos etc can be used for eyes and other improbable things.
Likewise an old survey detailing the differences between what Britons and French people considered to be blond/light etc. A good example might be that we consider blond...well...blond whereas for some Greeks it was consider lefkos (i.e closer to white)
You need to interpret it in a Mediterranean context. Always. In. Context.Despite the odd German movements of the past century...
Also maybe I'm prejudiced but there's something about Augustus and Tiberius (esp him!) that I just can not trust. :lol:
Re: What did emperors look like? - Gaius Colletti - 01-15-2012
It really is a shame that the Roman's were so big on cremation, otherwise (assuming Alric didn't dump the bodies anyways when he sacked Rome), how interesting would it be to get some DNA samples and find how more about how these people actually looked. Kind of disappointed that Julius Caesar didn't make the cut on the "reconstructions"
Re: What did emperors look like? - ANTONIVS MAGNVS - 01-15-2012
Well here's good old Julius one month before he was done in:
[attachment=2565]normal_Caesar0.jpg[/attachment]
Personally I'd love to see what Antony looked like. His coins make him look exactly how he is described.