Legend has it that a pair of abandoned twins, Romulus and Remus, apparently descendants of the god Mars, were ordered to be killed by Amulius, the new King of the Latin city of Alba Longa, since they were his nephews and potential legitimate heirs to the throne. Left on the banks of the River Tiber to die, but they were rescued by the god Tiberinus, and placed in the care of the locals. In one famous incident, the infants were suckled by a she-wolf. As they grew, despite being unaware of their identities, they became involved in the struggle for power in Alba Longa; after they killed their uncle and restored the natural order, they set out to found their own city. They both thought they had divine approval to become the city’s new King. Romulus, or one of his supporters, killed Remus, and Romulus became the first King of the city that was later named after him: Rome. The city was ruled by Kings for many years, some especially mad and bad. The last, Lucius Tarquininius Superbus (‘Tarquin the Proud’), went on an extravagant building spree, reshaping the city in his own image. Many of the buildings he started, including the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, provided the ground-plan of later, even grander, edifices. Tarquininius invaded his neighbours, so that the spoils of war might fund his vainglorious construction schemes. A disastrous campaign in 509 BC led to his overthrow by the populace. So was founded the Roman Republic.

The Republic endured for many years, until in 52 BC, conflict grew between the leading men of the Republic. On one side was Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (‘Pompey the Great’); on the other was Gaius Julius Caesar. Caesar defeated Pompey, alongside various other Republican leaders. His return to Rome was marked with extravagant victory ceremonies, and Caesar accepted the public’s acclaim. Famously, during celebrations for the Lupercalia, the festival which marked the founding of Rome, Marcus Antonius (more famous as Marc Antony) offered Caesar a crown, which he demurely refused, perhaps because he saw that there was no desire among the crowd to return to monarchy (Plutarch Life of Caesar 61.3-7). But it is clear that Caesar was a King in all but name; he was declared dictator perpetuo (‘Dictator for Life’) in recognition of his unrivalled power. Caesar held this position for only two months, before his assassination in the Senate House on 15 March, 44 BC. At this time, Caesar’s great-nephew, Gaius Octavius (‘Octavian’), was away training with the army. Caesar had adopted Octavian, who was orphaned as a small child, and Octavian was a natural heir to the great man. Now assuming his great uncle’s name, Octavian sailed to Rome to ascertain whether he had political support. Inheriting some 700 million sestertii from his uncle, he was able to gain support from armies loyal to Caesar by paying large bonuses to loyal veterans. Marc Antony, Caesar’s colleague as consul (essentially the Prime Minister), was courting public opinion, portraying himself as a common sense successor to Caesar. An arms race between Antony, whose consular term was coming to an end, and against whom public opinion was turning, and Octavian, soon spilled into open conflict. In the civil wars which followed, Octavian earned numerous military successes. He eventually defeated Marc Antony and his allied Egyptian fleet offered by his inamorata, Cleopatra VII, in a tactically brilliant naval engagement at Actium near Greece on September 2, 31 BC. Octavian, now the unrivalled power in Rome, made a show of returning power to the Senate, but in 27 BC was afforded a new title, Augustus, which essentially imbued him with the hereditary power of a monarch. This title, assumed by all of his successors for some 600 years, is now translated as ‘Emperor’.

When Augustus became Emperor, he did not dispense with the Senate or the other institutions of the Roman Republic. Instead, the various offices of the Republic were applied to the Emperor and his titles.
The Emperor, therefore, usually became one of the two Consuls or premiers of Rome, as well as Tribune, who served as a kind of Speaker of the Senate and its various assemblies. Through these two offices, the Emperor could control the debate, appoint his subordinates, and ensure the remaining powers of the Republican institutions were used to his advantage. But perhaps the most important elected role that the Emperor took on was that of pontifex maximus, the chief-priest of the Roman religion. While the pontifex maximus was technically merely the head of the colleges of priests, the role gradually grew to become politically and militarily powerful. In the first instance, Augustus (as Octavian is now known) was elected to the role following the exile of the existing pontifex, in 13 BC or 12 BC. From Augustus’ appointment, the office was seen as simply a part of the imperial power, losing many of its specific duties, and instead becoming a byword for the sacral aspects of the role.

Holders of the pontificial office are always depicted wearing an especially lose and long toga, with part of the rear pulled over the head as a mantle. It is this hood which gives the Barakat Augustus’ head such an unusual silhouette. Now largely damaged and partially absent, this hood allows us to identify the wearer as a pontifex maximus. Attributing this statue to Augustus has relied on craniofacial comparison of this statue to known portraits of Augustus. The evidence of fairly large protruding ears, sharp cheekbones, a small triangular chin, the ‘swallowtail’ fringe of his hair (his style is sometimes known as the primaporta haircut, after the most famous statue of Augustus), and his cleanshaven face all adhere to Augustus’ state-controlled image. Of particular note are his broad cranium, his sharp eyebrows, his aquiline nose, and his rounded mouth. Augustus was presented as ever-youthful – the famous Augustus of Prima Porta, which is stylistically similar to the Barakat portrait – was constructed when he was about forty. Just as there was a young Empire under his guidance, he, too, wished to be portrayed as a young Emperor, the start of something extraordinary.