The Meroë Head of Augustus

Made from Bronze with eyes inlaid with glass pupils set in metal rings, the ''Meroe Head'' is a magnificent portrait of Julius Caesar''s great nephew and adopted heir Augustus (63 BC-AD 14). Once forming part of a statue of Rome''s revered first true emperor - one of many such statues that were erected in Egyptian towns - the head was violently separated from the body and carried away in triumph by ancient Meroitic tribesman shortly after its creation. For nearly two millennia it remained buried in front of a temple in their capital city of Meroe (modern Sudan), so that worshippers ritually had to trample the face of the supreme leader of Rome. The head was recovered in 1910 and, remarkably well preserved, is one of the British Museum''s most treasured objects. This book reveals the significance of the head in light of Augustus'' rise to power and the role of portraits in the Roman world

Thorsten Opper is curator of Greek and Roman sculpture at the British Museum, specializing in ancient portraiture, the Greek world in the Roman period, and the collecting and restoration of ancient sculpture in the eighteenth century. His previous publications include Hadrian: Empire and Conflict (London, British Museum Press, 2008).