Beard Trends Offer a Guide to Identifying Roman Emperor Sculptures

A guide published by DailyArt Magazine proposes that Roman emperors can be identified from their portraits by reading facial hair, since grooming fashions changed alongside marble-carving techniques. The survey covers the first 230 years of the Empire, a span that includes 70 emperors in total. Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius chose clean-shaven, youthful images, and Claudius stands out for short, tight rowed curls that are rare among emperors. Portraits of Caligula and Nero are scarce because successors destroyed or decapitated their public images; Nero's statues show lightly carved loose curls and a neckbeard. Beards stayed out of fashion for 44 years after Nero's death. Hadrian ended that with a thick "philosopher's beard," possibly to look Greek, appear wiser or hide a chin scar, and he introduced long, sharply defined curls. Antoninus Pius, whose 23-year reign was second only to Augustus, wore a soul patch and handlebar mustache. Lucius Verus began carving all hair in high relief, a practice that lasted about 53 years and some 10 emperors; wild beards with defined curls point to Verus, Marcus Aurelius or Commodus. Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus wore segmented curls hollowed with a marble drill. Because emperors commissioned their own portraits, appearance reflected intended image rather than reality, and the same cues apply to other Romans who copied imperial styles.