Do We Know What Ancient Romans Looked Like?

Visit the Getty Villa, and you’ll see a vast collection of portraits: artfully carved busts of ancient Romans.

Each portrait was carved for a person that really lived 2,000 years ago. But is this really what people looked like?

We talked to Jens Daehner, associate curator of Antiquities at Getty about the visages in Getty’s collection and what they really tell us about ancient Romans.

More than Just a Face

Take a look at the portrait head above. We don’t know who he is—there was no inscription or identifying information found with this sculpture—but you get the feeling that if you traveled back in time with this bust in hand, you could spot this gentleman walking around Rome.

But that might not be the case, says Daehner. “Roman portraits are popularly known as images that are very realistic. But it’s also a style.” The wrinkles and stern look on the Portrait Head of an Old Man look like unique facial features that we could use to recognize an individual person. But, in ancient Rome, they also have symbolic value.

They’re meant to connote his position. The wrinkles suggest the wisdom that comes with age, and the frown, adds Daehner, “shows how someone in an official capacity is concerned about the wellbeing of the Republic or of the empire.”

To see more of this style, take a walk around Villa gallery 209, where you’ll find more first century BC and AD examples of important figures like senators and consuls who “often have wrinkles, and these frowns, and they look a little bit grim,” says Daehner.

Forever Young (and in Charge)

We do know who’s depicted in this Roman portrait. And, that’s very much the point. This is Augustus, first emperor of Rome: handsome, young, and with great hair. Or, at least, that’s what all of his portraits looks like.

Although Augustus ruled Rome for over 40 years, as he aged, his marble portraits stayed young and powerful. Augustus, says Daehner, “really understood the power of images, and crafted his own image accordingly, you know. Even his hair doesn't grow. It’s always arranged in this way and it's very controlled and it's powerful also because it's so recognizable.”

So now, whenever you’re at The Met, The Vatican, The British Museum, or spot a Roman coin, and you see a handsome, young face with great hair that’s arranged just so, you can be fairly sure that you’re looking at Augustus. So would the ancient Romans. And familiarizing subjects across an empire with the face of their ruler was one of the reasons these portrait busts were made. But, we will never know if a stylized portrait like this represented Augustus’s real face at any period in his life.

Remember Me (This Way)

Look at this portrait of a bearded man. We don’t know who he was, but we do know that he had a full beard and curly hair. Or do we? Check out this portrait bust of the emperor of his day, Antoninus Pius.

See the resemblance? In the Antonine period when this portrait bust was made, many portraits look just like the bearded man above. It was a common phenomenon in Roman portraits of private citizens to copy/imitate the looks—including hairstyles, facial hair, and even some facial features—used in the official images of the emperor and his family.

So, did he really have a beard? Maybe! While hairstyle borrowing is a confirmed practice, says Daehner, facial hair is another matter. It's likely that this man had some style of beard in his life. What kind remains a mystery.

Many private portraits like this, unlike official portraits disseminated to the public (like Augustus’s), were made for a Roman’s descendants. They would often visit the family tomb to spend time with those that came before them, and think carefully about how they would want to be remembered after they were gone.

If you had a portrait bust made, how would you want to be remembered? Exactly as you are? Or would you ask for TikTok hair, or Michelle Obama’s arms? What about people 100 years from now?

“We do not know if any person’s portrait looks the way they actually looked,” says Daehner. But, Roman portraits can tell us a lot about what values Romans shared and what they may have identified with because to some degree it's written on their faces.

What can we tell about women's portrait busts? Tune in for our next chat with Jens Daehner about the ladies in the Getty Villa's Roman portrait galleries.