The Lion of Chaeronea

The Vestal, Antonio Canova, ca. 1819-23

Lucius Aelius Caesar, intended heir to Hadrian. Born Lucius Ceionius Commodus on 13 January 101 CE, he was abruptly adopted by Hadrian in 136, after a near-fatal hemorrhage convinced the emperor that a designated successor was needed. (The move angered two men who had thought themselves in line for the position, Hadrian's brother-in-law Servianus and his grandson Fuscus Salinator. Claims of a planned coup circulated, and Hadrian had both men executed, which cast a dark cloud over the last years of his reign.) Lucius Aelius himself was in poor health and predeceased Hadrian on 1 January 138. In his stead, Hadrian adopted the future Antoninus Pius and compelled Antoninus in turn to adopt two heirs: the future Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Aelius' son, the future Lucius Verus.

Portrait bust by an unknown artist, 2nd century CE. Now in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Photo credit: Carole Raddato.

Marble bust of the great Athenian general, orator, and statesman Pericles (ca. 495-429 BCE), shown here wearing a Corinthian helmet. Pericles is credited by many historians, notably Thucydides, with guiding 5th century BCE Athens to its peak of greatness; among his achievements were the ambitious building program on the Parthenon and the conversion of the Delian League, originally formed to combat the Persians, into a tribute-paying Athenian empire. His reputation was not, however, unblemished. His political opponents accused him of aiming at tyranny, while his enforcement of the Megarian Decree--which barred Sparta's ally Megara from all Athenian harbors and was effectively an act of economic warfare--may have been the proximate cause of the Peloponnesian War. His death from plague plunged Athens into crisis and led to a succession of populist leaders such as Cleon and Hyperbolus, whose far more aggressive foreign policy ultimately proved disastrous for Athens. Though the city would survive and even make a second attempt at empire-building, it never regained the unchallenged supremacy it had enjoyed in the Periclean period.

Roman copy of uncertain date after a lost Greek original. Now in the Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican City.

Ancient Roman portrait bust (bronze with silver inlay) of a young boy, claimed by some to depict the young Nero. Artist unknown; ca. 50-68 CE (late Julio-Claudian period). Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Bronze portrait bust found in the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. The subject has been variously identified as Priapus, Dionysus/Bacchus, Plato, and Poseidon. Artist unknown; Roman copy after a Hellenistic original of ca. 100 BCE. Now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples. Photo credit: Allan Gluck/Wikimedia Commons.

Sculpture of a member of the Egyptian royal family. Artist unknown; 18th Dynasty, Amarna Period. Now in the Neues Museum, Berlin. Photo credit: Gary Todd.

Portrait (Pentelic marble) of a Roman man. The portrait is executed in a veristic (realistic) style popular in the late Roman Republic, influenced by the realism of Hellenistic portraiture. Artist unknown; ca. 40 BCE. Now in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Photo credit:  Walters Art Museum.

Marble portrait of Plato. Roman copy (2nd cent. CE) after a 4th cent. BCE Greek original, perhaps by the sculptor Silanion. Now in the Louvre.

Ancient Roman portrait bust (marble) of a bearded man. Originally sculpted in the late 2nd or early 3rd century CE, the bust was subsequently re-carved between 262 and 268. Now in the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX.

Ancient Egyptian male bust (granodiorite) of an official. Originally the man would have been shown together with his wife. Artist unknown; ca. 1300-1290 BCE (18th or 19th Dynasty, New Kingdom). Probably from the official's tomb at Saqqara; now in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Photo credit: Walters Art Museum.

Marble portrait bust of Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony). Artist unknown; 69-96 CE (Flavian period). Found near the Porta Maggiore, Rome; now in the Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican City. Photo credit: Sergey Sosnovskiy.

A portrait of the great Athenian tragic playwright Euripides. Roman copy after a Greek original of the 4th century BCE. Found at Cumae, Italy; now in the Neues Museum, Berlin. Photo credit: Marcus Cyron.

Marble bust of Drusus the Elder, aka Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (38-9 BCE), stepson of Augustus, brother of the future emperor Tiberius, and successful general who campaigned in Germany before his untimely death (caused by aftereffects from a fall from his horse). Now in the Altes Museum, Berlin. Photo credit: © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Portrait bust (Pentelic marble) of the sophist and orator M. Antonius Polemon from Laodicea in Syria, teacher of Herodes Atticus. At the behest of the Emperor Hadrian, Polemon gave the dedicatory speech at the opening of Athens' Olympieion (Temple of Olympian Zeus) in 131 CE; this sculpture, by an unknown artist, dates to ca. 140 CE and was found at the Olympieion. Now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Photo credit: Zde/Wikimedia Commons.

The Young St. John the Baptist, Antonio Rossellino, ca. 1470

Jules Hardouin Mansart, Jean-Louis Lemoyne, ca. 1703

Bust of the Virgin Mary, unknown Bohemian artist, ca. 1390-95