More from the British Museum

What introduction need these two men? Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.

Augustus

Livia (the bust on the left) was the wife of the Emperor Augustus and a formidable politician in her own right. Discourses preserved in the Biographies of Suetonius reveal a very close working relationship between husband and wife, although she has since been dogged by rumors of poisoning. Ancient authors such as Tacitus hint that she may have been responsible for the deaths of many of Augustus' heirs, thus opening up the way to the throne for her son, Tiberius (the statue on the right). Tiberius would prove to be a competent, if unpopular, Emperor. During his reign, administration was on the whole rather good, though it was marred by the frequent treason trials, the influence of the Praetorian Prefect, Sejanus, and Tiberius' retirement to the island of Capri late in his reign.
Unlucky to have his reign sandwiched between the reigns of two very bad Emperors (Caligula and Nero), Claudius tends to be painted in a similarly bad light by ancient authors. His limp and speech impediment caused many of his contemporaries to think him an idiot and he spent much of his early life studying and writing history, largely ignored by the other members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. His reign was marked by competent, efficient leadership, although his taste in women was remarkably bad.



















The Flavians: After the Julio-Claudian dynasty crashed and burned, Rome endured a year in which four men in succession held the throne. The last of these was Vespasian, whose moderate rule brought a great deal of stability to the Empire. His son Titus would prove to be a short-lived chip off the old block before the autocratic rule of Domitian (not pictured) brought an end to the dynasty.
Trajan's reign would be marked by near-constant campaigning and it was towards the end of his rule that Rome's Empire would reach its greatest size.



















Hadrian (left) spent the majority of his reign touring and examining the Empire as it stood. He made the unpopular (but prudent) decision of abandoning some of Trajan's less defensible conquests and was famously enamored with Greek culture, even taking up a boy lover, Antinous (right), whose death in the 130's Hadrian would mourn extravagantly.
Antoninus Pius - chosen by Hadrian basically to be a regent for his relative Marcus Aurelius, who was too young to rule at the time, Antoninus Pius nonetheless lived and ruled for another 30 years and his rule is remembered for its extreme stability.



















Marcus Aurelius (left) and Lucius Verus (right) ruled effectively as co-Emperors, although the former is more remembered due to his longer life, his campaigns throughout the Empire and his published work, To Myself, which describes his innermost thoughts and philosophical beliefs.

Anyway, for those of you who basically already knew this stuff, I'm sorry if this turned into a pedantic lecture on the Roman Emperors, but I have to write something beneath the photos, and I feel that these tidbit make the artifacts all the more meaningful. And for those who don't know, but are interested, I hope this was an entertaining read.