If Statues Could Talk

Back on his feet after 20 years, a bronze statue of Tiberius takes up residence with fellow emperors in the Men’s Gallery at the Getty Villa

Photograph of a bronze statue of the emperor Tiberius

Tiberius post-conservation on view at the Getty Villa. Statue of Tiberius (detail), AD 37, Roman. Bronze, 96 7/8 in. high. Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei—Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Laboratorio di Conservazione e Restauro

By David Saunders

Mar 10, 2014

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The bronze portrait of Tiberius from Herculaneum has many tales to tell.

One that he’s hidden up until now is the story of how he got back on his feet.

As we’ve described, the eight-foot-high statue had previously been off display in Naples for around two decades, and the primary purpose of his time here in Los Angeles was to get him ready to go back on public view. How did we manage this with over 1,000 pounds of ancient and 18th-century metal, in a way that is scarcely visible? 

For the last six months, the portrait was the focus of a special exhibition, Tiberius, Portrait of an Emperor. Happily, our colleagues at the Museo Nazionale Archeologico in Naples generously extended the loan until September 2014, so you’ll be able to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of Tiberius’s accession by paying homage to him in our Men’s Gallery at the Getty Villa. You’ll see the portrait alongside an unusual relief that’s also on loan to the Museum, in which Tiberius has been identified as taking the hand of a cornucopia-bearing Genius overseen by Concordia (Harmony).

Elsewhere in this gallery, there are portraits of other Roman emperors, notably Tiberius’s predecessor, Augustus, and his successor, Caligula. Which raises the question: When the Villa closes for the day, what might Rome’s rulers say to one another?

Photograph of two marble busts of the emperors Augustus (left) and Caligula (right)

Head of Emperor Augustus, 25–1 BC, Roman. Marble, 15 3/8 in. high. Getty Museum, 78.AA.261

Portrait bust of Roman emperor Caligula

Head of Emperor Caligula, about AD 40, Roman. Marble, 16 15/16 in. high. Getty Museum, 72.AA.155.

Actually, there’d probably just be an awkward silence. Back in 38 BC, Augustus (then known as Octavian) had taken up with Livia, and taken her son, the three-year-old Tiberius, away from his father’s house. Augustus meddled further in his stepson’s affairs 26 years later, this time compelling him to divorce his beloved wife Vipsania and marry Julia instead, all because Augustus wanted to secure the succession. Even then, Tiberius wasn’t the first choice to follow as ruler, and it was only in AD 4—when Tiberius was 44—that he was formally adopted by Augustus. Hardly a ringing endorsement, and Augustus reportedly said of him, “Poor Rome, doomed to be ground by those slow-moving jaws.” Some even claimed that Augustus had opted to appoint Tiberius as emperor to look good by comparison.

Family tree of Roman emperor Tiberius with the title "TIBERUS'S CLOSE RELATIVES" at the top of the tree

Tiberius's family tree. He was the adopted son of one emperor (Augustus), the uncle of a second (Claudius), and the adoptive grandfather of a third (Caligula).

Might Tiberius have more to say to Caligula? Hardly. Tacitus reports that while Caligula was living alongside Tiberius on the island of Capri, the young man would take note of his mood and act in a similar fashion. Yet the old emperor seems to have seen through Caligula’s duplicitous and obsequious behavior. “I am nursing a viper in Rome’s bosom,” he once said, and this would prove remarkably prescient.

And Tiberius’s mother, Livia, whom you can find in our Women’s Gallery? Suetonius tells us that in the last three years of her life, Tiberius visited her only once. When she died, he didn’t attend her funeral. He vetoed her deification too. And annulled her will. So it’s probably best that they’re in separate galleries; even after all this time, they still might not be on speaking terms.

Photograph of a marble bust of a woman; part of the top of her head on the bust is broken

Tiberius’s mother: Bust of Livia Drusilla, AD 1–25, Roman. Marble, 15 15/16 in. high. Getty Museum, 74.AA.36

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