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Bust of KING MITHRADATES VI EUPATOR of Pontus, 120-63 BC. Inveterate foe of Rome, he led the Asian provincials to revolt against republican rule in 88 BC, massacring c. 80,000 Roman and Italian residents of the province in a single purge. Despite capitulating to L. Sulla in 84 BC, he maintained his Black Sea empire intact and to wage three further conflicts against Rome before he was finally exterminated by the Roman general Cn. Pompeius Magnus.
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Bust of C. JULIUS CAESAR, 102-44 BC, consul in 59 BC, member of the First Triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus, proconsul in Gaul 59-49 BC, and Dictator from 46 until his assassination on the Ides of March, 44 BC.
Bust of the EMPEROR AUGUSTUS (C. Julius Caesar Octavianus), first emperor of Rome, 27 BC-14 AD, and founder of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Upon defeating Antony and Cleopatra in 31, he reorganized the government of Rome into the "Principate," and claimed to restore the republic and to engage in a partnership with the Roman senatorial aristocracy. This bust was discovered in Meroe (southern Sudan), apparently having been plundered from imperial estates in Egypt.
Hellenistic marble statue of the DRUNKEN HAGGARD WOMAN, from the Capitoline Museum in Rome, second century BC. Believed to portray an elderly prostitute of the sort encountered in Hellenistic "New" Comedy, who serve younger more prosperous prostitutes in order to survive. Illustrative of the Hellenistic fascination with representations of everyday people, even when grotesque, as reflections of deeper meanings of nobility that exist in the common person.
Bronze head of the HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHER, or of BOETHUS, second century BC Hellenistic sculptor and bronze worker active at Delos and Rhodes. A notorious perfectionist who purportedly destroyed most of his own creations on completion. Again, crazed look and disheveled hair are indicative of Hellenistic fondness of realistic portraiture of everyday events and people.
QUEEN CLEOPATRA VII "Philopator" the last queen of Ptolemaic Egypt, c. 69-30 BC. Renowned for her irresistible charm and beauty, she became the mistress of both Caesar and Mark Antony, and produced children by both men. In the final days of the republic Mark Antony promoted her to consort in his administration of the eastern end of the republic and began awarding Roman provinces to her as royal territories. This helped to precipitate the final phase of the civil wars, won by Octavian (Augustus) at the Battle of Actium in 31.
Statue of VERCINGETORIX at Alesia: King of the Averni and leader of the last Gallic uprising against Julius Caesar in 52 BC. Ultimately besieged and captured by Caesar at Alesia. Epitomizes native resistance to the expansion of Rome imperium throughout the Mediterranean at the end of the Hellenistic era.
