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Political Upheaval · 27 BCE · Turning point

Roman Empire Founded

2053
Years ago
0
Movements active
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Artists working
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Works dated 127 BCE–73

Augustus transformed Rome into a marble city and invented the full apparatus of state visual culture: monumental portraiture, historical relief, triumphant architecture, and the idea that art can narrate political legitimacy across an empire. Every subsequent imperial visual culture, from Byzantium to the British Empire, follows this template.

Sources

Lead image of the Wikipedia article, via Wikimedia Commons
Roman Empire Founded (27 BCE) · Ellsworth