Sometimes people can go down in history with such a bequest that it ’s hard to think back they were once a tangible person . Hero or despot , they take on such mythic proportions that you do n’t know what ’s material or not – and it does n’t help that most powerful people throughout account had very good PR machines ( ahem , Alfred the Great ) and some very flattering artists on the payroll ( yes , Henry VIII , we ’re bet at you ) .
The Spanish nontextual matter projectCésares de Romahas been creating lifelike sculpture of Rome ’s most famous Saturnia pavonia to make them sense more actual , and now it ’s Nero ’s turn , though this Modern rendition may surprise you .
Rome ’s brutal tyrant , sight liquidator , and all - circular bad guy wire or much - misunderstood leader ? Well , there are no actual present-day records of Nero ( possibly because he had Rome ’s two greatest thinkers at the prison term , his advisors Seneca the Younger and Burrus murdered ) , so most of what we know is base on Roman Catholic historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio , write 50 geezerhood after his sovereignty . Charges against him admit – though are not limited to – polish off his mother , his aunt , his step - blood brother , his wife , the pregnant fancy woman he provide her for , burn down most of Rome and pick Christians for it , leave in more murder .
Does this await like the face of a guy who could do all that ?
( If you ’re like me , you ’re belike thinking is n’t thatOri , the dwarf with the defective haircutin Peter Jackson’sThe Hobbit ? )
So , is it exact ?
It ’s hard to know . The Spanish artist used contemporary busts andcoinsof Nero , though few sculptures outlast after he was declared an enemy of the Senate after his downfall , and many were recut to resemble later rulers . Descriptions of what he looked like from the biography of Nero pen by Roman historian Suetonius were also used , though he was only born in 69 CE , a year after Nero ’s death .
There are classic sculptures that do indeed show a ratherjowly jawlineandquestionable neckbeard . Suetonius alsodescribed himas gray / blue - eyed , though he also called himsubflavo , blond - haired .
The red hair potential come from Nero ’s name before he was adopted by his uncle , then - emperor Claudius , and made heritor to the throne : Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus . Ahenobarbus in Latin means “ red - bearded ” .
Young Luciusbecame the fifth Roman Saturnia pavonia , under the name Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , in 54 CE at the eld of 17 .
accord to theCésares de Romawebsite , they are tacklingCaligulanext , so we have that to await forward to .
