Portrait of a Young Man

This bust almost certainly represents Tiberius, Emperor of Rome, and was probably devised to commemorate the adoption of Tiberius as Augustus' successor in AD 4. Tiberius was a forty-six year old soldier when he was adopted and yet the present bust, like all other contemporary and commemorative portraits, shows him as a boyish-looking youth with delicate features. This lack of interest in physical features sometimes made for bland royal images and junior members of the imperial family are often near indistinguishable from one another. For instance, Tiberius' nephew Germanicus is shown in much the same vein as Tiberius: a young man with wavy hair brought forward across the forehead. Tiberius, however, as we see him here, is represented with softer, less heavy face than Germanicus.