Emperor Lucius Verus

Following the death of Antoninus Pius in 161 CE, Lucius Verus ruled as co-emperor with his adoptive brother Marcus Aurelius until his own death in 169 CE (see coin 26). As an heir to the emperor, he was a popular subject in imperial portraiture from childhood, and production of his portraiture continued after his death and deification. Befitting his reputation for decadence, Lucius Verus is said to have highlighted his hair and beard with gold dust. Beards become an important feature of Roman imperial portraits beginning with the emperor Hadrian (r. 117–38 CE; see coin 21), who is thought to have worn one as a mark of his philhellenism (love of things Greek). Hadrian’s successors also wore beards, perhaps out of the same sentiment or to create the appearance of continuous dynastic succession among unrelated men, a central imperial ideology in the era of the adoptive emperors.