Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The Roman Emperors in Marble - 1. Julius Caesar and Augustus
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10 ROMAN DAYS.
ceived, and conveys the impression pure and distinct, to a
brain, of the mighty but quietly logical working of which
this brow gives a presage. The fine smile about the lips
bears witness that the work has been successful ; that he
has seen through us, and knows what we are worth.
But this smile has nothing that wounds him who is
thus seen through. The judgment is as kindly as it is
exact. If he will take advantage of our faults, he had
rather take it of our virtues, if we have any; and he wil-
lingly throws the weight of benevolence into the scale,
to let the latter more than outweigh the former. His
own face bears the stamp of a balance of the faculties
rarely encountered. From these features Horace, the
friend of Caesar Augustus, might have drawn the inspira-
tion for his " aiirea mediocritas!’’
Young Octavius is handsome, it might be said beau-
tiful. As you see that formation of features, in which
forehead and nose lie nearly on the same line, and are
more Hellenic than many of the Greek portrait busts we
now possess, you are reminded that the Octavian race
took its rise in Thurii, an Athenian Sybaritic colony in
lower Italy. Suetonius the biographer gives us the colors
for these forms. The lightly waving hair was of a golden
hue ; the eyes had a mild and kindly glance ;
the com-
plexion varied between tawny and white.
Caesar’s heir was not like young Caius Julius, in fop-
pish manners. He clad himself simply and soberly. On
his hair, which Caesar would have envied him, he bestowed
not a thought, except when the slave who acted as hair-
cutter presented himself with the shears. That was as
tiresome an hour for him as washing-time for the little
ones in the nursery. So it might happen that he would
call in another hair-cutter and make them begin, each at
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