The Power of Augustus
Sonderegger, Morgan
Published Online (2004) by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
It is clear that Augustus used images to shape and control his public image, but how these images worked is still debated. Visual sources are notoriously difficult to interpret historically, all the more so because the task must be done using only a few surviving ancient sources on Augustan Rome. Still, the richness of Augustan imagery tempts interpretation. One of the most elaborate surviving examples is the 
curiassed statue of Augustus from the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, a marble copy of a bronze statue made sometime around, but after 20 B.C., when the events it depicts took place. An interpretation by Paul Zanker hypothesizes a peaceful, god-like impression upon viewers, while an interpretation I develop below, drawing on arguments of Karl Galinsky, claims nearly the opposite. The statue
