Statue of the Emperor Hadrian

A statue of Hadrian, apparently used for the ritual worship of the emperor, was discovered in a camp of the Roman army. One of the few extant bronze sculptures of an emperor from the Roman Period, it portrays Hadrian in the typical pose of the supreme military commander greeting his troops. His muscle cuirass is decorated with an enigmatic depiction of archaic warriors. Probably cast in an imperial workshop, the statue features the standardized likeness of the emperor, down to the unique shape of his earlobe, a symptom of the heart disease that eventually caused his death.