Giulio-Claudio statue cycle

The twelve statues in Luni marble, today’s Carrara marble, were discovered in Veleia in 1761.

Originally they were placed along one wall of the Basilica, on a podium accompanied by marble inscriptions indicating the personage; the museum conserves 5 of these inscriptions.

The statues are larger than life size and represent various members of the Imperial Giulio-Claudio family whose cult, and the propaganda associated with it, also spread to northern Italy in the first century BCE.

The patron of Veleia, Lucio Calpurnio Pisone, who was also Julius Caesar’s brother-in-law, contributed to ensuring good relations between the small settlement and the Court.

The stylistic characteristics would indicate that the statues were created at different times. Belonging to the oldest group are the now headless statues of Augustus, his wife Livia and Tiberius;

then those of Drusus Major and Drusus Minor, respectively brother and son of the Emperor, as well as that of Lucio Calpurnio Pisane, the Pontefex, and probable promoter of the initiative.