Faces of Roman Emperors: Imperial Crisis & the Barracks Emperors
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A series of facial reconstructions of Roman emperors during the Crisis of the Third Century (235-284 CE), including the Gordian Emperors. These so-called "Barracks emperors" seized power during a time of turmoil, and their reigns were typically brief and violent. During this period, the Roman Empire fragmented, before being eventually reunified during the reign of Aurelian (270-275 CE).
These photorealistic reconstructions are only best guesses at how their subjects may have appeared, based on literary and artistic evidence. Some artistic license has been taken to fill in certain details that ancient sources failed to note. In some cases, artistic evidence is scarce, so portraits of close relatives are used to give an indication of how a subject likely would have appeared. Part of "Appearance of the Principate", a larger series by Daniel Voshart, made using Photoshop and Artbreeder, a neural net tool.
Maximinus Thrax (r. 235-238 CE) was a rank-and-file soldier who rose to power as a Roman army commander through his military acumen and physical prowess. A Thracian by birth, he was elevated to the position of Roman emperor after mutinous soldiers murdered his predecessor, Alexander Severus. He is considered the first of the “Barracks Emperors”, rulers who seized power through force and popularity with the military. However, Maximinus Thrax proved to be a worse emperor than a general, and he was eventually assassinated by his own soldiers.
Pictured alongside the reconstruction is the Capitoline bust of Maximinus Thrax.
Original image by Daniel Voshart. Uploaded by Arienne King, published on 25 October 2020. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Copyright. You cannot use, copy, distribute, or modify this item without explicit permission from the author. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
