Hermione Eyre

How to tell your Roman emperors apart

Coins are a valuable guide, says Mary Beard. Julius Caesar is portrayed with a comb over, Vitellius with jowls and Nero with designer stubble

The eerie, staring Meroë head of Augustus in the British Museum —which Mary Beard weirdly describes as ‘calm’. [Bridgeman Images]

  • Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern

    Mary Beard

    Princeton University Press, pp. 376, £30

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