Roman imperial portraits, and especially the portraits of the artist-emperor Nero, always fused reality and symbolism.

Take, for example, the chinstrap beard that appears on some of Nero's portraits. As far as we can tell, Nero - like almost every famous Roman between Scipio and Hadrian - was cleanshaven. But he had himself shown with a beard in certain artistic contexts, apparently from a desire to advertise his paternal descent from the distinguished Ahenobarbus ("red-bearded") clan. Or maybe he actually grew a beard, unattested in our literary sources, to make the same point. It can be difficult, in short, to tell where symbolism ends and verisimilitude begins.

There is little reason to doubt, however, that verisimilitude was the basic point of Nero's coins. Nero's coins - carefully struck and carefully designed, apparently under the emperor's own artistic direction - trace the emperor's advancing years and multiplying chins in what seems to be a linear and realistic fashion. The fact the Nero's sculpted portraits throughout the Empire show the same progression from husky youth to overweight maturity increases our confidence that (a) Nero really like that and (b) wanted the Empire to know what he looked like.

There was a long tradition of verisimilitude in Roman portrait art. Augustus famously adopted an idealized and ageless portrait, but other emperors - notably including Nero's successors Galba and Vespasian - took pains to have themselves shown as they were, warts, wrinkles, and all. Despite his Hellenic cultural proclivities, Nero was heir to this tradition.

Nero was also aware - perhaps more aware than any other Roman emperor - that emperorship was performance art. To be emperor was to live in the public eye, to embody and epitomize Rome and Rome's power. To be emperor, in other words, was to be seen. Some emperors, like Augustus, preferred to project a certain image of themselves. A few, like Tiberius, tried to withdraw from popular scrutiny. But most emperors, and Nero most of all, exhibited themselves to the people - at games, at public audiences, in travels through the provinces. Nero wanted to be portrayed as he was, double chin notwithstanding.

Was Nero bothered by his weight? Suetonius tells us that, at least in his later years, he had a bulging neck and protruding stomach, but never suggests that emperor was sensitive about them. The only reference we have about Nero attempting to slim down - also from Suetonius - comes in the context of his quixotic artistic endeavors. (In an attempt to strengthen his voice, we are told, Nero used to purge his stomach.) Nero, in other words, doesn't seem to have cared much about his figure.

He may have even encouraged his artists to exaggerate his heft. The bull-like neck of his latest statue and coin portraits, though probably symptomatic of actual obesity, may also have been a reference to the bull-like neck of Hercules. Nero aspired to be a great athlete as well as a great artist (chariot racing was his first great passion), and there was no better way to advertise athletic prowess - or at least athletic ambitions - than allusions to Hercules, the divine patron of all physical endeavor. Suetonius, in fact, claims that Nero once considered slaying a (carefully coached) lion with a club in the guise of Hercules in the arena.

Nero's coins, in short, were more or less realistic - but the reality they reflected was very carefully constructed.

​

My favorite books on Nero are Miriam Griffin's Nero: The End of a Dynasty and Edward Champlin's Nero. Champlin is especially good on the performative style of Nero's image and rulership.