Rare marble panel with the Twelve Caesars in bronze

Rare and impressive 19th Century Italian Grand Tour marble panel featuring the 'Twelve Caesars' in patinated bronze bas-relief. The profile portraits, based on representations from Roman coins are individually mounted on a rare unpolished yellow Broccatello marble panel with what looks like a plaster back and iron support to attach the plaque to a wall if desired. The twelve portraits include Julius Caesar and the first eleven emperors as documented by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus in his biographies, 'The Lives of the Twelve Caesars' written in AD 121 during the reign of the emperor Hadrian. Political expediency meant that Suetonius wisely avoided writing about Hadrian. The Twelve Caesars include the Julio-Claudians, Rome’s first imperial dynasty (Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero), three short-lived emperors during the civil wars of A.D. 69 (Galba, Otho, Vitellius), and the Flavian dynasty (Vespasian, Titus, Domitian).