Face of Augustus
Suetonius, the most gossipy writer of 'Ancient Rome, he left us biographies merciless of some emperors Romans not only from a moral point of view but also from a physical point of view.
Not without missing a good dose of contemptuous irony, he elucidated us on some of their most embarrassing flaws.
If we take into account the enormous efforts made by the government apparatus to offer the public and posterity an image as stately and imaginative as possible of the first citizens of Rome, the revelations of Suetonius after all, they cannot prevent us from smiling a little, rich as they are in gory or ridiculous details or in any case always irreverent.
Here are some of the funniest ones.
The (funny) physical defects of Augusto, Galba and Claudio
The figure of Augustus, princeps par excellence, intelligent, shrewd man, capable of keeping the
unchanged
Galba. Suetonius attributes rather serious physical defects to him
his immense power for decades (to benefit him, for sure, also the insuperable hypocrisy and a ruthlessness that too often bordered on inhumanity), is certainly reduced in the image that Suetonius gives us of him, which relieves him not a little of that aura of sacredness and inviolability that the political role conferred on it.
In addition to telling us about his chronic insomnia, which forced him to spend the nights strolling nervously from room to room in the palace or under the arcade on warm summer evenings, the historian also says that the Emperor had his body covered with unsightly stains , walked badly and with a limp.
Finally, he scratched himself continuously on him with his nails.
In short, an almost destroyed myth.
The portrait of Galba, is no better elected emperor immediately after the death of Nero.
Low, crooked, blue eyes, hooked nose, feet and hands deformed by gout, disease from which he suffered, man seemed to embody the very essence of ugliness.
Suetonius also has enough for Claudius.
The writer says that before the election as successor of Caligula, man had been the favorite target for jokes of all kinds, such as tormenting him with the throwing of olive pits and dates during his usual afternoon nap.
To this, just to complete the not-so-edifying picture, he adds that he was psychologically unstable and completely imbecile (Photo from:tafter.it and wikipedia.qwika.com).