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His bronze, over life-sized head gives a brutally clear message: I am great; I am your leader and I stand far above everyday politics. And yet, ironically, we have this commanding head here at the Museum only because it was captured by an enemy and then humiliatingly buried. The glory of Augustus is not quite as unalloyed as he wanted us to believe.
這尊比真人略大的青銅頭像傳達出清晰的信息：我很偉大，我是你的君主，凌駕于一切日常國政之上。但諷刺的是，這尊頭像曾被羅馬的敵軍繳獲，頗為屈辱地被埋了起來，最后才來到大英博物館。奧古斯都的榮光并不像他自己想象中那樣完美無瑕。
Augustus was Julius Caesar's great-nephew. The assassination of Caesar in 44 BC left Augustus the heir to his fortune and to his power. He was only 19, and he was suddenly catapulted into a key role in the politics of the Roman Republic. Known at that point as Octavian, he quickly outshone all his peers in the scramble for absolute power.
奧古斯都是愷撒大帝的甥孫。公元前四十四年，愷撒遭到暗殺，奧古斯都繼承了他的財富與權力。管理羅馬共和國的重任猛然落到了年僅十九歲的他肩上。當時他還叫屋大維，在爭奪絕對統治權的斗爭中，他迅速戰勝了所有對手。
The pivotal moment in his rise was the defeat of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium in 31 BC. Already holding Italy, France, Spain, Libya and the Balkans, Augustus now followed the example of Alexander the Great and seized the richest prize of them all-Egypt. The immense wealth of the Nile kingdom was now at his disposal. He made Egypt part of Rome-and then turned the Roman Republic into his personal empire. Across that empire, statues of the new ruler would now be erected. There were already hundreds of statues portraying him as Octavian, the man-of-action party leader, but in 27 BC the Senate acknowledged his political supremacy, and awarded him the honorific title of Augustus-"the revered one". This new status called for a quite different kind of image, and that is what our head shows.
公元前三十一年擊敗安東尼與克里奧佩特拉的亞克興海戰成為他崛起的關鍵。在將意大利、法國、西班牙、利比亞和巴爾干半島收入囊中之后，奧古斯都效仿亞歷山大大帝占領了最富庶的埃及。尼羅河王國的巨大財富盡在他的掌握之中。他把埃及變成了羅馬的一個行省，之后又把羅馬共和國變為了他個人的帝國。在帝國境內，各處都樹起了新君的雕像。事實上，作為一位雷厲風行的統領，刻畫屋大維的雕像已有數百尊之多，但公元前二十七年，元老院授予他奧古斯都的頭銜，意為神圣者，以確認他在政治上的無上特權。新的地位需要新的頭像來展現，本文中的頭像便應運而生。
