This imperial portrait, depicting Julia Domna, Septimius, Caracalla and Geta, shows the family in their ceremonial best equipped with sceptres, representing them as they would have wanted to be revered by the common man. Modern researchers concur that there is a resemblance in countenance and style between the childhood portraits of Caracalla and Geta as children, and the portraits of Commodus and Annius Verus, the children of Marcus Aurelius. The resemblance can be particularly discerned in the hairstyles of Caracalla and Geta; thick, wild hair worn in long, wavy curls - the style of fifty years previous, that which Commodus and Annius Verus would have been depicted as having (Baharal 1992, p.112). The stylistic similarities in the domestic tondo between the Severan and Aurelian families furthermore support Septimius’ constructed inclusion in the gens Aurelius. The piece would have likely functioned as an icon relating to the imperial cult, demonstrating the owner’s loyalty and pietas towards the ruling dynasty. Following the damnatio memoriae of Geta, the defacement and continued displaying of the tondo served both as a private expression of loyalty to the imperial family, but also deference to Caracalla (Vamer 2004,
This imperial portrait, depicting Julia Domna, Septimius, Caracalla and Geta, shows the family in their ceremonial best equipped with sceptres, representing them as they would have wanted to be revered by the common man. Modern researchers concur that there is a resemblance in countenance and style between the childhood portraits of Caracalla and Geta as children, and the portraits of Commodus and Annius Verus, the children of Marcus Aurelius. The resemblance can be particularly discerned in the hairstyles of Caracalla and Geta; thick, wild hair worn in long, wavy curls - the style of fifty years previous, that which Commodus and Annius Verus would have been depicted as having (Baharal 1992, p.112). The stylistic similarities in the domestic tondo between the Severan and Aurelian families furthermore support Septimius’ constructed inclusion in the gens Aurelius. The piece would have likely functioned as an icon relating to the imperial cult, demonstrating the owner’s loyalty and pietas towards the ruling dynasty. Following the damnatio memoriae of Geta, the defacement and continued displaying of the tondo served both as a private expression of loyalty to the imperial family, but also deference to Caracalla (Vamer 2004,