Bronze statue of the emperor Trebonianus Gallus A.D. 251-253 Roman This bronze monumental statue is one of the very few nearly complete Roman bronze statues of the third century preserved today. It is a reminder that many of the disembodied portrait heads displayed in these galleries were once attached to freestanding sculptures, whose original appearances were undoubtedly quite different. Portraits of the emperor served the highly important function in imperial propaganda of presenting the ruler to the public and of projecting the personality with which he wished to be perceived. Leadership and military strength are evoked in the heroic nudity of the figure and in the pose, which recalls the famous statue of Alexander the Great with the Lance by Lysippos. In contrast to the idealized body, the portrait head represents the emperor with brutish realism. Trebonianus likely would have cradled a parazonium, or short sword, in his left arm, and held a spear in his upraised right hand. The s