Crafted by skilled Greek sculptors, the marble statue is believed to be a copy of a lost original bronze piece displayed in Rome.

While the head portrays a realistic youthful Augustus, the body diverges from reality; despite its clothed form, it resembles the heroic stance found in Greek statues.

The imagery on the lorica musculata cuirass (typical of legates[2]) refers to the Parthian restitution of the Roman eagles, or insignia, in 20 BC, one of Augustus' most significant diplomatic accomplishments.

As this act was the greatest service he had performed for Augustus, the breastplate imagery would remind viewers of Tiberius's connection to the deified emperor and suggest continuity between both reigns.

The bas-reliefs on his armored cuirass have a complex allegorical and political agenda, alluding to diverse Roman deities, including Mars, god of war, as well as the personifications of the latest territories he conquered: Hispania, Gaul, Germania, Parthia (that had humiliated Crassus, and here appears in the act of returning the standards captured from his legions); at the top, the chariot of the Sun illuminates Augustus's deeds.

[7] Despite the accuracy with which Augustus' features are depicted (with his somber look and characteristic fringe), the distant and tranquil expression of his face has been idealized, as have the conventional contrapposto, the anatomical proportions and the deeply draped paludamentum or "cloth of the commander".

Therefore, the Prima Porta statue marks a conscious reversal of iconography to the Greek classical and Hellenistic period, in which youth and strength were valued as signs of leadership, emulating heroes and culminating in Alexander the Great himself.

It is almost certain that the Augustus was originally painted, but so few traces remain today (having been lost in the ground and having faded since discovery) that historians have had to fall back on old watercolors and new scientific investigations for evidence.

[3][12] The writings of second-century polymath Lucian provide a good example of how color functioned for a work of that time, "I Fear I stand in the way of her most important feature!...

[17] Art underwent important changes during Augustus's reign, with the extreme realism that dominated the Republican era giving way to Greek influence, as seen in the portraits of the emperors - idealizations summarizing all the virtues that should be possessed by the exceptional man worthy of governing the Empire.

In earlier portraits, Augustus allowed himself to be portrayed in monarchical fashion, but amended these with later more diplomatic images that represented him as "primus inter pares".

[18] The figure in the centre, according to the most common interpretation, is the subjected Parthian king (Phraates IV) returning Crassus's standard to an armored Roman (possibly Tiberius, or symbolically Mars Ultor or the incarnation of the ideal legionary).

[20] This was a very popular subject in Augustan propaganda, as one of his greatest international successes, and had to be especially strongly emphasized, since Augustus had been deterred by Parthian military strength from the war which the Roman people had expected and had instead opted for diplomacy.

[citation needed] The gods, however, probably all symbolize the continuity and logical consistency of the events - just as the sun and moon forever rise, so Roman successes are certain and divinely sanctioned.

This type was introduced around 27 BC to visually express the title Augustus and was copied full-length and in busts in various versions throughout the empire up until his death in AD 14.

The copies never showed Augustus looking older, however, but represented him as forever young, in line with the aims of his propaganda, i.e. to display the authority of the Roman emperors through conventional styles and stories of the culture.

[26] The statue of Augustus of Prima Porta was discovered within the Villa of Livia in 1863, however little is known about the discovery itself and its immediate aftermath, as the incomplete archaeological journals leave ambiguous evidence for modern historians.

Suggested sites are the underground complex,[29] a placement near a staircase,[30] the villa's atrium,[30] or in a laurel grove on the south-east corner of Prima Porta hill.

[36] As visitors would enter the atrium from the fauces at the northeastern corner, the statue would be the first thing that they would see and that they would view it from the left, which fits Kähler's idea that it should be seen from this position.