Roman-style portrait
The Romans, under the influence of their native tradition, preferred portraits which concentrated on the face at the expense of the body and put a premium on maturity and experience rather than good looks; and, since Greek sculptors always responded well to the challenge of depicting foreign physiognomies, the outcome was the marvelous series of expressive portrait heads and busts which is perhaps the highest achievement of Late Republican sculpture. These shrewd, uncompromising faces, with their close-cropped hair, firm-set mouths, and deeply creviced cheeks, are more reminiscent of modern American financiers than of the philosophers and statesmen of the Hellenistic world; they provide a fine insight into the qualities of ruthlessness and hard-headedness which carried Roman rule to all corners of the Mediterranean. (Boardman, 1986)