Cameo: Julio-Claudian Imperial Portrait, 30 BCE–54 CE, Italy, Rome, Early Imperial period. Travertine, 4.6 x 6.4 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1991.154.

The Julio-Claudian family included the first five emperors of Rome: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero.

This fragment of a cameo depicts a man wearing a laurel crown and facing right. Roman cameo gems were made by carving through layers of banded semiprecious stones to create an image, here a portrait in off-white with a tan background. Scholars have identified this portrait as various members of the Julio-Claudian imperial family based on the laurel crown and style of the portrait.

The close-cropped wavy hair, thinly arched brow, aquiline nose, and rounded chin are similar to depictions of many Julio-Claudian princes and emperors who can only be differentiated by inscriptions. The imperial family was represented with very similar features to support a unified dynastic image.