Augustus

*"The problem of leadership is inevitably: Who will play God?"*—Frank Herbert, *God Emperor of Dune*
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This is my 3D capture of the [Skulpturhalle Basel's](http://www.skulpturhalle.ch/) plaster cast of the Copenhagen [Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek's](http://www.glyptoteket.dk) 1st-century AD marble bust of a [young Augustus](https://www.kulturarv.dk/kid/VisVaerk.do?vaerkId=493504).

Discovered in Fayum, Egypt, the bust is in the style of the iconic full-figure *[Prima Porta](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prima_Porta)* portait of Augustus, which Camille Paglia describes in *[Sexual Personae](http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300043969)* as an example of aesthetics-as-statecraft:

*"Rome took the eroticism and dreamy obliqueness out of Greek iconic sculpture. The great Prima Porta statue of Augustus, for example, is kouros turned suave, sober diplomat. Law and custom became sacred ends in themselves. The Roman persona was a public construction: it had sev