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His bronze, over life-sized head gives a brutally clear message: I am great; I am your leader and I stand far above everyday politics. And yet, ironically, we have this commanding head here at the Museum only because it was captured by an enemy and then humiliatingly buried. The glory of Augustus is not quite as unalloyed as he wanted us to believe.
这尊比真人略大的青铜头像传达出清晰的信息：我很伟大，我是你的君主，凌驾于一切日常国政之上。但讽刺的是，这尊头像曾被罗马的敌军缴获，颇为屈辱地被埋了起来，最后才来到大英博物馆。奥古斯都的荣光并不像他自己想象中那样完美无瑕。
Augustus was Julius Caesar's great-nephew. The assassination of Caesar in 44 BC left Augustus the heir to his fortune and to his power. He was only 19, and he was suddenly catapulted into a key role in the politics of the Roman Republic. Known at that point as Octavian, he quickly outshone all his peers in the scramble for absolute power.
奥古斯都是恺撒大帝的甥孙。公元前四十四年，恺撒遭到暗杀，奥古斯都继承了他的财富与权力。管理罗马共和国的重任猛然落到了年仅十九岁的他肩上。当时他还叫屋大维，在争夺绝对统治权的斗争中，他迅速战胜了所有对手。
The pivotal moment in his rise was the defeat of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium in 31 BC. Already holding Italy, France, Spain, Libya and the Balkans, Augustus now followed the example of Alexander the Great and seized the richest prize of them all-Egypt. The immense wealth of the Nile kingdom was now at his disposal. He made Egypt part of Rome-and then turned the Roman Republic into his personal empire. Across that empire, statues of the new ruler would now be erected. There were already hundreds of statues portraying him as Octavian, the man-of-action party leader, but in 27 BC the Senate acknowledged his political supremacy, and awarded him the honorific title of Augustus-"the revered one". This new status called for a quite different kind of image, and that is what our head shows.
公元前三十一年击败安东尼与克里奥佩特拉的亚克兴海战成为他崛起的关键。在将意大利、法国、西班牙、利比亚和巴尔干半岛收入囊中之后，奥古斯都效仿亚历山大大帝占领了最富庶的埃及。尼罗河王国的巨大财富尽在他的掌握之中。他把埃及变成了罗马的一个行省，之后又把罗马共和国变为了他个人的帝国。在帝国境内，各处都树起了新君的雕像。事实上，作为一位雷厉风行的统领，刻画屋大维的雕像已有数百尊之多，但公元前二十七年，元老院授予他奥古斯都的头衔，意为神圣者，以确认他在政治上的无上特权。新的地位需要新的头像来展现，本文中的头像便应运而生。
