The Imperial Beards

In the late Roman Empire, it was the norm for emperors to be completely clean shaven, with the exception of Julian who wanted to imitate the philosopher emperor Marcus Aurelius. However, after Justinian I, it suddenly became the norm for emperors to have rather prominent beards. Why this change of style?

I m not to sure but maybe it has to do with the Orthodox church because i think its a law that they cant be clean shaven but im not sure. But i havent seen a clean shaven Orhtodox priest.

Could it just be fashion? the mode changed, but is otherwise lost to the historical record?

In the early empire beards were largely absent - though Nero seems to have adopted one for a while? then under the Antonines they are in fashion - do I recall reading that Hadrian wore one because of acne or facial scars or something - then others copied him?

Another possibility. Was not Christ depicted as clean-shaven in early images, and then at a particular point the bearded image comes in? In think Ian Wilson may link this to the emergence of the image called the Mandylion.

Could the change have been a response to a changed fashion in portraying Jesus, and Emperors wished to emulated him?

I am no Byzantinist, so this is just a suggestion.

Phil

It seems they also wore their hair longer, sometimes near shoulder length. Were they not maybe influenced by barbarian neighbours incorporated into the Byzantine territory? Though, I think it was Phocas who first wore a pointy beard and shoulder length hair. He apparently did this to accentuate his barbarian/foreign heritage and possibly to hide scars.

Didn't Constantine want to be clean-shaven because Jesus at the time was depicted as beardless and Constantine wanted to emulate the look? I could be wrong on this though but maybe someone can clarify it because the Emperors before Constantine had beards for a while as well (Diocletian, Maximinianus, Maxentius etc). Or then again maybe he just preferred being clean-shaven.

I m not to sure but maybe it has to do with the Orthodox church because i think its a law that they cant be clean shaven but im not sure. But i havent seen a clean shaven Orhtodox priest.

Absolutely correct Honorius very impressed. The Orthodox priests do not shave their beards to resemble they are not part of this world. All their time they do not care about their beards. Although, sometimes a trimming can be in order.

Didn't Constantine want to be clean-shaven because Jesus at the time was depicted as beardless and Constantine wanted to emulate the look? I could be wrong on this though but maybe someone can clarify it because the Emperors before Constantine had beards for a while as well (Diocletian, Maximinianus, Maxentius etc). Or then again maybe he just preferred being clean-shaven.

It's also fair to point out the Jewish community at that time depicted young men with long hair and no facial hairs.

I think that Constantine was clean cut because he wanted as much as possible to ressemble Augustus.

The tradition continued on and off I guess. Maybe the reappearence of the beard in Byzantium came with the medieval days? Or maybe the return to the greek character, ancient Greeks took value in their beards. The early church seemed to have been against beards "Clericus nec comam nutriat nec barbam". Personal prefarence? Maybe they werent so concerned with how it may have been dogmatic, the fact that Hadrian had one can agree a bit with this statement.

Somethign that could be an interesting study. Another interesting study of the shift between Pagan Rome to Orthodox Byzantium is the depiction of the Emperors themselves, the busts of the classical day faded to teh simplistic style of the frescos.

Somethign that could be an interesting study. Another interesting study of the shift between Pagan Rome to Orthodox Byzantium is the depiction of the Emperors themselves, the busts of the classical day faded to teh simplistic style of the frescos.

That is an insteresting shift. However, I've always seen the busts as simplistic (in a good, classical way) and the frescoes being extremely colorful and ornate in comparison, in keeping with the rituals of the Orthodox Church and the Byzantine court.

I always saw the busts as more styled then the fresco's since first I am a classicalist and so I am biased. But also because I imagine the amount of skill it takes to copy the structure of a man so well. Making it symmetrical etc.

Perhaps a small element of it may relate to the ancient Roman days, when in times of war, a Roman Emperor might retain his beard; as the Byzantine Empire was mostly always under threat from some direction, the beard may have had an element of representing a new warlike element of Roman Emperors; of course, many Byzantine Emperors weren't all that warlike, or competent, but it might have just added to the standards of the advancing dark and mediaeval ages.

... it may relate to the ancient Roman days, when in times of war, a Roman Emperor might retain his beard...

To which phat period of "ancient Roman days" precisely, do you refer, and what is your source for this statement?

Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Vespasian, Titus, and Trajan were all emperors who spent time with the legions and are consistently shown as clean-shaven on their statuary and coinage - except for occasional periods of mourning (something different).

Hadrian was the first facially hirsute emperor, but as I understand it for cosmetic reasons, not that you infer.

The Antonine and Septimus Severus (including Lucius Verus) all seem to have copied their predecessor.

I am at a loss.

Phil

We musn't forget that there was over a hundred years period between the bearded emperors and those emperors of the early empire who wore no beard. Taboos and ways change.

I if recall correctly, beards were considered by Romans as a sign that one is incompetent of taking care of oneself. Perhaps that changed when long beards were connected to philosophy and wisdom...

There was NO gap at all between Trajan - the last of the beardless emperors, and Hadrian, the first to wear a beard (albeit a short one). I don't understand the point you are making.

Sure Augustus was 100 years before Hadrian - but he had successors. I see no "period between"!!

Phil

There was NO gap at all between Trajan - the last of the beardless emperors, and Hadrian, the first to wear a beard (albeit a short one). I don't understand the point you are making.

 

Sure Augustus was 100 years before Hadrian - but he had successors. I see no "period between"!!

 

Phil

I meant that during earlier times, (mid and late republic so on) beards were, IIRC, considered to be a bad thing, but later they were, acording to my presumption, connected to wisom and philosphy. Rome grew around the mediterranean, and after hundren years of being an empire that united so many cultures, beards were probably no longer taboos since the empire was so diverse and culture was no longer purely Roman. Perhaps they even became a fashion among the nobility?

In a hundred years culture, styles, taboos etc change a lot, when there is room for change.

But the change appears to have represented not "fashion" per se (ie a movement among an influential section of the population) but from Hadrian's purely personal decision.

Trajan was clean shaven (as are his officers on the column); Hadrian was hirsute.

Antoninus Pius had a beard a little longer than Hadrian's but which still followed the chin pretty closely. Aurelius had an appreciably longer beard, which his co-emperor, Lucius Verus was positively luxuriant!! It always seems to me that while Commodus aped his father, Septimius Severus looked to Verus as a model. I have photographs of busts of Caracalla with and without beards, but when unshaven, he seems to have been Hadrianic, lacking his father's distinctive ringlets.

So my interpretation is that it was Hadrian who changed things. he may have been influenced by his love of Greece and the east, but his beard is hardly a "philosopher's" version.

You may be right about the wider influences of empire and a more cosmopolitan attitude among society by Hadrian's time - perhaps he was the catalyst - but I still find the transition a comparatively sudden one.

Phil