The Capitoline Museums never cease to astound visitors. After the internationally successful ‘Lux in Arcana’, with one hundred previously unseen documents leaving the confines of the Vatican Archive for the first time, it’s now time for the third 
phase of ‘The Days of Rome’, the five-year project of exhibitions recounting the long history of Rome, from the Republican era to Late Antiquity. ‘The Age of Balance’ is the title of this exhibition, which focuses on the golden age of the Roman Empire under the emperors Trajan, Hadrian, Antonius Pius and Marcus Aurelius. This was a time of artistic splendour and exceptional political stability, during which the benefits of Rome’s domination became apparent, from monetary unification to the legislative and judicial system and eventually to the spread of the Roman model of urban life to the very outskirts of the empire.
The exhibition covers some 80 years of history (from 98 to 180 CE), from the reign of Trajan to that of Marcus Aurelius, told through the lives of four illustrious politicians, who were chosen for their virtues, their personal ability and not by right of birth, and who managed to create a unique balance (hence the name of the exhibition) between power of the military, power of the senate and power of the empire. The ‘felica tempora’, or happy time as the years came to be known, are divided into five sections in the exhibition, allowing visitors to get to know the ‘good emperors’ through portraits, busts and full statues, their imperial palaces and private home, including a series of decorative sculptures and floorings from different rooms, aspects of their public lives and involvement in wars, with reliefs and friezes of battle scenes, and finally the burial customs of the age, with examples of the usages of the time.
The exhibition ends with a section dedicated to Classicism in the reign of Hadrian as an example of the new tastes of the period, inspired by the excellence achieved in Athens during the 5th century BCE, which was particularly popular among the more intellectual and cultured of the emperors described in the exhibition.
From 4 October 2012 to 5 May 2013
The Age of Balance
Capitoline Museums
Piazza del Campidoglio
Information: 060608