This chapter presents a selection of images of the emperor in the presence of members of his court, as depicted in reliefs, statue groups, coins, medallions, and frescos. It also includes a number of texts that discuss now-lost depictions of the emperor and his court. It is suggested that such images were important to constituting and reinforcing public perceptions of who was part of the imperial court, and of the hierarchy of the court at a particular moment. The destruction or defacement of images of courtiers who had fallen from grace – known today as damnatio memoriae – illustrated to contemporaries (and illustrates to us) specific changes in court hierarchy, and the general instability of that hierarchy. A number of the sources in the chapter come from provincial contexts, which also illustrates that the image of the imperial court had an impact on the peripheries of the Roman empire.

Close relatives of the emperor were assumed to be members of his court, unless he took conscious steps to exclude or expel them. A male relative’s position at court could be bolstered with traditional markers of authority including magistracies; female relatives relied on their access to, and relationship with, the emperor to build influence. The scandalous accounts of imperial women in the literary sources attest to the resentment their high status provoked, at least among the elite men who produced such narratives. For the emperor, his relatives were both living symbols of his rule and valuable aides in governing the empire. To wider court circles, Roman society as a whole, and even Rome’s foreign neighbours, members of the imperial family were intermediaries between ruler and subject, sources of patronage and protection, but also active participants in court intrigue. They could secure the dynasty – but they could also destroy it.