Statues of military commanders and representatives of authority were placed on the streets and squares of Ancient Rome, as well as in the public buildings. The Hermitage possesses part of such a statue, the head of which has not survived. We know that the heads of Roman statues were often made separately and then attached using a specially-created socket. As statue might originally depict one person and then, with a change of head, it would become the portrait of another.Looking at the Hermitage statue we can picture the dress armour of a Roman military commander. A cuirass of solid metal sheets, covering the chest and back, was covered with rich chasing depicting winged griffins and the head of one of the fantastic monsters of Greek mythology -- the Gorgon Medusa. Such dress armour might have been made of silver and even gilded. The cape thrown over the commander's shoulder was usually dark red in colour.