In the late 2nd century the Roman Empire began to show signs of deep crisis. This period was marked by a rapid succession of rulers proclaimed by the army whom scholars describe as "the soldier emperors".The series of "soldier emperors" in the Hermitage collection contains this masterpiece of sculptural portraiture. Emperor Philip, a native of Bostra, the capital of the Roman province of Arabia, is depicted as a powerful, bold, yet at the same time distrustful and wary man. The sculptor achieved this profoundly accurate characterization by minimal, but very precise and expressive means. The integrity of the image is enhanced by the deliberately coarsened treatment of the marble.