The character in A. D. 62: Pompeii who is represented by this image is Marcus Tullius, the master of the household where Miranda becomes a house slave. There really was a Marcus Tullius in Pompeii; Salvatore Nappo reports an inscription on the Temple of Fortuna Augusta in which a Marcus Tullius states that he built the temple. History also records that a Marcus Tullius was military tribune and served twice as duumvir in the city of Pompeii (the duumviri or "two men" were mayors of the city; like consuls, they were elected for one year terms, in pairs). The imaginary Marcus Tullius in my novel would be a descendant of these men, and also related to the great orator and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero who lived a century earlier; Cicero owned a villa in Pompeii.

This photograph shows the head of the Prima Porta Augustus, a statue of Caesar Augustus (Octavian) that is in the Vatican Museum in Rome. Augustus was usually represented as youthful and godlike in appearance.

I was amused to find that -- even in Rome -- many shop clerks incorrectly referred to reproduction statues of the Prima Porta Augusta as images of "Julius Caesar".