This was followed in 272 BC by the capture of Taranto, the capture of Reggio in 270 BC, and the league with Syracuse during the first Punic war (264 - 241 BC). After the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, Rome cemented itself as a powerful force on the Mediterranean. In 280 BC, the army of Pyrrhus of Epirus clashed with the Romans in Italy, the first large direct contact between Romans and Greek people. Roman copy of the Greek Discobolus of Myron The strong, expressive composition distances it from Greek and Etruscan art, indicating an evolution of Italian style. Ī unique example of sculpture of superior production and craftsmanship is the Capitoline Brutus, the object of numerous dating hypotheses ranging from the 4th to the 1st century BC. In the second century BC, for example, the Senate arranged for the demolition of a newly constructed stone theater "as a useless and harmful thing to our customs". They generally disregarded anything that did not bring immediate utility. The Roman patrician was typically a tough, violent and tenacious man, forged by fatigue, having practical and immediate interests. This scarcity of artistic interest is well justified by the framework of the Roman mentality, intended as an expression of a population used to fighting against nature, poverty and neighboring populations. They represented practical art placed for the purposes of storytelling or modest decoration. Some references on the coins and on contemporary finds of Tarquinia, Chiusi, Perugia, and Volterra allow us to make hypotheses on the appearance of these statues. Each had its own statues, mostly bronze, which decorated the city. Religious activity in Rome at that time was intense and many temples were constructed. From 390 to 265 BC, the Romans managed to conquer sub-Apennine Italy. With the retreat of the Etruscans from Campania after the Battle of Cumae, the commercial traffic weakened and the city was forced to expand its territory. Until 390 BC, Rome was a single city in central Italy benefited from a position that favored commercial transit. Artistic production remained influenced by Etruscan culture, as well as from the Greek cities of Campania. Republican Rome embraced imperfection in portraiture because, though there were different levels of power each class of society had, everybody had little insecurities, this type of untouched physical representation fostered a sense of community by implying that while there were existing inequalities, that did not change the fact that they were Romans.509 BC traditionally marks the expulsion of the Etruscan kings and the beginning of the Republic. These masks served as a sort of family track record, and could get the descendants positions and perks, similar to a child of two alumni attending their alma mater.
These masks would be kept in the houses of male descendants in memory of the ancestors once they had passed. Wax masks would be cast from the family member while they were still living, which made for hyper-realistic visual representations of the individual literally lifted from their face. Exploits wrought by one's ancestors earned them and their families public approbation, and more a pompous state funeral paid for by the state. Portraiture in Republican Rome was a way of establishing societal legitimacy and achieving status through one's family and background. Roman portrait busts are thought to derive in part from death masks or funerary commemorations, as elite Romans displayed ancestral images ( imagines) in the atrium of their home ( domus). Republican portraiture is characterized by verism influenced by Hellenistic portraiture, and survives mainly as marble and bronze sculpture.
Examples of Roman portraiture, both sculpture and painting, are more abundant for the Imperial period. Roman Republican portraiture was practiced during the period of the Roman Republic (500–27 BC).