A BUST of the Roman emperor Hadrian has taken pride of place at the famous wall which bears his name.

He ordered the building of the wall when he visited Britain in AD122.

Now his likeness can be seen at Chesters Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall, near Chollerford, in Northumberland.

The life-size bust closely resembles original Roman portraits of the emperor, although it was probably made in Italy in the late 17th or early 18th Century and depicts Hadrian with a beard. He was the first Roman emperor to do so, symbolizing his love of Greek culture.

It is carved from porphyry, a hard brown-purple stone, quarried in the eastern desert of Egypt in Roman times.

Purple was a symbol of imperial power and porphyry was reserved solely for portraits of the emperor and his family.

After the break-up of the empire, porphyry was no longer quarried and the bust was almost certainly carved from re-used Roman porphyry.

Sarah Lawrance, English Heritage's curator of the wall, said: "We are delighted to have Hadrian at Chesters.

"In Roman times even people on the edge of the empire would have been familiar with what he looked like from coins and statues, which reminded the soldiers of their allegiance to the emperor and mad them feel part of the rest of the empire."