Verism

The Romans really valued verism because it showed the people as they really were. Instead of making rulers and people look like gods like the Greeks tended to do, the Romans represented the people in their artwork as they really were. They would create sculptures with wrinkles and imperfections because it was a real representation of who they were and what they looked like. It showed that they were proud of age. Old age typically represents wisdom and I think that the Romans understood that. I think that the veristic art shows a lot of creativity because they go into extreme detail to show every wrinkle and fold of skin that the person may have had. It is their own style of art that they could be proud of.
Greeks liked to show off how they believed every person should look and the Romans showed the reality-people are not perfect. No one is perfect nor will anyone ever be a perfect human being. Their art may have been created that way to let people know that imperfections and old age and wrinkles are okay. They are a part of life and should not be intimidating. Seeing actual representations of people is more interesting than god-like representations because you get an actual idea of what they looked like. It is not fake and I think that may be one of the biggest reasons they considered verism so important.