What was the role of Roman Emporers as patrons of the arts?

Answer 1

Most of them were military men, thus they knew very little about arts. Even the ones who were knowledgeable were accused of being strange! Of all of them, just a few promoted arts, while even less were philosophers.
Though, after Julius Caesar father in law influence, some paid some attention to letters, arts and philosophy, after he invited Greek philosophers in his villa in Erkolano and known figures resulted from his efforts, including Ovidius, Cicero, etc.