Romans built a very powerful civilization and sculpture was extremely important and influential to them. They had schools for the new artist to learn the craft, and they used materials like marble, stone, clay and concrete which they invented.
Often, Romans created their statues to honor important influential Statesmen because they wanted people to remember then. Roman emperors wanted to be remember by the people, and also to remind citizens of their big and influential power.
Roman sculptures were very often inspired by the Greeks. The different was that the Greeks concentrated in the beauty of the statues, sometimes exaggerating it, while the Romans wanted to create more realistic statues in combination with practical purposes.
Even though Romans mainly created their statues to honor Statesmen sometimes, they were created to honor ancestors, Gods, leaders, military generals and philosophers.