That must have been the thinking with this large tribute to Emperor Joseph II. Joseph had a nice 25-year run as the Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Habsburg dynasty, starting with his coronation in 1764. He supposedly tried to rule by enlightened absolutism, which I guess meant he was in charge but liked to leave some crumbs for the rest of the population. His ideas weren't too popular, at least among the others in government at the time. Meanwhile, he was no whiz at foreign policy, and he left Austria rather isolated during his time on the job.
The statue went up between 1795 and 1807. If Josef looks like a Roman conqueror, that's not a coincidence. The family believed they were descended from the Roman rulers of the past.
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