The Ara Pacis Augustae – commonly shortened to simply the Ara Pacis, or "Altar of Peace" – is one of the most important artistic monuments to remain from Augustan Rome, and a visual tribute to Augustus' rule. The structure – now housed in the Museum of the Ara Pacis in Rome, which is well worth a visit – comprises an altar placed within an elaborately decorated outer frieze. It was commissioned by the Roman senate in 13 BCE, in order to honour the emperor Augustus' return to Rome, as well as (more broadly) the peace he claimed his reign had brought, and consecrated in 9 BCE. What's particularly striking about the monument is the way that the visual programme brings together many of the themes also highlighted in contemporary literature at the time: natural bounty and pastoral ideals (see the inset of Tellus/Gaia, the earth-goddess, in the bottom right image above); mythical founders of Rome aligning in their blessing of Augustus' rule, including Romulus and Aeneas; and peace, built on victory in war. For a historian, however, it's the north and south friezes which are of special interest, because these depict actual (and, even more rarely, identifiable) Roman figures of state. In the detail showed above (bottom left), you can see Agrippa, Augustus' general at the Battle of Actium and son-in-law, shown on the left with his toga covering his head. One of his sons by Augustus' daughter Julia, probably Gaius, holds his toga, and looks up to a woman who stands behind Agrippa, who has been identified as Livia, the wife of Augustus.
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AuthorEmily Hauser is a classicist and researcher at Harvard and author of historical fiction recovering the lost women of the ancient world, including FOR THE MOST BEAUTIFUL and FOR THE WINNER. Archives
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