ARA PACIS AUGUSTAE

Description

Essentials about the Ara Pacis Augustae in brief

In 13 BC, the Roman Senate dedicated the Ara Pacis Augustae (“Altar of the Peace of Augustus”) to the first Roman Emperor Augustus, who had returned to Rome after his victories over Spain and Gaul. The altar was consecrated on January 30, 9 BC, the birthday of Augustus’ wife Livia. Like no other monument, the Ara Pacis Augustae reflects the ideology of the Pax Augusta. It was thanks to Augustus that peace reigned within the Roman Empire and that the civil wars that had shaken the outgoing Republic for decades had come to an end. At the same time, Augustus had also brought the Roman Peace (the Pax Romana) to the provinces of the Empire. Pax, peace personified, was the symbol of Augustan rule. With the Ara Pacis Augusti, this symbol of peace was given a fixed, cultic form. The Ara Pacis is at the same time the first monument of a public political self-portrayal of a Roman ruler.

The architecture of the Ara Pacis Augustae

The monument stands on a flat, almost square podium, which is preceded by a nine-step flight of steps. In the center of the complex rises the sacrificial altar, enclosed by four walls, which once a year, on the anniversary of the return of the victorious Augustus, served as a sacrificial site. At the front and back of the altar there is an entrance. The beauty of the Ara Pacis Augustae is due to its Carrara marble workmanship and the finely chiseled reliefs that almost completely cover the altar. The reliefs show a variety of pictorial motifs, from sacrificial processions to the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus to allegories.

Originally, the altar was located between the Via Flaminia (today Via del Corso) and the Via in Lucina on the Field of Mars, where it formed a unit with the Mausoleum of Augustus and the Solarium Augusti. The building was placed in such a way that the shadow of the obelisk tip of the Solarium Augusti on Augustus’ birthday moved exactly towards the center of the Ara Pacis over the course of the day. Located close to the Tiber River, however, the Ara Pacis was plagued by floods over time and – dilapidated, buried under mud and later built over – eventually fell into oblivion.

The excavation of the Ara Pacis Augustae

In the 16th century, during the construction of Palazzo Peretti, individual relief pieces were first discovered, which were soon taken to various places, such as the Villa Medici in Florence and the Louvre in Paris. At the beginning of the 19th century, more pieces of the altar were found, which is why systematic excavations finally began. The fascist regime under Benito Mussolini decided to re-erect the altar as part of a large exhibition, propagandized by its own imperial pretensions, to celebrate the two thousandth birthday of the Emperor Augustus. The salvage of the remains of the altar required for this purpose was a technical feat at the time. In order to preserve the palazzo still above it, it was elaborately hollowed out and the area around the altar was isolated from the surrounding area by a wall of frozen earth for the duration of the excavations. The recovered pieces were reassembled with the earlier finds, some of which had already been scattered all over the world, and – where their return could not be enforced – at least plaster casts of the originals were added to form the almost complete Ara Pacis Augustae.

The Museo dell’Ara Pacis

In 1938 the reconstructed altar was given a protective pavilion on the bank of the Tiber, but was turned 90° when it was placed. While in the original orientation to the east the entrance was on the west side, today it is on the south. With this unhistorical arrangement, it was achieved that the relief frieze with the sacrificial procession of the imperial family is located opposite the Augustus Mausoleum, which is immediately adjacent. In 2006, the old pavilion on the same site was replaced by the new glass building of the Museo dell’Ara Pacis. However, the unhistorical orientation of 1938 was maintained. Today, the two ancient buildings of the museum and the Augustus Mausoleum next to it characterize Piazza Augusto Imperatore.