The ara pacis Augustae (altar of Augustan peace):
Ara Pacis: * an altar erected by the senate in honour
of the victorious return of Augustus from Spain and Gaul in 13 B.C.,
on which the magistrates, priests and Vestals should offer annual sacrifices (Mon. Anc. ii.39‑41).
The decree of the senate was dated
4th July, 13 B.C. ), and [the altar was] dedicated 30th January,
9 B.C. This altar stood on the west
side of the via Flaminia and some distance north of the buildings of
Agrippa.
The altar itself
was not found. It stood within an enclosing wall of white marble, about
6 metres high, which formed a rectangle measuring 11.625 metres east
and west, and 10.55 north and south (NS 190, 568). In the middle of
the east and west sides were entrances flanked with pilasters, and other
pilasters stood at each angle of the enclosure. The inside of the enclosing wall was decorated
with a frieze of garlands and ox-skulls above a maeander pattern, beneath which
was a panelling of fluted marble. A frieze of flowers and palmettes
adorned the outside of the enclosure and above this on the north side were
reliefs representing the procession in honour of the goddess, with many figures
of the imperial family and the flamines,
and, on the south, senators, magistrates and others.
On the north side of the east entrance was a group of Honos [Honor], Pax [Peace]
and Roma, while on the south was a relief of Tellus [Mother Earth], or Italia. The west entrance was flanked on the north by
a group of Mars and Faustulus at the Ficus Ruminalis (?) and on the south
by Aeneas sacrificing when he found the sow. An ingenious attempt has been made to explain
the architectural and decorative scheme of the site and the ceremony of
consecration on 4th July, B.C. 13 (Pasqui, SR 1913, 283‑304).
Excerpted from
S. B. Platner, A Topographical Dictionary
of Ancient Rome (rev. T. Ashby, Oxford 1929) 330-32.
thumbnails (begin with Exterior from the front, 1)
