Ara Pacis: The Altar of Augustan Peace
Why is it significant?
Through the tall glass walls of this white modern pavilion, you can see a marble enclosure about the size of a small room, carved all over with garlands, animals and a procession of life-size figures.
Key Facts
| Place | Ara Pacis: The Altar of Augustan Peace |
|---|---|
| Address | Lungotevere in Augusta, 00186 Roma RM, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.90610, 12.47540 |
| Part of Walk | Emperors Underfoot: Augustus and the Buried Campus Martius of Rome |
| Generated | Generated |
Through the tall glass walls of this white modern pavilion, you can see a marble enclosure about the size of a small room, carved all over with garlands, animals and a procession of life-size figures. That is the Ara Pacis Augustae, the Altar of Augustan Peace, perhaps the most perfect political advertisement ever made.
The Senate voted for it in 13 BC, when Augustus came home from campaigns in Spain and Gaul, and it was dedicated on 30 January, 9 BC, the birthday of his wife Livia. Inside the walls stood the altar where priests made sacrifices every year. Outside, the reliefs show Augustus, his priests and his whole family walking in procession, and the details are wonderfully human: a small boy tugging at a grown-up's toga, a woman who seems to raise a finger to hush the people chatting behind her.
Over the centuries the altar sank under river silt and was built over. Pieces surfaced from 1568 onwards and scattered into collections in the Vatican, Florence and even Paris. In 1937 and 1938, for the two thousandth anniversary of Augustus's birth, engineers tunnelled under the palace on Via del Corso, froze the waterlogged ground with carbon dioxide so the building would not collapse, and pulled out the rest. Mussolini had it reassembled here, beside the emperor's tomb, in time for September 1938.
Then came the glass. Richard Meier's pavilion, opened in 2006, was the first major modern building in Rome's historic centre since the fascist era, and Romans argued about it ferociously. One mayor even talked about tearing it down. It is still here, and the light inside is lovely, with the river glittering through the windows.
On the long wall facing the mausoleum, look for an inscription in big Latin letters: the Res Gestae, Augustus's own account of everything he did, copied from a temple in Ankara, in modern Turkey, where the best version survived. He wrote it to be read at the door of his tomb. So let's go and read it there. Cross the square to the great round mound of brick and cypress trees: the man himself is waiting.