Ara Paxis...

6:41 p.m.

03/20/23 - This temple in marble and sculpted stone, with numerous images (of which only a few have survived), is believed to be an altar dedicated to Pax Augusta, according to the emperor's own words:

"When I returned to Rome from Spain and Gaul, having successfully accomplished deeds in those provinces, in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius, the senate decreed that an altar of Augustan Peace should be consecrated next to the Campus Martius for my return, and it resolved that the magistrates and priests and Vestal virgins should perform an annual sacrifice there".

(Res Gestae 12, 2).

The altar, then, dedicated to Pax, a goddess venerated by all who inhabited Augustan lands, glorified the exploits of the emperor, as he himself said.

The sanction of the decree for the construction of Ara was ratified in the year 13 BC, just when Augustus was returning from the Alps, after 3 years of campaigning. However, the construction ended in the year 9 B.C.

As for the structure of this sacrificial altar in an enclosed space, whose walls are completely covered with reliefs and ornamental friezes, the difference in height between the front and the back stands out. This irregularity is due to the fact that the level of the streets, where it was built, was not the same.

The Altar of Peace disappeared during the Middle Ages. Some remains were found in the 16th century and its total reconstruction was carried out in 1938.

Today it stands alone in a specially-built space near the University of Rome.