Ara Pacis

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The Ara Pacis in Rome

The Ara Pacis Augustae (Latin " Altar of Peace of Augustus ") is a monument in Rome . It was 13 BC Commissioned by the Roman Senate and dedicated to the victorious Emperor Augustus .

Building history

The Roman Senate dedicated the altar in 13 BC. The first Roman emperor Augustus, who had returned to Rome after his victories over Spain and Gaul . The altar was consecrated on January 30th 9 BC. BC, the birthday of Livia, the wife of Augustus. The altar tries to represent peace and prosperity as a result of the Pax Augusta , the goddess of peace. The Ara Pacis is also the first monument of a public political self-expression of a Roman ruler. Since the Julian-Claudian dynasty refers to Aeneas , one could invoke divine descent to legitimize the claim to power, since in mythology Aeneas was the son of Anchises and the goddess Venus . Some coins from the time of Nero show the altar (RIC II, nos. 418 and 456–461).

Originally the altar was located between Via Flaminia (today Via del Corso ) and Via in Lucina near the current church of San Lorenzo in Lucina on the Marsfeld , where it formed a unit with the Augustus mausoleum and the Augusti solarium . The building was placed in such a way that the shadow of the obelisk at the top of the Augusti solarium on Augustus' birthday moves over the course of the day exactly to the center of the Ara Pacis.

Located close to the Tiber , the Ara Pacis has been plagued by floods over time and - decayed, buried under mud and later built over - finally fell into oblivion.

Structure and iconography

The Ara Pacis (back)

The monument stands on a flat, almost square podium measuring 11.63 × 10.62 m, which is preceded by a 9-step flight of stairs. The sacrificial altar, enclosed by four walls, rises in the center of the complex. At the front and back, the enclosure has entrances that are 3.60 m wide and equally high. The outer sides are completely covered by finely chiseled reliefs. The inner walls are also decorated with pictures: friezes made of buccrania and garlands , which are attached over a stylized palisade fence and enriched with sacrificial bowls above the garlands. The whole altar is made of Carrara marble . The high level of accuracy suggests Greek artists .

The outer relief friezes of the enclosing wall are divided into two registers on all four sides . Above a meandering band of acanthus leaves, lush climbing plants and small animals and birds dwelling in them, the two side walls move towards the entrance to each a sacrificial procession according to traditional Roman piety. On the left, the north side, it depicts a procession of women and children, senators, magistrates and priests , only incompletely preserved . Some bring sacrificial animals, some have their heads with a toga as a traditional gesture of respect for the gods during an animal sacrifice veiled. Others wear laurel wreaths, the traditional symbol of victory. On the opposite side, the procession of the imperial family to the act of sacrifice at the laying of the foundation stone can be seen: after a destroyed party of Augustus, who, as a victim, pulled his toga over his head like a hood, four flamines and other identifiable members of the family.

The relief decoration on the front and back is interrupted by the entrance and exit. To the left of the entrance was the Lupercal , the grotto in which the Capitoline she-wolf is said to have suckled Romulus and Remus . Only a few remains have been preserved; what has been lost is e.g. T. indicated: Mars, Faustulus , the she-wolf and the twins Romulus and Remus. To the right of the entrance, Aeneas can be seen at the sacrifice with sacrificial servants and a pig as a sacrificial animal.

On the reverse, the relief to the left of the exit shows a seated woman in a rural setting in the center, interpreted as a personification of peace or the Italian land, the Saturnia tellus , with two small children. Next to it sit two female figures, recognizable as allegories of the land and sea winds. Below these figures, on the left, indicated by the spring urn , a river rises in mountain and forest vegetation, on the bank of which a cattle lies down and a sheep grazes. The picture to the right of the exit is almost completely destroyed. Corresponding to the scene on the left, it is likely to have depicted the god of Rome, the dea Roma. The altar was used as a sacrificial site once a year, on the anniversary of the return of the victorious Augustus.

  • The city goddess Roma (east side, right narrow side)

  • Allegorical relief: Tellus between the personifications of the land and sea winds (east side, left narrow side)

  • Sacrifice procession (relief on the north side, left part)

  • Sacrificial procession (relief on the south side)

  • Sacrifice procession (relief on the north side, right part)

  • The sacrificing Aeneas (west side, right narrow side)

  • The suckling she-wolf with Mars and Faustulus (west side, left narrow side)

  • Left western corner of the actual altar within the surrounding wall

  • Right western corner of the altar

  • Lion detail on the altar crown in the left western corner

Find history

During the construction of the Palazzo Peretti in the 16th century, individual relief pieces were discovered which were soon taken to various locations, such as the Villa Medici , Florence and the Louvre . Further parts were found in the 19th century and systematic excavations began in 1903 under the direction of Giacomo Boni . The fascist regime under Benito Mussolini decided to rebuild the altar for the two thousandth birthday of Emperor Augustus as part of a large exhibition shaped by its own imperial claims. The project was planned and carried out by Giuseppe Moretti . The necessary recovery of the remains of the altar was a technical peculiarity at the time: In order to preserve the palazzo that was still above it, it was painstakingly undercut and the area around the altar was isolated from the surroundings by a wall of frozen earth for the time of the excavations. The recovered pieces were with the z. Some of the earlier finds that have already been scattered all over the world have been reassembled and - where their return could not be enforced - at least supplemented by plaster casts of the originals to form an almost complete altar.

Ara Pacis Museum

The pavilion from 1938 after the renovation in 1970
The street Via di Ripetta in November 2017 in Rome. On the right is the Church of San Rocco. On the left, opposite is the Museo dell'Ara Pacis

In 1938 the reconstructed altar was given a protective pavilion on the banks of the Tiber, but was rotated 90 ° when it was erected. While the entrance was on the west side when it was originally oriented to the east, it is now in 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 immediately adjacent Augustus mausoleum .

In the spring of 2006, the new glass building of the Museo dell'Ara Pacis , planned by the architects Richard Meier & Partners , opened at the same location . It should now better protect the altar from overheating and environmental pollution. The unhistorical orientation of 1938 was retained.

The new building by the American architects was highly controversial among the inhabitants of Rome. During the election campaign for the parliamentary elections in Italy in 2008 , Mayor Gianni Alemanno even threatened to tear down the new museum.

The two ancient buildings in the center of the Piazza Augusto Imperatore shape the square today.

literature

  • David Castriota: The Ara Pacis Augustae and the Imagery of Abundance in Later Greek and Early Roman Imperial Art. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1995.
  • Gerhard Koeppel : The historical reliefs of the Roman Empire, V: Ara Pacis Augustae. Part I. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 187, 1987, pp. 101–157; Part II. In: Bonner Jahrbücher 188, 1988, pp. 97-106.
  • Alexander Mlasowsky : Ara Pacis. A state monument of Augustus on the Marsfeld. von Zabern, Mainz 2010, ISBN 978-3-8053-4155-4 .
  • Giuseppe Moretti : L'Ara Pacis Augustae (= Itinerari dei Musei e Monumenti d'Italia. 67) Libreria dello Stato, Rome 1938 (last German edition: Die Ara Pacis Augustae (= guide to the museums, galleries and monuments of Italy. 67) Libreria dello Stato, Rome 1976).
  • Giuseppe Moretti: Ara Pacis Augustae. Text and chalkboard. Libreria dello Stato, Rome 1948.
  • Eugenio La Rocca: Ara Pacis Augustae. In occasione del restauro della fronte Orientale, Rome 1983
  • Erika Simon : Ara Pacis Augustae. Wasmuth, Tübingen 1967
  • Erika Simon: Ara Pacis Augustae. The altar of the goddess of peace Pax Augusta in Rome. Röll, Dettelbach 2010
  • Paul Zanker : Augustus and the power of images . CH Beck, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-406-32067-8 .

Web links

Commons : Ara pacis  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ for translation s. KE Georges, detailed Latin-German concise dictionary , 11th edition, vol. 1 (Hanover 1962) Sp. 730 sv Augustus 3.
  2. ↑ Cassius Dio 51,19.2-3
  3. ↑ Cassius Dio: 54.25.4
  4. ^ Eugenio La Rocca: Ara Pacis Augustae. In occasione del restauro della fronte Orientale, Rome 1983 online .pdf
  5. ^ Landesmuseum Württemberg: As des Nero with a representation of the Ara Pacis
  6. ^ Res gestae divi Augusti 12
  7. ↑ This often leads to a certain confusion for the viewer; because in Rome guides the original points of the compass are mostly taken from the scientific descriptions, but they contradict the appearance in the museum.
  8. ↑ "An Oracle of Modernism in Ancient Rome" , New York Times , September 25 of 2006.
  9. ↑ "The mallet method. The new mayor of Rome calls for the Ara Pacis Museum to be demolished ” , Deutschlandradio , May 6, 2008.

Coordinates: 41 ° 54 ′ 23 "  N , 12 ° 28 ′ 32"  E