2017-12-22 Fri

Ara Pacia, also known as Ara Pacis Augustae, was built in 13 BCE to honour the return of August to Rome after three years. It is an altar dedicated to Pax - Goddess of Peace.

It was built in the north-eastern corner of the Campus Martius, near the floodplain of the Tiber River. This altar is the Augustan vision of Roman civil religion. It depicts abundance and prosperity of the Roman peace. This monument serves a civic ritual function and simultaneously operated as propaganda for Augustus regime.

This monument was constructed in the traditional open-air altar at the centre conversed by precinct walls finely sculpted in Luna marble entirely. This alter was commissioned to built by the Senate of Rome.

This monument appears on AS of Nero issued in 66 CE. The above-shown coin depicts the front view of Ara Pacis on its reverse. The most obvious reason to depict this structure was to celebrate the achievements of Augusts. This structure also appears on the coinage of Domitian.

Today this altar is relocated to the Museum of the Ara Pacis in 1938.

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