Page 144 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

142  ROME AREA B Y AREA

o Ara Pacis
Lungotevere in Augusta. Map 4 F2.
Tel 06-0608. @ 70, 81, 117, 119, 186,
628. Open 9:30am–7:30pm daily (last
adm: 6:30pm). Closed Jan 1, May 1,
Dec 25. 9 7 = ∑ arapacis.it
Reconstructed at considerable
expense over many years, the
Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace) is
one of the most significant
monuments of ancient Rome.
It celebrates the peace created Frieze on south wall showing procession with the family of Augustus
throughout the Mediterranean
area by Emperor Augustus after It is a square enclosure on a the innocent toddler clinging
his victorious campaigns in Gaul low platform with the altar in to his mother’s skirts.
and Spain. The monument was the center. All surfaces are The tale of the rediscovery
commissioned by the Senate deco rated with magnificent of the Ara Pacis dates back to
in 13 BC and completed four friezes, and reliefs carved in the 16th century, when the
years later. It was positioned so Carrara marble. The reliefs on first panels were unearthed.
that the shadow of the huge the north and south walls One section ended up in Paris,
obelisk sundial on Campus depict a pro cession that took another in Florence. Further
Martius (see p117) would fall place on July 4, 13 BC, in which discoveries were made in
upon it on Augustus’s birthday. the members of the emperor’s the late 19th century, when
family can be identified, archaeologists finally realized
ranked by their position in the just what they had found.
succession. At the time the heir What we see today has all been
apparent was Marcus Agrippa, pieced together since 1938, in
husband of Augustus’s daughter part original, in part facsimile.
Julia. All the portraits in the In 1999 the architect Richard
relief are carved with extra- Meier designed a building to
ordinary realism, even house the monument.

East wall South wall

Marcus Agrippa (right)

The altar was used once
a year for a sacrifice on
the anniversary of the
monument’s
inauguration.

West wall

North wall

An acanthus frieze
runs around the
Augustus’s young lower half of the
grandson, Lucius outside wall.

US_142-143_EW_Rome_US.indd 142 15/03/17 4:20 pm