Ara Pacis Augustae

In 13 BCE, the Roman Senate decreed that the Ara Pacis be built to celebrate Augustus' triumphant return from the wars in Spain and Gaul, although the dedication or official inauguration took place about three and a half years later, in January 9 BCE. This altar to Peace was located in the Campus Martius (the Field of War), a place ironically where the military did exercises. In the succeeding centuries, however, the altar was eventually covered up as the level of the area was raised until finally it was buried and forgotten, only to be uncovered in part in the Renaissance, with slabs of the altar dispersed to various locations. Eventually the area was excavated and slabs were recovered from a number of owners; the altar was restored and installed in its own pavilion in 1938. Today, the Ara Pacis is installed in a new museum, which opened in 2006 (not entirely finished by the time I photographed it).

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