La république de Rome (texte en anglais)

“By the authority of the senate, a part of the praetors and tribunes of the plebs, with Consul Quintus Lucretius and the leading men, was sent to meet me in Campania, which honour had been decreed for no one but me until that time. When I returned to Rome from Spain and Gaul, having successfully accomplished matters in those provinces, when Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius were consuls (13 B.C.E.), the senate voted to consecrate the altar of August Peace in the field of Mars for my return, on which it ordered the magistrates and priests and Vestal virgins to offer annual sacrifices.”

(Res Gestae, 12)

The Republic of Rome felt great suffering at the hands of her various leaders. However, soon after Augustus’ succession many things were about to change. He convinced his people that he was nothing like the former generals seeking political dominance through military might and public oppression. In fact, caring more for his people than his predecessors, he first managed to bring back peace to Rome. Then he rapidly established a program of cultural revival bringing back traditions, faith, and values of Rome’s ancestors, creating new legal reforms and restoring and building monuments and temples. And, on one particular day, to honour the triumphal return from Hispania and Gaul of the roman emperor Augustus and celebrate the peace, an altar to Peace was envisioned and commissioned by the Roman Senate. The Ara Pacis - founded on July 4, 13 BCE and completed on January 30, 9 BCE- not only represented a new departure in the evolution of Roman Imperial monuments, but also the culmination of artistic developments that preceded it. Nonetheless, despite its traditional background (Hellenistic style), the Ara Pacis had something essentially new which was a decisive turning point of Augustus’ official art. In fact, it helped artists to develop a formal visual language asserting a new vision of Romanitas. Step by step archaeology thus appeared as a means for propagating the ideology of Augustus’ cultural revival. It can thus be wondered if the art and architecture of the Ara Pacis was truly used as a means to Augustus’ political end. According to G. Karl Galinsky, the Ara Pacis was primarily symbolic rather than decorative, and its iconography seemed to offer several levels of significance. In fact, the studies of this altar traditionally addressed the potent political symbolism of their decorative programs highlighting dynastic and other imperial policies. So, through this essay we shall observe if the Altar of Peace, which obviously seems to embody the deep-rooted ideology of peace and prosperity, is intertwined with other themes such as the social norms of family, the importance of religion as a civilizing force and its idea of cosmic sovereignty, virtus (the military force), and finally his new estate: the city of Rome.

First of all, one of the most obvious ideologies Augustus seems to defend is the Familial Concordia and more precisely the image of fertility. On the east wall there is a well-preserved panel known as the Tellus panel. It shows a womanly figure holding two babies in the centre, accompanied by two other maidens. The one sitting on a swan is often identified as sea (Euploia) and the other sitting on a sea monster is believed to be the air (Acraia). The identity of the central woman is still debated though. It is generally considered that she is Tellus Mater, Venus or the goddess Pax. She could be the personification of Earth and thus identify Italy, but many scholars have suggested that it is the goddess Pax (reference to Pax Augusta) because the monument is the "Altar of Augustan Peace” and also because the entire scene depicts the benefits of peace and prosperity. The images of flowers, fruits, animal and plants that we can observe at the bottom actually seem to highlight the bounteous, abundant yield and lush fertility of the new Augustan "Golden Age”. In fact, the message conveyed through these propagandistic representations is that fertility and family seem to be significant in the social and political life. Indeed, the emperor advocated Roman family and population increase as part of social politics. He did offer financial assistance for family in need and encouraged women to marry and have children.

Besides, Augustus proudly displays his own family in the Ara Pacis. On the south frieze we can see members of his family: Agrippa, the right hand man of Augustus and his brother-in-law, Julia, Augustus ‘daughter and Livia, his wife followed by two boys, presumably to be the sons of Augustus, Gaius and Lucius.

“Pietas” and the respect for traditional customs were thus significant in Augustus’ program of moral and cultural renewal.

Besides, the Augustan age depicted in the Ara Pacis appears as an environment similar to the mythic utopian realms. In fact, Augustus considered the religion as essential in the politics he settled. One of the processions reliefs contains images of three goddesses usually identified as Pax, Hygenia and Concordia and all together seem to be associated with the idea of prosperity. Then on the other procession reliefs there are figures which seem to participate in a ceremony celebrating the peace and the civil and martial tranquillity dispensed by Augustus reign. Those figures include priests, women and children, attendants and a number of human figures who might be necessary for the performance of religious functions and rituals. Augustus can also be noticed. He is wearing the toga which mantles over his head and seems to be associated with a priest in a sacrifice. The figure thus echoes the representation of Augustus as Pontifex Maximus but also the figure of Aeneas sacrificing. Indeed, the relief on the south-western side is dedicated to Aeneas sacrificing.

In Greco-Roman mythology Aeneas was a Trojan hero; and in the mythology outlined by Virgil in

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