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World history
Course: World history > Unit 2
Lesson 7: The Roman EmpireAra Pacis
Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace), 13-9 B.C.E.Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris & Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
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- How was rome a monarchy?(22 votes)
- From the author:According to legend, Rome was ruled by a series of kings (7) beginning with Romulus and ending in 509 BCE when Rome became a Republic. This is, of course, a largely mythic history.(46 votes)
- Atit says that Aeneas founded Rome. I read in another book that said that Romulus and Remus founded Rome. What does this all mean? 5:43(18 votes)
- According to Rome myths, Founders were Romulus & Remus.
Aeneas was their predestor.(18 votes)
- This altar has Aeneis on it. Do you think Augustus put this on the altar for the same reason (or around the same time) that he commissioned Virgil to write the Aeneid?(15 votes)
- That's a great question. Augustus was very image concious and the mythology of Aeneas was integral to Augustus' claims of legitimacy as supreme ruler of Rome (he claimed both he and his adoptive father Julius Caesar were descendants of Aeneas through his son Iulius.) Augustus commissioned Virgil to write the Aeneid, which was officially 'released' upon Virgil's death in 19BCE (just six years before the commissioning of the Ara Pacis' completion in 13BCE). It should also be noted that the Senate, although 'technically' independent of Augustus, would have likely commissioned this work at his behest. Mythology often has many different versions, and Augustus worked very hard to preserve his version for prosperity. There is an excellent on this topic called "The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus" by Paul Zanker.(4 votes)
- how long did it take to make the Ara Pacis? it looks beautiful I just want to know how long did it take to rebuild it.(7 votes)
- In the original instance, the Ara Pacis was built between 13 and 9 BCE. In modernity, fragments were discovered over the course of several centuries. The fragments were re-assembled during the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. The missing portions ( there are many) are reconstructed using plaster. The museum housing the altar was recently re-designed and updated.(12 votes)
- Do we have any idea how many artists would have worked on a piece of this scale?(13 votes)
- @Is meanders an architectural term. If so, was it commonly employed by the Romans? 5:28(3 votes)
- According to wikipedia, a "meander" is "a decorative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated motif." According to the dictionary built into my mac, it is "an ornamental pattern of winding or interlocking lines."
So yes, it's an artistic term (and thereby relatively architectural term, too). I have seen it in Greek and Roman work before, I believe, and I would guess that it is relatively common, but I don't know to what exact extent.(5 votes)
- who was Alexander the great(2 votes)
- Alexander the Great was the king of Macedon, a Greek kingdom. During his reign, his kingdom would dominate most of the Hellenic world, Afterwards, he proceeded to conquer the Persian Empire, which he did after a series of conquests. After the fall of Persia, he continued his campaign in India, where many Indian principalities came under his influence. His conquests spread Greek culture from present-day Bulgaria to Afghanistan and from Georgia to Egypt. He died on his way back home, which resulted a breakup of his empire by his former generals.(7 votes)
- Were is the Ara Pacis now?(3 votes)
- They said it is in Rome at the beginning of the video.(1 vote)
- at, it said that Augustus's uncle was a god, so did Augustus's family hold power-not only himself? 3:43(2 votes)
- Augustus was born as Caius Octavius. His great-uncle was Julius Caesar. When Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C.E., he posthumously adopted young Octavius as his legal son, by means of his will. Thus Octavius, who later took the honorific title "Augustus" ("revered by the gods"), became Caesar's heir.(4 votes)
- Why is this tagged as History rather than Art History? There's almost no History of Augustus' reign or anything else discussing the historical events of the time. Agrippa gets mentioned so why not just include a little about his role as Augustus' advisor? Oh, and Augustus' reign was a time of peace and prosperity following Ceasar's civil wars? What about that small issue of a civil war between Augustus and Marc Anthony 15 years before this? They wrote a little play about it, you might have heard of it.(3 votes)
- It's here because it had great purpose in history. BUT, an argument could be made to put a more detailed documentary in the art history section.(2 votes)
Video transcript
(light piano music) - [Dr. Zucker] We're standing
in the marvelous museum that was designed by Richard
Meier to hold the Ara Pacis, one of the most important
monuments from Augustine Rome. - [Dr. Harris] Ara Pacis
means alter of peace. Augustus was the first emperor of Rome. - [Dr. Zucker] And the person who established the Pax Romana,
that is the Roman Peace. The event that prompted the building of this altar to peace under Augustus was Augustus's triumphal
return from military campaigns in what is now Spain and France. - [Dr. Harris] And when he returned, the Senate vowed to create an alter commemorating the peace that
he established in the empire. We're talking about the
Ara Pacis but, of course, this has been reconstructed
from many, many fragments that were discovered,
some in the 17th century, mostly in the 20th century. - [Dr. Zucker] Actually,
it's a small miracle that we've been able to
reconstruct this at all. It had been lost to memory. - [Dr. Harris] The remains of
it lay under someone's palace. When it was recognized,
what these fragments were, it became really
important to excavate them and to reconstruct the alter. - [Dr. Zucker] That was
finally done under Mussolini, the fascist leader, in the years leading up to the second World War and during the second World War, and that was important to Mussolini because Mussolini identified
himself with Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. Mussolini was very much trying to reestablish a kind of Italian empire. We should talk a little
bit about what an altar is. - [Dr. Harris] We talk about the alter, really what we're looking at
are the walls of the precinct around what is in the middle of the altar, where sacrifices would have occurred. - [Dr. Zucker] The altar
itself is interesting and important when we
think about Augustus. Augustus is establishing
a centralized power. Since its earliest founding years, when it was under the rule of kings, Rome had been controlled by the Senate. - [Dr. Harris] The Senate
was basically a group of the leading older citizens of Rome. So Rome was a republic and it really was a republic
until Julius Caesar, who was the dictator and Augustus's uncle, and then Caesar is
assassinated, there's civil war, and then peace is established by Augustus. - [Dr. Zucker] Right. Augustus, whose real name was Octavian, is given the term Augustus as a way of representing his power, and it's interesting, the kind of politics that Augustus involved himself with. He gave great power back to
the Senate, but by doing so, he established real and
central authority for himself. - [Dr. Harris] He made himself Princeps, or first among equals, but of course he controlled everything. - [Dr. Zucker] He also held the title of the head priest of the state religion, and so he held tremendous power. - [Dr. Harris] His uncle, Julius Caesar, had been made a God, and so he also represented
himself as the son of a God. - [Dr. Zucker] And so the idea
of establishing this altar has a political as well
as spiritual significance. - [Dr. Harris] He's looking
back to the Golden Age of Greece of the fifth century BC, but he's also looking back
to the Roman Republic. He's reestablishing some
of the ancient rituals of traditional Roman religion. He's embracing traditional Roman values. - [Dr. Zucker] But even
as he's doing that, he's remaking Rome radically. He's changing Rome from a city
of brick to a city of marble and the Ara Pacis is a
spectacular example of that. - [Dr. Harris] And when we
look closely at the Ara Pacis, what we're going to
see is that this speaks to the sense of a golden age that Augustus brought
about in the Roman Empire. - [Dr. Zucker] One of the
most remarkable elements of the Ara Pacis is all
of the highly decorative relief carving in the lower frieze. - [Dr. Harris] And that
goes all the way around. It shows more than 50
different species of plants. They're very natural in that
we can identify these species, but they're also highly abstracted and they form these beautiful symmetrical and linear patterns. - [Dr. Zucker] There is a real order that's given to the
complexity of nature here. This massive, elegant acanthus leaf, which is a native plant, which were made famous
in Corinthian capitals, and then almost like a
candelabra growing up from it, we see these tendrils of all
kinds of plants that spiral. - [Dr. Harris] And there
are also animal forms within these leaves and plants. We find frogs, and lizards, and birds. - [Dr. Zucker] And the
carving is quite deep, so that there's this sharp contrast between the brilliance
of the external marble and then the shadows that are cast as it seems to lift off the surface. - [Dr. Harris] Art historians
interpret all of this as a symbol of fertility, of the abundance of the Golden Age that
Augustus brought about. - [Dr. Zucker] We also see
that same pattern repeated in the pilasters that frame these panels and then we also have meander that moves horizontally
around the entire exterior, and it's above that meander that we see the narrative friezes. We have to be a little careful
when we try to characterize what precisely is being represented. There are lots of
conflicting interpretations. - [Dr. Harris] These panels relate, again, to this Golden Age that
Augustus establishes. These refer back to Aeneas Rome's founder and Augustus's ancestor. We see other allegorical figures representing Rome and peace. - [Dr. Zucker] We're
now looking at a panel that's actually in quite good condition, but that doesn't mean we
really know what's going on. - [Dr. Harris] No,
there's a lot of argument about what the figure in
the center represents. Some art historians think
this figure represents Venus. Some think it represents
the figure of peace. Some the figure of Tellus or Mother Earth. In any case, she's clearly a figure that suggests fertility and abundance. - [Dr. Zucker] She's beautifully rendered. Look at the way the drapery
clings to her torso, so closely, as to really
reveal the flesh underneath like the goddesses on the Parthenon, on the Acropolis in Greece. - [Dr. Harris] And on
her lap sit two children, one of whom offers her some fruit. There's fruit on her lap. On either side of her sit
two mythological figures who art historians think represent the winds of the Earth and the sea. - [Dr. Zucker] Look at the way the drapes that they're holding whip up, creating these beautiful almost
halos around their bodies. - [Dr. Harris] And at her
feet, we see an ox and sheep, so there's a sense of harmony,
of peace, and fertility. - [Dr. Zucker] And that must
have been such a rare thing in the ancient world. - [Dr. Harris] Augustus reins
after decades of civil war after the assassination of Julius Caesar, so I think there's a powerful sense that this was the Golden Age. These allegorical or mythological scenes appear on the front and back of the altar, and then on the sides of the
altar we see a procession. - [Dr. Zucker] The frieze
moves from the back wall of the precinct, up towards
the very front on both sides, and the figures are also facing
towards the main staircase. - [Dr. Harris] Art historians
are not really clear what event is being depicted here. - [Dr. Zucker] Art historians aren't clear about any of this, are we? (laughs) - [Dr. Harris] No, there are
a couple of possibilities that have been raised. One is that what we're
seeing is the procession that would've taken place at the time that the altar was inaugurated. The figures that we see here are priests and we can identify those figures because of the veils on their heads, and there also seem to be
members of our Augustus's family, although their identities are
not quite firmly established. - [Dr. Zucker] We think we
know which figure is Augustus. Although the marble itself is not in especially good condition and we've lost the front of his body, and we also think we can identify one of his most important ministers. - [Dr. Harris] And that would be Agrippa. If we think about this as looking back to the frieze on the Parthenon from the Golden Age of Greece, those figures are all ideally beautiful. They don't represent anyone specific, so much as the Athenian people generally. - [Dr. Zucker] But these are portraits. - [Dr. Harris] That's right, and we can't always
identify them for certain, but they really are specific individuals taking part in a specific event. - [Dr. Zucker] Throughout the republic, portraiture in stone was something that the Romans were extremely good at and so it doesn't surprise me that they would not look to the idealized so much as look to the specific. - [Dr. Harris] We also
noticed those differences in the depths of the carving. Some figures are represented
in higher relief. Other figures that are supposed
to be in the background are represented in low relief. So there's a real illusion of space and of a crowd here at the procession. - [Dr. Zucker] Another
way that the specificity of the Romans is expressed, is through the inclusion of children. This is a sacred event and a formal event, and yet there are children
doing what children do, that is to say, they're not
always paying attention. - [Dr. Harris] Augustus
was actually worried about the birth rate and passed laws that encouraged marriage
and the birth of children. The Ara Pacis originally was painted. We would have seen pinks,
and blues, and greens, and it's very to imagine that when we look at the marble today. - [Dr. Zucker] Especially
in Meier's building, which is so stark and modern. It's almost a little garish to imagine how brightly
painted this would have been. - [Dr. Harris] So, one of the things that Augustus said of himself was that he found Rome a city of brick and he left at a city of marble. Augustus created an imperial city and here we are 2000 years later in the Rome that Augustus created. (light piano music)