The Augustan procession
Individual faces of the emperor's family and the state priests โ the first imperial relief to portray real people.
Rabax63 โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Palickap โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Council โ Public domain ยท Erik Drost โ CC BY 2.0
If you care about Roman sculpture or the Augustan age specifically, yes โ you will not see relief carving of this quality elsewhere. On a short first visit to Rome, it can wait.
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The Altar of Peace, commissioned by the Senate in 13 BC to honour Augustus on his return from Spain and Gaul and finished in 9 BC โ a marble monument the size of a room whose outer walls carry the finest relief carving to survive from the Augustan age. One side shows a state procession with Augustus, his family and the priests of the cult, their faces individual and identifiable โ the first time an imperial procession was carved as real people rather than symbols. The other side is a fertility panel dense with plants and animals: political advertising for the prosperity brought by the Roman peace. The altar had been scattered across Europe and was reassembled in the 1930s. The glass building that houses it was designed by Richard Meier in 2006 and caused fierce argument, being the first modern structure in Rome's historic centre in decades. Next door, the Mausoleum of Augustus has been restored and opened to visitors โ the two combine well in one outing.
Individual faces of the emperor's family and the state priests โ the first imperial relief to portray real people.
Plants and animals in astonishing detail โ propaganda for the wealth of the Roman peace, carved in marble.
The emperor's vast circular tomb, reopened after a long restoration โ combine it with the altar.
Lungotevere in Augusta, Rome
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