Coordinates | 41°53′31″N12°29′10″E / 41.891895°N 12.485994°E |
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The Arch of Augustus (Latin : arcus Octaviani, Italian : Arco di Augusto) was the triumphal arch of Augustus, located in the Roman Forum. It spanned the Via Sacra, between the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Caesar, near the Temple of Vesta, closing off the eastern end of the Forum. It can be regarded as the first permanent three-bayed arch ever built in Rome. [1]
The archaeological evidence shows the existence of a three-bayed arch measuring 17,75 x 5.25 meters between the Temple of Caesar and the Temple of Castor and Pollux, although only the travertine foundations of the structure remain. [2]
Ancient sources mention arches erected in honor of Augustus in the Forum on two occasions: the victory over Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BC, and the recovery of the standards lost to the Parthians in 20 BC.
Cassius Dio reports that after the Battle of Actium the Senate granted Augustus a triumph and an arch in an unspecified spot in the Forum. [3] No contemporary description of the structure remains, although it is possible that the Actian Arch is represented on a coin minted in ca. 30–29 BC. [4] However, the arch depicted on the coin could also refer to another instance in which Augustus was granted a triumphal arch [5] after the victory over Sextus Pompey in 36 BC. [6]
The 13th century travel guide to Rome De mirabilibus urbis Romae describes it in detail, though there is no other evidence that the arch still existed by the time this was composed. [7] He claims it is "Not far from this temple (the Pantheon)" and bears the following inscription "Because Augustus restored a conquered world to Roman rule, regaining it for the Republic, the Roman people erected this monument". It was supposedly "Multiple", "constructed of marble", and had a "stone platform, which projects outwards quite a distance" where "statues were placed of military commanders and those who had either distinguished themselves on campaign or fallen in the thick of battle", including a statue of Augustus himself. The arch described also had reliefs of the army, war, and the Battle of Actium wherein "Caesar, emerging from the struggle with a greater victory than he expected, pursues Cleopatra's fleeing galley." [8] The arch may also have borne reliefs of Augustus's triumph after this event, but the wording is unclear. [9]
A marble slab long 2.65 m. long and 0.59 m high bearing an inscription in honor of Augustus as savior and keeper of the Republic discovered in 1546 and subsequently lost was attributed to the Actian Arch. [10]
Cassius Dio mentions an ovatio and another triumphal arch granted to Augustus after he recovered the eagles lost in the Battle of Carrhae and during Antony's campaign in Atropatene [11] without specifying its location. A Veronese scholiast commenting on Vergil's Aeneid situates the structure next to the Temple of Caesar. [12]
The arch is not mentioned by Augustus in his autobiography; moreover, Suetonius and Cassiodorus report that he refused to celebrate a triumph in 19 BC, [13] [14] leading some scholars to believe that the Parthian Arch might have been projected but never realized. [15] [16]
Coins minted in Pergamon, Tarraco, and Rome in the years 19–16 BC show a three-bayed arch with a quadriga on the top and figures holding bows and standards on the lower bays. Accordingly, the proposed reconstructions display a structure consisting of a higher central vaulted bay with Corinthian semi-columns and a triumphal chariot on top. The lower bays had square-topped pediments with Doric columns or semi-columns surmounted by statues of Parthians holding bows and the recovered eagles. [17] [18]
The Fasti Consulares and the Fasti Triumphales, unearthed in the Forum in 1546, may have been originally part of this monument, standing in the lateral aediculae; [19] [17] alternatively, they may have belonged to the nearby Regia. [20]
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, also known as Octavian, was the founder of the Roman Empire. He reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult, as well as an era of imperial peace in which the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The Principate system of government was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century.
Marcus Antonius, commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the autocratic Roman Empire.
6 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lepidus and Lucius Arruntius. The denomination "AD 6" for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
This article concerns the period 19 BC – 10 BC.
The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the success of a military commander who had led Roman forces to victory in the service of the state or, in some historical traditions, one who had successfully completed a foreign war.
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The Roman Forum, also known by its Latin name Forum Romanum, is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the centre of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum.
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The Regia was a two-part structure in Ancient Rome lying along the Via Sacra at the edge of the Roman Forum that originally served as the residence or one of the main headquarters of kings of Rome and later as the office of the pontifex maximus, the highest religious official of Rome. It occupied a triangular patch of terrain between the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Divus Julius and Temple of Antoninus and Faustina. Only the foundations of Republican/Imperial Regia remain. Like the Curia it was destroyed and rebuilt several times, as far back as the Roman monarchy. Studies have found multiple layers of similar buildings with more regular features, prompting the theory that this "Republican Regia" was to have a different use.
The Temple of Caesar or Temple of Divus Iulius, also known as Temple of the Deified Julius Caesar, delubrum, heroon or Temple of the Comet Star, is an ancient structure in the Roman Forum of Rome, Italy, located near the Regia and the Temple of Vesta.
An aquila was a prominent symbol used in ancient Rome, especially as the standard of a Roman legion. A legionary known as an aquilifer, the "eagle-bearer", carried this standard. Each legion carried one eagle.
The Forum of Caesar, also known by the Latin Forum Iulium or Forum Julium, Forum Caesaris, was a forum built by Julius Caesar near the Forum Romanum in Rome in 46 BC.
The Temple of Mars Ultor was a sanctuary erected in Ancient Rome by the Roman Emperor Augustus in 2 BCE and dedicated to the god Mars in his guise as avenger. The centerpiece of the Forum of Augustus, it was a peripteral style temple, on the front and sides, but not the rear, raised on a platform and lined with eight columns in the Corinthian order style.
The Temple of Concord in the ancient city of Rome refers to a series of shrines or temples dedicated to the Roman goddess Concordia, and erected at the western end of the Roman Forum. The earliest temple is believed to have been vowed by Marcus Furius Camillus in 367 BC, but it may not have been built until 218 BC by L. Manlius. The temple was rebuilt in 121 BC, and again by the future emperor Tiberius between 7 BC and AD 10.
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