M. Moravius Piscinus Horatianus Quiritibus et omnibus salutem
plurimam dicit: Di vos inculumes custodiant
Hodie est ante diem III Kalendas Februarias; haec dies nefastus est:
feriae ex consulto senatus quod eo die ara Pacis Augustae dedicata.
Felices natalis Marce Corve! Today is the birthday of our Diribitor
and Legatus pro Praetor Sarmatiae M. Octavius Corvus.
Come, Peace, your graceful tresses wreathed
With laurel of Actium: stay gently in this world.
While we lack enemies, or cause for triumphs:
You'll be a greater glory to our leaders than war.
May the soldier be armed to defend against arms,
And the trumpet blare only for processions.
May the world far and near fear the sons of Aeneas,
And let any land that feared Rome too little, love her.
Priests, add incense to the peaceful flames,
Let a shining sacrifice fall, brow wet with wine,
And ask the Gods who favour pious prayer
That the house that brings peace, may so endure.
~ Ovidius Naso, Fasti 1.711-722
AUC 744 / 9 BCE: Dedication of the Ara Pacis Augustae
"When I returned from Spain and Gaul, in the consulship of Tiberius
Nero and Publius Quintilius [13 BCE], after successful operations in
those provinces, the Senate voted in honor of my return the
consecration of an altar to Pax Augusta in the Campus Martius, and on
this altar it ordered the magistrates and priests and Vestal virgins
to make annual sacrifice. Janus Quirinus, which our ancestors ordered
to be closed whenever there was peace, secured by victory, throughout
the whole domain of the Roman people on land and sea, and which,
before my birth is recorded to have been closed but twice in all
since the foundation of the city, the senate ordered to be closed
thrice while I was princeps." ~ Augustus, Res Gestae Divi Augusti
12.2-13
Commissioned by the Senate on 4 July 13 to honor Augustus upon his
triumphal return from Gaul and Hispania, the Ara Pacis Augustae was
dedicated nearly three and a half years later, celebrating the peace
that Augustus had brought to the Empire through his many victories.
The iconography of the altar and its surrounding enclosure depict the
Pax Augusta as a result of the Pax Deorum attained by the Augustan
Restoration of the religio Romana. The altar sits is atop a platform
of eight steps. The altar itself is decorated with a band of friezes
around the top that depicts a procession of sacrificial animals led
by poppae and victimarii. Panels on the lower section are thought to
have depicted a scene from a sacrifice, with another panel depicting
the veiled Vestales Virgines. The inner portion of the enclosing
wall has reliefs of bucraniae, wreathes, and paterae. The panels on
the outside of the enclosing wall link the Augustan regime in the Pax
Deorum in two ways. First in myth, on the front right panel, Aeneas
finding a white sow is taken from Virgil's description in the Aeneid,
thematically linking Augustus as the new founder of the religio
Romana. On the front left panel, Mars and Faustulus flank the
lupercal where Romulus and Remus are seen being suckled by a she-
wolf. This scene was possibly intended to suggest Augustus as the new
Founder of Rome. The rear left panel shows Tellus or Ceres or Pax,
flanked by two Nymphae. Romulus and Remus sit on Her lap;
thematically connecting Her with Livia, as Iulia Augusta, and mother
of Tiberius and Drusus. Another panel on the right rear shows a
female warrior, probably intended to depict Roma or Victoria Augusta,
or Pax, sitting on a pile of captured enemy arms to represent the
peace won through the victories of Augustus.
On the long sides of the enclosing wall are panels of the imperial
family, magistrates, and priests seen in a procession towards the
western entrance to the altar. Augustus leads the procession on the
south side. He is accompanied by his camillus and lictores, followed
by flamines in their distinctive apexes. Next comes Agrippa capite
velite accompanied by his son Gaius. Livia comes next, followed by
Antonia Minor and her husband Drusus with their children. Nero
Claudius Drusus is seen in a military uniform. He was consul and
died that same year as the altar was dedicated. Next is Antonia
Maior with her huband and children. The northern procession has
pontifices, quindecemviri sacris faciundis, and the semptemviri
epulones along with their assistants and other children of the
imperial family. Much of the image of Augustan is now missing. In
the original design he can be seen at the apex of priests and civil
administrators. He leads the procession as both Pontifex Maximus and
Imperator, with his lictors and the flamines maiores behind him, and
as head of a dynasty posed by his several grandchildren on the
panels. The entire scheme of the decoration is then to show Augustus
as the one person who connects the fortunes of the Empire to the
interests of the immortal Gods and how the Pax Deorum is dependent
upon him offering sacrifice in fide to the Gods in the same manner as
the legendary founders of Alba Longa and Rome.
Museo dell'Ara Pacis
http://en.arapacis.it/
Best photos of the Ara Pacis at Bluffton University:
http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/Maecenas/rome/ara_pacis/section_content
s.html
Article and photos at Bluffton University:
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/italy/rome/arapacis/arapacis.html
AUC 886 / 133 CE: Birth of Emperor M. Didius Salvius Julianus Severus
"Meanwhile Didius Julianus, at once an insatiate money-getter and a
wanton spendthrift, who was always eager for revolution and hence had
been exiled by Commodus to his native city of Mediolanum, now, when
he heard of the death of Pertinax, hastily made his way to the camp,
and, standing at the gates of the enclosure, made bids to the
soldiers for the rule over the Romans. Then ensued a most disgraceful
business and one unworthy of Rome." ~ Cassius Dio 74.11.2
In 193 CE the Praetorian Guard became upset with Emperor Pertinax for
his strict military discipline and his economical rule after the
excesses of Commodus. Failing to give the Praetorians an extra
bonus, they murdered Pertinax (28 Mar.) and promised the throne to
the highest bidder. This was Didius Julianus. The legions of Syria,
Panonnia, and Britannia declared their own commanders emperors. All
began to march against Didius in April or May, L. Septimus Severus
from Panonnia arriving first to put an end to Didius on 1 June.
Today's thought is from Cicero, De Officiis 2.2
"What, in the name of heaven, is more to be desired than wisdom? What
is more to be prized? What is better for a man, what more worthy of
his nature? Those who seek after it are called philosophers; and
philosophy is nothing else, if one will translate the word into our
idiom, than "the love of wisdom." Wisdom, morever, as the word has
been defined by the philosophers of old, is "the knowledge of things
human and divine and of the causes by which those things are
controlled."