portrayed are children, who restlessly tug on their elders’ garments
and talk to one another when they should be quiet on a solemn occa-
sion—in short, children who act like children and not like miniature
adults, as they frequently do in the history of art. Their presence lends
a great deal of charm to the procession, but that is not why children
were included on the Ara Pacis when they had never before appeared
on any Greek or Roman state monument. Augustus was concerned
about a decline in the birthrate among the Roman nobility, and he
enacted a series of laws designed to promote marriage, marital fi-
delity, and raising children. The portrayal of men with their families
on the Altar of Peace served as a moral exemplar. Once again, the em-
peror used art to further his political and social agendas.
FORUM OF AUGUSTUSAugustus’s most ambitious project
in the capital was the construction of a new forum (FIG. 10-2,no. 10)
next to Julius Caesar’s forum (FIG. 10-2,no. 9), which Augustus com-
pleted. Both forums featured white marble from Carrara (ancientLuna). Prior to the opening of these quar-
ries in the second half of the first century
BCE, marble had to be imported at great
cost from abroad, and the Romans used it
sparingly. The ready availability of Italian
marble under Augustus made possible the
emperor’s famous boast that he found Rome a city of brick and
transformed it into a city of marble.
The extensive use of Carrara marble for public monuments
(including the Ara Pacis) must be seen as part of Augustus’s larger
program to make his city the equal of Periclean Athens. In fact, the
Forum of Augustus incorporated several explicit references to Clas-
sical Athens and to the Acropolis in particular, most notably copies
of the caryatids (FIG. 5-54) of the Erechtheion in the upper story of
the porticos. The forum also evoked Roman history. The porticos
contained dozens of portrait statues, including images of all the ma-
jor figures of the Julian family going back to Aeneas. Augustus’s fo-
rum became a kind of public atrium filled with imagines.His family
history thus became part of the Roman state’s official history.
NÎMESThe Forum of Augustus is in ruins today, but many schol-
ars believe some workers on that project also erected the so-called
Maison Carrée (Square House;FIG. 10-32) at Nîmes (ancient10-31Procession of the imperial family,
detail of the south frieze of the Ara Pacis
Augustae, Rome, Italy, 13–9 bce.Marble,
5 3 high.
Although inspired by the Panathenaic
procession frieze (FIG. 5-50) of the
Parthenon, the Ara Pacis friezes depict
recognizable individuals, including children.
Augustus promoted marriage and child-
bearing.10-32Maison Carrée, Nîmes, France,
ca. 1–10 ce.
This exceptionally well preserved Corinthian
pseudoperipteral temple in France, modeled
on the Temple of Mars Ultor in Rome,
exemplifies the conservative Neo-Classical
Augustan architectural style.Early Empire 2571 ft.