Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- PART I The Templum Pacis in Context
- CHAPTER 1 Vespasian's Project
- CHAPTER 2 Augustan Influences
- CHAPTER 3 The Surviving Halls
- CHAPTER 4 Grammarians, Philosophers, and Doctors in the Templum Pacis
- CHAPTER 5 “In a Style Surpassing All Human Conception” (Josephus, JW 7.5.7, 158): The Art Collection
- PART II Technical Analysis
- PART III The Great Hall in the Fourth Century
- PART IV AVLA DEI: The Basilica of Pope Felix IV (AD 526–530)
- PART V The Templum Pacis in the Middle Ages
- PART VI Between Renaissance and Baroque
- PART VII Modern Excavations and Restorations
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index (Names)
- Index (Places)
CHAPTER 3 - The Surviving Halls
from PART I - The Templum Pacis in Context
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 January 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- PART I The Templum Pacis in Context
- CHAPTER 1 Vespasian's Project
- CHAPTER 2 Augustan Influences
- CHAPTER 3 The Surviving Halls
- CHAPTER 4 Grammarians, Philosophers, and Doctors in the Templum Pacis
- CHAPTER 5 “In a Style Surpassing All Human Conception” (Josephus, JW 7.5.7, 158): The Art Collection
- PART II Technical Analysis
- PART III The Great Hall in the Fourth Century
- PART IV AVLA DEI: The Basilica of Pope Felix IV (AD 526–530)
- PART V The Templum Pacis in the Middle Ages
- PART VI Between Renaissance and Baroque
- PART VII Modern Excavations and Restorations
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index (Names)
- Index (Places)
Summary
THE TEMPLE OF PEACE IN THE AXIAL HALL
Come, Peace, your dainty tresses wreathed with Actian laurels, and let your gentle presence abide in the whole world. So but there be nor foes nor food for triumphs, you shall be unto our chiefs a glory greater than war. May the soldier bear arms only to check the armed aggressor, and may the fierce trumpet blare for naught but solemn pomp! May the world near and far dread the sons of Aeneas, and if there be any land that feared not Rome, may it love Rome instead! Add incense, you priest, to the flames that burn on the altar of Peace, let a white victim fall with wine-anointed brow, and ask the gods, who lend a favoring ear to pious prayers, that the house, which is the warranty of peace, with peace may last forever.
OVID, FASTI 1.711–722Although Ovid's verses refer to the annual sacrifice made on the dies natalis (January 30) of the Ara Pacis Augustae in the Campus Martius, no doubt the statue of Peace in the axial hall of the Templum Pacis inspired similar thoughts in visitors and worshippers. The capitals of its flat pilasters, at least in the Severan phase, were decorated with bucrania and garlands, as on the inner side of the enclosure wall of Augustus’ altar of Peace (and Rome appeared in the hall on the right-hand side, like Peace and Rome in the East reliefs of the Ara Pacis Augustae). The latter was open to the sky; the axial hall had no doorways (the cella had no front wall at all), and the colossal statue of Peace (see Chapter 5.1) could “abide in the whole world.” This architectural layout attests to Vespasian's competitive pursuit of glory and his desire to be first, best, greatest. Apparently, Vespasian (and Domitian, who appears to have restored the Temple of Peace) honored the goddess with a monument more beautiful and expensive than Augustus’ altar. The latter faced the pink granite obelisk of the Horologium, whereas the Flavian altar stood in front of a row of six huge column shafts (of the same marble after the Severan restoration).
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- The Temple of Peace in Rome , pp. 116 - 173Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2017