The only Temple of Peace in the Roman Empire stood in the city of Rome (Fig. 1). It consisted of a monumental axial hall witha set of minor rooms on either side, opening on a large square surrounded by porticoes. The whole complex was called the Templum Pacis and was decorated with a profusion of spoils, statues, and paintings. As in the nearby Forum of Augustus, the square, too, was a sort of interior because a massive outer wall excluded the outside world from it. The best preserved sector is incorporated into the Monastery and Basilica of SS. Cosma e Damiano; part of the square and a stretch of the southwest portico were brought to light between 1998 and 2000, and the axial hall has been (partially) excavated since 2000. One rectangular exedra became the core of the medieval Torre dei Conti. However, most of its remains are still buried beneath the Via dei Fori Imperiali and the few houses that survived the twentieth- century demolitions. Some pine trees and even a gasoline station with its underground tank occupy its area (see Fig. 161 in Volume 2). The spatial experience of the ancient visitors can just be imagined in a more or less subjective way (see Section 1.2).

The origins of this building are embedded in a tale of dynastic change and competition for con- trol of the city of Rome. The death of Nero in AD 68 was followed by four emperors and eighteen months of civil war, from June AD 68 to December AD 69. On July 1, AD 69, the army proclaimed as emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus (November 17, AD 9 – June 23, AD 79), the general in charge of the Roman army after the Jewish rebellion of AD 66 (though it was his son Titus who actually besieged and destroyed Jerusalem toward the end of summer of AD 70).