The east and west ends of the enclosure each contain, on either side of the doorways, a figured panel, four in all, of which two are well preserved. The one to the right of the main (west) entrance portrays a grave, bearded figure ([Fig. 6.13]) offering sacrifices, with the aid of two acolytes, upon a rustic altar before a small temple containing tiny figures of the Penates as Castor and Pollux, whose connection with the gens Iulia we have already noted. The sow in the lower left corner is the famous one with the thirty piglets, whose discovery was to tell Aeneas where to found his city. (What purported to be the original sow and all the piglets, pickled in brine, was on display in a Latin town in Augustus’ age.) From the sow the inference is that the bearded figure is Aeneas; he symbolized the past of Rome, and the ancestry of Augustus.
The panel to the left of the east entrance ([Fig. 6.14]) has as its central figure a full-breasted woman, whose face closely resembles the Livia of the south frieze. She has fruits in her lap, chubby naked babies in her arms, a miniature cow and a sheep at her feet, grain and poppies behind her. She is flanked by obviously allegorical figures of Air (riding a swan), and Water (riding a sea monster). Fresh water gushes from an amphora in the lower left corner; a saltwater harbor (indicated by waves, and perhaps the arch in the background) is at the lower right. Surely this is Saturnia Tellus, the fruitful earth of an Italy at peace, that Vergil sang of in the Georgics, rich in crops, flocks, and herds, but fruitful most of all in men. Of the two fragmentary panels, the west one is restored as a scene of Mars, the Shepherd, the wolf, and the twins Romulus and Remus. (The Mars was acquired from a private owner in Vienna, whose Roman art dealer had told him it came from the Palazzo Fiano.) The east one, the least well preserved of all, probably represented the goddess Roma seated upon a trophy of arms, like Britannia on an English penny. Thus one pair of end panels is symbolical, while the other is mythological; the processional frieze deals with contemporary history. The whole makes a tripartite arrangement which is artistically very satisfying. At the same time, victorious Rome, fruitful Italy, the remote founder, and the first king, are all symbolically related here, as in other Augustan monuments, to the contemporary scene and the fortunes of the dynasty.
Fig. 6.13 Rome, Altar of Peace. Aeneas sacrificing. (MPI)
Fig. 6.14 Rome, Altar of Peace. Tellus or Italia. (MPI)
After the grandeur of the enclosure, the decoration of the altar itself seems modest and unpretentious, perhaps deliberately so. Winged sphinxes support rich volutes, the graceful S-curves which bound the altar table on either side. Beneath, there is a sacrificial scene, with the six Vestal Virgins neatly arranged in order of size. In the sacrificial scene itself, the victims are a steer, a heifer, and a fleecy sheep. The attendants carry the sacrificial knives, platters, pitchers, and other paraphernalia. One twists the horns of the steer, another the tail of the heifer, to keep them moving. Altar and enclosure together provide our most complete visual record of a Roman state religious ceremony. And the whole complex, with its religiosity and historicity, is prolific of descendants: the Arch of Titus, the Cancelleria reliefs (to be discussed in Chapter IX), Trajan’s Column (to be discussed in Chapter X), his arch at Beneventum, the Arch of Constantine, the Column of Marcus Aurelius, the Arch of Septimius Severus. It is the prototype of them all, and the most masterly: tranquil, unpretentious, stately yet intimate, delighting in nature, perfectly balanced between country and city, perfectly symbolizing the Augustan Peace, when men would beat their swords into plowshares, and study war no more. But within 100 years the altar began to be neglected. Perhaps, looking behind the façade, some old Republicans were moved to ask, “Where is the Altar of Liberty?”
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A Forum, an arch, a tomb, an altar: taken together, as recent archaeology has revealed them to us, they epitomize the Augustan Age. In the Forum and the arch, the past recaptured, and pressed into the service of the régime. In the altar, the heroic and warlike past implicit in the orderly and peaceful present. In the tomb, posterity, the future generations, invited to marvel at the dynasty and what it has wrought. Behind all this, we can see that Augustus, the most ruthless power politician of them all, was simply continuing the careers of the great captains and dynasts of the past, like Caesar, Pompey, and Sulla. The refulgence of the monuments but reflects his monolithic control of the state, his cracking open of the seams of the old régime. In the history of art and architecture, Augustus’ contribution is the applying of a standardized scheme of décor, as he applied a standardized scheme of administration, to the whole Empire. Henceforward Rome is the producer. She crystallized the styles and re-exported them to the world that lay at her feet. Next we shall see how the Julio-Claudian Emperors, from Tiberius to Nero, exploited what Augustus had begun.