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The Ara Pacis Augustae ( Latin, "Altar to the Peace of Augustus" or "Altar of Majestic Peace") was an altar to Peace envisioned as a Roman goddess by the Roman Emperor Augustus Cæsar in 8 A.D. The altar was meant to be a vision of the Roman civil religion. It sought to portray the peace and prosperity enjoyed as a result of the Pax Romana (Latin, "Roman peace") brought about by the military supremacy of the Roman empire.
It was elaborately and finely sculpted, depicting scenes of traditional Roman piety, in which the Emperor and his family were portrayed in the act of offering sacrifices to the gods. Various figures bring forth cattle to be sacrificed. Some have their togas drawn over their heads, like a hood; this was a traditional gesture of respect for the gods before an animal sacrifice. Others wear laurel crownA crown is a symbolic form of headgear worn by a monarch or by a god, for whom the crown is traditionally one of the symbols of legitimacy (See Regalia for a broader treatment). In Byzantine and European cultures, where ecclesiastical sanction authenticats, traditional symbols of victoryVictory can mean: The novel Victory (1912) by Joseph Conrad, or one of the motion pictures based on that book, (most recently in 1995). Several unrelated movies by the same title. The name of the greek goddess Nike is sometimes translated as "victory", fo. Men, women, and children all approach the gods.
The Altar is considered a masterpiece of Roman sculpture; the figures in the procession are not idealised types, as are typically found in Greek sculptureGreek statues are naturalistic representation of the human form. In the West, Greek statues have been the inspiration for Roman and neo-classical statuary. In the East, the Greek statue tradition carried into central Asia by Alexander the Great inspired t; they are recognisable portraits of individuals.
The Altar was located on the Campus MartiusThe Campus Martius or Field of Mars, was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about 2 kmē (600 acres) in extent. It was dedicated to Mars, the Roman god of war, and was used for pasturing horses and sheep, when it was not a focus of military training act.