Augustus (47 page)

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OMAN
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W
AS
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OWARD THE
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ND OF
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UGUSTUS’
L
IFE

A. Tabularium, or archive.

B. Temple of Concord.

C. Temple of Saturn, where the Treasury was based.

D. Basilica Julia, a shopping and conference center.

E. The Rostra, or speakers’ platform.

F. Temple of Castor and Pollux.

G. Temple of the Deified Julius Caesar, built on the site of his cremation.

H. Temple of Vesta, where the Vestal Virgins tended an eternal flame. Here leading Romans could deposit their wills.

I. The Regia, headquarters of the Pontifex Maximus.

J. Basilica Aemilia, a shopping and conference center.

K. Curia Julia, the new Senate House commissioned by Julius Caesar.

L. Forum of Julius Caesar, completed in the dictator’s lifetime.

M. Temple of Venus Genetrix (Venus, the Mother or Ancestress of the Julian clan; here Caesar placed a gold statue of Cleopatra).

N. Forum of Augustus, which the
princeps
dedicated together with the

O. Temple of Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger) in 2
B.C.

The Palatine Hill today, where ruins mingle with trees, as seen from the Roman Forum. This was where the rich and the fashionable lived in the first century
B.C
. Augustus and Livia both had houses there and offices for their staff. Under the empire, the hill became a government quarter and the official residence of the emperors (from Palatine comes the word
palace
).

Julius Caesar’s intelligence and quickness of mind are well conveyed in this green basanite bust with inlaid marble eyes, carved about fifty years after his assassination in 44
B.C.

A fine bust of Mark Antony in green basalt. Found at Canopus, a suburb of ancient Alexandria, it offers not the bluff, hard-drinking soldier, but a reflective and high-minded ruler—the kind of man that Cleopatra would perhaps have preferred him to be rather than the one he actually was.

Sextus Pompeius, Pompey the Great’s younger son, posed a serious threat to Octavian. His melancholy expression and his beard and mustache, which Romans only grew to mark some tragic event or personal misfortune, suggest that this portrait in bronze was completed after Sextus’ defeat at Naulochus in 36
B.C.
and subsequent death.

A Roman warship with soldiers on board. This marble relief dates from the 30s
B.C.,
and the crocodile by the prow suggests a reference to the sea campaign against Cleopatra that culminated in Actium.

Alexandria as it appeared in ancient times. The view is of Canopic Way, one of the city’s main avenues. In the foreground is the crossroads near which stood the tomb of Alexander the Great. In the distance the Heptastadion can be seen, the great causeway that led to the island of Pharos and created the city’s two harbors.

Cleopatra, a portrait in marble probably made in Italy when she was a young woman. It conveys something of the charm of her personality, which captivated Julius Caesar.

Augustus’ much-loved sister Octavia. A kindly woman, she brought up Mark Antony’s children, including those he had by Cleopatra. She never recovered from the death of her twenty-year-old son, Marcellus, in 23
B.C
. The marble bust dates from about 40
B.C.

Augustus’ wife, Livia, in middle age. This study, made in her lifetime, evokes an efficient woman of affairs, discreet but decisive.