The 'Ara Pacis Augustae'

The ‘Ara Pacis Augustae’ (Peace Altar of August), built to commemorate Augustus’ victorious return from Spain and Gaul, stood in antiquity on the Via Flaminia (now the Via del Corso) under what is now the Palazzo Fiano on the corner of the Via in Lucina. Since 2006 the Ara is housed in an airy glass-and-concrete building beside the Tiber; the Museo dell'Ara Pacis, Lungotevere Augusta, Rome.

The lavish sculptural decoration of the Ara Pacis is among the finest examples of Roman art; reliefs representing the ceremonial procession at the altar's dedication are the first in Western art that can strictly be called documentary. The faces are no mere conventional masks, idealized beyond recognition. These are portraits from life and they still retain their freshness showing identifiable individuals in a contemporary event.

Augustus, in his ‘Res Gestae’ (My Deeds), written during the last years of his life says:
“On my return from Spain and Gaul in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius [13 BC] after successfully arranging affairs in those provinces, the senate resolved that an altar of the Augustan Peace should be consecrated next to the Campus Martius in honour of my return, and ordered that the magistrates and priests and Vestal virgins should perform an annual sacrifice there.”

The decree of the Senate authorizing the foundation of the Ara Pacis Augustae was passed on July 4, 13 B.C., and it was consecrated on the 30th of January 9 B.C.

(Ovid's Fasti, Book I, 709�722)

Gather the roses in the morning

Ah, what sorts of roses have I seen bloom in the morning!
They were still being born and the age was not equal for all.
The first covering was leading clusters of berries shaped like buds,
the next lifted crimson peaks from a projecting stone,
the third had now revealed a whole circle of flower baskets,
the fourth likewise shined with the bud of a new flower.
While one lifts its head and the other unties a knot,
thus, while virgin modesty is unwrapped with clothing,
gather the roses in the morning lest they die:
quickly does a maiden grow old.

Annaeus Florus, XI

Pliny the Younger

C.Plinius L.f.Ouf. Caecilius Secundus, born in Comum (Como, Italy) in A.D. 61 or 62, was the son of L.Caecilius C.f.Secundus, praefectus fabrum, and of a Plinia.

Plinius, better known as Pliny the Younger, was the adoptive-son of C.Plinius, praefectus classis, uncle on his mother’s side.

His father died at an early age before A.D.76; Pliny the Elder, writer of the encyclopaedical Naturalis Historia, helped raise and educate him and they were both witnesses to the eruption of Vesuvius on August 24, 79, the day of the elder's death.

After the death of Pliny the Elder the famous L.Verginius Rufus, of Mediolanum (Milan), consul III in 97, who had suppressed the revolt of Julius Vindex and refused the Imperial power, was appointed as guardian to Pliny the Younger, helped by two more consulars, Julius Frontinus, curator aquarum, and Corellius Rufus, cossuff.78, all family friends.

His career is rather normal:
Decemvir stlitibus iudicandis (presiding in the Centumviral Court, where he was to spend a great part of his public life)
Early in Domitian’s reign (82/83) he served as tribunus militum in the legion III Gallica in Syria under the leg. Aug. T.Atilius Rufus.
Quaestor Augusti 87 (89?) (these were regularly chosen (elected without contest) from the candidati Caesaris)
Tribunus plebis 91. Praetor 93 (in this year he first took part in a public prosecution, acting with Herennius Senecio for the people of Baetica when they successfully accused Baebius Massa of extortion)
Praefectus aerarium militare ca. 94-96.
Praef. aerarium Saturni 97-99 (the Chest and Record Office of the senatorial administration, appointed before the death of Nerva, and was continued in office by Trajan)
Consulsuffectus Sept.- Oct.100. Augur 103 or 104 (instead of Julius Frontinus;
Plinius was already flamen divi Titi at Vercellae)
Curator alvei Tiberis et riparum et cloacarum urbis 104-106 ? (consular curator of the Tiber banks and the city sewers)
Legatus Augusti pro praetore consulari potestate Bithynia and Pontus from Sept.110 or 111 till Febr. 112 or 113.
(Title is sign of transition from senatorial to imperial rule)

His first wife is unknown.
His second marriage was to the daughter of Pompeia Celerina (Celerina’s husband is unknown; Celerina – to whom Pliny gave his house in Alsium left to him by Verginius Rufus - was the daughter of L.Pompeius Vopiscus C.Catellius Celer, cossuff. 77)

Plinius wife died in 96 or 97.

Married 3. in ca.100-102 with Calpurnia, daughter of Calpurnius, son of L. Calpurnius Fabatus. eques from Comum, who had also a daughter, Calpurnia Hispulla, aunt of Plinius’ third wife.

Plinius is known for his hundreds of surviving letters which, carefully composed and arranged in a non chronological order as they are, miss the spontanious outspokenness of Cicero’s letters, but they are an invaluable historical source for the period. The first nine books contain 247 personal letters, the tenth book his official correspondence with Trajan (or his ab epistulis) from Bithynia. Also preserved is his Panegyricus, an in accordance with tradition thanksgiving and praising of Trajan for granting him the consulship.

Plinius was the somewhat condescending benefactor of the historian Suetonius for whom he arranged a small estate at a reasonable price.

Pliny the Younger probably died in A.D.112 or 113 in Bithynia, being the time that his correspondence with the Emperor Trajan suddenly stopped.

Tacitus, Rome’s greatest historian, spoke an eulogy on the occasion of his friends death.

He is more than a hero

He is more than a hero
he is a god in my eyes—
the man who is allowed
to sit beside you — he

who listens intimately
to the sweet murmur of
your voice, the enticing

laughter that makes my own
heart beat fast. If I meet
you suddenly, I can't

speak — my tongue is broken;
a thin flame runs under
my skin; seeing nothing,

hearing only my own ears
drumming, I drip with sweat;
trembling shakes my body

and I turn paler than
dry grass. At such times
death isn't far from me.

(Sappho, from Lesbos, Greece, b. 615- d.around 550 B.C.)

Titus Pomponius Atticus

Titus Pomponius Atticus, born in 109 B.C., lost his father in 88 or earlier,
but not later than the autumn of 86 B.C.

In 58 B.C. he became by way of a testamentary adoption son and heir to Q.Caecilius, an uncle on his mother’s side, making his official designation, Q.Caecilius Pomponianus Attica.

“L.Lucullus (Ponticus), who married Servilia’s sister was not only the friend and benefactor but also the prospective heir of Atticus’ uncle Caecilius. History does not tell Lucullus reactions to the scandalous discovery in 58 that Caecilius had in fact left his millions (ca. 10 mill.) and name to his nephew instead of to his noble patron. Public reprobation of Caecilius’ duplicity was such that they dragged his body through the streets.” (Valerius Max. VII.8, 5)

On December 2th, 56 B.C. Atticus wedded a certain young lady named Pilia, who bore him in 51 a daughter, Caecilia Attica.

In 47 Atticus published his Annali containing the names of every curule magistrate of each year, the laws, peace treaties, wars, and the genealogies of famous countrymen. On request of Marcus Brutus he wrote a genealogy on the Junii Bruti including their magistracies and dates. On request of Claudius Marcellus he did the same for the Marcelli, ditto for Cornelius Scipio (Scipio Africanus minor, an Aemili by birth), Fabius Maximus and the Aemilii.

He was the life-long friend, and publisher of Cicero’s volumeminous work. Of their correspondency during many years only Cicero’s letters have come down to us, thanks to his secretary and freedman, Tiro.

When his friend was murdered in 43 by the triumviri he obviously bore no hard feelings toward those responsible for his friend’s death for he remained on friendly terms with his murderers for the rest of his life. So much so that in about 37 he gave his daughter in wedlock to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa: friend, general, consul, future son-in-law, co-ruler and designated successor of Augustus.

In 42, when Atticus was 67, his mother died at the age of 90 years, which should make her date of birth about 132 B.C.

Atticus’ adagium was: Tranquillitati serviebat (peace of mind).
During the Civil Wars and all the political feuds he stayed strictly neutral in each and every conflict and from time to time subsidized both sides indiscriminately.
He had however through his large fortune and many connections great indirect influence.

Atticus owned a house on the Quirinalis built by Tamphilus, which was left to him by his uncle. Furthermore, since 68, an estate in Epirus near Buthrotum on the coast opposite Corfu. Also properties at Arretium and Nomentum.

Atticus died on March 31th, 32 B.C., three months after his 77th birthday.
Attended on his deathbed were his son-in-law Agrippa, L.Cornelius Balbus, and Sex.Peducaeus.

He was buried in the tomb of his uncle on mothers
side, Q.Caecilius, on the Via Appia
near the 5e mile stone.

Discovery of Imperial insignia

In December 2006 archeologists under direttore Clementina Panella, archeologist at the University of La Sapienza in Rome, made the find of their life.

During excavations on the North-eastern slope of the Palatine Hill they discovered in an underground storage space the remains of an antique wooden chest.

In it they found among other things: Imperial Roman standards (signa imperii), three sceptres; the most important find was a scepter of a flower holding a blue-green globe, which is believed to have belonged to the Emperor Maxentius himself because of its intricate worksmanship, metal javelin heads (pilum), two perfectly round spheres of gold and green coloured glass and one sphere made of azure-blue chalcedon.

These objects are on unkown grounds ascribed to Maxentius’ reign (306-312), and are supposed to have been hastily hidden there on the eve of the battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28th 312 in which Constantine (the Great) defeated Maxentius.

These extraordinary finds are now on display in the Museo Nazionale Romano at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome.

C. Asinius Pollio, poet, orator, and historian

C.Asinius Cn.f.Pollio the noted orator, poet, critic, and historian, was born in 76 B.C. and died in Tusculum in A.D.5.
He was the grandson of Herius Asinius of Teate, praetor of the Marrucini.

He had joined Caesar, and was with him when he crossed the Rubicon in January 49
(Julian calendar Nov.22, 50 B.C.), possibly as one of his legates. He then went to Africa with Curio, after whose defeat and death he crossed over to Greece, and fought on Caesar’s side at Pharsalus (48). In 47 he was chosen as one of the tribunes of the people. Having accompanied Caesar as legate in his African and Spanish campaigns (46-45), he returned with him to Rome.
As praetor 45 he was sent back as governor of Further Spain to resist Sex.Pompeius, and was there when Caesar was assassinated in 44.
When Lepidus and Octavian joined Antonius in 43, Pollio joined them. Antonius gave him the administration of Gallia Transpadane for the years 42-41, it was then that Pollio saved from confiscation the property of the poet Virgil.
In 40 Pollio became consul and assisted in the reconciliation between Antonius and young Caesar at Brundisium in September 40.
Both consuls abdicated shortly afterwards.Towards the end of the year or early in 39 he was sent by Antonius as proconsul to Macedonia to fight the Parthini, an Illyrian people, whom he defeated, and was rewarded with a triumph. The rest of his life he devoted to literature, and died at his Tusculan villa in AD 5, at the age of 80/81.