Dietrich Boschung

Boschung argues convincingly that the prototype of his Stuttgart replica group (what I would call Type IV.A; Fig. 6) is represented on the coins of L. Vinicius in 17 B.C.E., the year of the Secular Games, with which this subtype may have been particularly associated. Type IV.A would represent a new redaction of Type IV under the influence of Type V, [50] which continued to be replicated in great numbers. For the image of Augustus on the Ara Pacis (cat. no. 56; pls. 59.1-2, 225.1), it is a subtype, Type IV.A, that is employed, rather than the earlier prototype, Type IV, as had previously been believed. [51] Boschung assumes that his Stuttgart replica group (IV.A) was employed on the Ara Pacis only because it was the latest official image of Augustus produced. Although this may have been the case, I believe there may also have been an ideological intent. To my mind, the use on the Ma Pacis of IV.A, representing a combination of Types IV and V, was intended to herald Augustus as the triumphant princeps who inau gurates a new golden age of peace. His triumphant return from Spain and Gaul was, after all, the original and official reason for the Senate's voting him the Ara Pacis (Monumentum Ancyranum, 12). This triumphal imagery would also fit the larger context of the Augustan monuments of the northern Campus Martius, especially if Augustus's great dynastic Mausoleum was crowned--as I believe it was--not with a statua pedestris (a statue representing an individual on foot) but with a quadrigate image of him (in a four-horse chariot) as triumphator perpetuus (perpetual triumpher). [52]

Type IV.A may also have been seen as particularly appropriate for representations of Augustus in an augural role. This subtype appears to have been used for the relief portrait of Augustus on the altar from Vicus Sandaliarius (cat. no. 36, pl. 67.4-5), [53] on which he appears holding the lituus (the crook-shaped staff of the augur) as he takes augury in connection with the departure of his adoptive son Gaius, who, under the auspices of Augustus (auspiciis Augusti), is about to set out on his eastern campaign in 2 B.C.E. [54] In the case of augury in relation to the Ara Pacis, I have argued elsewhere that Augustus was originally represented in the south processional frieze performing an augural act in connection with either the inauguration of the area on which the altar was to be built or possibly an augurium or maximum augurium salutis Rei Publicae, [55] which was performed for the safety of the state in years in which peace was renewed. An augurium salutis is known to have taken place in 29 B.C.E. and, gi ven the nature of this type of augury, it is reasonable to surmise that it was also performed in connection with the Secular Games in 17 B.C.E. (when IV.A appears on the coins of L. Vinicius), as well as on the occasion of the inauguration of the Ara Pacis in 13 B.C.E. [56] Augustus's appearance on the Altar of Peace in an augural capacity would have emphasized his role not only as inaugurator of a new golden age of peace and prosperity but also as mediator between gods and man. The form of the Ara Pacis, with its bifrontality and double set of doors, consciously recalled the Shrine of Janus Geminus in the Roman Forum, [57] whose doors had been closed to signify peace only twice in all of Roman history before 29 B.C.E. [58] Following the completion of the Ma Pacis in 9 B.C.E., it is likely that its doors would have been opened in the future when the doors of Janus were closed. The use of IV.A for a representation of Augustus in an augural role on the Ara Pacis and on the altar from Vicus Sandaliarius might ex plain why this subtype is found only in Rome and Italy (p. 84). [59] The Roman religious practice of augury was meaningful primarily in these areas.