The Forum of Augustus (Latin: Forum Augustum; Italian: Foro di Augusto) is one of the Imperial fora of Rome, Italy, built by Augustus (r. 27 BC – AD 14). It includes the Temple of Mars Ultor. The incomplete forum and its temple were inaugurated in 2 BC, 40 years after they were first vowed.
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👉 Forum of Augustus in the context of Via dei Fori Imperiali
The Via dei Fori Imperiali (formerly Via dei Monti, then Via dell'Impero) is a road in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, that is in a straight line from the Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum. The road was built in 1932 to rediscover and made visible the Imperial fora: Forum of Trajan, Forum of Augustus and Forum of Nerva, as well as Trajan's Market, previously hidden under the buildings. Most of these monuments can be seen on both sides of the road. The street is lined with stone pines (Pinus pinea). Since the 1990s, there has been a new deal of archaeological excavation along the road and in its gardens.
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Forum of Augustus in the context of Mars (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Mars (Latin: Mārs, pronounced [maːrs]) is the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He is the son of Jupiter and Juno, and was pre-eminent among the Roman army's military gods. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him (Latin Martius), and in October, the months which traditionally began and ended the season for both military campaigning and farming.
Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares, whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars. The character and dignity of Mars differs in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, who is often treated with contempt and revulsion in Greek literature. Mars's altar in the Campus Martius, the area of Rome that took its name from him, was supposed to have been dedicated by Numa, the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome; in Republican times it was a focus of electoral activities. Augustus shifted the focus of Mars's cult to within the pomerium (Rome's ritual boundary), and built a temple to Mars Ultor as a key religious feature of his new forum.
Forum of Augustus in the context of Temple of Mars Ultor
The Temple of Mars Ultor was a sanctuary erected in Ancient Rome by the Roman Emperor Augustus in 2 BCE and dedicated to the god Mars in his guise as avenger. The centerpiece of the Forum of Augustus, it was a peripteral style temple, on the front and sides, but not the rear (sine postico), raised on a platform and lined with eight columns in the Corinthian order style.
According to Suetonius and Ovid, the young Octavian vowed to build a temple to Mars in 42 BCE just before the Battle of Philippi if the god would grant him and Marcus Antonius victory over two of the assassins of Julius Caesar, Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus. However, work did not commence on the temple until after the recovery of the Aquilae in 20 BCE that had been lost by Marcus Licinius Crassus in the disastrous Battle of Carrhae 33 years earlier. Originally, the Roman Senate had decreed that the returned standards were to be housed in a temple to Mars Ultor that was to be built on the Capitoline Hill. Augustus however, declared that he would build it at his own expense on the site of his new forum. Augustus’s decision to wait to fulfill his vow has been speculated to have been due to a reluctance to celebrate his victory over those who were seen as the defenders of Libertas, whereas the return of the standards, and its symbolic revenge against the Parthians, was a more acceptable victory to commemorate.