When Octavian became Augustus it marked the start of his propaganda campaign that would include works as small as a coin and as huge as a temple. Central to his strategy was renovating the dilapidated public structures of Rome that had suffered under the years of civil war. Apart from the great number of temples he restored, he needed to build something all his own (Favro, 1996). Situated adjacent to his adoptive fathers forum he built the Forum Augustum. His forum, dedicated in 42 B.C.E. and later inaugurated in 2 C.E, would be his crowning architectural and artistic achievement, but as with most Augustan art it had a message (Conconi, 2000). This message was that he was the legitimate ruler of Rome not just by conquest, but also by heritage and the will of the gods.
The Forum Romanorum, which is the term used to describe the area where later emperors built their forums, is located in the topographical center of the city. It lies between the Palatine and Capitoline hills that dominated the area. Before the Etruscans settled there it was nothing more than a swamp and there is evidence as early as 1500 B.C.E. of a cemetery probably used by communities on the surrounding hills (Watkin, 2009). Then the Etruscans drained the area with what would become the Cloaca Maxima and used it as a cow pasture (Watkin, 2009). Holes for wooden posts for Etruscan style huts were found that dated to the 8th century B.C.E., which points to the areas transformation from pasture to meeting area for the surrounding communities (Watkin, 2009). Later under the rule of the Etruscan kings it was paved and used as a multi-purpose meeting area (Watkin, 2009). Eventually under the Roman Republic it became the commercial, civic, and religious center of the city. The architect Vetruvius said that a forum should contain a variety of buildings such as a money-exchange shop for travelers, basilicas for court cases, a treasury, prison, and senate house (Watkin, 2009). The Roman forum would come to house all these and more before Augustus made his lasting mark on the literal and symbolic center of Rome (Packer, 1997).
The Forum Augustum was built adjacent to the Forum Iulium and took in all twenty years to complete (Cunliffe & Claridge, 1998). The basic shape of the forum is a rectangle about a hundred and thirty meters long and eighty-five meters wide (Wightman, 1997). Throughout the forum various types of colored marble are used from around the world that may have not been seen in Rome before. Because Augustus did not want to seize land from the citizens instead of buying it he had to overcome some space restrictions, which is evident in the northeast corner (Wightman, 1997). Augustus himself paid for all the space because he did not want to abuse his power to create his own forum. The forum is a courtyard surrounded on three sides by porticoes and on the northern side a fire-wall (Wightman, 1997). The Temple of Mars Ultor backs up onto the fire-wall and along the two long porticoes are exedrae that are centered on the temples façade (Wightman, 1997). The center of the forum also features a quadriga, a four –horsed chariot and in the far north-west end behind the temple and portico is a room that contained a colossal statue (Cunliffe & Claridge, 1998). This layout is meant to isolate the forum from the dirty suburba just beyond the northern fire wall not just for protection but for aesthetic reasons as well.
The porticoes along the sides of the forum tell a great deal about the forums purpose. They surround all but the northern side of the forum and the two longer porticoes have exedrae about three quarters of the way along towards the temple. The porticoes had Corinthian columns of grey-green cipollino marble and an upper attic with alternating caryatids and shields carved with the face of Jupiter Amon. All along these halls are niches carved into the wall that display the famous summi viri, or the highest of men all carved in pavonazetto, a white marble (Coulston & Dodge, 2000). Among these are mostly great men of the republic such as Marius, Sulla, and Pompey that would have had an inscription in Greek below the niche detailing their greatest achievements (Bartsch, 1998). These hallways would have been used for court cases and other meetings and the statues served as an example to the citizens of not only whom they should emulate but also whom Augustus wishes to associate himself with (Bartsch, 1998). This gallery of heroes would have reminded the citizen of the parade of great Romans in the underworld of Virgil’s Aeneid, which was written during Augustus’s time. The exedrae continued the pattern of the statue niches but the change in architecture and size of the statues would have clearly noted the elevated importance of the figures within (Cunliffe & Claridge, 1998). In the one exedrae was Aeneas with his father, Anchises, and son, Iulus, surrounded on one side by the Alban kings and by famous members of the Julian clan on the other (Favro, 1996, pg.96). On the opposite side was Romulus with his spolia opima, armor from a fallen enemy, and surrounded by more summi viri (Cunliffe & Claridge, 1998). The apposition of Romulus and Aeneas who are both credited for founding Rome is clearly meant to associate them with Augustus as a “re-founder” of Rome. All of the statuary in the forum is meant to evoke a sense of approval from the figures from the old Republic of the new Augustan regime. Yet another way Augustus tries legitimizes his rule by identifying himself with the republican past.
The focal point of the forum itself is the Temple of Mars Ultor, which Augustus specifically wanted built in such a way that it would appear more massive than other temple (Favro, 1996, pg.153). It is located in the center of the north end against the thirty-three meter tall tufa fire-wall (Packer, 1997). The temple itself had a façade of eight Canonical Corinthian columns made of white Carrara marble (Conconi, 2000). The size and spacing of the columns gave the temple the massive look not seen in other temples that Augustus had requested (Favro, 1998, pg.153). The stylobate was faced with bronze and the front porch and cella floor were comprised of several different colored marbles (Favro, 1998, pg.184). Among these was Numidian yellow, Phyrigian purple, and Lucullan red and black (Cunliffe & Claridge, 1998). The ceiling of the outer aisles was coffered, as was the usual Roman style (Cunliffe & Claridge, 1998). In the cella there were pilasters of purple framing statue niches behind six freestanding columns that flanked either side of the cella (Cunliffe & Claridge, 1998). These columns were Corinthian but had a winged horse above the acanthus leaves (Cunliffe & Claridge, 1998). Then the apse is raised above five steps of Egyptian alabaster and contains the statue group of the temples main divinities (Cunliffe & Claridge, 1998). These were Mars in the center with the Divine Julius Caesar on the right and Venus with Cupid on the left (Favro, 1998, pg.96). The temple was so dedicated because it is said that at the battle of Philippi, then Octavian vowed to Mars that he would build him a temple if he brought him victory (Favro, 1998, pg.97). The epithet Ultor means avenger and reflects the act of Augustus avenging his father Julius. “The Forum Augustum kept the son forever in proximity to the father” (Favro, 1998, pg.97). The statue group in the cella again associates Augustus with Venus and therefore Aeneas as well as Julius Caesar. Also flanking the steps leading to the apse were the lost battle standards recovered by Augustus from the Parthians, which would have meant a great deal to the Roman people (Cunliffe & Claridge, 1998). The pediment sculpture also connects Augustus to Venus and other important Roman divinities. The sculpture features personifications of Palatine, Roma, Fortuna, and Tiber along with Romulus, Venus, and Mars (Favro, 1998, pg.150). This associates Augustus not just with the founding of Rome but the city and its topography as well. The temple had many other uses besides religious ones. The Senate met there to discuss matters such as the granting of triumphs, declarations of war, and meetings with foreign ambassadors (Favro, 1998, pg.126). The temple was the culmination of the forum as a stage for political propaganda.
The center of the forum was an empty courtyard except for a quadriga of Augustus in the center, which read Pater Patriae, father of the country (Coulston and Dodge, 2000). In the northwest corner of the forum was a room that held a colossal statue the identity of which is unknown (Packer, 1997). The room was lighted by a clerestory above the portico and was rectangular in shape (Packer, 1997). The center of the room held a pavonazzetto base where only parts of the hand were found (Packer, 1997). Again Augustus sends a message of power while still trying to legitimize himself in the Republican system.
The Forum Augustum is not just an important piece of architecture but it gives insight in to the propaganda strategy of Augustus. He wanted to all at once associate himself with his father, the ancient founders, and the power and glory he gained for Rome. He did this quite well in his forum by separating out the various parts and using his mythical heritage to combine them all in a larger narrative. In the porticoes the summi viri associated himself with the great men of the Republic but the larger statues in the exedrae showed his literal and mythological ancestry. The statue group in the cella connects him to his father, Julius Caesar, which is in turn legitimized by the pediment sculpture connecting him with Rome itself and its oldest gods. Perhaps the most interesting strategy is how he uses the forum like a domus, or house (Favro, 1998). The niches in the porticoes reflect statues of ancestors seen in citizen’s homes, the inscription Pater Patriae legitimizes his authority, and the Temple of Mars Ultor serves as an atrium for the country’s business. This connection to a family structure not only legitimizes his power but also connects him to Republican family values, which was an important part of his propaganda campaign. The Forum Augustum was the culmination and combination of all of Augustus’s political strategies into a public place used everyday. This put Augustan messages into the everyday activities of the Roman citizen and sealed Augustus’s position as the sole ruler of Rome.
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