Ara Pacis Augustae

Maps and Aerial Views

Ancient Rome and 21st C. Rome

Only the foundation of the Ara Pacis remains in its original location. Like much of ancient Rome, the foundation lies many feet below the landfill and structures built on top over the centuries. The major excavation of the Ara Pacis took place in 1937-38, under what was then a corner of the Palazzo Fiano-Almagià and adjoining street, the Via in Lucina. Portions excavated then along with reliefs and fragments that had appeared over the years were then reconstructed between the Tiber River and the Mausoleum of Augusus, where the Ara Pacis remains today, approxmatetly 450 meters (ca. 1/4 mile) northwest of its original location.

Ancient Roman structures survive throughout regions of the ancient Roman empire, in Europe, Britain, and the Mediterranean. But Rome itself is perhaps unique among major cities in its dense, continuous layering of its ancient structures with those of all later periods, a surviving record of its physical past and present, richly juxtaposed.

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Aerial view of Rome with location of Ara Pacis and Piazza Augusto Imperatore indicated, 2009.

Adapted from "Google Earth"; reproduced with appreciation.

Detail of aerial view in photo at left with Ara Pacis indicated between Tiber River and Mausoleum of Augustus, 2009.

Adapted from "Google Earth"; reproduced with appreciation.

Detail of map with Ara Pacis indicated between Tiber River and Mausoleum of Augustus, 2009.

Adapted from "MapQuest"; reproduced with appreciation.

Detail of map with 4 locations indicated.
Palazzo Fiano, partly covering surviving foundation of Ara Pacis, its original location.
Museo dell'Ara Pacis, current location of the Ara Pacis.
Villa Medici, where original marble slabs of the Ara Pacis, with festoons and ox skulls, are walled into the inner courtyard.
Piazza di Montecitorio, where the Egyptian obelisk of Psametik II, erected by Augustus near the Ara Pacis, was moved and reerected 1792.

Adapted from "MapQuest"; reproduced with appreciation.

This is the first published map to show the location of the sundial and meridian with no indication of the so-called "Solarium" or "Horologium", no longer accepted by scholars.

Scanned from Amanda Claridge, Rome, an Oxford Archaeological Guide, Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2010, p. 214; map drawn by the author. Reproduced with appreciation.

"Fig. 2 - Position of the Ara Pacis on the Campus Martius".

Modern streets indicated.
The public approach front is on the right facing the Via Flaminia to the east (now named Via del Corso).
The ceremonial entrance front is on the left, facing approximately west.
This diagram includes the later Hadrianic brick wall built around the entire monument in an attempt to protect it from the rising ground level.

Scanned from Guglielmo Gatti, "Ara Pacis Augustae: Le Vicende", in Pino Stampini, Ara Pacis Augustae, 1970, fig.2. Reproduced with appreciation.

"Fig. 1 Modern buildings, Solarium Augusti (in the summer of 1980 expansion confirmed) and Ara Pacis Augusta; summer of 1979 excavations (I) and winter 1979/summer 1980 (II) and holes summer 1980 (1-14)". [literal trans.]
The discovery of the meridian was a major achievement, but the proposal of a vast sundial, indicated here, is no longer accepted by most scholars.

Scanned from Edmund Buchner, Die Sonnenuhr des Augustus: Nachdruck aus RM 1976 und 1980 und Nachtrag über di Ausgrabung 1980/1981. Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zaber, 1982 Reproduced with appreciation.

"Figure 77 Northern Campus Martius." Map showing location of 9 monuments.

Scanned from Filippo Coarelli,
Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide, trans. James J. Clauss and Daniel P. Harmon, illustrations adapted by J. Anthony Clauss and Pierre A. Mackay; Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007, p. 297. Reproduced with appreciation.

"Fig. 1. Plan showing position of obelisk, Ara Pacis, Mausoleum and other features mentioned in the text".

The author points out that nos. 12 and 13, once proposed as a vast sundial related to the Ara Pacis, are not supported by any evidence and that only no. 4, a single meridian, ever existed.

Scanned from Peter Heslin, "Augustus, Domitian and the So-called Horologium Augusti", Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 97 (2007), pp. 1-20. Drawing by the author. Reproduced with appreciation.

Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus, 31 BCE-14 CE.

"Extent of the Roman Empire under Augustus; the yellow legend represents the extent of the Republic in 31 BC, the shades of green represent gradually conquered territories under the reign of Augustus, and pink areas on the map represent client states; however, areas under Roman control shown here were subject to change even during Augustus' reign, especially in Germania."

Scanned from "Wikimedia Commons", author Christiano64. Reproduced with appreciation.

"Growth of Roman power in Italy 500 to 90 BC"

Scanned fromTimes Atlas of World History, ed. Geoffrey Barraclough; Maplewood, N.J.: Hammond, 1978, p.87. Reproduced with appreciation.

"Figure 2. The fourteen Augustan Regions".
The Ara Pacis Augustae was constructed in the northern part of region IX.