Tempio di Marte Ultore

The temple interior was magnificently furnished. The building consisted of Carrara marble, and eight Corinthian columns lined the front and sides of the building. (→ Augustan Classicism) In the center of the temple (pediment or large apse) was a statue of Mars, depicted as a peacemaker and not, as usual, as a god of war - but, with one foot on the globe, still as a sign of Roman world domination. To his right stood Venus and Rome, to his left Fortuna and Romulus. Capitoline and Tiber were represented by allegorical figures.

In the colonnades and exedrae stood statues and busts of victorious generals, deserving officials, kings, mythological figures, and poets. Sixty caryatids, as well as female entablature bearers, embodied the subjugation of foreign peoples. In front of the temple, with great probability, stood a quadriga - a four-horse chariot - showing Augustus in triumph. The plinth inscription read "pater patriae" - father of the fatherland. The ruins of the Forum of Augustus were used for palaces from 1200 onwards. The complex was located in the center of Rome, northeast of the Circus Maximus. It directly adjoined the Forum of Caesar.

The temple area was deliberately built directly in the residential settlements to present Augustus as a ruler who sought communication with his people. It served to store Caesar's sword, as well as the military standards recovered from the Parthians in 20 BC. Furthermore, the laurel wreaths of the triumphators were laid here. Governors who were sent to the provinces were also bid farewell here, and the Senate made decisions about wars and triumphs. In addition, the donning of the "toga virilis" took place here.

Through the Forum of Augustus, the emperor was to be presented as part of Roman history. He was equated here with the great personalities of Roman history and mythology. It also served for the religious representation of Augustus, who had taken on more and more priestly offices since 41 BC.