Peace in the New Age of Augustus

This chapter examines the evolution of pax at Rome within the wider display of the new age (novum saeculum), which is intimately associated with Augustus’ control over the res publica and empire. The monumentalization and dramatization of pax with external peoples is analysed through the lens of how Augustus and the senate depicted diplomatic success with the Parthians at the end of the 20s BC, after decades of unsuccessful military campaigns. In this ‘moment’ pax is not explicitly foregrounded, but rather the diplomatic aspects of peace are subsumed into a rhetoric of empire and triumphalism, displayed in monumental form both at the time and in later Augustan buildings, such as the forum Augustum. Peace was integrated into a rhetoric of Roman victory, firmly associated with the concept of imperium and imperial rule.