Ara Pacis Augustae (the Altar of Augustan Peace, the monument ordered by the Roman Senate in 13 BC to celebrate the return of Augustus from Spain and Gaul, inaugurated on January 30, 9 BC on the Campus Martius along Via Flaminia): the most politically precise of all Augustan monuments, the specific ideological program of the Ara Pacis (the program that celebrates the Pax Romana not as the absence of war but as the specific political order that Augustus imposed on the Mediterranean world through the conquest of Spain and Gaul and the settlement of the Eastern Mediterranean, the specific claim that the Roman peace was a gift of Augustus to the world) is expressed in the most sophisticated single monument program of the Augustan period: the altar (the inner sacrificial enclosure with the sacrifice scenes), the precinct walls (the outer walls with the four relief programs, the mythological panels (Aeneas sacrificing, Romulus and Remus, Roma on the shields, and Tellus/Pax), and the primary political frieze (the procession of the Senate and the imperial family in the specific laurel-and-toga imagery of the Augustan program)).
The fragmented survival: the Ara Pacis was buried under the Campus Martius silt during the medieval period, its marble slabs used as building material, and its remaining fragments scattered across the European museums (the Uffizi, the Louvre, the Vatican, and the smaller pieces in Vienna, Paris, and Lucerne) before the Mussolini-era archaeological program (1937-1938) consolidated the major fragments in the specific reconstruction visible today. The 70% reconstruction (the specific percentage of original marble visible in the reconstructed monument) and the 30% plaster integration (the cement plaster used to fill the gaps and complete the missing sections of the frieze) is the archaeological compromise that any visitor should know: what you are seeing is partly the original 9 BC marble and partly the 1937 restoration.
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Ara Pacis: Frieze, Meier Museum, and Visit
The Imperial Procession Frieze
Ara Pacis south wall frieze (the primary political relief, the 11m processional frieze depicting the imperial family and the Roman Senate in the specific formal procession that the altar inauguration ceremony generated): the identifiable figures (the Augustus (the figure identifiable by the laurel crown and the specific toga capite velato pose, the head covered with the toga for the sacrifice), the Agrippa (the general whose head is also covered for the sacrifice, identifiable by the rostral crown of the naval hero), the young Gaius Caesar (the 3-year-old child holding Agrippa's hand, the heir to the Augustan succession, identifiable by the specific barbarian dress (the Gallic torc) that the artists used to indicate the adopted son of the Oriental/Gallic conquests), and the Livia (the wife of Augustus, whose specific matron pose the south wall relief preserves alongside the Augustan family group)): the frieze is the most specifically documented single crowd scene in ancient art, the identification of the individual figures from the historical sources provides a specific political reading of the marble that turns the art historical into the political biography.
Ara Pacis Rome: tours & tickets
Compare guided tours, skip-the-line tickets and day trips for Ara Pacis Rome.
See availability & prices →Compare tours on Viator →We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.The Richard Meier Museum
The Ara Pacis Meier museum (inaugurated 2006, the Richard Meier design for the new enclosure of the reconstructed Ara Pacis on the Via di Ripetta between Via Ara Pacis and the Lungotevere): the most controversial building of 21st-century Rome (the specific Meier controversy, the white travertine and steel and glass structure in the historical context of the Augustan mausoleum area, the building that Mayor Walter Veltroni championed and that the majority of Roman architectural opinion has disputed for 20 years): whether the building is a scandal (the architectural conservatives who consider the Meier structure an inappropriate intrusion into the historical context) or an asset (the modernists who consider the Meier museum the only properly designed exhibition space for the Ara Pacis), the specific controversy is part of the Ara Pacis visitor experience. Open Tuesday-Sunday 9:30-19:30. Admission approximately €13.
Q&A: Ara Pacis Rome
Is the Ara Pacis worth the admission price?
At approximately €13 (the standard 2026 admission): yes, for the visitor interested in the Augustan program and in Roman political art at its most sophisticated. No, for the visitor who expects the standard "Roman monument" experience (the awe of scale, the drama of ruins, the atmospheric setting), the Ara Pacis is a reconstructed altar in a modern museum building, the quality of which is intellectual rather than visceral. The specific Ara Pacis value: the best-preserved marble carving of the Augustan period (the frieze quality, the specific technical mastery of the human figure in the procession, the portraiture of the individual imperial family members) at a scale and a proximity (the visitor can approach within 1m of the original marble) that no other Augustan monument provides. The audio guide (included in the admission or available at reduced cost) is essential for contextualizing the frieze identification, without the guide, the procession frieze reads as a generic Roman relief. With it, it becomes the specific political biography of the Augustan moment.
