Marble Relief: Part of a Procession

At the end of a decades-long civil war, Octavianus, later to become Emperor Augustus, took power. He maintained the semblance of a republic, but with the help of a powerful propaganda machine, which made the mythical story of his family the origin myth of the entire Roman people, he created an autocracy. It is no coincidence then that the ceremonial chariots shown in the relief, used for transporting sacred objects of the state gods, are decorated with scenes that had been made the key points of Rome's ancient history. On one side of the chariot Aeneas, son of the goddess Venus, rescues his father and son from the fire devouring Troy, in order to set out on his journey that would lead to his new home, Italy. On the other side we see Romulus, the founder of Rome, with the weapons confiscated from the defeated enemy warlord. To position Aeneas, Augustus's mythical ancestor, alongside Romulus, venerated by Romans as the founder of Rome, and to make him his equal, was a contemporary political statement: it was intended to legitimize the rule of Augustus, who also proclaimed himself the scion of Venus. The relief is part of a larger cycle which stood as a memorial of Augustus's victory at Actium in 31 BC, which put an end to the civil war. Part of the series depicted the battle at sea, and the other panels the subsequent celebrations. After Augustus's death he was venerated as a god, and temples were erected to him. The reliefs may have adorned just such a shrine serving for the cult of the emperor. Szilvia Lakatos