- What is the historical occasion for the construction of the altar? How does this relate to the actual events depicted on the altar's North and South friezes?
- What is cyclical time, cyclical temporality? How was it represented in Ara Pacis, according to Holliday?
- Ara Pacis Augustaea is considered a monument where Augustan ideology is perhaps most eloquently expressed. Why? How do the artistic and thematic choices made in the construction of the monument reflect this ideology? At a time of turbulence, wars, social anxiety, and unsettled thoughts, why was it so crucial for Augustus to evoke allegories of cosmic time? Related to these streamline of thought, how does the altar's combination of the representation of legendary scenes with actual event contribute to this?
- Speaking of the procession, Holliday states: "The artists have depicted the scene as an ideal event: if not how it actually was, then how it should have been." (548). What are the inconsistencies in the relief that leads him to this conclusion?
- How can it be compared to the Zeus altar at Pergamum?
General view of the Altar of Peace
Relief from the eastern facade: the panel of Tellus
Relief of Aeneas sacrificing to the Penates
South Procession
