Shape and limits of the Flavian City: from Fortuna Redux to Pax

Fortuna Redux and Pax had already a significant role in Augustan Rome, but their importance grew up under Vespasian. Since the early days of his arrival in the capital his preference for Fortuna Redux was evident so that the goddess appeared on thirteen issues of coins in front of a single one in the age of Augustus and of the julio-claudian emperors. On the other hand Vespasian dedicated to Pax the great Templum Pacis in the heart of Rome and decorated it with the art masterpieces recovered from Nero's properties. In 73 and 74 AD Vespasian assumed the Censorship in order to reorganize the empire and the city of Rome, which underwent to new cadastral measurements. In 75 he enlarged the pomerium, and as a consequence moved the Porta Triumphalis which Domitian rebuilt as a four-sided arch. Thanks to a passage in the panegyric by Claudian for Honorius’ sixth consulate, we can identify the Arco di Portogallo on the Via Lata/Flaminia as a pomerial gate and therefore as the late antique heir of the Flavian Porta Triumphalis. According to Martial, Domitian built the Temple of Fortuna Redux close to this gate: thanks to two marble reliefs depicting the triumphal arrival of Marcus Aurelius, we can place the temple immediately to the north of the gate, outside the city, and to the east of the Via Flaminia. On the other hand to the south of the gate, inside the city, to the west of the road, stood the Ara Pacis of Augustus. The two cults formed a coherent system: upon his arrival from a victorious campaign, the emperor could express his thanksgiving to Fortuna Redux and, once crossed the pomerium through the gate, he encountered Peace, the condition for the civil life of the city, represented by her altar. In this frame, the Templum Pacis acquires its full meaning and also the role of the marble plan – the Forma Urbis – becomes clear: it was the manifesto of the imperial propaganda in order to proclaim the civil order recovered and the administrative capacities of the emperor.