THE TELLUS PANEL:

The reliefs on the east end of the building are allegorical figures. On the southeast side is the so-called Tellus panel. This is the personification of Earth. The figure is sometimes identified as Italia, or Italy. The two children in her lap along with the animals and plants allude to the bounty of earth, especially in an era of peace. She is flanked by female figures with billowing mantles that can be identified as sea and land breezes.

After a century of bloody civil and foreign wars that had brought to the end of the Roman Republic, Augustus, who had ruled as emperor since 27 B.C., seemed finally to have placed the Romans under his own personal peace, the Pax Augusta. In recognition of this achievement, the Roman Senate voted in 13 B.C. an altar dedicated to peace and to the emperor who had made the end of the civil wars possible. The result, completed about four years later, was a triumph. The Ara Pacis Augustae, the Altar of Augustan Peace is the most intimate imperial monument. The Ara (a 35—by—39—foot rectangle) is a perfect example of the elegant and gracious style cultivated by Augustus. Justly proud of his altar Augustus made mention of the circumstances that led to its creation in his Achievements of the Divine Augustus ( Res Gestae divi Augusti) , the official autography he wrote near the end of his long reign.