In
the 28 B.C. the emperor Augustus built a monumental
tomb for himself and his family in the western
part of the Mars’ Field (Campo Marzio).
This place was chosen for its particular political
and propaganda reasons. The valley of Campo Marzio
was situated outside the pomerio, the sacred border
of Rome, between the Capitol, the Quirinal and
Piancian hills and the Tiber.
The name came from the altar of Mars that it
was stolen by the Romans after the expulsion
of the last Etruscan king, the previous owner
of the altar. During the Republic period many
importants buildings were built inside the Campo
Marzio but was Ottaviano August that made a
radical renewal of the area, in particular the
princeps (emperor) embellished the central and
northen part making the Marcello theatre, the
Saepta, the Ara Pacis and Mausoleum.
The first man buried in the Augustus’
mausoleum was Marcellus, the son-in-law of Ottaviano
Augustus who died in 23 B.C., after him was
buried there Agrippa, Ottavia, Druso, Ottaviano
Augustus, Caligola, Claudio Britannico, Vespasiano
and Nerva, except for Nero. During the Middle-Age
the tomb was occupied by the Colonna fortress
and later it underwent many devastations until
1939 when the monument was restored and the
houses built around it were dismantled.
The mausoleum has a circular base with a 87
m in diameter and it is composed by five spiral
rings with radial walls creating the structure.
The outside part was covered by travertine (12
m in hight) and by a doric freize. Flanking
the entrance of the building stood two Egyptian
obelisks (now one is in the Esquilin square
and the other is in the Quirinal square).
The door was flankled by two bronze tablets
with the Res Gestae Divi Augustae, a kind of
summary about the emperor achievements. On a
rectangular base of the monument stood a cylindrical
part surmonted by a tumulus (a conical mound
of earth) planted with cypress trees where in
the middle was put a bronze statue of the emperator
indicating the position of the mausolem. It
is possible to go inside the monument through
a gallery leading to a wall with two passageways
taking in the funeral room. The urn is circular
with threes niches on the side and it is surrounded
by an anular corridor. In the center of the
urn stands a big pilaster with an interior small
room, the true tomb of Augustus.
