"Zanker's analysis of the altar captures the tension between such images of nature's plenty and the sense of micromanaged design - a desire by the architect to convey a 'model of perfect order', as he puts it in The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (1988). Close to the altar was an obelisk, a trophy of Roman imperial expansion into Egypt. This seems to have acted as a monumental timepiece, or gnomon, which cast shadows over the sundial plate (solarium) where it was positioned."
"There are mysteries, too. Dominating a marble panel to the left of the rear entrance is a divine figure whose identity has been much debated. Clearly, she is a goddess, but which one? She is accompanied by two other female deities. Who are they? And what is the significance of the assemblage of numinous objects surrounding them? The answers, it turns out, lie in how the Romans understood the concepts of time and nature."
The Altar of Peace in Rome, built in the first half of Augustus's reign, stands almost 33 feet high and is carved from Carrara marble. The panels feature intricate friezes depicting the birthplace of Romulus and Remus, Aeneas making a sacrifice, a grand imperial procession, and luxuriant vine motifs. A debated divine female figure and two accompanying goddesses appear on a rear panel amid numinous objects tied to temporal and natural symbolism. An adjacent obelisk functioned as a monumental gnomon casting shadows on a sundial, with Greek-labeled zodiacal points and seasonal winds marking time. The ensemble blends imagery of natural abundance with calculated architectural order.
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