Are not the Basilica Paulli, with its columns of Phrygian marble, the Forum of the Deified Augustus, and the Temple of Peace built by the Emperor Vespasian the most beautiful works that the world has ever seen?

Augustus made his forum smaller than planned, out of his reluctance to appropriate the adjoining homes from their owners.

When the Forum of Augustus was being constructed, the builder kept postponing its completion. During this period it happened that many people prosecuted by Severus Cassius were being acquitted, prompting Augustus to quip "I wish Cassius would prosecute my forum."

I built with war booty the Temple of Mars the Avenger and the Forum of Augustus on my own land.

The entire people of Rome gave me the title "Father of the Country," and had it inscribed in the vestibule of my residence, in the Senate Augustus beneath the chariot sculpture House, and in the Forum of placed there in my honor by decree of the Senate.

Augustus constructed numerous public works, among which the following are perhaps the most outstanding: his forum with its temple of Mars the Avenger, the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, and the temple of Jupiter the Thunderer on the Capitoline. Augustus built his forum because the two existing forums could no longer accommodate the increasing number of people and law cases, so that a third was thought necessary. Because of this need for space it was opened for business even before the temple was finished, and it was stipulated that the new forum be the venue for public trials as well as the selection of jurors by lot. He had vowed the temple to Mars during the battle at Philippi, which he fought to avenge the death of his father Julius Caesar. He decreed, therefore, that the Senate use the forum to deliberate on war and the awarding of triumphs, that those heading off to provinces with military command be officially escorted from here, and that those who returned victorious should deposit the insignia of their triumphs in his forum.

In addition to conquering Spain and other countries whose plaques adorn his forum, the deified Augustus made Egypt a tributary country, thereby adding almost as much revenue to the treasury as his father Julius Caesar did by conquering Gaul.

[Augustus determined that the following activities should take place in his Forum:] Those passing from the class of boys to young men of military age should all be enrolled here; those appointed to commands abroad should set out from here; the Senate should make decisions here regarding the awarding of triumphs, and those celebrating a triumph should dedicate both crown and scepter to the War God here; for anyone awarded a triumph or other military honor, a statue in bronze should be set up in the forum; any military standards captured by an enemy and then recovered should be placed in the temple.

The Emperor Claudius was eager for food and wine anywhere and anytime. Once, while trying a case in the Forum of Augustus, having detected the savor of a banquet prepared by the Salii in the nearby Temple of Mars, he deserted his tribunal seat and climbed up the stairs to join them at their table.

Am I deceived, or did arms ring out? Indeed, arms rang,
For Mars is coming, and signals his advent with sounds of war.
The Avenger himself descends from the sky to his place of honor,
To his wonder of a temple in the Forum of Augustus.
The god, and so his temple, are mighty: not otherwise
Should Mars be housed in the city of Romulus, his son.
This temple is a worthy place for trophies won from the Giants,
And fitting for Mars to sally off from here to wage his wild wars,
Whether some unholy foe in the East should strike against us,
Or an enemy towards the setting sun calls for subjugation.
The god of War surveys the heights of his lofty temple
And approves that gods unconquered possess the pediment.
He surveys the various weapons that decorate the doorways
And the arms of other lands defeated by his soldiers;
He sees Aeneas, bent by the precious weight of his father,
And the lengthy line of descendents sprung from the noble Julus;
Across stands Romulus, shouldering the arms of a conquered leader,
And the row of Romans above their records of famous deeds.
He sees on the front of the temple the name of Augustus
And the work appears greater still when he reads that name
Augustus vowed it when he was young, and dutifully took up arms:
With great beginnings our Princeps had to begin.

[For the weak in character, suggestions for sexual license abound:] Should a matron enter your temple of mighty Mars Augustus, There in armor by the door stands Venus beside the Avenger.

Next to the immortal gods, Augustus most honored the memory of those leaders who created the mighty empire of the Roman people from small beginnings. Accordingly he restored the public works of each man, retaining their original inscriptions. Furthermore, in the colonnades of his forum he dedicated statues to all of them in triumphal garb, declaring in an edict that he contrived this so that the citizens might have the example of these eminent men as a standard to which he during his own life as well as subsequent rulers must conform.

After defeating enemies in Spain, Gaul, and Dalmatia, 1 recovered the numerous military standards lost by other generals there. I compelled the Parthians to return the spoils and standards of three Roman armies, and to seek as suppliants the friendship of the Roman people. 1 deposited these standards in the inner shrine of the Temple of Mars the Avenger.

[Scipio Aemelianus was awarded the "siege crown" for rescuing an army], an event which the divine Augustus recorded in his forum below the statue of Scipio.