page_title: Forum of Augustus
section_title: Usage
hierarchical_section_title: Forum of Augustus / Usage
caption_attribution_description: English: reconstruction drawing of the Forum of Augustus
context_page_description: The Forum of Augustus is one of the Imperial fora of Rome, Italy, built by Augustus. It includes the Temple of Mars Ultor. The incomplete forum and its temple were inaugurated in 2 BC, 40 years after they were first vowed.
context_section_description: The Forum of Augustus was built to both house a temple honouring Mars, and to provide another space for legal proceedings, as the Roman Forum was very crowded. Before battle, generals set off from the Temple of Mars, after attending an inaugural ceremony. Other ceremonies took place in the temple including the assumption of the toga virilis by young men. The Senate met at the Temple when discussing war and the victorious generals dedicated their spoils from their triumphs to Mars at the altar. Arms or booty recovered from battle were often stored in the Forum as well. Another use that Augustus made of the Temple was to store the standards taken by the Parthians from Crassus during his failed campaign, after their retrieval through Augustus' diplomacy in 20 BC, as depicted by the Augustus of Prima Porta. Three Aquilae were lost in 9 AD in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest of the Legions Legio XVII, Legio XVIII and Legio XIX; all three were recovered-one in 14 AD from the Marsi and one in 15 AD from the Bructeri; the 3rd was recovered in 41 AD from the Chauci-and all three placed within the Temple of Mars the Avenger.
caption: Artist's rendition of Forum of Augustus.
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