Ara East Side
To the left of the east side of the enclosure there is the panel with the depiction of Tellus, the Mother Earth, or, according to a different interpretation, Venus, divine mother of Aeneas and progenitor of the Gens Iulia, to which Augustus himself belongs.
A further reading interprets this central figure as the Pax Augusta, Peace, which the altar takes its name from.
The goddess sits on the rocks, dressed in a light chiton. On her veiled head a crown of flowers and fruit. At her feet, an ox and a sheep.
The goddess holds two cherubs on both sides and one of them attracts her gaze by handing her a pome. In her lap, a bunch of grapes and pomegranates complete the portrait of the mother divinity, thanks to which men, animals and vegetation thrive.
On both sides of the panel two young women, the Aurae velificantes, one sitting on a sea dragon, the other on a swan, symbolising respectively the healthy winds of sea and land.
On the right panel there is a fragment of the relief of the goddess Roma. The represented figure was completed by "scratching" on mortar. In consideration of the fact that she is sitting on a trophy of arms, it can only be the goddess Rome, whose presence must be read in close relation to that of Venus-Tellus, as prosperity and peace are guaranteed by victorious Rome.
The goddess is represented as an Amazon: her head encircled by the helmet, her right breast halfnaked, the balteus on the shoulder holding a short sword, a rod in her right hand.
Most likely the personifications of Honos and Virtus, placed on either side of the goddess, in the likeness of two young male divinities were part of the scene.
