The design and imagery of the Forum of Augustus were carefully
orchestrated to further the Augustan program, portraying the
history of Rome as a divinely ordained expansion through just
wars (Mars the Avenger) toward an orderly peace (Venus who
disarms Mars) based on Roman virtus ("manly valor," symbolized
by Romulus) and pietas ("filial, religious, and patriotic duty,"
symbolized by Aeneas), carried out through a long line of
illustrious Romans (the statues of Republican dignitaries),
culminating in the princeps Augustus. Augustus claimed to be
directly descended from Aeneas, and he presented himself as the
new founder of Rome, "a new Romulus," especially through his
title of pater patriae, "Father of the Fatherland." At the end
of the long rectangular courtyard stood the great Temple of Mars
Ultor, with a colossal cult statue of Mars in the sanctuary. It
is likely that this statue was flanked by cult statues of Venus
Genetrix ("the begetter," "the mother") and Divus Julius (the
deified Julius Caesar). On ei