Piece from a statue plinth with Aeneas inscription
Type:
Sculpture
Year:
From the Augusta Era: 2 BC
Material and technique:
Luna marble
Inventory:
FA 1197
From the niche at the back of the exedra in the porticoes in the Forum of Augustus
The inscription reads:
…Aen[e]a[s primus] / Latin [orum rex] / regnav[it annos III] ….
(…Aeneas, first King of the Latins, reigned for three years...)
Masterpieces of the hall
The hall
The central niche of the exedra in the northern section of the Forum was home to a group of sculptures featuring Aeneas as he flees from Troy, saving not only his father Anchises and his young son Ascanius, founder of the gens Iulia (the Julian dynasty) but also the Lares and Penates, the statues of the household gods of Troy, which he took to Rome. It was Romulus who featured in the southern exedra however, to whom Augustus, as the new founder of the city and its empire, looked to for inspiration.
