The Altar of Augustan Peace
by Mary Elizabeth Podles
When the Roman legionaries embarked on a new military venture, they left the city via the Forum's Portal of Janus, the god of new beginnings (and endings), and the doors of the Temple of Janus were always kept open in times of war, while in peacetime they were closed. For nearly four hundred years, they stood open. They were formally closed in 29 b.c., again in 25 b.c., and finally and definitively around the year 13 b.c. The Pax Romana had begun, and in the year 9 b.c., the Ara Pacis, the Altar of Augustan Peace, was consecrated.
< . . .
This article is only available to subscribers.
Not a subscriber? Subscribe to Touchstone today for full online access. Over 30 years of content!
subscription options
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
Purchase Print &
Online Subscription
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access for only $29.95. That's only $2.50 per month!
Your subscription goes a long way to ensure that Touchstone is able to continue its mission of publishing quality Christian articles and commentary.
*Transactions will be processed on the secure server of The Fellowship of St. James website, the publisher of Touchstone.
from the touchstone online archives
27.5 — Sept/Oct 2014
Benedict XVI's Regensburg Lecture, St. John's Proemium & Intercultural Understanding by Graeme Hunter
28.3 — May/June 2015
Whittaker Chambers's Lonely War Against Godless Collectivism by Hunter Baker
29.1 — Jan/Feb 2016
David J. Theroux on Progressive Myths & Christianity's Deeper Revolution
29.2 — March/April 2016
Robert Hart on Cutting Christ Down to One Size Fits Whatever We Want
29.6 — Nov/Dec 2016
The Mustard Seed & the Wonders of His Kingdom by Anthony Esolen
get touchstone
Get 1 year (6 issues) of Touchstone delivered to your door PLUS complete access to the online archives—over 30 years of award-winning articles—for only $29.95.
from our sponsors
the current issue
top articles online
A Sin Which Can Be Forgiven: Toward a Biblical Perspective on Divorce and Remarriage in the Churches Today by Peter Toon
Choosing the Good Portion: Rod Dreher's The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation reviewed by Bradley W. Anderson
The Romance of Domesticity: Marriage Thrives in Reality, Not in Our Dreams by Nathan Schlueter
The Man Alive: Irenaeus Did Not Teach Self-Fulfillment by Patrick Henry Reardon
C. S. Lewis, Reluctant Churchman by Wayne Martindale
the 2017 conference
the 2016 conference
Purchase and download the conference talks
other fsj publications
Anno Domini 2018
The St. James Calendar of the Christian Year—only $14.95
The Daily Devotional Guide
by Patrick Henry Reardon
Touchstone is a Christian journal, conservative in doctrine and eclectic in content, with editors and readers from each of the three great divisions of Christendom—Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox.
The mission of the journal and its publisher, The Fellowship of St. James, is to provide a place where Christians of various backgrounds can speak with one another on the basis of shared belief in the fundamental doctrines of the faith as revealed in Holy Scripture and summarized in the ancient creeds of the Church.
Touchstone is published by
All content The Fellowship of St. James — 2017. All rights reserved.
Returns, refunds, and privacy policy.
