| Pax | |
|---|---|
Goddess of Peace | |
.jpg) Statue of Peace in the garden ofPavlovsk Palace,Saint Petersburg | |
| Abode | Rome |
| Symbol | Caduceus, Cornucopia, Corn, Olive branches, Scepter |
| Parents | Jupiter and Justice |
| Equivalents | |
| Greek | Eirene |
Pax (Latin forPeace), more commonly known in English asPeace, was theRomangoddess ofpeace derived and adopted from the ancientGreekequivalentEirene.[1] Pax was seen as the daughter of the Roman king godJupiter and the goddessJustice. Worship of Peace was organized and made popular during the rule of theemperorAugustus who used her imagery to help stabilise the empire after the years of turmoil andcivil war of thelate republic.[2] Augustus commissioned an altar of peace in her honour on theCampus Martius calledAra Pacis,[3] and the emperorVespasian built a temple for her on called theTemplum Pacis. Pax had afestival held for her on January 30.[4][5] In art she is commonly depicted holding outolive branches as a peace offering, as well as acaduceus,cornucopia,corn and asceptre.[6] Pax is also often associated with spring.
Early Roman worship andmythology was very much based on and adopted from the Greek pantheon of gods and goddesses.[3] Ancient Greekdeities that aligned with the Roman values ofconquest, strength andpragmatism such asMars andJuno were adopted early on during theRoman kingdom and earlyrepublic.[7]
Pax was a relatively unrecognised deity during the early republic as she had little to do with the Romanphilosophy.[2] However, during this time theGreek city states had been worshipping Pax’s equivalent -Eirene since the earlybronze age where the worship of her peaked during the rise of theAthenian empire and thePeloponnesian war.[1]
As Weinstock explained the Roman idea and word for peace (pax) derived from ‘pacisci’ was seen as more of a pact which concluded a war and led to a surrender or alliance with another faction rather than today’s notion of peace as the lack of war. Peace was seen as the submission to Roman superiority, it was the outcome of war not its absence. Conquest led to pacification.[8]
Pax worship peaked duringAugustus Caesar’s reign and theearly empire. Augustus introduced Pax as a way to stabilise his reign and to signal to the populace that the previous years of civil war and turmoil that was linked to the decay and fall of the republic had ended and that his reign had bought peace and direction to the ravaged empire.[8] Pax first appeared likeEirene with thecaduceus and this can be seen in Augustus’ commission of theAra Pacis or altar of peace and incoinage at the time. Some argue that Pax could have therefore been used more of apolitical slogan than an actual goddess at the time, a pact to cease the civil war and to bring prosperity back to the empire through the newimperial system.[8]
Augustus often usedreligious events and expressions to stress his political messages such as when he becamePontifex Maximus. His construction of theAra Pacis symbolised peace for the Romancitizens under his rule and somecolonies were renamed after the goddess and Augustus such asPax Julia to Pax Augusta in ancientLusitania, also coinage was circulated in the colonies supporting Augustus as the bringer of peace where hisbust in shown and the goddess Pax on theobverse side.[8] Augustus attempted to establish acult of Pax in the provinces such as inSpain andGaul like what he did with theimperial cult.[2] Augustus’s reign emphasised the notion of peace to Roman citizens and recently subjugated peoples as a possible way to bringsolidarity to the early empire and to consolidate hispolitical philosophy. The imperial message could’ve communicated that Roman subjects enjoyed the goddess Pax and her benefits only because of theimperium of Augustus and the strength of hisarmies.[2]
The linking between emperor and Pax or her equivalent was not a new idea and hadGreek origins withAlexander the Great and then withPompey andJulius Caesar, in this time Pax was not seen as a powerful god likeJupiter but a ramification of the emperor’s strength and influence.[8]
Augustus’ successors during theJulio-Claudian dynasty would continue to stress this notion, Pax’s image would slowly change around the reign ofClaudius where she becomes more of a winged figure.[6] Pax worship continued withVespasian who established theFlavian dynasty and ended the civil war and instability of theYear of the Four Emperors. Vespasian constructed theTemplum Pacis in AD 75 in her honour and continued linking the goddess Pax to the godJanus as seen in the construction of the templeJanus Quadrifrons near the Forum Pacis as the closing of thegates of Janus was seen as the conclusion of war and the start of peace, and was something that Augustus did in his first years as emperor.[3]
Pax and peace would later become synonymous with Augustus in the period known asPax Augusta and later scholars would refer to the time of peace as thePax Romana, meaning that stability and peace was achieved through the power of the emperor to limit infighting within the empire and through defeating foreign threats such as seen as the subjugation ofGermania,Pannonia, andEgypt etc.
During the evolution of the Roman empire and thePax Romana the conquered were integrated into society,slaves were freed, and the empire no longer had to be violent with its pacified people.Rebellions andpiracy had diminished, and the empire had been consolidated and stabilised underEmperor Hadrian and theNerva - Antonine dynasty.[7] This led contemporary writers such asPlutarch to write “so far as peace is concerned the peoples have no need of statesmanship at present; for all war, both Greek and foreign, has been banished from among us and has disappeared”.[7]Roman citizens were thus becoming less violent and less willing to serve in the empires’legions and were becoming more submissive to imperial authority.[7] This however was in antithesis with the Gods that their forefathers had worshipped and connected to their emperors and legionary armies and thus they became less relevant to the Roman zeitgeist.[7] New spiritual leadership was increasingly being found inChristianity. The Pax Romana had an effect on the adoption and acceptance of Christianity’s peaceful teachings and less so was Pax the signifier of peace – she was being replaced byJesus Christ. A church leader in the 4th centuryEusebius wrote ‘it was not by mere human accident but of God's arrangement that the universal empire of peace came in time for the universal religion of peace.’[7] The Roman peace at the time however was still regularly sustained by violence, and raids intobarbarian territories inParthia andGermania were still necessary.
The Christian religion had an effect on the changing of the perception of the word 'peace' in the Roman world where in it was transformed into a demilitarised one more accustom to today’s description of peace.[9] The fall of theWestern Roman Empire and thebarbarian invasions of the 4th and 5th centuries led to the complete collapse of Pax’s worship. While there were differences in Pax and Jesus, the concept of peace during the Pax Romana could’ve inspired part of the peaceful message seen within Christianity’s emphasis of peace and its connection with prosperity.[9]
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Republic coins may have alluded to Pax before 44BC but in only using the goddesses future symbols and none specifically included Pax’spersonification or called her by name until after 44BC.[2] The first depictions of peace seen oncoinage was depicted indenarii in 137BC which was circulated to recall a treaty between Rome andEpirus after theSamnite wars.[2] On this a woman was surrounded with farm animals such aspigs and on the obverse side two soldiers face each other whilst holding a pig forsacrifice. In 49BC a minter known as Sicinus released adenarius with alaurel wreath,caduceus, andvictory palm, maybe he did this to evoke the idea of domestic unity and the association of peace with prosperity.[2] Pax under Augustus took her known form as he demonstrated that peace bought wealth, which was contradictory to thetraditional Roman understanding that only war and conquest afforded wealth in the form ofloot and plunder.[2] Fruits and grains were incorporated into Pax’s image and this was maybe done to show the return and abundance ofagriculture at the time, as manyveterans during the empire where often settled onto farms - particularly after the civil wars.[6] Pax was also shown with twins, maybe representing domestic harmony achieved through the Pax Romana. This was becausefertility at home was spurred when the father of the household was around and not fighting in the legions.[2]Cows, pigs andsheep imagery on theAra Pacis showed the abundance of food andanimal husbandry during the Pax Romana and these animals were also regularly scarified to Pax.[2] Pax is also shown with acornucopia to further emphasise the opulence and wealth during this Roman golden era. During the latter years of her worship she was very rarely shown holding thecaduceus and she was increasingly shown sharing many more features common with Augustus - hinting at the Pax Augusta.[6]
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