Pax

"Peace." The personification of peace. When order was re-established after the Civil Wars, emperor Augustus had an altar built for her. Emperor Vespasian, followed by emperor Domitian, devoted a temple to her in the Forum, which was subsequently called forum Pacis, the Forum of Peace. Another temple, the Ara Pacis, was on the Campus Martius. A festival was celebrated in her honor and that of Salus, on the 30th of April.

Pax corresponds to the Greek Eirene.

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Iconography

On coins Pax is represented as a youthful female, holding in her left arm a cornucopia and in her right hand an olive branch or a spear without the head. Sometimes also she appears in the act of burning a pile of arms, or carrying corn-ears in her hand or upon her head. In others she holds the staff of Mercury (winged and wingless) or a scepter.

References

Source

  • Gellius. Noctes Atticae xvi, 8. Juvenal, i, 115. Ovid. Fasti i, 709 ff. Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia xxxvi, 5.