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Mausoleum Augusti
Unless otherwise indicated, pictures on this page © Marco Prins and Jona Lendering. Photos can be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes, but you have to acknowledge Livius.
Bust of Augustus as high priest. Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, Mérida (Spain). Photo Marco Prins. According to his contemporary, the geographer Strabo of Amasia, the tomb of the emperor Augustus was among the most remarkable monuments of Rome. He describes it as an artificial hill covered with evergreen trees, and we can add that it was not unlike the tombs in Etruria, or the tomb of Alexander the Great in Alexandria, a ruler greatly admired by Augustus. Other sources of inspiration may have been the tombs of the heroes of the Trojan war, of whom Augustus claimed to descend (e.g., the tomb of Achilles and similar monuments), and the world famous Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the tomb of the famous satrap of Caria, Maussolus.
The Mausoleum of Augustus. Photo Jona Lendering. Strabo adds that in the neighborhood of the Mausoleum of Augustus, one could visit a park with lovely porticoes and an ustrinum (i.e., the place of the pyre) that was surrounded by black poplars. This picture shows the substructure of the giant tomb itself. The outer ring has a diameter of 89 meters and is 12 meters meters high. No Roman had ever created a tomb like this.
The upper half of this reconstruction (the famous model of ancient Rome in the Museo Nazionale della Civiltà Romana, EUR Rome) is based on the description by Strabo. He says that there was a statue of the emperor on the top. The idea that the center looked like this, is a guess based on parallels with similar monuments. It is contradicted by Strabo, who says that the monument resembled a hill.
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1. Inner ring, west
2. Pediment of urn
3. Inner tomb
4. Inner ring, east
The inner tomb consists of a square inner tomb, where Augustus and his wife Livia must have been buried, surrounded by an outer ring, where the urns of other members of the imperial family stood. The epitaph of Marcellus, who died in 23 BCE, proves that the monument was more or less finished by that time. 
This picture shows the northeastern exterior wall of the mausoleum of Augustus. It was made of brick, but covered with slabs of white travertine, exactly as described by Strabo. Next to it were two columns with the text of Augustus' Res Gestae (his autobiography).
The mausoleum on the model in the Museo Nazionale della Civiltà Romana again, the big round structure at the lower edge. If you draw a line from the center of the mausoleum to the obelisk of the Horologium Augusti (upper edge), and a second line from the obelisk to Augustus' Altar of Peace (Ara Pacis; the small square building in the upper left corner), you get a right-angled triangle. If there is any deeper significance, is not known.
In 31 BCE, Augustus (at that moment still called Octavian) had defeated his rival Marc Antony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII Philopator in the naval battle of Actium; one year after, he had conquered Egypt. Its cereals were used for the food supply of Rome, which was from now on more stable. To remind the Romans of this success, there were two obelisks in front of the entrance of the Mausoleum. Today, one of these monoliths decorates a square near the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Although this obelisk looks as if it is an ancient Egyptian monument, it was in fact made for Augustus. Its height is 14.75 meters.
The other obelisk, also made by order of Augustus, is standing in front of the palace of the president of Italy, the Quirinal. It is 14.64 meters high. The two statues of Castor and Pollux date back to Antiquity too.

The Mausoleum faced -although it was separated by some distance- the Pantheon, a round temple for the cult of the emperor's family, constructed by Augustus' friend Agrippa. A wide alley connected the two monuments.

The Mausoleum of Augustus inspired the emperor Hadrian when he wanted to build his tomb, but he felt free to make considerable changes to the original design. Today, it is known as the Castel Sant' Angelo.
The epitaph of Tiberius, the successor of Augustus. Other people who were buried in the mausoleum were Marcellus, Marcellus' mother (and Augustus' sister) Octavia, Agrippa, Drusus, Lucius Caesar, Gaius Caesar, and Varus. In 14, Augustus was laid to rest. Later, Drusus the Younger, Germanicus, Drusus Caesar, Livia, Tiberius, Caligula's mother Agrippina, Nero Caesar, and perhaps Claudius, were buried here.

A satellite photo can be found here.
 
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