Two thousand years ago, it stood as a towering monument to the everlasting glory of Rome’s first emperor, Caesar Augustus (63 BCE–14 CE). Situated near the banks of the Tiber River, in clear view of the imperial city’s most important institutions, Augustus’s Mausoleum was a massive circular tomb built to house the cremated remains of the emperor and his family. The tomb’s inner burial chamber was surrounded by a series of concentric walls that supported the monument’s nearly 150-foot-high conical ceiling. Originally faced with travertine, the mausoleum was topped by a triumphant bronze statue of Augustus, and its arched entryway […]
