Hannah Cornwell's monograph is a most welcome addition to the vast bibliography and numerous studies on the transition period from the Republic to the Principate in Roman history. Through a detailed analysis of the concept of peace, C. shows not only how but — most interestingly — why the idea of peace served to explain Roman imperialism to Romans themselves in a period of internal and external turbulence.

The book is divided into five chapters plus introduction and conclusion. Ch. 1, ‘The Meaning of Pax’, gives a brief theoretical background of the concept and moves quickly to the uses of pax in primarily literary and numismatic contexts. Even though C. rightly states that pax was an ‘allusive’ (15) term that resisted straightforward definition, the understanding of the Roman concept of peace would have benefited from a more developed discussion in this section. The comparison with Greek eirene makes it clear that pax entailed characteristics that were proper to Roman thought; for example, in addition to being conceptualised as the absence of war (like the Greek eirene), the Roman concept of pax ‘was formed through a bilateral agreement and itself described the action of a contractual relationship’ (18). However, important terms related to pax, such as concordia, otium, quies or tranquillitas, are dealt with a little too briefly. Perhaps C. wanted to show that there was no ‘theory of peace’ among the Romans, but a fuller explanation of these notions would have stressed from the start the specific characteristics of the Roman idea of pax, and especially its relationship with victory and triumph (which later on she demonstrates in abundance).

Ch. 2, ‘Peace in Civil War’, offers a novel way of interpreting well-known facts regarding the civil wars of the 40s and 30s b.c. C. analyses the interrelationship of the concept of peace with the politics of the time, concluding that by shifts in the political language, pax itself became politicised and was used for different political purposes according to the political actors. In ch. 3, ‘Peace over Land and Sea’, C. admirably shows how the concept of peace was rearranged within the context of the aftermath of the civil wars, involving a subtle, but real change in the meaning of victory as well. The interpretations of Augustus’ celebrations of 29 b.c., namely, his triple triumph in Rome, the issuing of memorial coins, the dedication of a statue of Victory and the founding of the city of Nicopolis — with new fragments of an important inscription — are all woven together by C. to prove how the idea of victorious peace, along with the concept of pax terra marique, showed the new ideology of the emerging political system.

‘Peace in the New Age of Augustus’ is the title of ch. 4, where C. examines the idea of peace within the context of Augustus’ novum saeculum with him as head of the Roman state and empire. The celebration of the return of the Roman standards, lost in successive campaigns against the Parthians, illustrates how ‘Augustus viewed the success as if it were a victory and he had defeated the Parthians in battle’ (131). Through a discussion on the Parthian Arch and the dedication of the Temple of Mars Ultor, C. argues that the Forum of Augustus became an important space not only for the display of Roman victory, but also for the understanding of Roman imperium.

Ch. 5, ‘The Pax Augusta’, deals almost exclusively with the detailed analysis of the Ara Pacis, the altar commissioned by the Senate and consecrated in 13 b.c. to honour the return of Augustus from Hispania and Gaul. C. clearly delights in the thorough descriptions of the different relief panels, which she uses to prove that, besides being the first extant monument dedicated to the divine quality Pax, the Ara Pacis is ‘a far more complex expression of the ideology of the Roman state and the peace established by Augustus’ (172). For C., the Ara Pacis represents the climax of the profound connections between the concept of pax and the idea of imperialism in Augustus’ Principate.

To sum up: by analysing an impressive amount of literary, but principally material evidence, C. skilfully shows that the changes that the conceptualisations of pax underwent from the 50s b.c. onwards helped to promote a particular discourse on the nature of Roman imperialism. Pax came to represent the stability of the state and supported both the idea of restoration and recovery on the one hand, and the foundation of a new era on the other, which constituted one of Augustus’ most important messages to the Roman people. Pax and the Politics of Peace is to be commended for illustrating so clearly the reasons and ways by which an ideology of peace was born, grew and developed, to be placed at the very centre of politics by the relevant actors of the period.