It was the victory of Actium (31 B.C.), over the combined fleets of Antony and Cleopatra, that enabled Octavian to pass as the Prince of Peace. In 1888–89, in the old Forum, between the Temples of the deified Julius and of Castor, were excavated the footings of an arch, originally with a single passageway, later enlarged to three. This arch was identified from literary sources as the one erected by Augustus to commemorate that victory, enlarged later when another occasion for propaganda arose. The arch itself is a routine affair, with plenty of precedent, though one might ponder the propriety of thus gloating over Antony, a former colleague and a Roman citizen. (Gamberini, the excavator, even found, in the bottom of square stone receptacles beside the arch, laurel seeds which suggest that the tree of victory was prominent in the landscaping of the arch.) But, given the Roman propensity in general, and Augustus’ in particular, for propagandizing in stone, the question naturally arose what opportunity for self-advertisement the arch offered. The answer was not given until Degrassi published another book in 1947. For many years archaeologists had believed that on the walls of the nearby Regia had been engraved the _Fasti Consulares_ (lists of Roman consuls from the founding of the Republic and probably of the kings as well), and the _Fasti Triumphales_ (lists of triumphing generals from Romulus to 19 B.C. I have remarked in another book[D] how much one can learn of a people by what they make lists of: Greeks, of Olympic victors; Americans, of baseball averages; Romans, of statesmen and military heroes). But in 1935 a careful study of the Regia by the American F. E. Brown proved that the part of its wall where the _Fasti_ must have begun was masked in the rebuilding of 36 B.C. by another structure, and that the space available, carefully measured for the first time by Brown, did not fit the surviving _Fasti_, which were discovered in 1546 and are still preserved in the Conservatori Museum. Clearly the Regia was not the place where the _Fasti_ were inscribed. Since two-thirds of the extant fragments were found between the Temple of the Deified Julius and the Temple of Castor, and since their dimensions suited those of the footings of the Arch of Augustus, the inference was clear. It was on the arch (Fig. 6.2) that the consular _Fasti_ were carved, and this is now the universally accepted opinion. They were displayed on either side of the lateral passageway, where pedestrians could read them, the consular lists framed by pilasters with a pediment above (reconstructed in the museum by Michelangelo), the list of _triumphatores_ on the corner pilasters of the enlarged arch. The result of this display was again, as in Augustus’ Forum, to connect the upstart Octavian with a more respectable or heroic past. His name appears twice among the _triumphatores_ (the slab that referred to Actium is unfortunately missing) in a list that began