After Caesar's assassination, Brutus and Cassius, the main culprits, went to the East to take possession of the provinces of Syria and Macedonia. In 42 B.C. they led their armies into battle at Philippi, against the heirs of Caesar, Octavian and Marcus Aurelius. And just as Julius Caesar had taken a vow at Pharsalus, so Augustus took one at Philippi: in the event of victory, he was to dedicate a temple to Mars, the father of the Roman people, in a new forum. After the victory and the death of the two conspirators, built the Temple of Mars Ultor (the Conqueror), in the centre of the new Forum, dedicated to him and inaugurated on the first day of the month of August in the year 2 B.C. The excavations have brought to light magnificent remains of this Forum and the gigantic temple, which Ovid described.
The Temple of Peace. The complex of the Imperial Forums ended towards the Colosseum, with this temple of enormous proportions. Several remains have been found close to the current side-entrance of the Roman Forum, in the gardens in front of the Basilica of Maxentius, and in the Church of St. Cosmos and St. Damian.
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