Augustus' propaganda founded the ruler's power on a series of references to the sky: Caesar's comet, which helped establishing the divine nature of kingship, the completion of the calendar's reform celebrated in the Campus Martius' meridian, and Augustus' association with the Capricorn, the zodiacal sign of the winter solstice. A variety of proofs coming from texts, works of art and numismatics show the key role of such a "power from the stars". We present here new archaeological and archaeoastronomical evidences coming from Augusta Praetoria Salassorum (modern Aosta), founded around 25 BC after the victory of Augustus' army on the Salassi. An emergency excavation along the Aosta's Roman walls has indeed brought to light a block in situ on a corner of one of the towers which carries several reliefs -including a plough and a spade -apparently related to the town's foundation ritual. As a consequence, we carried out a complete analysis of the original urban plan of Aosta and of its relationship with the sky and the landscape, taking into account the complex natural horizon of the Alps in which Aosta's valley is nested. The results show that the town was oriented in such a way as to pinpoint Augustus' "cognitive" relationship with the "cosmic" signs of renewal.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.