You can explore the tomb of the first Roman emperor, but most people walk right past it

Augustus began work on the mausoleum in 28 BC, a date that followed his victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium.

Although he had not yet been granted the title “Augustus,” he had already secured largely undisputed political authority and sought ways to strengthen that position.

He had recently returned to Rome in triumph after several campaigns in Illyricum and Egypt, and he used those celebrations to reinforce his vision for dynastic stability.

When he constructed what would become a massive tomb on the northern edge of the Campus Martius, he ensured that the structure stood outside the legal boundary of the city while still overlooking a public area that was filled with temples and monuments. 

He did not wait until old age to plan his burial, and the early timing of the project suggests a deliberate plan to link his rise to power with lasting rule.

Augustus appears to have intended the structure to house his family as well as himself.

As a result, the tomb soon contained the remains of Marcellus in 23 BC, Agrippa in 12 BC, Lucius Caesar in 2 AD, and Gaius Caesar in 4 AD, whose premature deaths forced him to adapt his succession plans.

Each burial had likely added to the image of the Julian line as protectors of Rome’s future. 

Roman values placed a strong emphasis on ancestry and honourable lineage. To express these ideals, Augustus created a single resting place for the entire family rather than a personal monument.

Burial of both men and women within the mausoleum helped define the imperial family as a collective unit, tied together by family bloodlines and by legal obligations that made official their joint role in public service.

As such, the tomb helped transform that family identity into a permanent and public message.

Bronze tablets that contained the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, his account of achievements, had once stood outside the entrance, apparently to further publicise his achievements. 

Hadrian had later built his own tomb across the river, which used the same general design.

His monument, now known as Castel Sant’Angelo, reinforced the connection between imperial tombs and the idea of succession.

When later emperors had followed the model set by Augustus, they promoted a visual tradition that connected their rule to Rome’s longstanding foundations.

The Mausoleum of Augustus therefore influenced how future rulers presented their relationship to Rome’s past and future. 

Few structures from ancient Rome matched the scale of the mausoleum. Its circular plan, which stretched 90 metres across, likely reached an estimated 45 metres in height.

This made it larger in diameter than the Pantheon and probably even larger than the famous tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus.

The exterior likely included travertine along with other materials that faced a large concrete drum made with opus caementicium, a Roman construction method that allowed for such massive and long-lasting structures.

The drum had enclosed passageways, chambers, and stairs, which were all arranged to guide visitors toward the central burial chamber.

Cypress terraces covered the upper levels and a bronze statue crowned the summit.

These features, together with the monument's great height, ensured visibility across long distances and created a striking image of continuity between earth and sky. 

Architectural inspiration came from several sources, which included Etruscan tumuli and Hellenistic royal tombs such as those found in Alexandria and Pergamon.

Augustus blended local and foreign traditions into a style that felt both Roman and royal.

He borrowed forms that his audience would recognise, and he adjusted those forms to suit his new role as princeps. 

Two obelisks, which had been cut from red granite and transported from Egypt, had once flanked the tomb’s entrance.

Their presence reminded Roman viewers of Augustus’ conquest of Egypt.

Obelisks, whose appearance at the mausoleum helped connect the emperor’s memory to divine order, held sun-related meanings and royal symbolism.

One now stands in Piazza del Quirinale and the other near Santa Maria Maggiore, but their original placement had symbolic weight. 

The interior had held spaces for cremation urns, some of which were labelled with inscriptions that identified the deceased.

Livia, Agrippa, and several early emperors received burial within the tomb. Octavia may have received burial elsewhere, as her inclusion in the mausoleum is not proved by archaeology.

Records confirmed that the mausoleum had housed the remains of those closest to Augustus, which came to symbolise unity and succession within one central space. 

That visual message changed Roman burial expectations. Elite tombs of the Republic had focused on individual achievement and family plots.

By constructing a dynastic mausoleum on public land, Augustus changed both the purpose and the meaning of funerary architecture. 

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the mausoleum lost its association with the imperial family and began a long history of reuse.

During the early medieval period, powerful noble families such as the Colonna took control of the site and turned it into a fortress.

Its solid construction and prominent position made it ideal for defence during the city’s internal conflicts. 

By the fifteenth century, vegetation had overgrown the structure, and locals used the area for practical purposes.

The monument became a garden, then a workshop, and later a place where people stored construction material.

Interest in its historical importance was limited mainly to a small group of scholars and artists who attempted to sketch or measure the ruins.

For most residents of Rome, the tomb no longer held any connection to Augustus. 

Significant twentieth-century efforts to restore the monument began under the Fascist regime.

Mussolini ordered the demolition of nearby buildings and created the Piazza Augusto Imperatore to display the ruins.

As part of his Romanità campaign, he used the site in political speeches and claimed symbolic continuity between his own government and the ancient empire.

However, excavation remained incomplete, and public access was restricted. Most visitors to Rome never entered the mausoleum or understood its full historical significance. 

The site stayed closed for much of the postwar period. Overgrowth and crumbling masonry made restoration difficult, and funding delays prevented serious preservation.

For decades, the structure stood behind locked gates, and most people passed by largely without any sense of its importance. 

After many years of plans, and with support from public and private sources, a complete restoration project finally began in the 2010s.

The telecommunications company TIM provided significant financial backing for the effort and the mausoleum reopened in 2021 with visitor access, new pathways, and clear explanatory displays.

Visitors can now generally enter the central chamber, walk through the corridors, and read about the people who were once buried there. 

Modern tourists still largely focus on better-known landmarks like the Colosseum or the Pantheon.

Yet, some who took time to explore the Mausoleum of Augustus discovered a rare surviving monument that showed how one man had carefully planned both how to rule Rome and how to be remembered by it.