How important a part did Augustus' building programme play in his Principate? Explain.

The efforts taken by Augustus to transform the appearance of Rome was to re-establish the city as the great power of the Mediterranean after decades of brutal civil war. The idea of re-building status is tied to the core notion of Augustus’ Principate; the ruin created by the civil war was due to decades of disregarding traditional Roman mores (morals), the primary value being pietas (piety). Augustus’ Principate was the answer to this crisis, the building programme was the perfect canvas for Augustus to perpetuate this. In the 'Res Gestae,' Augustus states that he restored 82 temples. Through the act of restoring dilapidated temples Augustus was ensuring the renewal and reinstatement of the past, of lost religion, lost tradition and morals. Rome was in disrepair, morally and physically, these vast restoration projects cleansed the city of its wrong doings, rewarding it with moral purification, peace and prosperity.
The acts of restoration had a moralising and religious purpose but ultimately the building programme was a form of Augustan propaganda which sanctified and justified his authoritarian rule. Augustus built the Temple of Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger), this building housed the Parthian Standards lost by Crassus and reclaimed by Augustus. Like the restoration of temples this is an example of rescuing Rome’s glorious past but instead Augustus was explicitly involved in the process and greater meaning. He returned the standards to a temple constructed in the Forum Augustum (The Forum of Augustus), the temple, the standards and the message of Roman identity and greatness created an overt link to Augustus and the Principate rather than lost Roman values. The message the buildings purport is that Augustus alone is responsible for Rome’s salvation. Augustus’ building programme was the concrete foundation of the Principate, it provided an opportunity for the core values of traditional Roman morality, intended to improve the city, to be visualised, while also consecrating the authority of the Princeps.