This may be the second temple that Augustus had constructed to Mars Ultor. In 20 BCE Augustus negotiated the return of the legionary eagle standards (signa) lost by Crassus to the Parthians, important symbols of Rome's power that Julius Caesar had been planning to recapture when he was assassinated. At that time Augustus may have built a small round temple to Mars Ultor on the Capitoline Hill, near the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, where he ceremoniously displayed the regained standards. In any case, this temple figures prominently on Augustan coinage of that period. Augustus was quite proud of the recovery of these standards during his reign, and the scene of the Parthian surrender of the standards is depicted on the cuirass of his Prima Porta statue. When this temple was opened, the standards regained from the Parthians and other war booty were transferred here, and Augustus decreed that victorious generals should deposit here their triumphal crowns and scepters. Commanders setting off on military campaigns took official leave of the city here, and the Senate came to this forum to debate declarations of war and awards of triumphal parades. Some of these functions had been the province of Jupiter Capitolinus before the opening of this temple, so this is another way that Augustus subtly shifted the focus from that great symbol of Republican power to the newer imperial spaces.