Temple of Caesar

The Temple of Divus Iulius (Latin aedes Divi July ) was built for the deified Julius Caesar Gaius temple in Rome.

History and location

The temple is located on the southeast narrow side of the Roman Forum in Rome at the point where the corpse of the murdered Caesar was burned. Caesar was after the deification of Romulus Quirinus as the second Roman who was worshiped as a god. However, the Divus Iulius was no alignment with an existing God, such as in the alignment of Alexander the Great to Zeus -Ammon. Rather, he embodied a new god by the Roman model, the God of mercy, as reflected in the clemency of Caesar. After combustion Caesars on the forum reminded initially apparently only an altar ( Appian, De bello civile 1.4, 2,148; 3.2 ) and a marble column of Giallo Antico with the inscription Parenti Patriae ( Father of the Fatherland ) to the place of the action. The consul Publius Cornelius Dolabella then let the column to remove them immediately. But the office of flamen Divi Julii was soon established as a priest of the cult of Divus Iulius and the Marcus Antonius designated in the year 44 BC as the first incumbent. The priesthood was one of the influential flamines maiores and was occupied in the year 40 BC.

Construction of the temple was praised two years after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 42 BC under the pressure of the triumvirs Octavian, Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus by the Senate ( Dio Cassius 47, 18, 4). Only in the year 29 BC, the temple was for a three-day triumph of Octavian, later Augustus, consecrated ( Cassius Dio 51, 21). Spittl by a coin mission Octavian, showing a small temple with the inscription DIVO entablature IUF ( io ) to fall 36 BC in the year. The realization of the project appears to be due to the commitment of Octavian, as Augustus as he boasts in his deeds report that to have built the temple Res Gestae.

Specifications

The exposed in 1872 and in the years 1888, 1898/99 and 1950 Follow-up examinations archaeological temple has been destroyed, since it is precisely this area was used in the Renaissance and Baroque as a quarry. Only the three mighty nuclei of the temple podium in opus caementicium, the ancient concrete are obtained. Few marble architectural elements of the Rising architecture itself are obtained, the wall foundations were robbed to the lowest layers. In combination with the written tradition and the testimony of the coin images can be largely reconstructed the temple.

The Caementiciumkerne were originally cased with tufa blocks, which in turn were covered with marble slabs. In the colonnades and the Cellafrontwand the foundation square of travertine were formed.

The western caementicium core was about 16.80 meters wide, 6.30 meters deep and 3.30 meters high. The subsequent cores had a height of about 5.50 meters and a width of 14.50. The middle, supporting the pronaos core this had a depth of about 7.90 meters. The eastern, which had Cella supporting core to a depth of approximately 6.20 meters. A stand-alone small Caementiciumsockel between the pronaos and Cellafundament wore the nearly 4 meters wide doorway.

Since the western core was not deep enough to accommodate a staircase to about 2.20 meters higher mean core can, the steps must have partially found between the front pillars. Therefore, the front pillars were in this area on pedestals. According to Vitruvius (III 3.2 ), the temple was a Pyknostylos, that is the clear distance between its pillars, the intercolumnium, corresponded to 1.5 times of the lower column diameter. The widths of the stone foundation to judge by, affiliated six pillars of the temple front. The narrow sides of the pronaos, however, could accommodate three pillars or early determinants. A decision can not make themselves.

Contrary to earlier assumptions, the temple of the Ionic order was that research goes since the discovery of a Corinthian chapter fragment at excavations of 1950 mainly assume that the temple was completely Corinthian order. For pilasters and Ante orders of the temple that was previously clear because of the numerous corresponding capital fragments. Architrave and frieze of the temple are not obtained. The existing and connected with the temple fragments and plates of a frieze of vines women can not be connected to the exterior trim of the building because of its low height. Rather, they seem to have been part of the interior decoration and panel trim. Cornices and Sima, however, are in many blocks and fragments that still lie in ruin, get. The temple was therefore an arbitrated by a dentil Konsolengeison with flat panels. Between the consoles are representations in low relief, the most rosettes, but also a laurel wreath, grapes, a palmette, a patera and represent a shield. Most of these subjects can be directly connect with the person of Caesar, as the laurel wreath that he wear at all times to the right after the victory of Munda received. The grape can be related to the reintroduction of the Liber- cult in Rome by Caesar.

From the interior of the temple testifies to a Caementiciumsockel on the northern Cellapodium. He is about 1.10 meters high, 3.30 meters wide and 0.90 meters deep. Probably wore this pedestal for which a counterpart on the south side shall be provided a small shrine. The to be reconstructed aedicules probably salvaged by Augustus donated to the temple of art, including a painting by Apelles, Aphrodite Anadyomene represented ( Strabo, XIV 2.19 ). The cult image presented Caesar with a star, the Sidus Iulium, dar. over the forehead

Altar

The after the death of Caesar spontaneously built and once again torn by Dolabella altar was renewed under construction of the temple. He was in the form of a round altar in a semicircular exedra, the nick in the Western Podiumswandung. Presumably, the altar was erected in the wake of the latest architectural survey, which is to bring the coin mission of the year 36 BC in conjunction. After the fires in the years 14 BC and 9 BC and the subsequent transformation took place and level raising the Forum, the semicircular exedra of the western podium was closed by a wall, concealed behind the altar and removed from memory.

But still today resigned from admirers Iulius Caesar regularly flowers on the altar of the temple.