Coordinates: 41°53′31″N 12°29′10″E / 41.891943°N 12.486246°E The Temple of Caesar or better Temple of Divus Iulius (Aedes Divi Iuli or Templum Divi Iuli. Other alternate names: Temple of the Deified Julius Caesar, delubrum, heroon). The Temple was also known as the Temple of the Comet Star (Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 2.93-94). Location: Rome: Roman Forum near the Regia and the Temple of Vesta.
 Temple of Divus Iulius |
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| Location | Regione VIII Forum Romanum |
| Built in | Inauguration 18 August 29 BC |
| Built by/for | Emperor Augustus |
| Type of structure | Temple with, probably, a podium rostra in the frontal part |
| Related articles | Julius Caesar, Assassination of Julius Caesar, Temple of Caesar, |
  Temple of Divus Iulius |
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| This article covers the Ancient Roman Forum of the Republican and Imperial periods |
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History
The Temple as worship place of the Comet (Star)
The Temple of Caesar was the unique temple which was entirely dedicated to the cult of a Comet (Star), since the Comet (Star) was considered the soul of the deified Julius Caesar and the symbol of the "new birth" of Augustus as the unique Roman Ruler and Emperor. Here the account by Pliny with parts of a public speech delivered by Augustus about the Comet, his father Caesar and his own destiny:
The only place in the whole world where a comet is the object of worship is a temple at Rome. [...] His late Majesty Augustus had deemed this comet very propitious to himself; as it had appeared not [...] long after the decease of his father Caesar. [...] People believed that this star signified the soul of Caesar received among the spirits of the immortal gods. (Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 2.93-94)
In Greek and Roman culture Comet is an adjective determining the distinctive characteristic of a special Star. So a Comet Star is a Long-Haired Star and so it was represented on coins and monuments.
About the story of the Comet (Star) and its worship see below.
History of the location
According to Appian's The Civil Wars, II, 148 the place near the Regia and probably part of the Main Square of the Roman Forum was a second choice, because the first intention of the Roman People was to bury Caesar on the Capitoline Hill among the other Gods of Rome. But Roman priests prevented them from doing so (infact the cremation was considered not safe due to the many wooden structures there) and the corpse of Caesar was carried back to the Forum near the Regia, being the Regia the personal headquarters of Caesar as Pontifex Maximus: this is the reason why, after a violent quarrel about the funeral pyre and the destiny of the ashes of Caesar, the Roman people, the men of Caesar's party and the men of Caesar's family decided to build the pyre in that place. It seems that in that very place at that time there was probably a tribunal which, after the funeral of Caesar and the building of the Temple, was then moved in front of the Temple of Caesar, probably in the location of the so called Rostra Diocletiani. The tribunal was a tribunal praetoris sub divo with gradus and was known as tribunal Aurelium, a structure built by C. Aurelius Cotta around 80 BC, near the so called Puteal Libonis a bidental used for the sacred oath before the trials. (see Mario Torelli, Typology and structure of Roman Historical reliefs)
The Funeral of Caesar
The corpse of Caesar was carried to the Roman Forum on an ivory couch and set up on the Rostra in a gilded shrine modelled on the Temple of Venus Genetrix, the goddess from whom the family of the Iulii comes from. Mark Antony delivered his famous speech and a public reading of the Will of Caesar was made, while a mechanical device, positioned above the bier itself, was showing an image of Caesar made of wax, turning it round and round, so that people were able to clearly see the twenty-three wounds in all parts of the body and on the face. So the crowd moved by the words of Mark Antony, by the Will of Caesar and by the sight of the image of wax tried to carry the corpse to Capitol among the Gods and failed. In the end the corpse was set on a funeral pile created near the Regia by using all the wooden things available in the Forum, like wooden benches, and then cremated with a great fire that lasted all the night long. It seems that the ordinary funeral had been prepared at the Campus Martius, as usual.
The quarrel about the first altar and monument
For the cult of the murdered pontifex maximus, a sacred man, against whom to use cutting weapons and object was strictly prohibited, an altar and a column were briefly erected in the very place of the cremation. The column was of Numidian yellow stone and had the inscription Parenti Patriae, i.e. to the founder of the nation. But this first monument was taken down and removed by the anti-Caesarian party almost immediately. In 42 BC Octavian, Lepidus and Mark Antony decreed the building of a Temple to Caesar.
The appearance of the Comet (Star) in the sky of Rome
After some time after the death of Caesar, in the sky of Rome a Comet (Star) appeared and was clearly visible (every day and for seven days, starting one hour before the sunset). This Comet (Star) appeared for the first time during the ritual games in front of the Temple of Venus Genetrix (Venus was the real ancestor of the Iulii family) in the Forum of Julius Caesar and everyone in Rome thought it was the soul of Caesar deified called among the other gods. After the appearance of that sign Augustus delivered a public speech giving an explanation of the appearance of the Comet (Star). The speech is partially known since we have a partial transcription of it by Pliny the Elder. After the public speech Augustus wanted a few series of coins devoted to the Comet Star and to the Deified Caesar ("Divus Iulius") to be struck and widely distributed. So we can have an idea about the type of representation of the Comet (Star) of the Deified Julius Caesar.
The Comet (Star) as a Messianic symbol of Augustus
As is well known, Augustus loved to be considered the real subject of any kind of Messianic prophecies and accounts. So during the public speech about the appearance of the Comet, he specified that he, the new ruler of the world, was born (politically) at the very appearance of his father Julius Caesar as Comet in the sky of Rome and his father was so announcing his own (political) birth. So he was the one who had to be born under the Comet and whom the appearance of the Comet was announcing.
For other messianic prophecies about Augustus, see Svetonius: i.e. the story of the massacre of the innocents conceived in order to kill the young Octavius soon after his own birth.
At some time during his princedom, Augustus ordered that all the books of prophecies and Messianic accounts had to be gathered and utterly destroyed.
So the Temple ended up to represent both Julius Caesar as a deified being and Augustus humself as the new born under the Comet (Star) and the Comet (Star) itself was object of public worship.
The consecration of the Temple
The consecration of the Temple lasted many days, during which there were the Troy exercise, gladiatorial games, hunting scenes and banquets. During this occasion the hippopotamus and the rhinoceros were showed in Rome for the first time ever.
The use of the Temple
It seems that the doors of the Temple were left opened so that it was possible to see the statue of the deified pontifex maximus Julius Caesar from the main square of the Roman Forum. If this is true the new interpration about the location of the Rostra Diocletiani or Rostra ad Divi Iuli can't be correct.
Augustus used to dedicate the spoils of war in this Temple (see Monumentum Ancyranum: Res Gestae).
The altar and the shrine had the right of asylum (see Dio Cassius).
Every four years in front of the Rostra ad Divi Iuli a festival was held in honour of Augustus (see Dio Cassius).
The Rostra ad Divi Iuli were used to deliver funeral speeches by the Emperors.
The funeral speeches during the Empire
Drusus and Tiberius delivered a double speech in the Forum. Drusus was reading his speech from the Rostra Augusti and Tiberius was reading his own from the Rostra ad Divi Iuli, one in front of the other.
The emperor Hadrian delivered a speech (a funeral speech?) from the Rostra ad Divi Iuli in 125 AD, as it can be seen on the coins series then struck.
General History and Importance of the Building
It was begun by Augustus in 42 BC after the senate deified Julius Caesar posthumously. Augustus dedicated the prostyle temple (it is still unknown if it was Ionic, Corinthian or Composite) to Caesar (his adoptive father) on August 18, 29 BC, after the Battle of Actium. It stands on the east side of the main square of the Roman Forum (Forum), between the Regia, Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Basilica Aemilia, on the site of Caesar's cremation (Caesar's testament was read at the funeral by Marcus Antonius).
Caesar was the first resident of Rome to be deified and so honored with a temple. (The Temple of Romulus presently in existence near the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina is dedicated not to the founder of Rome, but to a deified son of the emperor Maxentius). A fourth flamen maior was dedicated to him after 44 BC and Marcus Antonius was appointed as his flamen. It was with the Temple of Caesar that Augustus started the transition from private worship to public worship.
The high platform on which the temple was built served as a rostra (Rostra ad divi Iuli) and, like the Rostra at the opposite end of the Forum, was decorated with the beaks of ships taken at the battle of Actium. In the frontal side of the platform there is a recessed semicircular niche and an altar that marked the site of the funeral pyre of Caesar. This strange detail, absolutely unique in the Roman architecture, was probably a result of the very narrow space then available on the Forum. Even so, this temple's construction excluded the ancient Regia and the Temple of Vesta from the main square of the Forum.
Flowers are still regularly placed on the altar by visitors.
Architecture: Style and Structure
Plan Missing in the Forma Urbis
The plan of this temple is missing in the Imperial Forma Urbis as we have it now. The remaining fragments for this area of the Roman Forum are all on the slabs V-11, VII-11, VI-6 ( Stanford University #17, #18a, #18bc, #18d, #18e, #18fg, #19) and have plans of the Regia, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Fons and Lacus Iuturnae, the Basilica Iulia and the Basilica Aemilia.
The Problem of the Order
Which type of order was originally used for this temple is still uncertain. Ancient coins evidence with representations of the Temple of Divus Iulius suggests the columns were either Ionic or Composite, but it is a fact that fragments of Corinthian pilastre capitals have been found on the site by archaeologists: so a few scholars hypothesize that the temple had a Ionic pronaos combined with Corinthian pilasters on the cella walls, i.e. at the corners of the cella, other scholars consider the temple all Corinthian and the coins evidence as bad Corinthian columns representation. The real distinction between Corinthian and Composite is a Renaissance distinction and not an Ancient Roman one: in Ancient Rome Corinthian and Composite were actually part of the same order, but it seems that Composite was common on civil buildings and arches exteriors and less common on temples exteriors. Many temples and religious buildings of the Augustan Age were Corinthian, i.e. the Temple of Mars Ultor, Maison Carrée in Nîmes, etc. The most important hypothetical reconstructions of the order of the Temple of Divus Iulius:
- Composite order (C. Hülsen, Bretschneider und Regenberg, 1904)
- Corinthian order (J. W. Stamper, Cambridge University Press, 2005)
- Ionic Order (B. Frischer, D. Favro and D. Abernathy, University of California Los Angeles, 2005)
See also: C.F. Giuliani, P. Verduchi, L'Area Centrale del Foro Romano. Florence 1987.
The temple was destroyed by a fire during the princedom (principatus) of Septimius Severus and then restored: being the coins from the period of Augustus and Hadrian, there's also a possibility that the order of the temple was changed during the restoration by Septimius Severus.
The entablature and the cornice found on the site have a modillions and roses structure typical of the Corinthian order.
The Problem of the Podium Staircase
The actual position of the staircase of the podium is also uncertain and is a problem still to be solved.
- The staircase was frontwards in front of the podium and at the sides (C. Hülsen, Bretschneider und Regenberg, 1904)
- The staircase was backwards at the back of the podium and at the sides (J. W. Stamper, Cambridge University Press, 2005; B. Frischer, D. Favro and D. Abernathy, University of California Los Angeles, 2005; Oxford Archaeological Guide)
There's no clear evidence about the real position of the staircase of the podium:
- The backwards position is a reconstruction model based on a hypothesized similarity between this temple and the Temple of Venus Genetrix in the Forum of Julius Caesar. This similarity is not proved and is merely based on the fact that during public funeral and Mark Anthony's speech the body of Julius Caesar was set on an ivory couch and in a gilded shrine modelled on the Temple of Venus Genetrix.
- The frontwards position is based on some evidence from the XIX cen. excavations and the overall impression from the actual Site and the Ancient Coins.
The Problem of the Rostra
Dio Cassius reports the attachment of the rostra from the battle of Actium to the podium. They are the so called Rostra ad Divi Iuli, a podium used by orators for official and civil speeches and especially for Imperial funeral orations. The podium is clearly visible in the coins from the Hadrian period and in the Anaglypha Traiani, but the connection between the rostra podium and the temple structure is not so evident. So also in this case there are many different hypothetical reconstructions of the general arrangement of the buildings of this part of the Roman Forum.
- The Rostra podium is attached to the Temple of Divus Iulius and is actually the podium of the Temple of Divus Iulius with the rostra (i.e. the prows of warships) attached in frontal position (C. Hülsen, Bretschneider und Regenberg, 1904)
- The Rostra podium is a separate platform built west of the temple of Divus Iulius and directly in front of it, so the podium of the Temple of Divus Iulius is not the actual platform used by the orators for they speeches and was not the platform used to attach the prows of ships taken at Actium. This separate and independent podium or platform, known as Rostra ad Divi Iuli, is called also Rostra Diocletiani, due to the last arrangement of the building. (J. W. Stamper, Cambridge University Press, 2005; B. Frischer, D. Favro and D. Abernathy, University of California Los Angeles, 2005)
The Problem of the Upper Decoration of the Frontal Pediment
By an accurate analysis of the Ancient coins, it is possible to determine two different series of decorations for the Upper part of the Frontal Pediment of this Temple.
a-Augustus Period and Original decoration:
Fire tongues (but the identification is uncertain) decorating all the pediment as old etruscan-fashioned decoration antefixes (probably something like the decoration of the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill). The fire tongues seem to recall the flames of the Comet (Star) as they can be seen on the Augustan period coins. Being a star the main decoration of the tympanum, as it can be seen on the Augustan coins, this way the whole temple had the function to be the representation of the Comet (Star) that announced the deification of Julius Caesar and the princedom of Augustus (see Pliny the Elder).
b-Hadrian Period decoration:
A statue at the very vertex of the Frontal Pediment and two statues at the end corners of the pediment (the usual, classical type of decoration for the pediments of the Roman temples).
It must be said that other Augustan Era buildings appear on coins with that particular type of Etruscan-Style decoration as for the so-deemed representation of the frontal section of the Curia (see Clardige).
The Problem of the Niche and the Altar
The niche and the altar in the front of the temple podium are also a problem of scarce data interpretation. They were visible in 29 BC when the temple was dedicated and when the Augustus coins series with the temple of Divus Iulius was struck (from 37 BC to 34 BC). For the period after the coinage of that coins Series there is no clear evidence. It is sure that at a certain time the altar was removed and the niche filled in and closed with stones, so that a continuous wall was created in the podium of the temple. This happened:
- 14 BC (J. W. Stamper, Cambridge University Press, 2005)
- unknown date and probably before the IV cen. AD (Oxford Archaeological Guide)
- after Constantine I or Theodosius I, due to religious concerns about the pagan cult of the emperor (C. Hülsen, Bretschneider und Regenberg, 1904)
Since the altar had the right of asylum, it seems too strange, that the altar had been removed soon after 14 BC.
Richardson and other scholars hypotesize so, that the filled in niche may have not been the altar of Julius Caesar, but the Puteal Libonis, the old bidental used during the trials at the Tribunal Aurelium (see above) for the public oath. According to C. Huelsen the circular structure visible under the Arcus Augusti is not the Puteal Libonis and also other circular elements covered in travertine near the Temple of Caesar and the Arcus Augusti are too recent to belong to the Augustan Era.
Measurements
The temple area was: 26.97 m (wdth) x 30 m (lng): 91 by 102 Roman feet
The podium or platform area was at least 5.5 m high (18 Roman feet) but only 3.5 m at the front (this was the orators' platform? For the discussion of the problem see above)
The columns, if Corinthian, were probably 11.8/12.4 m high: 40 or 42 Roman feet.
Style
Vitruvius (De Architectura, 3.3.2) says that the temple was an example of:
- pycnostyle front porch (i.e. six closely spaced columns on the front)
But the real arrangement of the columns is again uncertain:
- prostyle (C. Hülsen, Bretschneider und Regenberg, 1904; J. W. Stamper, Cambridge University Press, 2005; B. Frischer, D. Favro and D. Abernathy, University of California Los Angeles, 2005)
- peripteral (Oxford Archaeological Guide; based on Hadrian coins 125-128 AD)
The Materials used
- Tufa (inner parts of the building)
- Opus caementicium (inner parts of the building)
- Travertine (walls of the podium and the cella)
- Marble (podium revetement, columns, entablature and pediment of the temple; probably marble from Luni, i.e. Carrara marble)
Decoration and Position of the remains
- The Frieze: was a repetitive scroll pattern with female heads, gorgons and winged figures.
- The Tympanum: at least during the first years probably had a colossal Star, as it can be seen on the Augustan coins.
- The Cornice: had dentils and beam type modillions (one of the first examples ever in Roman temple architecture) and undersides decorated with narrow rectangular panels carrying flowers, roses, disks, laurel crowns and pine-cones.
Remains of the decorations, among which elements of a Victory representation and floral ornaments, are visible on the site or in the Antiquarium Museum in the Roman Forum.
Interiors description
Augustus used the temple to dedicate offerings from the spoils of war.
- a colossal statue of Julius Caesar, veiled as Pontifex Maximus, with a star on his head and bearing the lituus augural staff in his right hand; when the doors of the temple were left open, it was possible to clearly see the statue from the Roman Forum main square.
- among the treasures in the cella of the temple the presence of a famous painting by Apelles of Venus Anadyomene is sure. During the princedom of Nero the painting by Apelles deteriorated and it could not be restored. So the emperor substituted for it another by Dorotheus.
- Another painting by Apelles: the Dioscuri with Victoria.
External links
- Temple of Caesar (General Description and Photo Gallery)
- UCLA Digital Roman Forum page for the "Iulius Divus, Aedes" Archaeological discussion and 3D reconstruction
- UCLA Digital Roman Forum page for the "Rostra Diocletiani" i.e. "Rostra ad Divi Iuli" Archaeological discussion and 3D reconstruction
- Stanford University Forma Urbis Romae: slabs of the Forum Area with Temple of Divus Iulius (the Temple of Divus Iulius is a missing part visible only as a simple plan out of the slabs)
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