Roman temple

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Imperial cult
.
The Temple of Hercules Victor, in the Forum Boarium in Rome, 2nd century BC; the entablature is lost and the roof later.
Roman temple of Alcántara, in Spain, a tiny votive temple built with an important bridge under Trajan
Imperial cult

Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in

Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Today they remain "the most obvious symbol of Roman architecture".[1] Their construction and maintenance was a major part of ancient Roman religion, and all towns of any importance had at least one main temple, as well as smaller shrines. The main room (cella) housed the cult image of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated, and often a table for supplementary offerings or libations and a small altar for incense. Behind the cella was a room, or rooms, used by temple attendants for storage of equipment and offerings. The ordinary worshiper rarely entered the cella, and most public ceremonies were performed outside of the cella where the sacrificial altar was located, on the portico, with a crowd gathered in the temple precinct.[2][3]

The most common architectural plan had a rectangular temple raised on a high

Etruscan temples
, themselves influenced by the Greeks, with subsequent heavy direct influence from Greece.

Public religious ceremonies of the official

Early Christians, worshiped in houses.[4]

Some remains of many Roman temples still survive, above all in Rome itself, but the relatively few near-complete examples were nearly all converted into Christian churches (and sometimes subsequently to

Temple of Romulus, was not dedicated as a church until 527. The best known is the Pantheon, Rome, which, however, is highly untypical, being a very large circular temple with a magnificent concrete roof, behind a conventional portico front.[5]

Terms

The English word "temple" derives from the Latin templum, which was originally not the building itself, but a sacred space surveyed and plotted ritually.[6] The Roman architect Vitruvius always uses the word templum to refer to the sacred precinct, and not to the building. The more common Latin words for a temple or shrine were sacellum (a small shrine or chapel), aedes, delubrum, and fanum (in this article, the English word "temple" refers to any of these buildings, and the Latin templum to the sacred precinct).

Architecture

The form of the Roman temple was mainly derived from the

Greek architecture, so Roman temples were distinctive but with both Etruscan and Greek features.[7][8] Surviving temples (both Greek and Roman) lack the extensive painted statuary that decorated the rooflines, and the elaborate revetments and antefixes, in colourful terracotta in earlier examples, that enlivened the entablature
.

Roman temple of Vic, part original, with parts restored

Etruscan and Roman temples emphasised the front of the building, which followed

Maison Carrée and Vic), and even back on to other buildings. As in the Maison Carrée, columns at the side might be half columns, emerging from ("engaged with" in architectural terminology) the wall.[9]

Ceiling of Temple of Jupiter, Diocletian's Palace, Split

The platform on which the temple sat was typically raised higher in Etruscan and Roman examples than Greek, with up to ten, twelve or more steps rather than the three typical in Greek temples; the Temple of Claudius was raised twenty steps. These steps were normally only at the front, and typically not the whole width of that. It might or might not be possible to walk around the temple exterior inside (Temple of Hadrian) or outside the colonnade, or at least down the sides.[10] The description of the Greek models used here is a generalization of classical Greek ideals, and later Hellenistic buildings often do not reflect them. For example, the "Temple of Dionysus" on the terrace by the theatre at Pergamon (Ionic, 2nd century BC, on a hillside), had many steps in front, and no columns beyond the portico.[11] The Parthenon, also approached up a hill, probably had many wide steps at the approach to the main front, followed by a flat area before the final few steps.[12]

After the eclipse of the Etruscan models, the Greek

Hellenistic trend, the Corinthian order and its variant the Composite order were most common in surviving Roman temples, but for small temples like that at Alcántara, a simple Tuscan order could be used. Vitruvius does not recognise the Composite order in his writings, and covers the Tuscan order only as Etruscan; Renaissance writers formalized them from observing surviving buildings.[13]

Dendera Temple, using the traditional Egyptian temple
style.

The front of the temple typically carried an inscription saying who had built it, cut into the stone with a "V" section. This was filled with brightly coloured paint, usually scarlet or

lead and held in by pegs, then also painted or gilded. These have usually long vanished, but archaeologists can generally reconstruct them from the peg-holes, and some have been re-created and set in place.[14]

Sculptural decoration was similar to that of Greek temples, often with

acroteria, antefixes and other elements were brightly coloured. In the early Empire older Greek statues were apparently sometimes re-used as acroteria.[15]

There was considerable local variation in style, as Roman architects often tried to incorporate elements the population expected in its

Celtic religion.[16]

Circular plans

"Temple of Venus", Baalbek, from the rear

Romano-Celtic temples were often circular, and circular temples of various kinds were built by the Romans. Greek models were available in

other buildings, as assembly halls and various other functions. Temples of the goddess Vesta, which were usually small, typically had this shape, as in those at Rome and Tivoli (see list), which survive in part. Like the Temple of Hercules Victor in Rome, which was perhaps by a Greek architect, these survivors had an unbroken colonnade encircling the building, and a low, Greek-style podium.[17]

Different formulae were followed in the

broken pediment is matched by four other columns round the building, with the architrave in scooped curving sections, each ending in a projection supported by a column.[18]

At

Praeneste (modern Palestrina) near Rome, a huge pilgrimage complex of the 1st century BC led visitors up several levels with large buildings on a steep hillside, before they eventually reached the sanctuary itself, a much smaller circular building.[19]

Caesareum

Imperial cult at Vienne

A caesareum was a temple devoted to the

Imperial cult. Caesarea were located throughout the Roman Empire, and often funded by the imperial government, tending to replace state spending on new temples to other gods, and becoming the main or only large temple in new Roman towns in the provinces. This was the case at Évora, Vienne and Nîmes, which were all expanded by the Romans as coloniae from Celtic oppida soon after their conquest. Imperial temples paid for by the government usually used conventional Roman styles all over the empire, regardless of the local styles seen in smaller temples. In newly planned Roman cities the temple was normally centrally placed at one end of the forum, often facing the basilica at the other.[20]

In the city of Rome, a caesareum was located within the religious precinct of the

Temple of Romulus on the Roman Forum was built and dedicated by the Emperor Maxentius to his son Valerius Romulus
, who died in childhood in 309 and was deified.

One of the earliest and most prominent of the caesarea was the

Cleopatra VII of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, to honour her dead lover Julius Caesar, then converted by Augustus to his own cult. During the 4th century, after the Empire had come under Christian rule, it was converted to a church.[22]

Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus

Relief of Marcus Aurelius sacrificing at the 4th temple (left)

The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill was the oldest large temple in Rome, a capitolium dedicated to the Capitoline Triad consisting of Jupiter and his companion deities, Juno and Minerva, and had a cathedral-like position in the official religion of Rome. It was destroyed by fire three times, and rapidly rebuilt in contemporary styles. The first building, traditionally dedicated in 509 BC,[23] has been claimed to have been almost 60 m × 60 m (200 ft × 200 ft), much larger than other Roman temples for centuries after, although its size is heavily disputed by specialists. Whatever its size, its influence on other early Roman temples was significant and long-lasting.[24] The same may have been true for the later rebuildings, though here the influence is harder to trace.

For the first temple Etruscan specialists were brought in for various aspects of the building, including making and painting the extensive terracotta elements of the entablature or upper parts, such as antefixes.[25] But for the second building they were summoned from Greece. Rebuildings after destruction by fire were completed in 69 BC, 75 AD, and in the 80s AD, under Domitian – the third building only lasted five years before burning down again. After a major sacking by Vandals in 455, and comprehensive removal of stone in the Renaissance, only foundations can now be seen, in the basement of the Capitoline Museums.[26] The sculptor Flaminio Vacca (d 1605) claimed that the life-size Medici lion he carved to match a Roman survival, now in Florence, was made from a single capital from the temple.[27]

Influence

St Martin-in-the-Fields, London (1720), James Gibbs

The Etruscan-Roman adaptation of the Greek temple model to place the main emphasis on the front façade and let the other sides of the building harmonize with it only as much as circumstances and budget allow has generally been adopted in

St Peters, Rome; in recent years the temple front has become fashionable in China.[28]

Early Modern architecture in the Western tradition, but although very commonly used for churches, it has lost the specific association with religion that it had for the Romans.[29] Generally, later adaptions lack the colour of the original, and though there may be sculpture filling the pediment
in grand examples, the full Roman complement of sculpture above the roofline is rarely emulated.

Variations on the theme, mostly Italian in origin, include:

Santa Susanna, Rome (1597), Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio a Trevi (1646) and Val-de-Grâce, Paris (1645 on).[30] The Palladian villas of the Veneto
include numerous ingenious and influential variations on the theme of the Roman temple front.

An archetypical pattern for churches in

St Andrew's Church, Chennai in India and St. Paul's Chapel
in New York City (1766).

La Madeleine, Paris (1807), now a church

Examples of modern buildings that stick more faithfully to the ancient rectangular temple form are only found from the 18th century onwards.[1] Versions of the Roman temple as a discrete block include La Madeleine, Paris (1807), now a church but built by Napoleon as a Temple de la Gloire de la Grande Armée ("Temple to the Glory of the Great Army"), the Virginia State Capitol as originally built in 1785–88, and Birmingham Town Hall (1832–34).[32]

Small Roman circular temples with colonnades have often been used as models, either for single buildings, large or small, or elements such as domes raised on drums, in buildings on another plan such as

St Peters, Rome, St Paul's Cathedral in London and the United States Capitol. The great progenitor of these is the Tempietto of Donato Bramante in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome, c. 1502, which has been widely admired ever since.[33]

Though the Pantheon's large circular domed cella, with a conventional portico front, is "unique" in Roman architecture, it has been copied many times by modern architects. Versions include the church of

Santa Maria Assunta in Ariccia by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1664), which followed his work restoring the Roman original,[34] Belle Isle House (1774) in England, and Thomas Jefferson's library at the University of Virginia, The Rotunda (1817–26).[35]
The Pantheon was much the largest and most accessible complete classical temple front known to the Italian Renaissance, and was the standard exemplar when these were revived.

Substantial survivals

Further information: List of Ancient Roman temples
Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek, Lebanon
Temple of Romulus, from the Palatine Hill
.
The Temple of Apollo in Pompeii. Mount Vesuvius is to the far left.
Pagans Hill Roman Temple, Somerset, a Romano-Celtic temple
Capitoleum of Dougga, Tunisia

Most of the best survivals had been converted to churches (and sometimes later mosques), which some remain. Often the porticos were walled in between the columns, and the original cella front and side walls largely removed to create a large single space in the interior. Rural areas in the Islamic world have some good remains, which had been left largely undisturbed. In Spain some remarkable discoveries (Vic, Cordoba, Barcelona) were made in the 19th century when old buildings being reconstructed or demolished were found to contain major remains encased in later buildings. In Rome, Pula, and elsewhere some walls incorporated in later buildings have always been evident. The squared-off blocks of temple walls have always been attractive for later builders to reuse, while the large pieces of massive columns were less easy to remove and make use of; hence the podium, minus facing, and some columns are often all that remain. In most cases loose pieces of stone have been removed from the site, and some such as capitals may be found in local museums, along with non-architectural items excavated, such as terracotta

votive statuettes or amulets, which are often found in large numbers.[36] Very little indeed survives in place from the significant quantities of large sculpture that originally decorated temples.[37]

Rome
Elsewhere
Temple of Janus as seen in the present church of San Nicola in Carcere, in the Forum Holitorium of Rome, Italy, dedicated by Gaius Duilius after his naval victory at the Battle of Mylae in 260 BC[39]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Summerson (1980), 25
  2. ISBN 0674015177
    .
  3. ISBN 0567089436
    .
  4. ^ a b Sear
  5. ^ Wheeler, 104–106; Sear
  6. ^ Stamper, 10
  7. ISBN 978-0-582-73984-0
    .
  8. ^ Boardman, 255; Henig, 56
  9. ^ Wheeler, 89; Henig, 56
  10. ^ Henig, 56, Wheeler, 89
  11. ISBN 0140218661
  12. ^ 16 in a reconstruction drawing by G. Stephens, p. 38 in The Acropolis: Monuments and Museum, by G. Papathanassopoulos, Krene Editions, 1977
  13. ^ Summerson (1980), 8–13
  14. ^ Henig, 225
  15. ^ Strong, 47-48
  16. ^ Henig, 56–57; Wheeler, 100–104: Sear
  17. ^ Wheeler, 100–104; Sear
  18. ^ Wheeler, 97–106, 105 quoted. Originally, the "uncomfortable" junction was screened by a wall and less apparent.
  19. ^ Boardman, 256–257
  20. ^ Henig, 55; Sear
  21. ^ The statues are all lost, but the base for the statue of Marcus Aurelius survives, and the inscriptions of seven of the nine are recorded in volume 6 of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Jane Fejfer, Roman Portraits in Context (Walter de Gruyter, 2008), p. 86.
  22. ^ David M. Gwynn, "Archaeology and the 'Arian Controversy' in the Fourth Century," in Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity (Brill, 2010), p. 249.
  23. Ab urbe condita
    , 2.8
  24. ^ Stamper, 33 and all Chapters 1 and 2. Stamper is a leading protagonist of a smaller size, rejecting the larger size proposed by the late Einar Gjerstad.
  25. ^ Stamper, 12–13
  26. ISBN 0262681013, 9780262681018, google books; Entry on "Aedes Iovis Optimi Maximi Capitolini"
    from A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, by Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby), Oxford University Press, 1929
  27. ^ Stamper, 15
  28. The Financial Times
    , January 25, 2013
  29. ISBN 0674035720, 9780674035720, google books
  30. ^ Summerson (1980), captions to illustrations 21, 41, 42, 72–75
  31. ^ Summerson (1988), 64–70
  32. ^ Summerson (1980), 28. The Virginia State Capitol is specifically based on the Maison carre, but in a cheaper Ionic rather than Corinthian.
  33. ^ Summerson (1980), 25, 41–42, 49–51
  34. ^ Summerson (1980), 38–39, 38 quoted
  35. ^ Summerson (1980), 38–39
  36. ^ Vickers, Michael, Ancient Rome, Preface, 1989, Elsevier-Phaidon; Henig, 191–199
  37. ^ Strong, 48
  38. ^ Wheeler, 93–96
  39. ^ Tacitus. Annales. II.49.

References

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Further reading

External links

Library resources about
Roman temple
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