Ancient Roman Temples

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Temples on Capitoline Hill

Ancient Roman temples were among the most important Roman cultural buildings and among the most outstanding examples of Roman architecture, though few exist in complete or near-completer state today. Their construction and activities at them were a major part of ancient Roman religion. All towns of any importance had at least one main temple, as well as smaller shrines. [Source Wikipedia]

Many Roman temples were dedicated to a particularly deity such as Jupiter, Neptune or Venus. The main room (cella) of such temples 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. Ordinary worshiper rarely entered the cella, and most public ceremonies were performed outside of the cella at the sacrificial altar on the portico, with a crowd gathered in the temple precinct.

The most common architectural plan for a Roman temple had a rectangular temple raised on a high podium, with a clear front with a portico at the top of steps, and a triangular pediment above columns. The sides and rear of the building had much less architectural emphasis, and typically no entrances. There were also circular plans, generally with columns all round, and outside Italy there were many compromises with traditional local styles. The Roman form of temple developed initially from Etruscan temples, themselves influenced by the Greeks, with subsequent heavy direct influence from Greece. The remains of many Roman temples still survive, particularly in Rome itself, but many of these have been converted into Christian churches. In the Middle East some were converted to churches and then into mosques.

Websites on Ancient Rome: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; Lacus Curtius penelope.uchicago.edu; The Internet Classics Archive classics.mit.edu ; Bryn Mawr Classical Review bmcr.brynmawr.edu; Cambridge Classics External Gateway to Humanities Resources web.archive.org; Ancient Rome resources for students from the Courtenay Middle School Library web.archive.org ; History of ancient Rome OpenCourseWare from the University of Notre Dame web.archive.org ; United Nations of Roma Victrix (UNRV) History unrv.com

Temple of Jupiter in Rome

Located on Capitoline Hill in the heart of Rome, the Temple of Jupiter was the most important temple in ancient Rome. Jupiter was a Zeus-like sky god who some Romans considered to be king of the gods. The temple was constructed during the sixth century B.C. and was rebuilt several times after being destroyed by disasters. It declined for good when the Roman Empire converted to Christianity in the A.D. fourth and fifth centuries. Eventually, it was largely damaged and destroyed. Only fragments of it remain today. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science April 11, 2023]

The first temple at Rome was built by the Etruscans on the Capitoline Hill, for Jupiter, his wife and sister Juno, and their daughter Minerva. Jupiter was worshiped on hilltops and men called on him to witness their agreements. Minerva had come in from Falerii as patron of craftsmen and their guilds, and had her own temple on the Aventine. [Source: “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932)]

Dr Nigel Pollard of Swansea University wrote for the BBC: “At a relatively early date, the sky-god Jupiter (generally equated with the Greek god Zeus) took on great importance in the Roman state religion. His main temple in Rome, that of Jupiter Optimus Maximus ('The Best and Greatest') was established on the Capitoline Hill in 509 B.C. at the beginning of the Roman Republic. The interior of the temple was divided into three rooms, dedicated not only to Jupiter but also to his consort Juno and the goddess Minerva. Collectively they are known as the Capitoline Triad, and when Roman power had expanded to encompass an empire, the central temple of many Roman cities — in Italy and further afield — was often dedicated to this Capitoline Triad. [Source: Dr Nigel Pollard of Swansea University, BBC, March 29, 2011 ]

Oldest Temples in Rome

The Romes-Sant'Ombono-Temple, dated to 7th-6th century B.C., is the second oldest known temple in Rome (an older largely unexcavated one lies below it). Jason M. Urbanus wrote in Archaeology magazine: “The Sant’Omobono archaeological site in Rome isn’t much to behold. It is strewn with a seemingly haphazard array of stone blocks, walls, ditches, and the occasional column drum — hardly pleasing to the eye... So it’s not surprising that tourists on their way to better-known monuments scarcely give it a second look. In January 2014, however, the site suddenly received a great deal of attention when multiple international news sources reported incorrectly that Rome’s oldest temple had just been discovered there. As the archaeologists of the Sant’Omobono Project, an ongoing collaboration between the Superintendency of the Capitoline, the University of Calabria, and the University of Michigan, had actually made clear, this temple has been known — although rarely seen — since the 1930s, when it was first discovered. [Source: Jason M. Urbanus, May-June 2014]

“Beneath Sant’Omobono lies a series of religious buildings that defined the site for much of the first millennium B.C. The importance of this area, situated at a bend in the Tiber River and known as the Forum Boarium, or “cattle market,” stemmed from its location at the nexus of several ancient communication and trade routes. It was the economic center of early Rome, complete with the city’s earliest river harbor capable of providing a safe haven for ships, and an international marketplace where goods, as well as cultural ideas, religions, and languages, were exchanged. It was also a prime location for the construction of a temple to protect and oversee this activity. “The [Sant’Omobono] site is crucial for understanding the related processes of monumentalization, urbanization, and state formation in Rome in the late Archaic period,” says Dan Diffendale, a member of the University of Michigan team. The site’s main archaeological features are the twin temples of Fortuna and Mater Matuta, which date to the late sixth or early fifth century b.c. Although these are among the oldest temple remains in ancient Rome, they actually sit atop an even older structure. This is the ancient Archaic period (roughly 800–500 B.C.) temple.

This structure has been notoriously difficult to evaluate, because it lies deep beneath the ground, well below the city’s water table. Now, however, the Sant’Omobono Project has finally been able to get a glimpse at the early temple’s foundation. In order to achieve this, steel retaining walls were hammered into the ground to hold back the weight of the waterlogged soil, and mechanical pumps were then used to drain the trench. At a depth of more than fifteen feet, three courses of stone blocks belonging to the ancient temple were identified. “We were able for the first time to record the Archaic foundation with modern means, using total station and photogrammetry, as well as extensive photography,” says Diffendale. “This is the first time that the Archaic podium has been exposed in relatively dry condition.”

“In addition, the Sant’Omobono team was able to recover hundreds of artifacts, including votive offerings, drinking vessels, and figurines. These suggest that the temple dates to the late seventh and early sixth centuries B.C., making these the oldest known temple remains in Rome. For safety reasons, the trench could stay open for only three days before it was backfilled. Nevertheless, this latest round of work will have long-lasting effects on archaeologists’ study of the development and growth of the eternal city. The Sant’Omobono site has finally gained its rightful place in the spotlight as one of ancient Rome’s most important, even if least well known, sites.

Temple of Vesta and Early Roman Rituals

Vesta was the spirit of the hearth. The temple that honored her was one of the most important in Rome. The famed Vestal Virgins tended her shrine The six virgins who watched the eternal flame of Rome, which burned for more than a thousand years, were ordained at the age of seven and lived in pampered but secluded luxury. As long as they remained pure, they were among the most respected women in Rome.

The Upper Forum in Rome (Colosseum-side entrance of the Forum) contains the House of Vestal Virgins, The Temple of Vesta the Temple of Antonius and Fustina (near the Basilica of Maxentius. The House of Vestal Virgins (near Palantine Hill, next to the Temple of Castor and Pollex) is a sprawling 55-room complex with statues of virgin priestess. The statue whose name has been scratched is believed to belong to a virgin who converted to Christianity. The Temple of Vesta (Temple of the Vestal Virgins) is a restored circular buildings where vestal virgins performed rituals and tended Rome's eternal flame for more than a thousand years. Across the square from the temple is the Regia, where Rome's highest priest had his office.

ruins of the Temple of the Vesta in the Roman Forum

Dr Nigel Pollard of Swansea University wrote for the BBC: “One of the most important of the old cults was that of Vesta, the goddess of the household hearth. From quite an early date her cult became a state one, and her circular temple in the Roman Forum contained a fire that represented the collective hearth of the Roman state. This was tended by Vestal Virgins, six women chosen in childhood and bound to the cult for 30 years each. They lived in a communal house next to the temple. The courtyard of this house contained statues of some of the chief Vestal Virgins.” [Source: Dr Nigel Pollard of Swansea University, BBC, March 29, 2011 |::|]

Plutarch wrote in “Life of Numa”: “The original constitution of the priests, called Pontifices, is ascribed unto Numa, and he himself was, it is said, the first of them; and that they have the name of Pontifices from pons ["bridge"], or, thus, "bridge-makers." The sacrifices performed on the bridge were among the most sacred and ancient, and the keeping and repairing of the bridge attached, like any other public sacred office, to the priesthood. It was accounted not simply unlawful, but a positive sacrilege, to pull down the wooden bridge; which moreover is said, in obedience to an oracle, to have been built entirely of timber and fastened with wooden pins, without nails or cramps of iron.

“After Numa had in this manner instituted these several orders of priests, he erected, near the temple of Vesta, what is called to this day the Regia, or king's house, where he spent the most part of his time, performing divine service, instructing the priests, or conversing with them on sacred subjects. He had another house upon the Mount Quirinalis, the site of which they show to this day. In all public processions and solemn prayers, criers were sent before to give notice to the people that they should forbear their work, and rest [The people were not bound to stop working on religious holidays; but the priests must not see them work. Therefore, the crier was sent ahead when the priests passed to warn the people to cease their labor just for the moment. Anyone beheld working by the priest was subject to a fine]. [Source: Plutarch (A.D. 45-127) “Lives”, written A.D. 75, translated by John Dryden]

“Numa ordered that fish which have no scales, except the scar, should not be offered to the gods. He ordered each person to draw a line around his own real property and to set stones on the boundaries, such stones being consecrated to Jupiter Terminus. But if anyone destroyed or displaced the boundary stones, the person who had done this would be sacrificed to the god. He ordained that the funeral pyre should not be sprinkled with wine, not that libations be made to the gods with wine from unpruned vines. Among other laws he made: A concubine shall not touch the Altar of Juno, and if she does, she shall sacrifice, with her hair unbound, a ewe lamb to Juno; If a man is killed by lightning, the proper burial rite shall not be performed — those who disobey this will be sacrificed to Jupiter; Priests should have their hair cut with only bronze shears.

“January was so called from [the god] Janus, and precedence given to it by Numa before March, which was dedicated to the god Mars; because, as I conceive, he wished to take every opportunity of intimating that the arts and studies of peace are to be preferred before those of war. For this Janus, whether in remote antiquity he were a demi-god or a king, was certainly a great lover of civil and social unity, and one who reclaimed men from brutal and savage living; for which reason they figure him with two faces, to represent the two states and conditions out of the one of which he brought mankind to lead them into the other. His temple at Rome has two gates, which they call the Gates of War, because they stand open in the time of war, and shut in the times of peace; of which latter there was very seldom an example, for, as the Roman state was enlarged and extended, it was so encompassed with barbarous nations and enemies to be resisted that it was seldom or never at peace. Only in the time of Augustus Caesar, after he had overcome Antony, this temple was shut; as likewise once before, when Marcus Atilius and Titus Manlius were consuls [Davis: in 235 B.C., shortly after the close of the First Punic War]; but then it was not long before, wars breaking out, the gates were again opened. But, during the reign of Numa, those gates were never seen open a single day, but continued constantly shut for a space of forty-three years together; such an entire and universal cessation of war existed “

Temples in the Roman Forum

Capitoline temples of Minerva (left), Jupiter (center), Juno (right) in Sbeitla, Tunisia

The Lower Forum (below Palantine Hill on the Capitoline Hill side of the Forum) is the home of the Temple of Saturn, Temple of Castor and Pollex, the Arch of Augustus and the Temple of Deified Julius. Temple of Saturn (below Palantine Hill on the Capitoline Hill side of the Forum) is a structure with eight standing columns where wild orgies honoring the god Saturn were held.

The Temple of Castor and Pollex (next to the Basilica Julia) honors the Gemini twins, the equivalent of patron saints for armies and commanders. According legend they appeared at the Basin of Juturna at the temple and helped the Romans defeat the Etruscans at a pivotal battle in 496 B.C. The most noticeable part of the temple is a group of three connected columns. Down the road from the Temple of Castor and Pollex is the Arch of Augustus and the Temple of Deified Julius, which Augustus built to honor his father. Behind the Temple of Deified Julius is the Upper Forum.

The Temple of Antonius and Fustina (left of the Basilica of Maxentius) contains a firm foundation and well-preserved ceiling lattice work. Nearby is an ancient necropolis with graves that date back to the 8th century and an ancient drainage sewer that is still in use. The Temple of Romulus contains its original A.D. 4th century bronze doors, which still have a working lock.

Temple Construction Under Augustus

Nina C. Coppolino wrote: ““In 27 B.C. in the Campus Martius Agrippa built the Pantheon, but he was not allowed to fashion it as an overt 'Augusteum'; instead the temple was dedicated to the divine ancestry of Augustus through Venus, Mars, and the deified Julius. In 25-24 B.C. work began on the Temple of Mars Ultor, which Augustus had vowed at the battle of Philippi in vengeance for his father's murder, and which later housed the standards returned by the Parthians. In 22 B.C. the temple of Juppiter Tonans was dedicated on the Capitoline Hill by Augustus who had escaped being struck by lightning during the Spanish campaign. After 20 B.C. the Prima Porta Augustus was commissioned, a statue of the emperor on whose cuirass is depicted the return of the standards by Parthia, in the presence of Mars, Apollo, and Venus. [Source: Nina C. Coppolino, Roman Emperors]

Temple of Jupiter

“In 13 B.C. at the return of Augustus from Spain and Gaul, the senate decreed the Ara Pacis to be built near the Campus Martius. This altar was to be used by magistrates and priests for annual sacrifices. Reliefs on the altar depict the symbols and fruits of peace in juxtaposition with figures of war by which peace was gained, and there are processions perhaps representing the major priesthoods in Rome, with Augustus himself portrayed in religious attire. Near this altar was a sundial associated with Augustus's patron, the sun-god Apollo. In 12 B.C. in the western province of Gaul, Drusus set up an altar at Lugdunum dedicated to Roma and Augustus.

Suetonius wrote: “He built many public works, in particular the following: his forum with the temple of Mars the Avenger [24 B.C.], the temple of Apollo on the Palatine [28 B.C.], and the fane of Jupiter the Thunderer on the Capitol [22 B.C.]. His reason for building the forum was the increase in the number of the people and of cases at law, which seemed to call for a third forum, since two were no longer adequate. Therefore it was opened to the public with some haste, before the temple of Mars was finished, and it was provided that the public prosecutions be held there apart from the rest, as well as the selection of jurors by lot. He had made a vow to build the temple of Mars in the war of Philippi, which he undertook to avenge his father; accordingly he decreed that in it the Senate should consider wars and claims for triumphs, from it those who were on their way to the provinces with military commands should be escorted, and to it victors on their return should bear the tokens of their triumphs. [Source: Suetonius (c.69-after 122 A.D.): “De Vita Caesarum — Divus Augustus” (“The Lives of the Caesars — The Deified Augustus”), written A.D. c. 110, “Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum,” 2 Vols., trans. J. C. Rolfe (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1920), pp. 123-287]

“He reared the temple of Apollo in that part of his house on the Palatine for which the soothsayers declared that the god had shown his desire by striking it with lightning. He joined to it colonnades with Latin and Greek libraries, and when he was getting to be an old man he often held meetings of the Senate there as well, and revised the lists of jurors. He dedicated the shrine to Jupiter the Thunderer because of a narrow escape; for on his Cantabrian expedition during a march by night, a flash of lightning grazed his litter and struck the slave dead who was carrying a torch before him. He constructed some works too in the name of others, his grandsons and nephew to wit, his wife and his sister, such as the colonnade and basilica of Gaius and Lucius [12 B.C.], also the colonnades of Livia and Octavia [33 & 15 B.C.], and the theatre of Marcellus [13 B.C.]. More than that, he often urged other prominent men to adorn the city with new monuments or to restore and embellish old ones, each according to his means. And many such works were built at that time by many men; for example, the temple of Hercules and the Muses by Marcius Philippus, the temple of Diana by Lucius Cornificius, the Hall of Liberty by Asinius Pollio, the temple of Saturn by Munatius Plancus, a theatre by Cornelius Balbus, an amphitheatre by Statilius Taurus, and by Marcus Agrippa in particular many magnificent structures.

Tacitus: Rebuilding the Temple of Jupiter

“In 70 A.D. Vespasian ordered the restoration of the Temple of Jupiter the Best and Greatest on the Capitoline Hill. The event was recorded by Tacitus in an account which gives some idea of the ceremonies of the state religion, and its intense conservatism. Tacitus (b.56/57-after 117 A.D.) wrote in A.D. 70: “The work of rebuilding the Capitol was assigned by him to Lucius Vestinius, a man of the Equestrian order, who, however, for high character and reputation ranked among the nobles. The soothsayers whom he assembled directed that the remains of the old shrine should be removed to the marshes, and the new temple raised on the original site. The Gods, they said, forbade the old form to be changed. [Source: Tacitus: “Histories,” Book 4. liii., Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb. Full text online at classics.mit.edu/Tacitus]

“On the 21st of June, beneath a cloudless sky, the entire space devoted to the sacred enclosure was encompassed with chaplets and garlands. Soldiers, who bore auspicious names, entered the precincts with sacred boughs. Then the vestal virgins, with a troop of boys and girls, whose fathers and mothers were still living, sprinkled the whole space with water drawn from the fountains and rivers. After this, Helvidius Priscus, the praetor, first purified the spot with the usual sacrifice of a sow, a sheep, and a bull, and duly placed the entrails on turf; then, in terms dictated by Publius Aelianus, the high-priest, besought Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, and the tutelary deities of the place, to prosper the undertaking, and to lend their divine help to raise the abodes which the piety of men had founded for them.

“He then touched the wreaths, which were wound round the foundation stone and entwined with the ropes, while at the same moment all the other magistrates of the State, the Priests, the Senators, the Knights, and a number of the citizens, with zeal and joy uniting their efforts, dragged the huge stone along. Contributions of gold and silver and virgin ores, never smelted in the furnace, but still in their natural state, were showered on the foundations. The soothsayers had previously directed that no stone or gold which had been intended for any other purpose should profane the work. Additional height was given to the structure; this was the only variation which religion would permit, and the one feature which had been thought wanting in the splendour of the old temple.”

Temple of Jupiter in Rome

Large Temples of the Roman Near East

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Ancient Near Eastern cities were usually dominated by a single temple complex, which often covered a major part of the settlement. During the first to third centuries A.D., as cities were enriched by the lucrative caravan traffic linking the great empires of Rome and Parthia, some of the most ambitious temples ever constructed were built in the Levant, Syria, and northern Mesopotamia. [Source: Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2003, metmuseum.org \^/]

“The massive scale of these structures is partly a function of the traditional Near Eastern approach to temple design, based on a sanctuary surrounded by an enormous walled temenos, or compound. The sanctuary was the residence of the deity, while the temenos was where sacrifices took place and mass worship was performed by thousands of people. Many compounds had an elaborate monumental gateway (propylaea) approached by stairs. Inside the walls were colonnades and vast altars for animal sacrifice. Although their exteriors often look like Roman temples, the interior layout of sanctuary buildings was actually very Near Eastern, designed as a throne room for a deity, usually with a raised platform approached by stairs. \^/

“Although their exteriors often look like Roman temples, the interior layout of sanctuary buildings was actually very Near Eastern, designed as a throne room for a deity, usually with a raised platform approached by stairs. \^/

“The earliest of these gigantic constructions was the Temple at Jerusalem, begun by Herod in 20 B.C. It was second in scale only to the Temple of the Sun at Hatra. Other immense buildings of this period include the Temple of Dushara and the "Great Temple" at Petra, the Temple of Jupiter-Hadad at Damascus (incorporated in the present Umayyad Mosque), the Temple of Artemis at Jerash, and the Temple of Bel at Palmyra. One of the greatest and most lavishly decorated is the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, where stones weighing up to a thousand tons were cut and dragged to create the massive temple platform. \^/ Baalbek

Baalbek

The Baalbek archaeological site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, According to UNESCO: “This Phoenician city, where a triad of deities was worshipped, was known as Heliopolis during the Hellenistic period. It retained its religious function during Roman times, when the sanctuary of the Heliopolitan Jupiter attracted thousands of pilgrims. Baalbek, with its colossal structures, is one of the finest examples of Imperial Roman architecture at its apogee. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage Sites, =]

Baalbek Temple

“The complex of temples at Baalbek is located at the foot of the south-west slope of Anti-Lebanon, bordering the fertile plain of the Bekaa at an altitude of 1150 m. The city of Baalbek reached its apogee during Roman times. Its colossal constructions built over a period of more than two centuries, make it one of the most famous sanctuaries of the Roman world and a model of Imperial Roman architecture. Pilgrims thronged to the sanctuary to venerate the three deities, known under the name of the Romanized Triad of Heliopolis, an essentially Phoenician cult (Jupiter, Venus and Mercury). =

“The importance of this amalgam of ruins of the Greco-Roman period with even more ancient vestiges of Phoenician tradition, are based on its outstanding artistic and architectural value. The acropolis of Baalbek comprises several temples. The Roman construction was built on top of earlier ruins which were formed into a raised plaza, formed of twenty-four monoliths, the largest weighing over 800 tons. =

“The Temple of Jupiter, principal temple of the Baalbek triad, was remarkable for its 20 meters high columns that surrounded the cella, and the gigantic stones of its terrace. The adjacent temple dedicated to Bacchus is exceptional; it is richly and abundantly decorated and of impressive dimensions with its monumental gate sculpted with Bacchic figures. The Round Temple or Temple of Venus differs in its originality of layout as well as its refinement and harmonious forms, in a city where other sanctuaries are marked by monumental structures. The only remaining vestige of the Temple of Mercury located on Cheikh Abdallah Hill, is a stairway carved from the rock. The Odeon, located south of the acropolis in a place known as Boustan el Khan, is also part of the Baalbek site, and considered among the most spectacular archaeological sites of the Near East. =

“Baalbek became one of the most celebrated sanctuaries of the ancient world, progressively overlaid with colossal constructions which were built during more than two centuries. Its monumental ensemble is one of the most impressive testimonies of the Roman architecture of the imperial period. =

“The archaeological site of Baalbek is important because it represents a religious complex of outstanding artistic value and its majestic monumental ensemble, with its exquisitely detailed stonework, is a unique artistic creation which reflects the amalgamation of Phoenician beliefs with the gods of the Greco-Roman pantheon through an amazing stylistic metamorphosis. The monumental complex of Baalbek is an outstanding example of a Roman sanctuary and one of the most impressive testimonies to the Roman period at its apogee that displays to the full the power and wealth of the Roman Empire. It contains some of the largest Roman temples ever built, and they are among the best preserved. They reflect an extraordinary amalgamation of Roman architecture with local traditions of planning and layout.” =

Mithraeum of Colored Marbles

Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: Some 1,600 years ago, ancient Romans would have worshipped the god Mithras, possibly in an altered state of consciousness, within the "Mithraeum of Colored Marbles," said archaeologists who found the remains of this temple in Ostia, Italy. Artifacts and inscriptions found in the mithraeum suggest that the worshippers venerated both Mithras, a popular god in the Roman Empire, and other gods. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science, December 13, 2019]

The mithraeum's "spelaeum," its most important room, has a stone marble floor decorated with a dazzling array of colors. Also in this room, archaeologists found a bench, a ritual well and a flower bed for some sort of sacred plant, wrote the research team leader Max Victor David, a professor of history and cultures at the University of Bologna in Italy, in a paper published in the journal Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae.

The mithraeum would have seen plenty of rituals in its heyday, including banquets, initiation ceremonies and animal sacrifices, David told Live Science. People who took part in the rituals "were perhaps in a state of altered consciousness," David said. In the ancient world altered consciousness was often achieved through the use of psychotropic plants.

Persians were the first to worship Mithras, also known as Mithra, who is associated with the light and sun. His cult spread to the Roman Empire and became widely popular. According to legend, Mithras was an excellent archer who often traveled with his torchbearers, Cautes and Cautopates. Art found in one of the mithraeum's rooms alludes to this, with paintings depicting tridents and arrows. These images probably have "a particular meaning in the Mithraic theology," wrote David, noting that the trident (with three prongs) could be a reference to Mithras and his two torchbearers, while the arrows may represent Mithras' skill with archery.

The people who visited the mithraeum in ancient Rome may have also worshipped Kronos, a Greek god associated with the harvest and time itself. For instance, one inscription found in the mithraeum says, "to the unconquered god Mithras and to the great god Kronos." The Egyptian goddess Isis may also have been venerated in this mithraeum, as researchers found an Egyptian ivory handle, likely used as a ritual instrument, that "seems to serve as a bridge between the followers of Mithras and those of Isis," David wrote in the journal article.

Archaeologists found that much of the structure used to be a "caupona," a tavern or restaurant, before it was fully converted to a mithraeum. The building's time as a mithraeum appears to have been short. By the early fifth century, Christianity had spread widely in Ostia, and Roman authorities were becoming less tolerant of the worship of Mithras and other gods. At some point in the fifth century, the mithraeum's ritual well was shut down and the mithraeum closed its doors.

Activities at Roman Temples

Temple of Jupiter gathering

Public religious ceremonies at Roman temples generally took place outdoors and not within the temple building. Some ceremonies were processions that started at, visited, or ended with a temple or shrine, where a ritual object might be stored and brought out for use, or where an offering would be deposited. Sacrifices, chiefly of animals, would take place at an open-air altar within the templum; often on one of the narrow extensions of the podium to the side of the steps. [Source Wikipedia]

Pausanias wrote in “Description of Hellas” ( c. A.D. 175): “They say that someone uninvited entered the shrine of Isis at Tithorea and died soon after...I heard the same thing from a Phoenician in regard to a temple of Isis at Coptos. [Source: Pausanias, Pausanias' Description of Greece, translated by A. R. Shilleto, (London: G. Bell, 1900)

Philo Judaeus wrote in “De Providentia” (c. A.D. 20): “At Ascalon, I observed an enormous population of doves in the city-squares and in every house. When I asked the explanation, I was told they belonged to the great temple of Ascalon — where one can also see wild animals of every description, and it was forbidden by the gods to catch them.” [Source: William Stearns Davis, ed. “Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources,” 2 Vols. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-1913), Vol. II: Rome and the West, pp. 268, 289]

Plutarch wrote in “Moralia” (c. A.D. 110): “It's not the abundance of wine or the roasting of meat that makes the joy of sharing a table in a temple, but the good hope and belief that the god is present in his kindness and graciously accepts what is offered. [Source: Plutarch, Moralia, translated by Philemon Holland, (London: J.M. Dent, 1912).

1 Corinthians 8 (c. A.D. 56) from the New Testament reads: “So about the eating of meat sacrificed to idols, we know that "there is no idol in the world," and that "there is no God but one." ...But not all have this knowledge. There are some who have been so used to idolatry up until now that, when they eat meat sacrificed to idols, their conscience, which is weak, is defiled.....If someone sees you, with your knowledge, reclining at table in the temple of an idol, may not his conscience, too, weak as it is, be "built up" to eat the meat sacrificed to idols?

Temples were also places that people made wishes and requests to the Gods, and in turn offered thanks if their requests were granted: Some temple inscriptions read:
1) Thanks to Minerva, that she restored my hair.
2) Thanks to Jupiter Leto, that my wife bore a child.
3) Thanks to Zeus Helios the Great Sarapis, Savior and Giver of wealth.
4) Thanks to Silvanus, from a vision, for freedom from slavery.
5) Thanks to Jupiter, that my taxes were lessened.
6) I pray for the safety of my colony and its senate and people, because Jupiter Best and Greatest by his numen tore out and rescued the names of the decurions that had been fixed to monuments by the unspeakable crime of that most wicked city-slave who refused to work. [Source: Oliver J. Thatcher, ed.,”The Library of Original Sources”, (Milwaukee: University Research Extension Co., 1907), Vols. II: The Greek World & III: The Roman World; The Bible (Douai-Rheims Version), (Baltimore: John Murphy Co., 1914)

According to the Miami Herald: Excavations near a temple in Esna, Egypt, uncovered a multi-level bathroom dating to Roman times. In the bathroom, archaeologists found bathtubs, a possible bathing seat and corridors for hot air and water to reach the tubs. At a nearly complete sanctuary complex in Gelderland in the Netherlands, researchers found numerous altars Roman soldiers placed at various temples as a show of gratitude to various deities. Many altars had inscriptions dedicating the slabs to Roman and Roman-German deities [Source: Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami HeraldDecember 31, 2022].

Sacred Groves of Ancient Rome

Psudeo -Lucian wrote in “Am” (c. A.D. 85): “Around the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Knidos was an orchard, and under the most deeply-shadowy trees were cheerful picnic places for those who wanted to provide a banquet there; and some of the more well-bred used these, sparingly, but the whole city crowd held festival there, in truly Aphrodisiac fashion. And at Formiae, a benefactor staged each year a ceremony for Jupiter, at which he would distribute 20 sesterces to each of the city senators dining publicly in the grove.

Sacred spring of ancient Dion near Mount Olympus

In the sacred grove and temples of Asclepius at Epidaurus in the northeastern Peloponnese, Pausanias wrote in “Description of Greece”, Book II: Cornith: “The sacred grove of Asclepius is surrounded on all sides by boundary marks. No death or birth takes place within the enclosure the same custom prevails also in the island of Delos. All the offerings, whether the offerer be one of the Epidaurians themselves or a stranger, are entirely consumed within the bounds. At Titane too, I know, there is the same rule. The image of Asclepius is, in size, half as big as the Olympian Zeus at Athens, and is made of ivory and gold. An inscription tells us that the artist was Thrasymedes, a Parian, son of Arignotus. The god is sitting on a seat grasping a staff; the other hand he is holding above the head of the serpent; there is also a figure of a dog lying by his side. On the seat are wrought in relief the exploits of Argive heroes, that of Bellerophontes against the Chimaera, and Perseus, who has cut off the head of Medusa. [Source: Pausanias, “Description of Greece,” with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D. in 4 Volumes. Volume 1.Attica and Cornith, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1918]

“Over against the temple is the place where the suppliants of the god sleep. Near has been built a circular building of white marble, called Tholos (Round House), which is worth seeing. In it is a picture by Pausias1 representing Love, who has cast aside his bow and arrows, and is carrying instead of them a lyre that he has taken up. Here there is also another work of Pausias, Drunkenness drinking out of a crystal cup. You can see even in the painting a crystal cup and a woman's face through it. Within the enclosure stood slabs; in my time six remained, but of old there were more. On them are inscribed the names of both the men and the women who have been healed by Asclepius, the disease also from which each suffered, and the means of cure. The dialect is Doric. Apart from the others is an old slab, which declares that Hippolytus dedicated twenty horses to the god. The Aricians tell a tale that agrees with the inscription on this slab, that when Hippolytus was killed, owing to the curses of Theseus, Asclepius raised him from the dead. On coming to life again he refused to forgive his father rejecting his prayers, he went to the Aricians in Italy. There he became king and devoted a precinct to Artemis, where down to my time the prize for the victor in single combat was the priesthood of the goddess. The contest was open to no freeman, but only to slaves who had run away from their masters.

“The Epidaurians have a theater within the sanctuary, in my opinion very well worth seeing. For while the Roman theaters are far superior to those anywhere else in their splendor, and the Arcadian theater at Megalopolis is unequalled for size, what architect could seriously rival Polycleitus in symmetry and beauty? For it was Polycleitus1 who built both this theater and the circular building. Within the grove are a temple of Artemis, an image of Epione, a sanctuary of Aphrodite and Themis, a race-course consisting, like most Greek race-courses, of a bank of earth, and a fountain worth seeing for its roof and general splendour. A Roman senator, Antoninus, made in our own day a bath of Asclepius and a sanctuary of the gods they call Bountiful.1 He made also a temple to Health, Asclepius, and Apollo, the last two surnamed Egyptian. He moreover restored the portico that was named the Portico of Cotys, which, as the brick of which it was made had been unburnt, had fallen into utter ruin after it had lost its roof. As the Epidaurians about the sanctuary were in great distress, because their women had no shelter in which to be delivered and the sick breathed their last in the open, he provided a dwelling, so that these grievances also were redressed. Here at last was a place in which without sin a human being could die and a woman be delivered. Above the grove are the Nipple and another mountain called Cynortium; on the latter is a sanctuary of Maleatian Apollo. The sanctuary itself is an ancient one, but among the things Antoninus made for the Epidaurians are various appurtenances for the sanctuary of the Maleatian, including a reservoir into which the rain-water collects for their use.

“The serpents, including a peculiar kind of a yellowish color, are considered sacred to Asclepius, and are tame with men. These are peculiar to Epidauria, and I have noticed that other lands have their peculiar animals. For in Libya only are to be found land crocodiles at least two cubits long; from India alone are brought, among other creatures, parrots. But the big snakes that grow to more than thirty cubits, such as are found in India and in Libya, are said by the Epidaurians not to be serpents, but some other kind of creature. As you go up to Mount Coryphum you see by the road an olive tree called Twisted. It was Heracles who gave it this shape by bending it round with his hand, but I cannot say whether he set it to be a boundary mark against the Asinaeans in Argolis, since in no land, which has been depopulated, is it easy to discover the truth about the boundaries. On the Top of the mountain there is a sanctuary of Artemis Coryphaea (of the Peak), of which Telesilla made mention in an ode.”

Ancient Roman Sacred Spring Struck By Lightning

Lightning bolts were associated with the main Roman god Jupiter. Jarrett A. Lobell wrote in Archaeology magazine: At the beginning of the first century A.D., lightning struck a sanctuary at a site known as Bagno Grande, or Large Bath. For centuries, the thermal pool there had been sacred to both Etruscans and Romans. When lightning hit, the sanctuary’s priests were compelled, according to both Etruscan and Roman beliefs, to bury under a layer of terracotta tiles hundreds of votive offerings that had been brought by pilgrims over the years. This ancient ritual, known as fulgur conditum, or “buried thunderbolt,” was intended to seal the objects in and mark the spot as especially sacred. [Source: Jarrett A. Lobell, Archaeology magazine, January/February 2024]

Archaeologist Jacopo Tabolli of the University for Foreigners of Siena describes the discovery of these offerings, which include bronze statues of men, women, children, divinities, and individual body parts, as a complete surprise. “We knew from archival sources that in the 1600s and 1700s there was a thermal spa close to Bagno Grande,” he says, “but we had no idea it was an ancient sanctuary.”

Among the rarest finds are 14 large bronze statues, some of which bear dedications to gods including Apollo, Asclepius, Hygeia, Isis, and Fortuna Primigenia, who are all associated with health and healing. As important as the individual artifacts, explains Tabolli, is the sealed context in which they were found. “The exceptional discovery here is the fact that we can unlock the site’s sacred context and landscape by analyzing all elements from the mud to the bronze,” he says. “We know that the Romans and Etruscans interacted continuously from the beginning of the first millennium B.C. and that this included moments of conflict and of peace. At the sanctuary, we see that there are safe spaces in which identities of different communities and cultures merged.” This continued to be true even after part of the pool was buried. From the first to fifth century A.D., the site was considered sacred by pagan worshippers — who left even more offerings, mostly bronze coins, trees, branches, and fruits — and later by Christians.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.

Last updated October 2024