Temple of Apollo (Palatine Hill)

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Terraced area with fragments from the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill, Rome
Location of the temple on the Palatine Hill, Rome
Structural members of the temple

The Temple of Apollo stood on the Palatine Hill in Rome . The temple was built in 36 BC. Praised by Octavian, the later emperor Augustus , and 28 BC Consecrated.

The temple, erected on a terrace, was located in the middle of Augustus' possessions on the Palatine Hill, between the house, libraries and the courtyard with the business premises. The terrace rose up to the upper floor of the house, so it was of considerable height. The area Apollinis , the sacred area belonging to the temple, encompassed an area of ​​about 30 × 70 meters, in which the terrain dropped by nine meters on the slope of the Palatine Hill. The terrace, framed by a block wall at the front and sides, was designed with a facade facing the Circus Maximus . The temple itself was on the north side of the terrace and rose above it another 10 feet, about 3 meters.

It was erected at a place that is said to have been indicated by a lightning strike on Augustus' property by the god himself. Its foundation consisted of various complexes and materials: where only floors and possible interior arrangements had to be supported, it was made of opus caementitium , while load-bearing areas of the foundation were made of ashlar masonry. The latter were formed from individual foundations in the area of ​​the front pillar position. On the basis of fragments belonging to a three-quarter column and half-columns, the temple is to be reconstructed as a six-column pseudoperipteros with a 6 × 3 column deep vestibule. Seven half columns divided the outer long sides of the cella . According to the capital fragments, it was of the Corinthian order . Remnants of the column bases or the entablature are not preserved. The columns themselves had 24 fluting and a lower diameter of 1.45 meters. The height of the columns can be reconstructed to about 14.50 meters. The final geison lay on a mediating tooth incision . The roof was covered with marble tiles. Accordingly, as Properz confirms, the exterior of the temple was built entirely of marble.

According to literary tradition, the tympanum was decorated with a group of figures created by the archaic sculptors Bupalus and Athenis from Chios . A statue of Sol on his sun chariot crowned the gable . Ivory panels depicting the fall of the Gauls from Parnassus and Niobe mourning their children adorned the doors. Preserved fragments of the door reveal show antithetical griffins and a tripod .

The interior design of the approximately 19 × 22 meter cella has not been preserved. Only fragments of friezes depicting a tripod and blocks of red Aswan granite could be associated with the cella design. Since the caementicium has 2 meter wide depressions along the long sides, the foundations of an interior order can be assumed here, the time of which is unknown and could also come from a later restoration. A group of statues from the Apollonian Triassic served as cult statues: a Latona by Kephisodot , an Apollo by Scopas and a Diana by Timotheos . The statue base of this group contained the Sibylline Books , which Augustus had brought from the Temple of Jupiter to the Capitol . Furthermore, Augustus donated golden tripods and a golden candlestick in the shape of an apple tree to the temple.

The building, realized by Augustus on his own land, was closely related to Augustus' house on the Palatine Hill and was directly connected to it by an arched ramp. After the death of Augustus this connection was abandoned. A restoration of the temple that has not been handed down can be proven and is probably connected to the Neronian fire . The temple was destroyed by fire in 363 AD.

The temple was surrounded by a pillared hall, the portico of the Danaids , with columns made of yellow marble ( Giallo antico ). The hall owes its name to the statues of the 50 Danaids made of black marble, which were placed in the intercolumns , a statue of Danaos with drawn sword, and the equestrian statues of the sons of Aegyptus .

literature

  • Enrico Gallocchio and Patrizio Pensabene: New research on the Augustan complex on the Palatine. In: Manuel Flecker et al. (Ed.): Augustus is dead - long live the emperor! International colloquium on the occasion of the 2000th year of death of the Roman emperor from 20. – 22. November 2014 in Tübingen. Publishing house Marie Leidorf, Rahden / Westf. 2017, pp. 157–202.
  • Lilian Balensiefen: Apollo Palatinus. A cult foundation project of the young Caesar Divi Filius . In: Christine Schmitz , Anja Bettenworth (Hrsg.): Mensch - Heros - Gott. World designs and life models in the myth of the premodern . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, pp. 67-89, ISBN 978-3-515-09294-4 .
  • Gianfilippo Carettoni: The buildings of Augustus on the Palatine . In: Wolf-Dieter Heilmeyer u. a. (Ed.): Emperor Augustus and the lost republic . Exhibition Berlin 1988. Zabern, Mainz 1988, pp. 265–267, ISBN 3-8053-1007-2 .
  • Eckard Lefèvre : The image program of the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine . Universitätsverlag, Konstanz 1989, ISBN 3-87940-358-9 .
  • Ralf Schenk: The Corinthian Temple until the end of the Principate of Augustus . Internationale Aräologie Vol. 45. Leidorf, Espelkamp 1997, pp. 107-109, ISBN 978-3-89646-317-3 .
  • Maria Josè Strazzulla: Il principato di Apollo. Mito e propaganda nelle lastre Campana del tempio di Apollo Palatino . L 'Erma di Bretschneider, Rome 1990, ISBN 88-7062-704-7 .
  • Stephan Zink: Old and new archaeological evidence for the plan of the Palatine temple of Apollo . In: Journal of Roman Archeology 25, 2012, pp. 388-402.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Suetonius , Augustus 29, 2; Cassius Dio 49, 15, 5; Velleius Paterculus 2, 81.
  2. ↑ Cassius Dio 53, 1, 3; Properz 2, 31.1-6; 4, 1, 1-4.
  3. ↑ Suetonius , Augustus 29: 3.
  4. ↑ 2, 31.9.
  5. ↑ Pliny , naturalis historia 36, 11-13.
  6. ↑ Properz 2, 31, 11.
  7. ↑ Properz 2, 31: 12-14.
  8. ↑ Pliny, naturalis historia 36, 24.
  9. ↑ Pliny, naturalis historia 36, 25.
  10. ↑ Pliny, naturalis historia 36, 5, 32.
  11. ^ Augustus, Res gestae 24.
  12. ↑ Pliny, naturalis historia 34, 14.

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 20 ″  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 9 ″  E