Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina

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Front view of the temple for Antoninus Pius and Faustina
3D reconstruction of the temple

The Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina is an ancient building in Rome . It stands on the northern edge of the Roman Forum , immediately east of the Basilica Aemilia , and is one of the best preserved ancient temples in Rome thanks to the conversion into the Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda .

The emperor Antoninus Pius had the temple built in 141 for his deceased and deified wife Faustina . After his death in 161, the temple was also dedicated to him at the instigation of his successor Marcus Aurelius and the dedicatory inscription, which was initially only attached to the architrave , was supplemented by a line in the frieze zone :

DIVO ANTONINO ET
DIVAE FAVSTINAE EX S [ENATVS] C [ONSVLTO]
"The deified Antoninus and
the deified Faustina by resolution of the Senate "

The official name of the temple was therefore templum divi Antonini et divae Faustinae , as it appears in the Fasti . The regional catalog from the 4th century, however, simply calls it templum Faustinae , as does the Historia Augusta , which also has the form of the name templum divi Antonini .

The temple rises on a high podium and could be reached via a staircase from Via Sacra, which leads past to the south . The brick staircase visible today is a modern reconstruction. The front of the hexastyle prostyle is dominated by six 17 meter high, monolithic columns made of Cipollino , a greenish marble with a fine, dark structure from the Greek island of Evia . Two further columns on each of the long sides are aligned with the ante of the cella , with the inter- columns to the ante being walled up in post-ancient times.

The columns with their lower diameter of only 1.45 meters have Corinthian capitals , which, like the column bases, are made of contrasting white marble and on which the architrave, structured with two bands (fascia) rests. Of Fries, which on the long sides on Cella and columns with a following him relief fries from heraldisch arranged gripping between akanthisierten candelabra and tendrils ornaments is provided. A wave profile formed as an anthemion of oak leaves between lotus motifs , followed by an egg stick , conveys to the final geison , whose forehead is decorated with grooved whistle sticks.

The cella side walls, which have been preserved up to a length of 20 meters, were built from greenish-gray Peperinos blocks and were clad with marble slabs in ancient times. Corinthian pilasters formed the antennae foreheads. The deep, sloping notches that can be observed in the upper area of ​​the column shafts also testify to the post-antique marble robbery to which the cella walls were subjected: They probably served to fix the ropes with which one tried to put the columns down.

In the 7th or 8th century the temple was converted into a church, which has been called San Lorenzo in Miranda since the 11th century . The temple owes its good state of preservation to this change in use. Three chapels, which were built into the pronaos of the temple, were demolished in 1536 on the occasion of Charles V's visit after the Tunis campaign . According to the plans of Orazio Torriani , the baroque church that is preserved today was built in 1602 . The first excavations in front of the temple began in 1546 and were resumed again and again, especially in the 19th century, exposing the entire east side. The fragments of various statues placed on the temple podium may have been associated with the temple construction.

  • Side view of the temple

  • Lateral opposite view of the temple with the Iulia Curia in the background

  • Side view around 1860 with details of the entablature

  • Fragment of the statue centered on the podium

literature

  • Mariano Armellini: Le chiese di Roma dal secolo IV al XIX. Tipografia Vaticana, Rome 1891, p. 156 f. ( online ).
  • Filippo Coarelli : Rome. An archaeological guide. Herder, Freiburg 1975, p. 92.
  • Christian Hülsen : Le Chiese di Roma nel Medio Evo. Leo S. Olschki, Florence 1927, p. 288 f. ( online ).
  • Samuel Ball Platner , Thomas Ashby : A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press, London 1929, p. 13 f. ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ CIL 06, 1005 .
  2. ↑ CIL 06, 2001 .
  3. ↑ Region catalog .
  4. ↑ Historia Augusta, (Gallienus) Saloninus 1.
  5. ↑ Historia Augusta, Caracalla 4.

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 31.7 "  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 12.1"  E