Temple of Serapis (Quirinal)

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Casa Colonna in the ruins of the stairs, behind it the Frontispiece di Nerone, the SW corner of the sanctuary on the Quirinal - anonymous copyist after Maarten van Heemskerck , before 1540 (Düsseldorf, Museum Kunstpalast FP5004)
Ruins of a temple on the grounds of the Pontifical Gregorian University

The Temple of Serapis ( Latin aedes Serapis ) is a shrine of Serapis mentioned in the regional catalog of the 4th century , which is located in the region VI. not far from the venerable temple of Salus on the Quirinal in Rome .

Sources

The temple is listed in Notitia and Curiosum of the catalog of regions of the city of Rome. An inscription from the time of Caracallas built into the floor of the church of Sant'Agata dei Goti also names a temple of Serapis. Further inscriptions and finds related to Serapis were found in various places in the area of ​​the Quirinal. Due to the design and the letter height of around 29 centimeters, it can be ruled out that the inscription from Sant'Agata dei Goti was the dedication inscription of a temple. However, it documents activities of Caracalla, who had a close relationship with the Serapis cult, in connection with the Serapis sanctuary.

Archaeological evidence

Christian Hülsen already linked inscriptions and regional catalogs with the remains of a huge temple in the gardens of the Palazzo Colonna and the Pontifical Gregorian University . A controversy arose between Christian Hülsen and Rodolfo Lanciani , who clung to the traditional 16 th century interpretation as the Sol Invictus temple of Emperor Aurelian . The discussed temple ruin was built on a partly artificial terrace on the western hillside. In front of the east-facing temple was an open space, which was framed on three sides by porticos , similar to the layout of the Caesar Forum or the Augustus Forum in the heart of the city. A wide staircase led up from the west to the sanctuary, which was therefore approached from the rear. The area of ​​the sanctuary was 135 × 98 m, exceeding the dimensions of the Temple of Venus and the Roma near the Roman Forum . The temple itself, whose decorative structural members were made of Proconnesian marble , but whose ashlar masonry was made of - presumably disguised - Peperino , with a width of 56 meters and a length of 84 meters was only slightly behind the dimensions of the Venus Roma temple. Its structural members are not only among the largest in Rome, they were actually made in Roman times. A surviving fragment of the entablature weighs between 90 and 100 tons and is only surpassed in this regard by the entablature blocks of the Iuppiter-Heliopolitanus temple in Baalbek .

From the end of antiquity , possibly from the time of Constantine , the huge temple fell into disrepair and was repeatedly used as a quarry. The remaining right gable corner of the temple back wall was known during the Middle Ages and early modern times as the frontispicium Neronis , " Nero's gable " and was not completely destroyed until 1630.

interpretation

This allocation, still represented by Filippo Coarelli , has been increasingly called into question in recent decades. Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani located the temple for Serapis near the church of San Silvestro al Quirinale and suggested seeing the temple of Liber Pater and Hercules built by Septimius Severus in the huge remains . From this Cassius Dio narrates that it was a "giant temple" for which the emperor squandered the money. The interpretation as a Liber Hercules Temple was followed by Achim Lichtenberger , among others . Rabun Taylor, on the other hand, stuck to the interpretation as a temple of Serapis, but dated the building to the time of Hadrian . Richard Westall and Frederick Blenck try to combine the interpretation as a temple of Serapis with the clear statement of Dios and ask themselves whether the Dionysus named by Cassius Dio as a cult recipient of the Severus building should be understood as an interpretatio Graeca des Serapis. They date the mighty structure on the Quirinal itself to the time of Septimius, possibly with an extension under Caracalla or even just its completion. In contrast, Lawrence Richardson Jr. notes that the location of the temple on the Quirinal, which he does not attach any importance to among the buildings of Rome because of the lack of literary information, has not been determined. He himself interprets the Quirinal stamp as that of the Salus and put an Antonine dating up for discussion.

Two 6.5-meter-high sculpture of the Dioscuri with their steeds, now a part of the 1818 completed Dioskurenbrunnens form are, since Otfried Deubner brought a proposal in 1947 again with the Serapisheiligtum on the Quirinal in context but Stefan Geppert has shown that over the origin of the statues that were found in the baths of Constantine cannot be clarified.

literature

  • Filippo Coarelli : Rome. An archaeological guide. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-8053-2685-8 , p. 243
  • Serena Ensoli: I santuari di Iside e Serapi a Roma e la resistenza pagana in età tardoantica. In: Serena Ensoli, Eugenio La Rocca (ed.): Aurea Roma: dalla città pagana alla città cristiana. L'Erma di Bretschneider, Rome 2000, pp. 267-287, here: pp. 269-271.
  • Achim Lichtenberger : Severus Pius Augustus: Studies on the sacred representation and reception of the rule of Septimius Severus and his family (193-211 AD). Brill, Leiden 2011, pp. 38-40.
  • Michel Malaise: Inventaire Préliminaire des Documents égyptiens découverts en Italie (= Etudes préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain. Volume 21). Brill, Leiden 1972, pp. 180-182.
  • Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani: ΝΕΩΣ ΥΠΕΡΜΕΓΕΘΗΣ . Osservazioni sul tempio di Piazza Quirinale. In: Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma. Volume 94, 1991-1992, pp. 7-16.
  • Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani: Hercules et Dionysus, Templum. In: Eva Margareta Steinby (Ed.): Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae . Volume 3. Quasar, Rome 1996, pp. 25-26.
  • Rabun Taylor: Hadrian's Serapeum in Rome. In: American Journal of Archeology . Volume 108, 2004, pp. 223-266 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Temple of Serapis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Descriptio XIIII regionum urbis Romae ; to the catalog of regions: Arvast Nordh: Libellus de Regionibus Urbis Romae. Gleerup, Lund 1949.
  2. ↑ CIL 06, 00570 ; Christian Hülsen : On the topography of the Quirinal. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie . Volume 49, 1894, pp. 381-412, here: pp. 394 f.
  3. ↑ Michel Malaise: Inventaire Préliminaire des Documents égyptiens découverts en Italie (= Etudes préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain. Volume 21). Brill, Leiden 1972, p. 119 f. No. 23 ( CIL VI 570). 120 No. 26 ( CIL VI 573); 135 No. 79 ( Inscriptiones Graecae XIV 1024). 180-182.
  4. ↑ Achim Lichtenberger : Severus Pius Augustus: Studies on the sacred representation and reception of the rule of Septimius Severus and his family (193-211 AD). Brill, Leiden 2011, p. 120 f.
  5. ↑ Christian Hülsen: On the topography of the Quirinal. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie. Volume 49, 1894, pp. 381-412, here: pp. 395 f.
  6. ↑ Rodolfo Lanciani: Il panorama di Roma delineati da Antonio van den Wyngarde circa l'anno 1560. In: Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma. Volume 23, 1895 pp. 81-109, here: pp. 94-101.
  7. ^ Filippo Coarelli : Rome. An archaeological guide. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2000, p. 243.
  8. ↑ Achim Lichtenberger: Severus Pius Augustus: Studies on the sacred representation and reception of the rule of Septimius Severus and his family (193-211 AD). Brill, Leiden 2011, p. 38.
  9. ↑ Photographs, description and construction of the remains of the entablature: Fritz Toebelmann: Römische Gebälke. Volume 1. Winter, Heidelberg 1923, pp. 73-84 ( digitized version ).
  10. ^ Mark Wilson Jones: Principles of Roman Architecture. Yale University Press, New Haven 2000, p. 172.
  11. ^ Rabun Taylor: Hadrian's Serapeum in Rome. In: American Journal of Archeology . Volume 108, 2004, pp. 260-263.
  12. ^ Cammy Brothers: Reconstruction as Design: Giuliano da Sangallo and the "palazo di mecenate" on the Quirinal Hill. In: Annali di architettura. Volume 14, 2002, pp. 55-72, here: p. 56.
  13. ^ Filippo Coarelli : Rome. An archaeological guide. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2000, p. 243.
  14. ↑ Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani: ΝΕΩΣ ΥΠΕΡΜΕΓΕΘΗΣ . Osservazioni sul tempio di Piazza Quirinale. In: Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma. Volume 94, 1991-1992, pp. 7-16.
  15. ↑ Cassius Dio 77,16,3 .
  16. ↑ Achim Lichtenberger: Severus Pius Augustus: Studies on the sacred representation and reception of the rule of Septimius Severus and his family (193-211 AD). Brill, Leiden 2011, p. 40; Charmaine Gorrie also agrees: The Severan Building Program and Saecular Games. In: Athenaeum. Volume 90, 2002, pp. 461-481, here: p. 479.
  17. ^ Rabun Taylor: Hadrian's Serapeum in Rome. In: American Journal of Archeology . Volume 108, 2004, pp. 223-266, here pp. 239-259.
  18. ^ Richard Westall, Frederick Blenck: The Second an Third Century. In: Gabriele Marasco (Ed.): Political Autobiographies and Memoirs in Antiquity. A Brill Companion. Brill, Leiden 2011, pp. 363-416, here: p. 407.
  19. ^ Lawrence Richardson Jr .: A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1992, p. 361 sv Serapis, Aedes ; Serena Ensoli also leaves the question open: I santuari di Iside e Serapi a Roma e la resistenza pagana in età tardoantica. In: Serena Ensoli, Eugenio La Rocca (ed.): Aurea Roma: dalla città pagana alla città cristiana. L'Erma di Bretschneider, Rome 2000, p. 270.
  20. ^ Lawrence Richardson Jr .: A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1992, pp. 341-342 sv Salus, Aedes .
  21. ↑ Otfried Deubner: Sarapis and the Dioskuren. In: Marburger Winckelmann-Programm 1947. Elwert-Gräfe, Marburg 1947, pp. 14-16.
  22. ^ So Michel Malaise: Inventaire Préliminaire des Documents égyptiens découverts en Italie (= Etudes préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain. Volume 21). Brill, Leiden 1972, p. 182; Rabun Taylor: Hadrian's Serapeum in Rome. In: American Journal of Archeology. Volume 108, 2004, p. 256.
  23. ↑ Stefan Geppert: Castor and Pollux: Investigation of the representations of the Dioscuri in the Roman Empire (= Charybdis. Vol. 8). Lit, Münster 1996, p. 65 f .; Stefan Geppert: The monumental Dioscuri groups in Rome. In: Ancient plastic. Delivery 25, 1996 pp. 121-150; here: pp. 133–147.