Temple of Caesar - History

History

It was begun by Augustus in 42 BC after the senate deified Julius Caesar posthumously. Augustus dedicated the prostyle temple (it is still unknown if it was Ionic, Corinthian or Composite) to Caesar (his adoptive father) on August 18, 29 BC, after the Battle of Actium. It stands on the east side of the main square of the Roman Forum (Forum), between the Regia, Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Basilica Aemilia, on the site of Caesar's cremation (Caesar's testament was read at the funeral by Mark Antony).

Caesar was the first resident of Rome to be deified and so honored with a temple. A fourth flamen maior was dedicated to him after 44 BC and Mark Antony was appointed as his flamen.

The high platform on which the temple was built served as a rostra (Rostra ad divi Iuli) and, like the rostra at the opposite end of the Forum, was decorated with the beaks of ships taken at the battle of Actium.

The Temple of Caesar was the only temple to be entirely dedicated to the cult of a comet (referred to as a 'comet star') The comet, upon its appearance some time after Caesar's murder (44 BC), was considered to be the soul of the deified Julius Caesar and the symbol of the "new birth" of Augustus as the unique Roman ruler and Emperor. Here the account by Pliny with parts of a public speech delivered by Augustus about the comet, his father Caesar and his own destiny:

The only place in the whole world where a comet is the object of worship is a temple at Rome. His late Majesty Augustus had deemed this comet very propitious to himself; as it had appeared not long after the decease of his father Caesar. People believed that this star signified the soul of Caesar received among the spirits of the immortal gods.

In Greek and Roman culture, comet is an adjective determining the distinctive characteristic of a special star. So "comet star" means "long-haired star", and it was represented this way on coins and monuments.

The "Divine Star" was represented and worshiped on coins and probably in the temple itself, as a "comet star" or as a "simple star": the simple star has been used as a general symbol of Divinity since 44 BC ; after the appearance of the comet, the simple star was transformed into a comet by adding the tail to one of the rays of the simple star .

According to Appian the place near the Regia and probably part of the Main Square of the Roman Forum was a second choice, because the first intention of the Roman people was to bury Caesar on the Capitoline Hill among the other Gods of Rome. However, the Roman priests prevented them from doing so (in fact, the cremation was considered not safe due to the many wooden structures there) and the corpse of Caesar was carried back to the Forum near the Regia, being the Regia the personal headquarters of Caesar as Pontifex Maximus: this is the reason why, after a violent quarrel about the funeral pyre and the destiny of the ashes of Caesar, the Roman people, the men of Caesar's party and the men of Caesar's family decided to build the pyre in that place. It seems that in that very place at that time there was probably a tribunal which, after the funeral of Caesar and the building of the Temple, was then moved in front of the Temple of Caesar, probably in the location of the so-called Rostra Diocletiani. The tribunal was a tribunal praetoris sub divo with gradus and was known as tribunal Aurelium, a structure built by C. Aurelius Cotta around 80 BC, near the so-called Puteal Libonis, a bidental used for the sacred oath before the trials.

The corpse of Caesar was carried to the Roman Forum on an ivory couch and set up on the Rostra in a gilded shrine modelled on the Temple of Venus Genetrix, the goddess from whom the family of the Iulii comes from. Mark Antony delivered his famous speech and a public reading of the Will of Caesar was made, while a mechanical device, positioned above the bier itself, was showing an image of Caesar made of wax, turning it round and round, so that people were able to clearly see the 23 wounds in all parts of the body and on the face. So the crowd moved by the words of Mark Antony, by the Will of Caesar and by the sight of the image of wax tried to carry the corpse to Capitol among the gods and failed. In the end the corpse was set on a funeral pile created near the Regia by using all the wooden things available in the Forum, like wooden benches, and then cremated with a great fire that lasted all the night long. It seems that the ordinary funeral had been prepared at the Campus Martius, as usual.

For the cult of the murdered pontifex maximus, a sacred man, against whom to use cutting weapons and object was strictly prohibited, an altar and a column were briefly erected in the very place of the cremation. The column was of Numidian yellow stone and had the inscription Parenti Patriae, i.e. to the founder of the nation. But this first monument was taken down and removed by the anti-Caesarian party almost immediately. In 42 BC Octavian, Lepidus and Mark Antony decreed the building of a Temple to Caesar.

After some time after the death of Caesar, in the sky of Rome a comet appeared and was clearly visible (every day and for seven days, starting one hour before the sunset). This comet appeared for the first time during the ritual games in front of the Temple of Venus Genetrix (Venus was the supposed ancestor of the Julii family) in the Forum of Julius Caesar and everyone in Rome thought it was the soul of Caesar deified called among the other gods. After the appearance of that sign Augustus delivered a public speech giving an explanation of the appearance of the comet. The speech is partially known since we have a partial transcription of it by Pliny the Elder. After the public speech Augustus wanted a few series of coins devoted to the comet star and to the deified Caesar ("Divus Iulius") to be struck and widely distributed. So we can have an idea about the type of representation of the comet star of the deified Julius Caesar.

Augustus loved to be considered the real subject of any kind of Messianic prophecies and accounts. So during the public speech about the appearance of the comet, he specified that he, the new ruler of the world, was born (politically) at the very appearance of his father Julius Caesar as a comet in the sky of Rome and his father was announcing his own (political) birth. So he was the one who had to be born under the comet and whom the appearance of the comet was announcing.

Other messianic prophecies about Augustus are told Suetonius, including the story of the massacre of the innocents conceived in order to kill the young Octavius soon after his own birth. At some time during his princedom, Augustus ordered that all the books of prophecies and Messianic accounts had to be gathered and utterly destroyed. The temple therefore ended up to represent both Julius Caesar as a deified being and Augustus himself as the newborn under the comet and the comet star itself was object of public worship.

The consecration of the Temple lasted many days, during which Troy siege reconstructions, gladiatorial games, hunting scenes and banquets were held. During this occasion the hippopotamus and the rhinoceros were shown in Rome for the first time ever. It seems that the doors of the Temple were left opened so that it was possible to see the statue of the deified pontifex maximus Julius Caesar from the main square of the Roman Forum. If this is true, the new interpretation about the location of the Rostra Diocletiani or Rostra ad Divi Iuli cannot be correct. Augustus used to dedicate the spoils of war in this temple. The altar and the shrine had the right of asylum. Every four years in front of the Rostra ad Divi Iuli, a festival was held in honour of Augustus. The Rostra ad Divi Iuli were used to deliver funeral speeches by the Emperors.

Drusus and Tiberius delivered a double speech in the Forum. Drusus was reading his speech from the Rostra Augusti and Tiberius was reading his own from the Rostra ad Divi Iuli, one in front of the other. The emperor Hadrian delivered a speech (perhaps a funeral one) from the Rostra ad Divi Iuli in 125 AD, as it can be seen on the coins series struck for the occasion.