The Temple of Apollo, also known as the Sanctuary of Apollo, is a

Roman temple Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Today they remain "the most obvious symbol of ...

built in 120 BC and dedicated to the Greek and Roman god

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

in the ancient Roman town of

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was burie ...

, southern Italy. The sanctuary was a public space influenced by Roman colonists to be dedicated to Greco-Roman religion and culture.

Architecture in the Forum

Located in the forum (market place) and facing the northern side of the town, it is the town's most important religious building. It was one of the two earliest temples built in Pompeii, the other being the Temple of Minerva and Hercules, which was near the forum. The cult of Apollo, imported from Greece, was widespread in

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

, and from excavations in the temple's vicinity has been shown to have been present in Pompeii since the 6th century BC. The sanctuary's present appearance dates from its 2nd-century BC rebuild, and a further reconstruction to repair damage from the 62 earthquake, in which a large part of the temple collapsed and repairs which were left incomplete at the time of the eruption. The temple, in the center of a sacred enclosure, was surrounded on all four sides by a wide series of

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...

columns from Nocera, originally grooved and with Ionic capitals, that were being replaced with

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

columns and Corinthian capitals painted in yellow, red and dark blue. Pompeii Regio 07 Insula 07 Temple of Apollo plan 01

The temple itself, a peripteros with 48 Ionic columns, was on a high podium and entered up an imposing set of steps, in a fusion of Greek and Italic architectural ideas. Unusually, the cella is sited further back with respect to the

peristyle In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=f ...

. In front of the steps may still be seen a white marble altar on a

travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a p ...

base, with a Latin inscription giving the names of the

quattuorvir The duumviri (Latin for "two men"), originally duoviri and also known in English as the duumvirs, were any of various joint magistrates of ancient Rome. Such pairs of magistrates were appointed at various periods of Roman history both in Rome itse ...

i who dedicated it. To side of the steps is an Ionic column that supported a

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a f ...

and an inscribed plaque that was donated by a pair of magistrates, who are recorded to have donated another plaque and seat at th
Triangular Forum
Temple of Apollo (7238817402)

In the side of the perimeter wall of the Temple of Apollo, facing onto the town's forum, a niche is extracted containing the ''mensa ponderaria''; the table with the town's official measures, to guarantee the citizen against fraudulent shopkeepers and merchandise.

Excavations

Excavation of the temple first began in February of 1817 and was mistakenly identified as the Temple of Venus and then as the Temple of Mercury when fragments of a marble statue and two bronze arms positioned to fire an arrow were recovered. The fragments belong to the temple's deities – one representing Apollo, the other a bust of Diana – both of which would have been facing the columns of the portico. They are in display in th
J. Paul Getty Museum
in Malibu, California, though copies of two of them have been placed where the originals were found. The elegant

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can a ...

of metopes and

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

s resting on the columns was transformed into a continuous frieze with

griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon ( Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and ...

s, festoons and foliage. Today, the remains of the temple front appear as they originally did, since almost all of this transformation in plaster has disappeared.

Bibliography

* Zanker, Paul. 1998. Pompeii: public and private life. * Beard, Mary. 2008. The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found * Boschi, Federica; Rescigno, Carlo (2021). “The sanctuary of Apollo in Pompeii: new geophysical and archaeological investigations.” GROM Documenting Archeology. * Cooley, Alison E; Cooley, M.G.L.. 2014. Pompeii and Herculaneum: A Sourcebook. * Van Andringa, William. "Statues in the Temples of Pompeii." ''Historical and Religious Memory in the Ancient World''(2012): 83.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Temple Of Apollo

2nd-century BC establishments 2nd-century BC religious buildings and structures

Architecture in the Forum

Excavations

See also

Bibliography

References

External links