← Back to the map Temple of Apollo at Bulla Regia photographed shortly after its 1906 excavation

Historic 1906 excavation photograph via Wikimedia Commons

Temple of Apollo

Templum Apollinis Bullae Regiae

TempleAfrica Proconsularis · Bulla Regia, TunisiaBuilt 200 CE

Not standing in 117 CE

About

North of the forum stood a temple of Apollo built as three joined sanctuaries, its cult statue of Apollo playing the cithara now displayed at the Bardo Museum. Excavators cleared the site in 1906, finding a cella whose floor was relaid in colored opus sectile stone. That marble paving dates to the early third century, a full century after Trajan died. The temple's earlier core may be older, but no firm pre-117 construction date survives.

What happened here

The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.