Temple of Apollo

Templum Apollinis

TempleItalia · Pompei, Campania, ItalyBuilt 575 BCE · Destroyed 79 CE

Not standing in 117 CE

About

Pompeii's oldest and most important religious sanctuary, with cult origins reaching back to the 6th century BCE under Greek/Etruscan influence; the present colonnaded form dates to a 2nd-century BCE rebuild, with further repairs under way after the 62 CE earthquake, still incomplete in 79 CE. Bronze statues of Apollo and Diana found here are now in the Naples Archaeological Museum. Destroyed in the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius, 38 years before this map's snapshot — included as it's an essential part of the story.

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.

In ancient writing

CIL X 787, dedication before 2 BCE
The magistrates Marcus Holconius Rufus and Gaius Egnatius Postumus paid 3,000 sesterces for precinct works, by decree of the council; the text names the town 'Colonia Veneria Cornelia'.