Aphrodisias Sebasteion
About
Two prominent local families funded this temple to Aphrodite and the Julio-Claudian emperors between 20 and 60 CE. A 90-meter processional avenue ran between two three-story porticoes covered in marble relief panels of gods, emperors, and conquered peoples. By 117 CE it had stood finished and in active use for over half a century. Excavators uncovered it only in 1979.
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.
Sources
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Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →