Temple of Serapis
About
Leptis Magna built this temple to the Egyptian god Serapis under Marcus Aurelius, roughly half a century after Trajan's death. Its columns were carved from a rare blue-veined marble, a striking break from the plain limestone of the city's earlier temples. The cult of Serapis spread through Roman Africa's port cities on Mediterranean trade routes in the decades after Trajan. On 11 August 117 CE the ground where it would rise was still empty, over fifty years before construction began.
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
Nearby
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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 →