Temple of Augustus, Barcino
About
Four startlingly tall, slender Corinthian columns still stand in a medieval courtyard atop Mont Taber, the hill on which Barcino's founders laid out their forum. Most sources place the temple in the Augustan founding period (c. 15-13 BCE), though the dedication to Augustus is, by Barcino's own admission, traditional rather than proven — the identification rests on the temple's prominence and style, not a surviving inscription, and at least one strand of scholarship credits its formalization to Tiberius after 14 CE. Either way it had been the colony's religious high point for well over a century by 117 CE.
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
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 →