Temple of Bacchus, Baalbek
About
Heliopolis' second great temple doesn't exist yet in 117 CE — construction won't begin for another generation, around 150 CE under Antoninus Pius, tucked behind Jupiter's colossal precinct. When it finally rises, forty-two Corinthian columns will screen a podium carved almost everywhere a chisel can reach: vines and poppies in the ceiling coffers, a doorway framed in grapes and wheat, lions' heads along the cornice. The dedicatee is usually taken to be Bacchus, though nothing on the building says so outright, and the imagery would suit the young god of the local triad just as well.
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
- Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.23
Describes the great oracular sanctuary of Jupiter Heliopolitanus at Heliopolis (Baalbek), including the prophecy the god gave Trajan in 114 CE about his Parthian campaign. The Temple of Bacchus stood within this same sacred precinct, though Macrobius does not name it separately.
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 →