Temple of the Genius of the Colony
About
A temple to the Genius Coloniae, the guardian spirit of the colony itself, rose at Timgad in 169 CE under Marcus Aurelius. It gave the city a shrine to its own corporate identity, a common feature of thriving Roman colonies by the later 2nd century. Its construction fell nearly seventy years after Trajan's veterans first laid out the town in 100 CE. In 117 CE the site was still open ground within the fresh colonial grid. Built 52 years after this map's snapshot date, under Marcus Aurelius.
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 →