Temple of Mercury
About
A small temple to Mercury stood at the northern edge of Thugga's forum, its rectangular cella flanked by two curved exedrae. It belongs to the same late-2nd-century building phase as the neighboring Square of the Winds, raised between 180 and 192 CE under Commodus. In 117 CE that corner of the forum held no temple at all, just open pavement.
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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