Temple of Roma and Augustus, Thessalonica
About
Thessalonica added the goddess Roma to its pantheon in the 1st century BCE and gave her a dedicated priesthood alongside a new temple to Augustus, attested by inscriptions and coinage showing Julius Caesar and Augustus as divine. As capital of Macedonia since 146 BCE, the city embraced the imperial cult early and enthusiastically. By 117 CE the cult had been running continuously for well over a century.
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 →