Temple of Saturn
About
Rome consecrated this hilltop temple to Saturn in 195 CE, but the ground had been sacred for centuries before that. Excavators found a Punic sanctuary to Baal Hammon underneath, its votive pits packed with neo-Punic stelae from the 2nd century BCE. The Romans renamed the god rather than abandon the site. In 117 CE the old Punic shrine still stood; Saturn's temple was 78 years away.
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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