Temple of Saturn
About
The sanctuary on Volubilis's eastern rise began as a Punic precinct sacred to Baal, one of the oldest cult sites in the city, reaching back to the settlement's pre-Roman centuries. Romans rededicated it to Saturn, the common fate of Punic gods across Roman North Africa. An inscription dated 218 CE records the sanctuary's rebuilding, and by then the site had grown to include four smaller attendant shrines, one of them dedicated to Venus. This structure as it stands today postdates the 117 CE snapshot by a full century, even though worship on the same ground reached back to Volubilis's Punic origins.
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 →