D.066 Leptis Magna - Temple of Rome and Augustus

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Creator

Denis Baly

Creation Year

January 1963

Image ID

D.066

Alternate Identifier

B04.066

Subcollection

D: North Africa

Abstract

Columns with Ionic capitals in the "the two-celled temple of Rome and Augustus."

Description

The temple adjoined "the temple of Liber Pater on the east." "Attached to the front of its high podium was a speakers' rostrum. An inscription in neo-Punic from over the cella door records that the temple was completed while Babylon and Bodmelqart were suffetes (note the Punic names and the Punic term for the highest municipal office), and that it held statues of Roma, Augustus, Tiberius, Livia, and other Julio-Claudians. These statues, in whole or in part, were found near the temple, and a very impressive array they make in the Tripoli Museum" (147). MacKendrick goes on to say that these statues altogether comprise a set which is "the richest and best preserved of its kind in existence, and an important document for ruler cult as an instrument of Romanization in North Africa very early in the empire" (148).

References

MacKendrick, Paul. The North African Stones Speak. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1980.

Image Notes

Photograph created 1963. Photograph processed September 1963. Formerly cataloged as B.04.066. Notes written on the slide or index: Leptis Magna Temple of Rome and Augustus.

Curator Notes

Legacy Subcollection: "D: Leptis Magna"

Image Format

35 mm slide

Geographic Reference

Khoms, Libya