D.078 Cyrene - Caesareum

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Creator

Denis Baly

Image ID

D.078

Alternate Identifier

B04.078

Subcollection

D: North Africa

Abstract

One of the "two tetrastyle, gabled porches" (140, Ballance and Perkins) that served as entrances to the Caesareum at Cyrene.

Description

"At Cyrene a building identified as a gymnasium of the second century B.C. was remodelled and rededicated to Augustus as a Caesareum, or Kaisareion … If this gymnasium is correctly equated with the Ptolemaion of several local inscriptions, the transformation was both simple and logical. It comprised a rectangular open space, some 170 by 265 feet (51 by 81 m.), surrounded by Doric porticoes, with a series of chambers opening off one long side, which were later rebuilt as a basilica of which the whole of one end was occupied by a large semicircular exedra" (Perkins, 366).

References

Perkins, J. B. Ward. Roman Imperial Architecture. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1981

Perkins, J. B. Ward, M. H. Ballance, and J. M. Reynolds. "The Caesareum at Cyrene and the Basilica at Cremna, with a Note on the Inscriptions of the Caesareum by J. M. Reynolds." Papers of the British School at Rome 26 (1958): 137-94.

Image Notes

Creation date unknown. Processing date unknown. Formerly cataloged as B.04.078. Notes written on the slide or index: Cyrene - Forum.

Curator Notes

Legacy Subcollection: "D: Cyrene"

Image Format

35 mm slide

Geographic Reference

Shahhat, Libya