The Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum
The Temple of Saturn is one of the oldest sanctuaries in the Roman Forum: dedicated in 497 BC according to Livy, it stands at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, and its podium housed the aerarium, the public treasury of Rome. What survives today, a tall podium and eight granite columns with Ionic capitals, comes from a late antique rebuilding after a fire.
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A sanctuary from Rome's beginnings
Romans placed Saturn's cult at the very origins of their city. Varro reports that the Capitoline was once called mons Saturnius, and an altar of Saturn stood at the foot of the hill before the temple was built. Traditions differed on who founded the sanctuary: some credited the last kings, others the first consuls. Livy settles on a dedication in 497 BC and connects it with the founding of the Saturnalia, the god's festival, which opened with a sacrifice in front of this temple.
The location is significant. The temple overlooks the Forum where the Clivus Capitolinus, the street climbing to the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, leaves the square, so triumphal processions passed beneath its columns. Its position at the foot of Jupiter's hill also echoes the mythical genealogy: the deposed father below his ruling son (see Saturn and Cronus).
The aerarium: Rome's treasury
The temple had a role unique among Roman sanctuaries: its podium housed the aerarium Saturni, the treasury of the state. Under the Republic, the quaestors kept public gold and silver there, revenue from taxes and plunder, and official documents such as the texts of laws and decrees of the Senate. Entrusting the city's reserves to Saturn, god of seed and abundance (see Saturn, the Roman god), made sense: the god who guards the grain also guards the wealth.
A famous episode shows how much the place mattered. In 49 BC, at the start of the civil war, Caesar entered Rome and wanted to draw on the treasury. The tribune Lucius Caecilius Metellus stood in front of the doors; Caesar threatened him with death and had the doors forced, according to Plutarch (Life of Caesar 35). Under the Empire the aerarium continued alongside the fiscus, the emperor's own treasury, which eventually overshadowed it.
Rebuildings
| Period | Event |
|---|---|
| Early Republic | Dedication of the temple, 497 BC according to Livy |
| About 42 BC | Complete rebuilding by Lucius Munatius Plancus, a former officer of Caesar, paid for with spoils from his campaigns |
| Late third century | Fire, often identified with the one that swept the Forum in 283 |
| Late third or fourth century | Restoration; the architrave bears the inscription SENATUS POPULUSQUE ROMANUS INCENDIO CONSUMPTUM RESTITUIT |
| Middle Ages and Renaissance | The temple is stripped; only the porch columns and podium survive |
The inscription still legible on the architrave means: "The Senate and People of Rome restored what fire had consumed." The late antique restoration reused older materials, which explains some irregularities in the columns and the granite shafts of different colors.
Macrobius mentions a vanished detail: tritons blowing conch shells decorated the top of the temple (Saturnalia 1.8). He also reports that the cult statue inside had its feet bound with woolen bands, untied during the Saturnalia.
What you can see today
The ruins are among the most photographed silhouettes in the Forum. You can recognize the temple by its very high podium, originally faced with marble, and its eight columns lined up under an intact stretch of entablature: six across the front, two on the sides. The columns, about 11 m (36 ft) tall, carry Ionic capitals, which sets them apart from the three Corinthian columns of the neighboring Temple of Vespasian and Titus.
Several symbolic landmarks of Rome stood around the temple: the Golden Milestone (Miliarium Aureum), a column set up by Augustus listing distances to the great cities of the Empire, and the Umbilicus Urbis, the "navel of the City". The Arch of Septimius Severus and the Rostra, the speakers' platform, stand right next to it.
The temple lies within the archaeological area run by the Parco archeologico del Colosseo, along with the Colosseum and the Palatine. The best overall view is from the terraces on the Capitoline behind the Senate palace, where the columns stand out against the whole Forum.
A temple as symbol
The Temple of Saturn sums up the god's paradoxes: an archaic sanctuary of peasant Rome, it was also the bank of the most powerful state in the Mediterranean. For Romans of Augustus' time it evoked the Golden Age, when Saturn ruled Latium and money did not yet exist, an irony in a building packed with precious metal. Other sanctuaries of Saturn's family, such as the Temple of Ops on the Capitol, have not survived nearly so spectacularly.
FAQ
Where is the Temple of Saturn?
It stands at the west end of the Roman Forum, at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, beside the road climbing to the Temple of Jupiter. It is included in a visit to the Forum and Palatine.
What remains of the Temple of Saturn?
The tall podium survives, along with eight granite columns with Ionic capitals topped by a section of entablature bearing a restoration inscription. These remains date from a rebuilding in the late third or fourth century.
Why was Rome's treasury in the Temple of Saturn?
Saturn was the god of seed and abundance, a natural guardian of the city's reserves. The temple's podium served as the aerarium, managed by the quaestors.
When was the Temple of Saturn built?
According to Livy it was dedicated in 497 BC, early in the Republic. It was rebuilt around 42 BC by Munatius Plancus and restored after a fire in late antiquity.
Sources
- Livy, History of Rome 2.21
- Plutarch, Life of Caesar 35
- Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.8
- Parco archeologico del Colosseo