Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 14, 2023

The surviving remains of the temple's podium in 1994

The Temple of Apollo Palatinus was a temple to the god Apollo in Rome, constructed on the Palatine Hill on the initiative of Augustus between 36 and 28 BCE. It was associated with Augustus's victories at the battles of Naulochus and Actium; the latter was extensively memorialised through its decoration. The temple represented the restoration of Rome's golden age and Augustus's devotion to religious and political duty. Its precinct was used for diplomatic functions and meetings of the Roman Senate. Augustan poets frequently praised the temple and its lavish artistic decoration and statuary. The temple was destroyed in a fire in 363 CE, which was rumoured to be an act of arson committed by Christians. The incomplete remains of the temple have been excavated and partially restored since the nineteenth century. Modern assessments of the temple have variously treated it as a Hellenising break with Roman tradition and as a conservative attempt to reassert the values of the Roman Republic. (Full article...)

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