The Temple Of Jupiter Optimus

The Roman Empire is Europe’s great creation myth. The great Mediterranean empire has left a great legacy of culture, language, conquest, art, and science in Europe and beyond. But everything decays with time, especially memory. Our archeological and historical understanding of the Roman Empire is limited. These gaps in knowledge, combined with popular misconceptions relating to culture, politics, race, technology, politics, and religion from the period, mean that any “period” piece is bound to be historically inaccurate.

Zeus was the child of the Titans, Cronus and Rhea, and was the youngest of all his siblings. Cronus , Zeus’ father, had been warned that one of his children would overthrow him. Cronus knew the consequences, for he had overthrown his father, Uranus. To prevent this from

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Fittingly, it was named after the king of the gods in Roman mythology. The distance from the Sun to Jupiter is approximately 779 million km, or 484 million miles. The exact number is 778,547,200 km. The most obvious features on Jupiter are the alternating bands of white and colored clouds, zones and belts. Analysis of data at many wavelengths shows that the white regions have higher thicker, clouds than the redder regions.

He was the husband of Ops and the father of Zeus, Jupiter, Hestia, Demeter, Posiedon, Hades, Pluto, and Hera. Saturn was the ruler of the gods. He found out that his son, Zeus, would be more powerful than himself, thus threatening his position. In effect, Saturn ate all of his children as soon as his wife conceived them. Thus, killing all chances of his rule being taken away. His wife tricked him and their son, Zeus, was born, and took the throne that was rightfully his.

His sixth child Jupiter (Zeus) survived because his wife, Ops (Rhea) tricked on him. Jupiter later overthrew Saturn and saved all his five brothers and sisters which still survived inside their father’s stomach.

The Temple of Jupiter was built in approximately 150BC, within the Pompeii forum, while Pompeii was inhabited mainly by Oscan’s under the rule/doctrine of the Roman Empire. The Pompeii forum was the economic, religious and political centre of Pompeii and the position of the Temple of Jupiter within this Forum was significant. The Temple stood on

The manipulation of materials used by the Romans has still not been equaled to this day. This reality is surprising when considering the span of time which has passed since the completion of the Pantheon. A period of almost two thousand years has come and gone without any other dome structure equivalently matching the enormity and importance of the Pantheon. Hadrian’s commencement of the Pantheon has created one of the more “influential works in Western architectural history (Fazio, Moffett, and Lawrence). Keeping in mind the pantheon was created as a temple to commemorate all the pagan gods of ancient Rome (Alcott). At the time it was a very large undertaking and Hadrian felt that using architecture was a sufficient course of action to demonstrate his imperial prowess. The Roman Empire was outstretched over a vast expanse of land and could not sustain itself, however Hadrian used his knowledge of the lay to procure some elements for his reconstruction of the Pantheon. Literally meaning “many gods” the pantheon also served as a sundial with an oculus opening at the apex of the dome. Hadrian’s belief in pagan deities coerced him to create a grand structure suitable to express the divine influence of the gods over the Roman Empire. In fact, Hadrian’s reign produced many architectural exploits that had never been seen or even attempted before his

Zeus was the supreme god and ruler of Olympus. He was known by many names: Lord of the Sky, the Rain-god, the Cloud-gatherer, and Zeus the Thunderer. Zeus was the sixth child born to Cronus and Rhea behind Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Dementer, and Hera. The high soaring eagle was sacred to him, and to the Romans he was known as Jupiter. Zeus was a strong, mighty, awesome, glorious, and wise god. Although, he was very foolish and naïve with hiding his love affairs from Hera.

Romans were excellent at keeping their religion alive and keeping traditions ongoing. They were especially good at worshipping the nature including, stones, trees, waterfalls, etc. These special things had to be kept friendly by sacrifices and ceremonies. Some of these ceremonies and sacrifices took place in temples or nature. In fact, some of the temples are still standing today in Rome or now Italy. Many of these traditions have been studied by observing the statues and paintings they made. Besides believing in nature, the Romans also believed in gods. They paid homage to Jupiter, Minerva, Neptune, and Mars. The god that was the most powerful, Jupiter, was considered chief god of the state during the republican and imperial eras. Neptune was the god of the sea, Mars was the god of war and farm work, and Minerva was the goddess of crafts and wisdom. Before an event, attempts were made to discover the will of the gods, or what was going to happen, from signs in the sky like flight of birds, or by examining the insides of a slaughtered animal. The Romans would base their choices on the signs they believed they got from the gods. As I have told above, Romans were excellent at keeping their religion alive and keeping traditions ongoing. Romans believed in these things

The Temple of Apollo was the temple dedicated to the Greek and Roman god Apollo. This temple was an important religious building because Delphi played a significant role in the religion. The Temple of Jupiter was the main centre of religious life in Pompeii. This building was built in honour of the god and goddesses Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The ‘head of Jupiter’ was not fully restored before the eruption of AD 79 from the damage caused by the earthquake of 62 AD. The Temple of the public Lares was the temple dedicated to protect the gods of the house and was built by the Pompeiians for them taking their gratitude for having to escape the perilous earthquake. This temple protects the property and the families. The Temple of Vespasian was a small cult building which was part of the façade of the outer structure of Forum.The Temple of ISIS is the best preserved building of all the temples in Pompeii. After the earthquake of AD 62 the temple was restored because of so much damage. The Temple of Jupiter Meilichios was a small building which became the principle seat of the cult of Jupiter and the Capitoline triad Jupiter-Juno-Minerva after the larger temple of Jupiter on the Forum Square was destroyed in the earthquake of 62 AD. The Temple of Fortuna Augusta was built in the 1st century B.C. The temple provides us with a cella which they had on time were several statues, including one in honour of the Emperor Augustus. This temple includes a cella which was where the statues of gods were housed. The purpose of these temples were to provide a place where rituals and sacrifices were carried out by priests or priestess to honour the gods and gain their favour. The Temples and religious buildings dedicated to

De Fabianis, Valeria Manferto, ed. Ancient Rome: History of a Civilization that Ruled the World. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1996Grant, Michael. The Founders of the Western World: A History of Greece and Rome. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, Maxwell Macmillan Int., 1991Martin, Thomas R. Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times. New Haven, Eng.: Yale University Press,

The Pantheon deduces its name from Greek word meaning “All the gods of a religion”. The Pantheon was originally constructed as a famous temple in Rome which was devoted to all the gods of Ancient Rome. It is the best preserved building from Ancient Rome and was completed by 125 CE. Its magnificent dome is a living testimony to the genius of the Roman architects and as the building still remain undamaged, it offers a unique chance for the modern boulevardier to step back 2000 years and experience the glory that was Rome.

Agrippa, Augustus’ right-hand man, constructed this building as a temple to all the gods; however, a fire destroyed this temple in 80 CE and so Domitian built the reconstruction. The Pantheon we are familiar with has a significantly different design than the original one, and this is why this specific temple is so dislike to the rest of the Roman temples. Before it was burnt, the Pantheon stood in a podium at the end of a large rectangular court. The surroundings of this temple have changed in order to provide a unique experience to its visitors. For example, the temple has en enormous dome with a 27-foot oculus that opens to the sky. This oculus lets a shaft of light come through creating an emphasis wherever the reflection is. Visitors were driven nowhere but to the light at the center of the dome. This building was built for greeting foreign embassies, adjudicating disputes and hold court (Janson). Moreover, the Pantheon is extraordinary because of the potential and strength of concrete. Some other materials used in the process of building the temple include travertine, tufa, brick, and pumice. These materials varied in order to reduce its weight. The colored marble on the wall symbolized imperial authority. The sphere is though to symbolize eternity and perfection and the bronze panels symbolized a starry night sky.

Historians have always used great structures from the ancient world to find out information about the kind of lives they used to live. The Colosseum in Ancient Rome, Italy was one of the most famous structures. The Colosseum in Rome gives historians a number of insights to the type of civilization that existed during the time of the ancient empire, through the gory battles and violent games that took place. This can be proven by the purpose of the Colosseum and the context surrounding its construction, the political and economic benefit of the Colosseum to the empire, the types of games which were held in the arena and the values which the structure suggests were important to the civilization at the

During these ancient times there were extraordinary stories. That were pasted on about the powerful Gods, who were worshipped for the role they had. The most popular God that we have heard of is the mighty and gigantic Zeus. Stories told by great storytellers that are about Greek Gods and their relationships. With the Greeks have been made into wonderful movies, which have been seen across the big screen. A Greek God that has been portrayed more on the big screen is Zeus. Nevertheless, Zeus is a popular God. Even though Zeus is more popular. Jupiter a Roman God is still comparable to Zeus in having a higher rank like him. Zeus and Jupiter have lots of similarities, but they also have differences. Their differences are they both have different names, they have different origins, storytellers, and other than being the God of the Sky Jupiter was also the God of Light and Victory, when Zeus was not. As a result, Jupiter protected the state of war maintaining its peace and