Tempio del Divo Giulio, Rome

These worn masonry remains preserve a startlingly personal address in the Forum. They are the Tempio del Divo Giulio, a sanctuary for Julius Caesar after his deification. Notice the curved opening in the podium: it kept visible the altar at the place where Caesar’s funeral pyre burned.

Caesar was the earliest Roman granted divine status after death and honoured with a temple. The Senate ordered the project after the defeat of Caesar’s killers, and Octavian, Caesar’s adopted heir, brought it to completion. He dedicated it on the eighteenth of August, twenty-nine before Christ, soon after celebrating victory over Antony and Cleopatra.

The podium also became a public speaking platform, its decoration including the prows of enemy vessels captured at Actium. Imperial funeral speeches sounded from here, joining political ritual to worship of the dead dictator. Much of the structure survived until the late fifteenth century, when its marble and stone were stripped for newer churches and palaces. Flowers are still regularly placed at the altar, making this fragment of ancient masonry an active memorial.