--- title: "Temple of Genius Augusti (Temple of Vespasian) VII.9.2 - Pompeii Online" description: "The Temple of Genius Augusti, traditionally called the Temple of Vespasian, stood at the heart of imperial cult on Pompeii’s Forum." url: "https://www.pompeionline.net/en/buildings-and-places/regio-vii/temple-of-genius-augusti-temple-of-vespasian-vii-9-2" date: "2026-09-16T12:47:16+00:00" language: "en-GB" --- # Temple of Genius Augusti (Temple of Vespasian) VII.9.2 The **Temple of Genius Augusti**, traditionally known as the **Temple of Vespasian**, stands on the eastern side of Pompeii’s Civil Forum, between the **Sanctuary of the Public Lares** and the **Portico of Concordia Augusta, or Building of Eumachia**. The sanctuary belongs to the great monumental transformation of the Forum at the beginning of the imperial period and attests to the growing importance of the **cult of the emperor and imperial family** in the city’s religious and political life. For many years, the building was chiefly identified as the Temple of Vespasian. Modern research and epigraphic evidence, however, support the more accurate name **Temple of Genius Augusti**: the sanctuary dedicated to the Genius of Augustus. It was constructed in the **first decade of the 1st century AD**, during the Augustan period. The complex was restored after the earthquake of AD 62, and work was still being carried out in some areas when Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. ### The Genius of the emperor In the Roman world, the **Genius** was a protective divine force associated with a person, family, community or place. With the establishment of the Empire, the cult of the **Genius Augusti**, the Genius of the emperor Augustus, became one of the means by which cities expressed their loyalty to the new political order. This was not simply a matter of worshipping Augustus as a living god. The cult celebrated the protective force associated with the emperor and, through it, the prosperity and stability guaranteed by the new political system founded after the civil wars. At Pompeii, this cult occupied a place directly in the **Civil Forum**, the city’s most prestigious and frequented public space. ### Mamia, the priestess who built the temple An inscription connects the sanctuary’s construction with **Mamia**, one of the most important women known from Augustan Pompeii. Mamia was a **public priestess** associated with the cult of Ceres and the Genius of Augustus. The inscription records that she had the sanctuary built on her own land and at her own expense. Her position is especially significant because it shows how a woman from the civic elite, although unable to hold the political magistracies reserved for men, could attain considerable public prestige through **priesthood and the funding of monumental works**. Mamia is also known from her funerary monument in the **Necropolis of Porta Ercolano**, where she was granted a public burial place. The construction of the sanctuary in the Forum and her monumental tomb therefore attest to the exceptional social recognition achieved by the priestess. ### The Forum’s new appearance in the Augustan period The Temple of Genius Augusti formed part of a much broader transformation of Pompeii’s civic centre. During the Augustan period, the Forum was gradually embellished with buildings, statues and monuments associated with the **new imperial order**. Several monumental complexes were erected or remodelled on its eastern side: the Temple of Genius Augusti, the Sanctuary of the Public Lares and the Portico of Concordia Augusta. The whole area thus became one of the principal places where Pompeii publicly demonstrated its allegiance to the political system created by Augustus. Religion and politics were deeply intertwined. Participation in the imperial cults simultaneously celebrated the city’s prosperity, the emperor’s authority and Pompeii’s membership of the Roman world. ### The relationship with the Building of Eumachia The Temple of Genius Augusti has close architectural links with the neighbouring **Building of Eumachia**. According to the reconstruction currently accepted by the Archaeological Park, the two monuments formed part of the same major programme to renew the eastern side of the Forum. The façade decoration, proportions and certain architectural elements reveal a strong relationship between them. This is particularly interesting because the Building of Eumachia was itself dedicated to values closely connected with the new imperial ideology: **Concordia Augusta and Pietas Augusta**. The entire eastern side of the square therefore acquired a character strongly associated with the celebration of the new imperial Rome. ### The entrance from the Forum The sanctuary opened directly onto the great square. A monumental entrance led into a **small internal courtyard**, much more intimate in scale than the spaces of the neighbouring Building of Eumachia. The building must originally have appeared far richer than the surviving structures suggest. The façade was decorated with **marble revetment**, while columns, sculpted elements and coloured surfaces created a monumental setting fully integrated into the Forum’s architectural composition. The position of the entrance made the building’s sacred character immediately apparent to anyone crossing the square. ### The small temple on the podium The actual **shrine** stands on a high podium at the rear of the courtyard. Its façade had **four columns**. Two small lateral staircases provided access, an unusual arrangement that left the centre of the podium free and heightened the structure’s monumental character. Inside was the **cella**, which contained the statue or image used in worship. The elevated position clearly separated the space reserved for the deity from the courtyard where priests and participants gathered for ceremonies. ### The altar One of the complex’s most important features survives at the centre of the courtyard: the large **marble altar**. Its surfaces are decorated with reliefs associated with religious ritual. One of the principal faces depicts a **sacrifice**, while other surfaces show instruments and objects used during ceremonies. The altar was the true centre of ritual activity. In the Roman world, sacrifices were not normally performed inside a temple’s cella, but before the sacred building in a space where priests and participants could witness the ceremony. Sacrifice was a fundamental moment in the relationship between the community and the deity. ### The sacrifice of the bull The altar’s most celebrated relief depicts the preparations for the **sacrifice of a bull**. The victim is led towards the altar as priests and attendants take part in the ceremony. The scene provides valuable evidence for how one of the public rituals of Roman religion might actually have been conducted. Such sacrifices were not simply expressions of individual devotion. They were public acts through which the community reaffirmed its relationship with the gods and, in the case of the imperial cult, with the Roman political system. ### The earthquake of AD 62 The great earthquake that struck Pompeii in **AD 62** severely damaged the Forum and many public buildings. The Temple of Genius Augusti also underwent repairs. Recent studies of the altar indicate that some parts were **restored, completed or reused during the reconstruction that followed the earthquake**. The building visible today therefore preserves both elements of the Augustan construction and interventions carried out during the final seventeen years of the city’s life. Reconstruction of the Forum was still not entirely complete when Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. ### Decoration inspired by the Ara Pacis One of the most interesting results of modern research concerns a magnificent marble decoration now visible near the entrance to the **Building of Eumachia**. Its frame features **scrolling vegetation, flowers and numerous small animals** amid the foliage. For many years, this splendid decorative element was regarded as an original part of the Building of Eumachia. The Park now considers it likely that it belonged instead to the **entrance of the Temple of Genius Augusti** and was moved to its present position during modern restoration. The decoration closely recalls the great vegetal friezes of the **Ara Pacis Augustae in Rome**, the monument commissioned by Augustus to celebrate the peace and prosperity restored to the Empire. The reference was probably deliberate. By using artistic forms similar to those employed in the capital, Pompeii participated in the new political and visual language of the Augustan period. ### Nature, prosperity and imperial power The vegetal motifs also carried strong symbolic meaning. Leaves, flowers, animals and luxuriant vegetation evoked **abundance, fertility and prosperity**. These ideas were closely connected with Augustan propaganda. After decades of civil war, the new regime presented Augustus as the guarantor of peace, order and renewed prosperity throughout the Roman world. A sanctuary dedicated to the Genius Augusti and decorated with images of flourishing nature thus translated a political message into an immediately intelligible religious and artistic language. ### The rooms at the rear **Three service rooms** stood behind the small temple. They were probably used by the religious personnel and to store materials needed for the sanctuary’s activities. A doorway also connected this area with the neighbouring **Sanctuary of the Public Lares**. The connection shows how closely the different religious buildings on the Forum’s eastern side were linked. Rather than completely independent monuments, they formed parts of a broader system of spaces devoted to public cult and the representation of imperial authority. ### Why it is called the Temple of Vespasian The name **Temple of Vespasian** belongs to the modern history of Pompeian scholarship. For many years, the sanctuary was thought to have been built or dedicated during the reign of Vespasian, who came to power in AD 69, only a few years before the eruption. This interpretation was also encouraged by the building work carried out in the complex after the earthquake of AD 62. Archaeological and epigraphic research has shown, however, that the building is **far earlier**. It dates to the Augustan period, several decades before Vespasian. For this reason, the name now preferred by the Archaeological Park is **Temple of Genius Augusti**, while the traditional name Temple of Vespasian is retained in parentheses so that the monument can be readily identified in older guidebooks and scholarship. ### The imperial cult in Pompeii The Temple of Genius Augusti shows how deeply the imperial cult had entered the city’s public life. The emperor was present in Pompeii through more than statues and inscriptions. Both he and the imperial family were incorporated into religious ceremonies, public buildings and the activities of the local elite. Magistrates, priests and wealthy citizens could enhance their prestige by funding monuments, statues and restoration projects associated with these cults. The history of **Mamia** illustrates this mechanism perfectly. By financing one of the Forum’s principal sanctuaries, the priestess linked her name with the cult of the emperor and the prosperity of the community. ### Discovery in 1817 The Temple of Genius Augusti was brought to light in **1817**, during the major excavation campaigns that were gradually uncovering the buildings around the Forum. The discovery of the courtyard, shrine and, above all, marble altar immediately helped establish the complex’s religious character. Its precise identification nevertheless changed over time. As with many Pompeian monuments, new inscriptions, architectural comparisons and archaeological research have made it possible to correct interpretations first proposed by 19th-century excavators. The shift from the traditional “Temple of Vespasian” to **Temple of Genius Augusti** is therefore a good example of how knowledge of Pompeii continues to evolve. ### A monument of the Augustan period The Temple of Genius Augusti is particularly important because it gives material form to Pompeii’s transformation during the first decades of the Empire. The Samnite and Republican city already possessed a Forum rich in monumental buildings, but under Augustus the square acquired a new political meaning. New cults, statues and monuments incorporated the city into the ideological language of the Empire. The sanctuary funded by Mamia is one of the clearest examples of this transformation. Architecture, religion and the local elite’s self-representation come together in the same monument. For this reason, the **Temple of Genius Augusti (Temple of Vespasian) VII.9.2** is one of the key places for understanding how the age of Augustus altered not only the Forum’s appearance, but also the political and religious life of Roman Pompeii. ### Further information [Pompeiiinpictures](https://www.pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/R7/7%2009%2002.htm) Detailed images of the building ### Video ### Map ![Pompeii ruins: Temple of Vespasian](https://www.pompeionline.net/pompeii/pianta/p9.gif) ![Loading...](https://www.pompeionline.net/components/com_zhosmmap/assets/utils/loading.gif) [View all buildings and places on the map](https://www.pompeionline.net/en/buildings-and-places) '+ ' '; var titlePlacemark78100000000000 = "Temple of Genius Augusti (Temple of Vespasian) VII.9.2"; var latlng78100000000000 = L.latLng(40.74959, 14.48516); map\_bounds\_com\_content\_article\_781\_0\_8\_map.extend(latlng78100000000000); var contentString78100000000000 = ""; contentString78100000000000 = '' + '### '+ 'Temple of Genius Augusti (Temple of Vespasian) VII.9.2'+ ' '+ ''+ ''+ ' '+ ''+ ''+ ''+ '[![Article](https://www.pompeionline.net/components/com_zhosmmap/assets/utils/article.png)](https://www.pompeionline.net/en/buildings-and-places/regio-vii/temple-of-genius-augusti-temple-of-vespasian-vii-9-2 "Article")'+ ' '+ ' '+ ' '+ ' '; 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