11: The Temple of Roma and Venus

The Temple of Roma and Venus was designed and commissioned by the Emperor Hadrian.  Building started in the year 121 and this, the largest of Rome’s Temples, was inaugurated in the year 135. The building served two cults with a huge seated statue for each: one side was dedicated to the goddess Roma and the other to the goddess Venus.  The goddesses sat back-to-back on thrones in the middle of the temple facing outwards on the long axis of the main building.  Here Venus was also used to represent love which in Latin was written as Amor – conveniently this is Roma spelled backwards. By placing the two divinities of Venus and Rome back-to-back in a single temple Hadrian enjoyed the further symmetry of their Roman names.