Temple of Venus and Rome in the Roman Forum

Located inside the Roman Forum, the Temple of Venus and Rome stands on a high-hill near the entrance to the archaeological site. As the name suggests, the temple was dedicated to the goddesses Venus and Rome and had the peculiarity to be a back-to-back temple, other than being the biggest one in Ancient Rome.

Origin of the Temple

The Temple of Venus and Roma was inaugurated by Emperor Hadrian in 121 A.D. on the site where once stand the massive Colossus of Nero. According to some sources, it probably was Hadrian’s himself who designed the structure of the temple: a double cell set back-to-back in a single structure and with a typical Greek style, featuring a low stepped podium surrounded by columns.

Meaning of the temple in Ancient Rome

The part of the temple facing the Colosseum was the one dedicated to the worship of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, but also of victory and desire. Venus, the ancestor of the Roman people, was also central to many religious celebrations and was associated to what we may define today as leisure activities. The temple dedicated to the goddess Rome or Roma in Italian faced the Roman Forum. Rome was a more “serious” goddess, a personification of the city of Rome and of the Roman state. Thus, the temple dedicated to her faced the Roman Forum, the political and economic center of Ancient Rome.