The Sebasteion, excavated in 1979-81, was a grandiose temple
complex dedicated to Aphrodite and the Julio-Claudian emperors and was
decorated with a lavish sculptural program of which much survives.
The Sebasteion is located to the east of the city center,
opposite the North Agora, on the eastern side of a main north-south
street that ran past the Tetrapylon to the Theater. Its long and
narrow plan, set at an angle to the street and grid system, is to be
explained by the presence of large, pre-existing residential
establishments excavated to the northeast and to the southwest of the
complex. That is, the building had to be fitted into an awkward city
The complex is composed of four distinct architectural elements:
a Propylon at the west, two long buildings to the north and south that
frame a paved sanctuary or processional space (14 m. wide and 90 m.
long),and a Temple at the east end, the focus of the whole layout.
Two (related) leading local families paid for the complex. One family
paid for the Propylon and the North Building, the other for the South
Building and the Temple. Construction of the complex, which was
interrupted by a major earthquake, took two generations: work was
begun in the reign of Tiberius, c. A.D. 20, and brought to completion
early in the reign of Nero, c. A.D. 60.
The Propylon was a two-storeyed columnar screen with projecting
aediculae that connected the North and South Buildings to give the
complex a continuous monumental facade facing onto the street. The
gate carried a series of Julio-Claudian portrait statues, as well as
statues of Aeneas and Aphrodite Prometor--in her role as
"Foremother"of the Roman emperors.
Inside, in the street-like sanctuary space, the North and South
Buildings rose with three-storeyed engaged marble facades to a height
of twelve meters. These facades consisted of superimposed Doric,
Ionic, and Corinthian orders, with relief decoration in the upper two
storeys, and each thus presented a closed marble "picture wall"
sanctuary street. The purpose of the buildings behind was simply to
support the thin marble facades. The buildings are divided behind
into chambers (ca. 5 x 5 meters) that are constructed of rough masonry
and have earth floors whose remains do not indicate any real use or
function until the Late Roman period (when there is evidence of
commercial and manufacturing activity). While close in overall
dimensions and effect, the North and South Buildings have marked
differences, both in architectural design and in their relief program,
that no doubt reflect the split sponsorship of the project.
Little remains of the Temple which was probably dismantled
sometime in the Late Roman period. It was set up high on a platform,
on the axis of the complex, and set back from the east ends of the
North and South Buildings. The layout of the temple and sanctuary
thus closely resembles that of the Forum of Caesar in Rome in which
the temple was also dedicated to Aphrodite/Venus in her role as
Prometor/Genetrix of the Julian dynasty. Enough remains of the
architecture to be sure that it was a Roman-inspired podium prostyle
temple of the Corinthian order, with six columns across the front and
a wide cella behind. Its inscribed architrave included a dedication
to Tiberius and Livia.
While the axial-symmetrical plan of the complex resembles that
of the imperial fora, and in particular that of Caesar, which may have
been its direct inspiration, it probably functioned rather
differently. Rather than a closed sanctuary space, the plan was open
at both ends (the Propylon had no actual gates and the Temple is not
connected in any way with the North and South Buildings) and allowed
free access through the complex in both directions. In other words,
instead of being solely a sanctuary entered and exited through the
Propylon, the complex also functioned, outside cult occasions, as a
highly-decorated, monumental city avenue which carried people both
east into the city center and west into the surrounding residential
districts around and behind the Temple. This wider civic as well as
religious function helps to explain the lavish relief program with
which the North and South Buildings were decorated.
The Sebasteion, excavated in 1979-81, was a grandiose
temple complex dedicated to Aphrodite and the Julio-Claudian emperors.
Its construction stretched over two generations, from ca. A.D. 20 to
60, from the reign of Tiberius to that of Nero. The complex was paid
for by two of the leading Aphrodisian families. Leading to a Corinthian
temple, a narrow processional way (90 X 14 m) was flanked by two portico-like
buildings, each three-storied (12 m high), with superimposed Doric,
Ionic, and Corinthian orders, and decorated with a long series of figured
marble reliefs. More than seventy of the 190 reliefs that the project
required were recovered in the excavation. They featured Roman emperors,
Greek myths, and a series of personified ethne or 'nations' of Augustus'
world empire, from the Ethiopians of Africa to the Callaeci of western
Spain. This remarkable series of reliefs is unique in content, preservation,
Sculptures of Sebasteion