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Description of Seminar Presentation:
This page derives from the visual aspect of my presentation for Dr. David
Gilman Romano's City and Landscape: Roman Corinth seminar.
My assignment was to track
the development of the small temples built on the Western Terrace of
the Roman-era Forum in Corinth from the city's (re-)founding in 44 BC to the
middle of the first century AD. The following groundplans are based
on a revised chronology developed during my research on this
area.
Phase Plans:
The actual physical development of the West Terrace sanctuaries
began with the extension of the terrace itself and a new retaining
wall in the first two decades of the colony's existence. The
terrace was approximately 1.8m above the Forum floor at this
time.
The first sacred building on the terrace was Temple F,
dedicated to Caesar's patroness, Venus Victrix. Built early in
the reign of Augustus, it was a small, ornate tetrastyle Ionic
temple with a niche for a cult statue in the back of the cella.
It also had a large flight of steps on which may have been an
altar; its three-stepped crepidoma gave it added height, so
that from the Forum floor, it gave the appearance of a typical
Roman podium temple.
Temple D came slightly later, following
the extension of the Northwest Stoa into the north end of the
West Terrace. It was of the Tuscan order, with a tetrastyle
prostyle porch and a simple cella; it was not, however, a true Tuscan
temple in that it lacked the tripartite cella of Italic
temples.
In the waning years of the Augustan principate, Cn.
Babbius Philinus, a young man on his way up the local cursus
honorum, donated a Fountain of Poseidon to the city during his tenure
as Aedile; details are sketchy, but we know this was probably the
third building erected on the terrace due to its central, equidistant location between
Temples F and D. Some marble dolphins and the dedicatory inscription are
still extant, as well as newly attributed structural fragments
which indicate the fountain was originally covered, at least
until the earthquake of AD 77 required the demolition of the
superstructure.
At the beginning of the reign of Tiberius, a new temple appeared which
disturbed the harmonious balance previously established: Temple G. Larger
than Temple F, Temple G was a tetrastyle prostyle psuedo-dipteral structure, possibly of the Corinthian order; it also
was most likely reached from the Forum floor by a large flight of steps, although no evidence of them remains.
Later in the reign of Tiberius, Cn. Babbius Philinus again graced the
terrace with a new construction, this one a monopteral temple without
cella of the Corinthian order. Its high quality, proportions, and 'tab
a in slot b' type markings lead to speculation that it was manufactured
in Athens and shipped for assembly to Corinth; its architectural affinity to
the recently built tholos of Roma et Augustus on the Athenian Acropolis,
and its proportional affinity to the Erechtheion, also on the Athenian
Acropolis, give weight to these speculations.
To create a more magnificent setting for his new donation,
Babbius also raised the level of the terrace (to 2.3 - 2.4m above the
forum floor) and enclosed it with a fairly ornate marble retaining wall and
pavement. He inscribed his name and titles on both wall and aedicula.
At the same time, or soon after, the terrace level was raised,
a large, circular statue base was installed just on the southwest corner
of Temple D.
Originally constructed of poros, Temple G underwent a
restoration/reconstruction either in the reign of Claudius, or more
likely, late in the reign of Nero. It received a new veneer of marble, as well as a larger
staircase with massive paratids. This temple's association with imperial
cults of Roma and the Senate, the Emperor and his Providence, and perhaps The
Public Well-being, seem fairly certain from numismatic and epigraphic
evidence.
The last structure which may be attributed to the first half of the first
century is Temple K. We can determine its chronological place in the development of
the West Terrace by virtue of the fact that it does not face East onto the broad expanse
of the forum, but sits behind the Babbius aedicula and faces south. Little is left that
can be attributed to it, so any reconstruction would be pure speculation. We see it here in
the "Antonine" period phase drawing, which also shows the tremendous changes
which took place in this part of the West Terrace between ca. 77-125 CE.
In the last major construction phase, thought to
be during the reign of Commodus (AD 180-193), but perhaps as late as
Septimius Severus (AD 193-211), the Poseidon Fountain was replaced by two temples
(H and J), one to Herakles and one to Dionysos. These two gods had
particular importance to Septimius Severus (appearing together on his coinage
celebrating the Ludi Saeculares of AD 204), so it seems best to date
this phase to his reign.
Eric Kondratieff wrote the text for this page. This nine-sequence phase plan was created from an electronic redrawing/adaptation of the three phase plans found in R.L. Scranton, Corinth I, iii: Monuments in the Lower Agora and North of the Archaic Temple. Princeton, 1951. The sequence in which the buildings appear differs considerably from Scranton's original phases.
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