English: East of the Parthenon lay the foundations of a small building attributed by the first excavators of the Acropolis to the Temple of Rome and the Roman emperor Octavian Augustus. The association of the foundations with the temple stems from the discovery in the area of many marble architectural members, as well as of the architrave bearing the incised dedicatory inscription. (“The deme (dedicated) to the goddess Rome and Sebastos Caesar (Augustus), when general of the hoplites was Pammenes, son of Zenon from Marathon, the priest of the goddess Rome and Sebastos Soter on the Acropolis; when priestess of Athena Polias was Megiste, daughter of Asclepides from the deme of Halai. When Eponymous Archon was Areos, son od Dorion from Paiania.”)

The architectural members indicate that the Temple of Rome and Augustus was of the Ionic order, circular and monopteral – namely that it featured a single circular colonnade made of nine columns (pteron), without a walled room inside (cella). Its diameter measured ca. 8.60 m. and its height reached 7.30m. up to the conical roof. The construction of the temple is associated with the architect who repaired the Erechtheion in the Roman Period, because the architectural details of its members replicate those of the Erechtheion. It is possible that the temple interior housed statues of Rome and Augustus, although no fragments have been identified to date.

The temple of Rome and Augustus is the sole Roman temple on the Acropolis and the only Athenian temple dedicated to the cult of the Emperor. The Athenian deme (people) constructed it in order to propitiate Octavian August and reverse the negative climate that characterized the relations of the two parties , as, during the Roman civil wars, the city of Athens had supported his opponent, Marcus Antonius.

The temple is securely dated after 27 B.C., when Octavian was proclaimed Augustus – most probably between 19 and 17 B.C.

Text credit: Inscription at the archaeological site.