The Wandering Temples of Hellas: Renewal, Reuse, and Memory in the Early Roman Empire

Abstract

During the early Roman Empire (1st c. BCE to 1st c. CE), there were large scaleconstruction programs implemented all over the Roman Empire. As the architects and project commissioners were planning new buildings, they often reused building materials from other sources in the process known as spoliation. In Hellas, the curious case of wandering temples included transferring an older sacred building in full from a more rural context into an urban area. This work is the first of its kind in exploring the architectural phenomenon of wandering temples throughout Greece during this period, rather than focusing on Atheno-centric evidence. It explores the politico-religious motivations, practical considerations, and memorializing effects of five wandering temples as case studies: the Temple of Ares in the Athenian Agora, the Southwest Temple in the Athenian Agora, the Southeast Temple in the Athenian Agora, the Temple of Aphrodite in Thessaloniki, and the Temple of Artemis in Patras. This paper argues that the reuse of a clearly ancient religious building in a rededication reflects the inclination of Greco-Roman communities to “renew” religious worship in the early years of the propagandistic empire. Moreover, it argues that the lesser cost of spolia and the on-site considerations of visibility, transport, materials, and labor demonstrate how the architects adhered to the Vitruvian philosophy of Economy. Finally, this paper claims that wandering temples function as a vehicle and vessel of memory guiding the deliberate idealization of a revived Classical past into the collective memory of the Greek world under Roman rule. Through the completion of this study, this research has helped develop a guide for identifying wandering temples for future archaeologists. On a broader scale, this research is extremely significant because it offers insight into how humans practice the reuse of sacred, public buildings and it addresses ideas of cultural appropriation and supplantation.