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Writing an Audience, Part 2: The Temple of Divus Antoninus Pius and Diva Faustina

Huge columns tower above you, dominating your field of vision. You look up you see the shining white face of the temple, and on it, the names of imperial family members deified after their death. The size and place of this dedication is a testimony to its importance.

The inscriptions on buildings took up prime real estate in Rome and carried important meaning. In order that the highest number of people could understand this meaning, these inscriptions made themselves as easy to read as possible. Here is an examples of a temple that follows this program of readability. As a reminder from the previous post, three important approaches that were used to make inscriptions readable were:
1) the use of clear CAPITAL LETTERS,
2) the use of common words and abbreviations,
3) and the use of formulas to order inscriptions consistently.
 The Temple of Divus Antoninus Pius and Diva Faustina. Photo by Jack Hase.

 Part of the Temple of Divus ('Deified') Antoninus Pius and Diva ('Deified') Faustina still stands on the Via Sacra today, incorporated into the church of S. Lorenzo in Miranda in the 7th or 8th century CE. This imperial cult temple was built after the death of Faustina, Antoninus Pius' wife, in 140 CE. This was in line with other imperial cults dedicated to deceased imperial family members. The first line of the inscription, referring to Antoninus Pius as deified, was added later after his death in 161 CE. Its inscription in large capitals reads:
DIVO ANTONINO ET
DIVAE FAUSTINAE EX S. C.
(To Deified Antoninus and
Deified Faustina from the Decree of the Senate)
[Translation mine]
Here we can see the three aforementioned readability approaches at work. Firstly, the script is in clear and large capitals. It is easy to read all along the Via Sacra and from the Forum. Secondly, it uses the the abbreviation 'EX S. C.'. This was a way of denoting senatorial authorship of a project (even if the Emperor had the real power) and it could have been written in many different ways. However,  S(enatus) C(onsultum) is used consistently across monuments and coins. This was in order that people could recognize the meaning without needing to know the exact translation. 
The location of this Temple on the Via Sacra near the Forum gaurenteed it would be seen by many people from different walks of life. Photo by Jack Hase.

Thirdly, this inscription leads with the names of the devotees. This was a very common way to start dedications and would have made the inscription immediately accessible to even those with little reading experience. It is also notable that this text is not a full sentence but contains only the most important information in order to not clutter the space.

This is a clear example of how temples could use make their dedications readable to a vast audience with limited reading skills. Moreover, the site demonstrates that the highest levels of Roman society, the imperial patrons, were invested in ensuring their messages could be read by the masses. In this way the inscription also contextualizes the space around it. The Via Sacra was part of the Roman Triumphal route and the Temple is near to the open space of the Forum. By making this structure readable to the broadest audience, the structure reinforces the idea that these spaces and events were for all Romans, not just the literate elite. This testifies to the imperial family's place as the patrons of all.

In the next post we will take a look again at readability in reference to one of the most iconic Roman temples. Until then, Valete.

Bibliography:

Claridge, Amanda. Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Corbier, Mirelle. "Writing in Roman Public Space." In Written Space in the Latin West, 200 BC to AD 300, edited by Gareth Sears, Peter Keegan, and Ray Laurence. London: Bloomsbury, 2003.

Woolf, Greg. "Literacy or Literacies in Rome?" In Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, edited by William A. Johnson and Holt N. Parker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

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