Project

Monumentum Ancyranum and the archaeological context:
the temple of Augustus and Rome in Ankara.

The Ancyra Project is an initiative promoted by the University of Trieste. It is based on interdisciplinary scientific knowledge and advanced technology. It is geared to saving and preserving the temple of Augustus and Roma in Ankara, one of the most important monuments of Roman civilization in Turkey. In October 2001, following publication of the preliminary results of the first years of research, World Monuments Watch included the temple in a list of a hundred world monuments to be saved and preserved as cultural heritage of mankind.

 

Following the conquest and annexation of Galatia (Asia Minor) under Caesar Octavianus Augustus in 25 B.C., a magnificent temple was erected in Ancyra (the administrative capital of the newly established Roman province) in honour of the Emperor and of the Goddess Roma, divine personification of the conquering city. Upon the death of Augustus, the Res gestae Divi Augusti, i.e. the glorification of his political achievements, were engraved in Greek and Latin letters on the temple ***. This inscription is the copy of the original which according to Augustus' wish had been engraved on two bronze pillars and placed at the entrance to his Mausoleum in Rome. The original one is lost, while the copy engraved on the Augusteum in Ankara still exists. The text of the inscriptions is one of the most valuable documents of Roman world as it deals not only with Augustus' achievements but also describes the institutional changes the res publica underwent to become an empire. Probably other specimens of the Res gestae were sent by the central power in Rome to its provinces but their number and destination are unknown. Up to now the inscriptions on the temple in Ankara have survived, together with some small epigraphical fragments of the Res gestae Divi Augusti found in Asia Minor. Most of them, about 260 fragments, some of which are very small, come from ancient Antioch and are engraved in Latin. Three blocks of inscriptions come from Apollonia and are engraved only in Greek. Both sites belonged to ancient Roman province of Pisidia Galatica, today corresponding to Yalvaç and Uluborlu.

 

 

The Augusteum in Ankara was a pseudodipteros temple of the Corinthian order (36 x 54.82 m.) standing on a podium about two metres high.

Another important inscription, attributable to the Tiberius era, is engraved on the left anta of the temple. It contains a list of Galatian priests devoted to imperial worship. The priests are described in chronological order with an indication of Galatian legates.
Early in the 6th century the Roman temple was tranformed into a church. Towards the middle of the 15th century the followers of Haci Bayram Veli, one of the leading Dervish figures, built in his honor a small mosque with a fine minaret, adjacent to the ancient temple.
The mosque, modified at a later date, is still an active place of orthodox Islamic worship. The mosque and the Haci Bayram mausoleum are even today one of the most important religious centres of the capital, while the Roman monument has turned into ruins. The impressive ruins, which are almost 12 m high and 32,50 m long, bear witness to past splendour.
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