Temple of Caesar
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The Temple of Caesar (Aedes Divus Iulius or Templum Divi Iulii) was begun by Augustus in 42 BC after the senate deified Julius Caesar posthumously. Augustus dedicated the Ionic prostyle temple to Caesar (his adoptive father) on August 18, 29 BC, after the Battle of Actium. It stands on the east side of the main square of the Roman Forum (Forum), between the Regia, Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Basilica Aemilia, on the site of Caesar's cremation (Caesar's testament was read at the funeral by Marcus Antonius from the original Rostra).
Caesar was the first resident of Rome (after Romulus) to be deified and so honored with a temple. (The Temple of Romulus presently in existence near the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina is dedicated not to the founder of Rome, but to a deified son of the emperor Maxentius). A fourth flamen maior was dedicated to him after 44 BC and Marcus Antonius was appointed as his flamen. It was with the Temple of Caesar that Augustus started the transition from private worship to public worship.
The high platform on which the temple was built served as a rostra (Rostra Juli) and, like the Rostra at the opposite end of the Forum, was decorated with the beaks of ships taken at the battle of Actium. In the frontal side of the platform there is a recessed semicircular niche and an altar that marked the site of the funeral pyre of Caesar. This strange detail, absolutely unique in the Roman architecture, was probably a result of the very narrow space then available on the Forum. Even so, this temple's construction excluded the ancient Regia and the Temple of Vesta from the main square of the Forum.
Flowers are still regularly placed on the altar by visitors.
