Serapeum

A serapeum is a temple or other religious institution dedicated to the syncretic Greco-Egyptian deity Serapis, who combined aspects of Osiris and Apis in a humanized form that was accepted by the Ptolemaic Greeks of Alexandria. There were several such religious centers, each of which was a serapeion (Greek: Σεραπεῖον) or, in its Latinized form, a serapeum.

"Pompey's Pillar" (in reality erected by Diocletian) above the original site of the Alexandrian Serapeum

Egyptian Serapea

Alexandria

31°10′55″N 29°53′49″E / 31.18194°N 29.89694°E / 31.18194; 29.89694

Serapeum, quod licet minuatur exilitate verborum, atriis tamen columnariis amplissimis et spirantibus signorum figmentis et reliqua operum multitudine ita est exornatum, ut post Capitolium, quo se venerabilis Roma in aeternum attollit, nihil orbis terrarum ambitiosius cernat.

Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, XXII, 16

The Serapeum, splendid to a point that words would only diminish its beauty, has such spacious rooms flanked by columns, filled with such life-like statues and a multitude of other works of such art, that nothing, except the Capitolium, which attests to Rome's venerable eternity, can be considered as ambitious in the whole world.

The Serapeum of Alexandria in the Ptolemaic Kingdom was an ancient Greek temple built by Ptolemy III Euergetes (reigned 246–222 BCE) and dedicated to Serapis, who was made the protector of Alexandria. By all detailed accounts, the Serapeum was the largest and most magnificent of all temples in the Greek quarter of Alexandria. Besides the image of the god, the temple precinct housed an offshoot collection of the great Library of Alexandria.[1][2] The geographer Strabo tells that this stood in the west of the city. Nothing now remains above ground.

Excavations at the site of the column of Diocletian in 1944 yielded the foundation deposits of the Serapeion. These are two sets of ten plaques, one each of gold, silver, bronze, Egyptian faience, sun-dried Nile mud, and five of opaque glass.[3] The inscription that Ptolemy III Euergetes built the Serapeion, in Greek and Egyptian, marks all plaques; evidence suggests that Parmeniskos was assigned as architect.[4] The foundation deposits of a temple dedicated to Harpocrates from the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator were also found within the enclosure walls.[5] Subterranean galleries beneath the temple were most probably the site of the mysteries of Serapis. In 1895, a black diorite statue representing Serapis in his Apis bull incarnation with the sun disk between his horns was found at the site; an inscription dates it to the reign of Hadrian (117-38).

Secondary concrete foundations (including coins with dates up to 211) and granite columns suggest a Roman rebuilding and widening of the Alexandrine Serapeum in AD 181–217.[6]

Destruction of the Alexandrian Serapeum

Theophilus, Gospel in hand, stands triumphantly atop the Serapeum in 391

The Serapeum in Alexandria was destroyed by a Christian mob or Roman soldiers in 391 (although the date is debated).[7] Several conflicting accounts for the context of the destruction of the Serapeum exist.

According to early Christian sources, bishop Pope Theophilus of Alexandria was the Nicene patriarch when the decrees of emperor Theodosius I forbade public observances of any rites but Christian. Theodosius I had progressively made (year 389) the sacred feasts of other faiths into workdays, forbidden public sacrifices, closed temples, and colluded in acts of local violence by Christians against major cult sites. The decree promulgated in 391 that "no one is to go to the sanctuaries, [or] walk through the temples" resulted in the abandonment of many temples throughout the Empire, which set the stage for widespread practice of converting or replacing these sites with Christian churches.

Statue of Apis, Thirtieth Dynasty, Louvre.

In Alexandria, Bishop Theophilus obtained legal authority over one such forcibly abandoned temple of Dionysus (or, in another version of the story, a Mithraeum), which he intended to turn into a church. During the renovations, the contents of subterranean spaces ("secret caverns" in the Christian sources) were uncovered and profaned, which allegedly incited crowds of non-Christians to seek revenge. The Christians retaliated, as Theophilus withdrew, causing the pagans to retreat into the Serapeum, still the most imposing of the city's remaining sanctuaries, and to barricade themselves inside, taking captured Christians with them. These sources report that the captives were forced to offer sacrifices to the banned deities, and that those who refused were tortured (their shins broken) and ultimately cast into caves that had been built for blood sacrifices. The trapped pagans plundered the Serapeum (Rufinus & MacMullen 1984).

A letter was sent by Theodosius to Theophilus, asking him to grant the offending pagans pardon and calling for the destruction of all pagan images, suggesting that these were at the origin of the commotion. Consequently, the Serapeum was levelled by Roman soldiers and monks called in from the desert, as were the buildings dedicated to the Egyptian god Canopus. The wave of destruction of non-Christian idols spread throughout Egypt in the following weeks, as documented by a marginal illustration on papyrus from a world chronicle written in Alexandria in the early 5th century, which shows Theophilus in triumph (illustration, above left); the cult image of Serapis, crowned with the modius, is visible within the temple at the bottom (MacMullen 1984).

An alternate account of the incident is found in writings by Eunapius, the pagan historian of later Neoplatonism. Here, an unprovoked Christian mob successfully used military-like tactics to destroy the Serapeum and steal anything that may have survived the attack. According to Eunapius, the remains of criminals and slaves, who had been occupying the Serapeum at the time of the attack, were appropriated by non-Christians, placed in (surviving) pagan temples, and venerated as martyrs (Turcan, 1996).

Whichever the cause, the destruction of the Serapeum, described by Christian writers Tyrannius Rufinus and Sozomen, was but the most spectacular of such conflicts, according to Peter Brown.[8] Several other ancient and modern authors, instead, have interpreted the destruction of the Serapeum in Alexandria as representative of the triumph of Christianity and an example of the attitude of the Christians towards pagans. However, Peter Brown frames it against a long-term backdrop of frequent mob violence in the city, where the Greek and Jewish quarters had fought during four hundred years, since the 1st century BCE.[9] Also, Eusebius mentions street-fighting in Alexandria between Christians and non-Christians, occurring as early as 249. There is evidence that non-Christians had taken part in citywide struggles both for and against Athanasius of Alexandria in 341 and 356. Similar accounts are found in the writings of Socrates of Constantinople. R. McMullan further reports that, in 363 (almost 30 years earlier), George of Cappadocia was killed for his repeated acts of pointed outrage, insult, and pillage of the most sacred treasures of the city.[10]

Whatever the prior events, the Serapeum of Alexandria was not rebuilt.

Saqqara

Canopus

Another Serapeum was located at Canopus, in the Nile Delta near Alexandria. This sanctuary, dedicated to Isis and her consort Serapis, became one of the most famous cult centers of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt. Its festivals and rites were so popular that the site became an architectural model for sanctuaries to the Egyptian gods throughout the Roman Empire.

At this Graeco-Roman site, a sacred temenos enclosed the temple dedicated to the gods, which was located behind a propylaea or peristyle court. Auxiliary shrines dedicated to other, less universal, Egyptian deities could be found here as well, including those dedicated to Anubis (Hermanubis), Hermes Trismegistus, the syncretism of Thoth and Hermes, Harpocrates, and others. Ritual complexes dedicated to Isis were often built around a well or a spring, which was meant to represent the miraculous annual inundation of the Nile. This was also the case in sanctuaries devoted to the Egyptian gods in Roman-era Delos, where a central basin provided the water element central in the rites of Isis.

Serapea in Italy

Regio tertia

The Regio III within the city of Rome was named Isis et Serapis because it contained a temple dedicated to the two Egyptian deities. The structure, originally dedicated to Isis alone, was built by Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius in the first half of the 1st century BCE to celebrate his father's victory over Jugurtha.

The obelisk facing the Pantheon, in Rome

The complex, of which only parts of the foundations remain, was originally terraced; during the Flavian dynasty, it underwent major renovations, and the cult of Serapis was associated to that of Isis. The temple was finally demolished during the 6th century.

Campus Martius

This temple, dedicated to Isis and Serapis, was first dedicated by the triumvirs in 43 BCE[11] in Rome. However, due to later tensions between Octavian (later Augustus Caesar) and Marc Antony, the temple was not built. Following the Battle at Actium, Augustus banned the religion from within the pomerium of Rome altogether.[12] The temple was finally built by Gaius Caligula on the area known as Campus Martius, between the Saepta Julia and the temple of Minerva c. 37-41 CE.[13]

The Serapeum, 240 m long and 60 m wide, was divided in three sections: a rectangular area could be accessed first by walking under monumental arches; an open square, adorned with red granite obelisks brought to the city during the 1st century and erected in couples, followed. The centre of the square was likely occupied by the temple dedicated to Isis, while the third section, a semicircular exedra with an apse presumably hosted the altar dedicated to Serapis. Fragments of the obelisks, some quite large, have been found around the current church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva; some archaeologists have proposed that the obelisk facing the Pantheon (see picture) may have been repositioned from the temple to its current location.

The building was destroyed in the great fire of the year 80 CE[14] and rebuilt by Domitian;[15] further renovation was initiated by Hadrian, while Septimius Severus ordered the necessary upkeep of the temple's structure. Written records attest to the Serapeum's existence and ritual activity until the 5th century.

Quirinal Hill

Sketch of Palazzo Colonna (1534-1536) by Marten van Heemskerck showing the remains of the ancient Temple of Serapis.
Remains of the ancient Temple on the Quirinal hillside.

The temple built on Quirinal Hill and dedicated to Serapis was, by most surviving accounts, the most sumptuous and architectonically ambitious of those built on the hill; its remains are still visible between Palazzo Colonna and the Pontifical Gregorian University.

The sanctuary, which lay between today's piazza della Pilotta and the large square facing Quirinal Palace, was built by Caracalla on the western slopes of the hill, covering over 13,000 m2 (3.2 acres), as its sides measured 135 m by 98 m.[16] It was composed by a long courtyard (surrounded by a colonnade) and by the ritual area, where statues and obelisks had been erected. Designed to impress its visitors, the temple boasted columns 21.17 m (69 ft 5 in) tall and 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in diameter, visually sitting atop a marble stairway that connected the base of the hill to the sanctuary.

An enormous fragment of entablature, weighing approximately 100 tons and 34 m3 in volume (the largest in Rome), belongs to the original temple, as do the statues of the Nile and the Tiber, moved by Michelangelo to the Capitoline Hill in front of the Senate building.[17]

Hadrian's Villa

The canopus pool of Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, Lazio.

Emperor Hadrian (117-138) ordered the construction of a "canopus" in his villa in Tivoli with typical imperial grandeur: an immense rectangular tank representing a canal, 119 m long by 18 m wide was surrounded by porticoes and statues, leading the way to a Serapeum.[18] Protected by a monumental dome, the sanctuary was composed of a public area and a more intimate subterranean part that was dedicated to the chthonic aspect of Serapis.

To mark the inauguration of his temple, Hadrian struck coinage that carry his effigy accompanied by Serapis, upon a dais where two columns support a round canopy. In this manner, the emperor became synnaos, a companion of the god's arcane naos and equal beneficiary of the cult of Serapis at Canopus.

Ostia antica

The ancient Macellum of Pozzuoli was a market building, erroneously identified as a Serapeum when a statue of Serapis was discovered.

The Serapeum of Ostia Antica was inaugurated in 127 CE and dedicated to the syncretic cult of Jupiter Serapis.

It is a typical Roman sanctuary, on a raised platform and with a row of columns at the entrance, where a mosaic representing Apis in a typically Egyptian manner can still be seen. From this temple likely came the statue that Bryaxis copied for the Serapeum in Alexandria.

Pozzuoli

The Macellum of Pozzuoli, marketplace or macellum of the Roman city of Puteoli (now known as Pozzuoli) was first excavated in the 18th century, when the discovery of a statue of Serapis led to the building being misidentified as the city's serapeum, the Temple of Serapis. Under that name, the site had considerable influence on early geology as a band of boreholes affecting the three standing columns suggested that the building had been partly below sea level for some period.[19]

Serapea in Turkey

The Red Basilica, one of the seven important churches in Early Christianity, was built on the temple of Serapis, Bergama.

Pergamon

Inside Pergamon in Bergama, there is the Temple of Serapis, built for the Egyptian gods in the 2nd century CE and called the Red Basilica (Kızıl Avlu in Turkish) by locals. This is a basilica-shaped building constructed under the reign of Hadrian. It consists of a main building and two round towers. In the Christian New Testament, the Church at Pergamon, inside the main building of the Red Basilica, is listed as one of the Seven Churches to which the Book of Revelation was addressed (Revelation 2:12).

Ephesus

Another Serapeum was in Ephesus, which is near present-day Selçuk, İzmir Province, Turkey. The temple is located behind the Library of Celsus. This Egyptian temple was turned into a Christian church.

Miletus

This temple was built in the 3rd century BCE near the south agora of Miletus and also it was restored by Emperor Julius Aurelius (270-75 CE)[20]

References

  1. ↑ Sabottka, M. (1986). Das Serapeum in Alexandria. Paper presented at the Koldeway-Gesellschaft, Bericht über die 33. Tagung für Ausgrabungswissenschaft und Bauforschung 30. Mai-30. Juni 1984.
  2. ↑ Sabottka, M. (1989). Das Serapeum in Alexandria. Untersuchungen zur Architektur und Baugeschichte des Heiligtums von der frühen ptolemäischen Zeit bis zur Zerstörung 391 n. Chr., Dissertation, University of Berlin.
  3. ↑ Kessler, D. (2000). Das hellenistische Serapeum in Alexandria und Ägypten. Paper presented at the Ägypten und der östliche Mittelmeerraum im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. conference, Berlin.
  4. ↑ McKenzie, J. (2007). The Architecture of Alexandria and Egypt, C. 300 B.C. to A.D. 700: Yale University Press.
  5. ↑ McKenzie, J. S., Gibson, S., & Reyes, A. T. (2008). Reconstructing the Serapeum in Alexandria from the Archaeological Evidence.
  6. ↑ Judith McKenzie, "Glimpsing Alexandria from archaeological evidence"; Journal of Roman Archaeology Vol. 16 (2003), pp. 50–56. "The Roman version of the Serapeum, which was larger, was built between 181 amd 217. Concrete foundations and parts of granite columns survive from this phase. The concrete foundations enclose the foundations of the ashlar walls of the Ptolemaic temple, following the Egyptian custom. [...] Foundation deposits of coins were found embedded in the corners of the pool near the E entrance, 'the floor of the pool being of exactly the same material as the foundations of the Roman temple itself'. The latest coin is dated to 211 and provides a terminus post quem the pool and an indication of the date of construction of the Roman temple."
  7. ↑ Hahn: Gewalt und religiöser Konflikt. p.82.
  8. ↑ The Rise of Western Christendom (2003: 73-74.
  9. ↑ Kreich, Chapter 4, Michael Routery, 1997.
  10. ↑ Ramsay McMullan, Christianizing the Roman Empire A.D. 100-400 (Yale University Press) 1984: 90.
  11. ↑ Cassius Dio. Historia Romana, XLVII, 15:4.
  12. ↑ Moehring, Horst R. “The Persecution of the Jews and the Adherents of the Isis Cult at Rome AD 19” Novum Testamentu 3.4 (1959): 294.
  13. ↑ Momigliano, Arnaldo. On Pagans, Jews, and Christians. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1987: 88.
  14. ↑ Cassius Dio. Historia Romana, LXVI, 24:2.
  15. ↑ Eutropius. Breviarium, VII, 23:5.
  16. ↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, VI, 570.
  17. ↑ Filippo Coarelli, Guida archeologica di Roma, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Verona 1984.
  18. ↑ Taylor, R. (2004). Hadrian's Serapeum in Rome. American Journal of Archaeology, 108(2), 223-266.
  19. ↑ Liber, Lucio; Paola Petrosino; Valentina Armiero (2010). "Il Serapeo ed i Granai Imperiali di Pozzuoli = The Serapis Temple and the Imperial Granaries of Pozzuoli". Italian Journal of Geosciences. 129 (2): 237–250.
  20. ↑ Information about Miletus

Alexandria

  • Chuvin, Pierre, 1990 (B. A. Archer, translator). A Chronicle of the Last Pagans,(Harvard University Press). ISBN 0-674-12970-9 The incremental restrictions on "indigenous polytheism" of the governing class, chronicled from imperial edict to imperial edict.
  • MacMullen, Ramsay, 1984.Christianizing the Roman Empire A.D. 100-400, (Yale University Press).
  • Turcan, Robert, (1992) 1996. Cults of the Roman Empire (Blackwell) Bryn Mawr Classical review. A translation of Les cultes orientaux dans le monde romain.

Saqqara

  • Christophe, B. (2001). L'inscription dédicatoire de Khâemouaset au Sérapéum de Saqqara (Pl. V-XIII). Revue d'Égyptologie, 52, 29-55.
  • Ibrahim Aly Sayed, Mohamad; David M. Rohl (1988). "Apis and the Serapeum". Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum]. 2: 6–26. 
  • Malinine, Michel; Georges Posener; Jean Vercoutter (1968). Catalogue des stèles du Sérapéum de Memphis. Paris: Imprimerie nationale de France. 
  • Mariette, François Auguste Ferdinand (1857). Le Sérapéum de Memphis, découvert et décrit. Paris: Gide éditeur. 
  • Mariette, François Auguste Ferdinand (1892). Le Sérapéum de Memphis. Paris: F. Vieweg. 
  • Thompson, Dorothy J. (1988). Memphis under the Ptolemies. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03593-8. 
  • Vercoutter, Jean (1960). "The Napatan Kings and Apis Worship (Serapeum Burials of the Napatan Period)". Kush: Journal of the Sudan Antiquities Service. 8: 62–76. 
  • Vercoutter, Jean (1962). Textes biographiques du Sérapéum de Memphis: Contribution à l’étude des stèles votives du Sérapéum. Paris: Librairie ancienne Honoré Champion. 

Ostia

  • Mar, R. (1992). El serapeum ostiense y la urbanística de la ciudad. Una aproximación a su estudio. BA, 13(15), 31-51.
  • Bloch, H. (1959). The Serapeum of Ostia and the Brick-Stamps of 123 AD A New Landmark in the History of Roman Architecture. American Journal of Archaeology, 63(3), 225-240.
  • Mar, R. (2001). El santuario de Serapis en Ostia.
  • Mols, S. (2007). The Urban Context of the Serapeum at Ostia. BABesch, 82(1), 227-232.

Rome

  • Filippo Coarelli, "Iseum et Serapeum in Campo Martio; Isis Campensis", in E. M. Steinby (ed.), Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae (LTUR), vol. 3, 1996, pp. 107–109.
  • Filippo Coarelli, "I monumenti dei culti orientali a Roma", in La soteriologia dei culti orientali nell'Impero romano, Leiden, Brill, 1982, pp. 33–67. (ISBN 9004065016).
  • Serena Ensoli, "I santuari di Iside e Serapide a Roma e la resistenza pagana in età tardoantica" in Aurea Roma, Roma, L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2000, pp.  273-282. (ISBN 8882651266).

Pozzuoli

  • Charles Dubois. Cultes et dieux à Pouzzoles. Roma, 1902.
  • Charles Dubois. Pouzzoles Antique. Parigi, 1907.
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