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meet with the sacrifice to Dlvus Augustus ad templant novum 6
and again the words, "an[te templum novum divo Augusto
bovem] marem et div[ae Augustae vaccam i]mmolavit."1
At once the question arise, what is meant by templl1m. The
author in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities! in discussing Augustus'
use of the two words tcmplum and aedes in the M onumentum
Ancyranum 19,20, and 21, makes the following observation:
"It seems to us a truer view that the use of templum for aedes
was coming in before the end of the Republic, and that Augustus
in speaking by name of pre-existing temples... uses the term which
originally described them, but in those which he has just built
uses the term now in vogue."
Vitrttvius throws some light on the word, in III, 4, 4:
"Gradus in fronte constituendi ita sunt uti sint semper inpares.
Namque cum dextro pede primus gradus ascendatur, item in
summo templo primus erit ponendus."
This is translated by Morris Ricky Morgan as follows:
"The steps in front must be arranged so that there shall always
be an odd number of them; for thus the right foot, with which
one mounts the first step, wiII also be the first to reach the level
of the temple itself."
The writer of the article on templum in Daremberg et Saglio's
Dictionaire des antiquites grecqttes et romaines 9 thus comments
on the passage:
"Un passage de cet auteur semblerait meme montrer que ce
terme, en architecture religieuse, indiquait seulement l'aire sur
laquelle s'elevaient les murs et les colonnes de l'edifice; 1a surface
superieure du podium est pour lui Ie fummum templum."
This view seems correct, namely, that Vitruvius means by
summum templum the upper surface of the podium, the area
on which the walls and colonnade rested, and upon which one
stepped on reaching the head of the stairway. Templum would
then be identical with podium. This is a strict interpretation of
the passage, but, by a natural extension, templum would include
not only the summum templum or upper surface, but the walls
• Act. Pr. Arv., p. XLVIII, a. 39.
, Act. Pr. Arv., p. LXIII, a. 57.
• Vol. II, p. 773.
• p. 107.