 The Pantheon of Trajan and Hadrian is one of the best-preserved temples from the ancient world, but let's take a look at what was the precursor, which was the model for this extraordinary temple. The name is still preserved on the Hadrianic monument. Marcus Agrippa made this monument in his third consulship. That's the original Pantheon constructed in 25 BC, but it is destroyed in a fire in the year 80. And Agrippa's Pantheon was rebuilt by Domitian, but that Pantheon in turn was destroyed in a fire in 110 that led to the final construction of the Pantheon that we see and enjoy today. What can we say about the original Pantheon of Agrippa? Well, we know from soundings that it had the same proportions and dimensions, a large porch facing north followed by a rotunda. And it communicated across the flood plain of the campus marshes with the entrance of the mausoleum of Augustus. There was a conversation going on here in the time of Augustus between the Pantheon of Agrippa and the mausoleum of Augustus. And that is the gods were placed inside the original Pantheon, this temple of all the gods as it became known as. And who was going to become a god in the future after he died and buried in his mausoleum was Augustus. So it was very obvious to the people of Augustan Rome what Agrippa had intended with his Pantheon. And in fact, there were two niches that are still preserved in the porch of the Hadrianic Pantheon. Those niches recall what the ancient sources tell us existed in the Agrippin Pantheon, two niches for Agrippa and Augustus. After Augustus modestly refused to have his statue placed inside the temple, he needed to die first before he could be a god and be placed inside the temple, which included a statue of Divus Luneus, divine Julius Caesar. There are so many colossal statues of Augustus, they're not hard to imagine in the Pantheon, but here's a rare colossal one of Agrippa himself, now today located in Venice, Archaeological Museum. So we know we have the original plan of the Pantheon with the rotunda and porch preserved underneath the Hadrianic Pantheon. But what's the inspiration for the Pantheon of Agrippa? Well, there are many places we can look. Let's start off in the Forum of Augustus. What you have here is a response to the Forum of Caesar. Now you have Augustus making his own form and the standout feature for me looking at it is that you have these two Exidrai. You have behind the typical portico surrounding a Forum, you have two Exidrai which were roofed over and if we were to put those two Exidrai together, you're going to be able to form much like the dimensions of the rotunda of the Pantheon. So it's not by chance these proportions are so similar. There's another kind of conversation going on here between the Forum of Augustus and the Pantheon that you have with the Pantheon and the great mausoleum of Augustus, a wonder of the world. So we have at least an architectural template that seems to be recalling the ground plan and the dimensions of the original Pantheon of Agrippa. So no one thinks today in the scholarship that there was the technology to vault over, to have that concrete dome at the time of Agrippa for the original Pantheon. Certainly we have it for the Trojanic-Haderianic Pantheon and when we look around at the dome structures and the time of Augustus and even the later Julio-Claudians, nothing comes close. The closest is this, the so-called Temple of Mercury in Baia in the Bay of Naples. So to roof over the Pantheon we turn to the use of timbers and truss work and in fact just down the street in the campus marshes there was the Deripatorium, the hall for counting the ballots for the voting taking place in the Sipta. The Deripatorium famously rebuilt by Agrippa and it was famed for being the largest roofed space in antiquity. So it would make sense then that Agrippa, who was building the Deripatorium, a standout feature, its roof was then capable also of roofing over the Pantheon in wood originally. Another feature of Agrippa's Pantheon was this. Diogenes of Athens decorated his Pantheon with columns, some of which had the shape of karyatids and they were considered some of the most beautiful sculptures in the city of Rome in the time of Agrippa and there were other statues placed in the pediment of the temple as well. So says Pliny the Elder. So what were those karyatid figures? Well we can take a look at karyatid figures that are contemporary that are here in the Markets of Trajan today but we're decorating the form of Augustus contemporary with Agrippa's Pantheon and where did they come from? They were miniature versions of these karyatid figures which were copied we know in the time of Augustus and Agrippa when they were in Athens that belonged to the Rektheon, one of the great high classical temples on the Acropolis. So we think then that somewhere in the decoration of the Agrippin Pantheon there were these kind of karyatid figures maybe on a reduced scale as we have for the form of Augustus but they were of bronze. Another example of how magnificently decorated the Pantheon of Agrippa once was. There are so many fascinating stories that are associated with the Pantheon of Agrippa. Another story by Pliny the Elder is that Cleopatra made a bet against Mark Antony as to who could spend the most amount of money in a single meal. So she took one of her pearl earrings and dissolved it in vinegar and consumed it. The story continues that after Mark Antony and Cleopatra lost to Augustus the Battle of Actium and then ultimately Alexandria and Egypt fell the surviving pearl earring was brought to Rome cut in half and used to decorate the ears of this statue of Venus inside Agrippa's Pantheon. Diana records that there's not just a statue of Venus inside but also one of Mars and of course Agrippa placed a statue of Julius Caesar. The divine Julius Caesar inside we've already talked about Agrippa and Augustus being outside in the porch. In recent scholarship there's been an evaluation of many of the features of the Hadrianic Pantheon like the height of the doorway here of the Hadrianic Pantheon maybe indebted to that original one of Agrippa. So we have a lot of details we can probably still glean from a close inspection of the Trojanic Hadrianic Pantheon and finally let's consider what this monument originally was in the time of Agrippa. It was celebrating the divinization of the ruler Augustus was outside not yet a god but his father Divus Julius was inside. Where's the inspiration coming from when we look at that architectural feature there was in fact a Tkion a temple dedicated to Tk a kingmaker deity and patron of Alexandria Egypt that probably served as some form of inspiration for the Agrippin Pantheon. So there's a lot more that we can talk about this wonderful lost monument and there's so much more we can study about ancient Rome. Thanks for watching thanks for subscribing take one of our courses and join us in Rome and throughout the Mediterranean and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for links to free lectures every month.