The Sebasteion (Augusteum in Latin) is a temple dedicated to the Roman emperors of the "Augusti" or "Julio-Claudian" family, the successors of Julius Caesar which included Augustus, Nero and Claudius. This is a spectacular, highly accurate reconstruction of part of the temple complex.

Helmut: "Where we stand is the site of the Temple to the Augusti. You see a processional way between two colonnades. These colonnades supported two buildings, three stories high. Massive amounts of relief sculptures have been found in situ."

Helmut: "Aphrodisias was a city beloved by the Romans, particularly Augustus. The family of Julius Caesar and Augustus derived their origin from the goddess Venus. She was the mother of the Trojan hero Aeneas who fled Troy and finally reached the coast of Italy and founded Rome. So this is the city of Aphrodite and Aphrodite (or Venus) is the mother of the Juilo-Claudian House, so there was a natural affinity. But also, in the battles between Augustus and his rival in the east, Mark Antony, Aphrodisias stayed on the side of Augustus. The people of Aphrodisias were richly rewarded for the fact that they stayed faithful to Rome in the civil war between Augustus and Marc Antony."

Helmut: "We welcome Dr. Thomas Kaefer, Austrian architect, who has been working on the reconstruction of the Sebasteion. He will be able to show us a few things about the progress of his work."

In this photo, we're standing on at the entrance (the propylon) looking towards the location where the temple used to be. The building on the right is the one in the previous photos.

Dr. Kaefer: "The Sebasteion itself is a building done in the first century after Christ by two rich families of Aphrodisias; it contains an entrance building, a so-called propylon at one end and a south and a north portico. One family paid for the entrance building and for the north building; the other family paid for the south building and for the temple. It was a kind of competition."

Photo: Bill F.

Helmut: "The architecture in the first story is Doric, in the second story Ionic, and in the third story Corinthian. How do they know which belongs to which story? The first story is the highest, the second is a little lower and the third is a little lower."

Notice the "Ionic corner problem" in the second story.

Dr. Kaefer: "You see that these buildings have rooms behind the columns in the first story. People always ask, "What is the meaning of these rooms? Were there shops or depots?" In my opinion, the whole meaning of these rooms was for [structural engineering], to support this 3-story, 50 meter-long building, you had to have rooms to tie it all together."

Photo: Doug F.

Dr. Kaefer: "The first thing we did is draw the whole thing in theory and find out what could we do. Our aim was an anastylosis, which is different from a reconstruction. A reconstruction is when you build something up because you think this was how it was. An anastylosis means you have to put a block where you know it was located originally. You have to use original material as much as possible. Practically, you have to have about 75% remains: anything less is very difficult."

An anastylosis is a "stone-for-stone reconstruction."

Photo: Jane K.

Dr. Kaefer: "We even imitated the wooden construction for the ceilings inside the rooms. Our [static] concept is like in the old days."

Dr. Kaefer: "Below here is the original wall, still standing. Above is the wall we have made. You can easily tell because we set back the new wall about 3-4 cm."

Question: How long does that take?

Dr. Kaefer: "This wall we built up and took down three times. Each time you come closer to the original, but [you find that it does not fit correctly so you take it down.]

It’s a constant back and forth. It’s drawing, taking pictures, making notes, finding what’s wrong; "we can’t leave it like this, take it down." We find this a little bit annoying. [A funder will come and say] “I thought you were building up. Why is it down again?” I say "it takes time" and they understand. It takes at least two or three times to build up and take down; each time coming closer."

Dr. Kaefer: "This was a shop. These holes we left. They are for [shelves where the shopkeepers] had a gallery [to display their wares.] We found traces of glass, of [paint] color, so people used this as a shop."

Dr. Kaefer: "There was always a door here, windows to the left and right. Holes for the hinges..."

Dr. Kaefer: "...and here for locking the door."

Dr. Kaefer: "Where this gap in the middle is, we saw there is a relief missing. But when we looked carefully at our drawings of the columns left and right, we found all these holes for locks, so there was a window, definitely a window. It makes sense to have a window inside so Zeus could look towards the temple."

Massive amounts of marble relief sculptures have been found in the locations where they fell as a result of earthquakes. They were subsequently buried in dirt as high as the tops of the columns seen here.  Because nothing had been disturbed and the archaeologists were very careful to mark where everything was found, they could figure out logically where the reliefs had been.

This room in the museum gives an idea of the number and placement of reliefs on the Sebastieon. Aphrodisias has more reliefs than the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum. The only larger collection is the Athena-Zeus Altar (now in Berlin).

Dr.Kaefer : "The whole purpose of this building was to walk through this gallery of pictures of colored reliefs; the temple [was secondary]."

Note that the reliefs were painted marble. Very colorful.

Museum display: "Agrippina crowns her young son Nero with a laurel wreath. She carries a cornucopia, symbol of Fortune and Plenty, and he wears the armour and cloak of a Roman commander, with a helmet on the ground at his feet."

This can be accurately dated because Nero was crowned in 54 CE. He tried to kill his mother three times before finally "succeeding" in 59 CE.