Paestum
Paestum is the classical Roman name of a major Graeco-Roman city in the
Campania region of
Italy. It is located near the coast about 85 km SE of
Naples in the province of
Salerno and belongs to the comune of
Capaccio.
Founded around the start of the
7th century BCE by
Greek colonists, and originally known as
Poseidonia, it later became the Roman city of Paestum in
273 BCE after the Graeco-Italian Poseidonians sided with the loser,
Pyrrhus, in war against
Rome during the first quarter of the
3rd century BCE.
The city remained in continuous occupation throughout the
Roman imperial period, but started to go into decline between the
4th and
7th centuries. It was abandoned during the
Middle Ages and its ruins only came to notice again in the
18th century, following the rediscovery of the Roman cities of
Pompeii and
Herculaneum. The decline and desertion were probably due to changes in local land drainage patterns, leading to swampy
malarial conditions (this is difficult to picture, with the present aridity; the site is now left to
lizards and a few tourists).
|
View of the Temple of Apollo |
The main features of the site today are the standing remains of three major temples in
Doric style, dating from the first half of the
6th century BCE. These were dedicated to
Hera,
Apollo and
Athena, although they have traditionally been identified as a
basilica and temples of
Neptune and
Ceres, owing to 18th-century misattribution.
The site is surrounded by the ancient city walls, some of the gateways of which are still standing.
The town of Paestum, directly to the north of the archaeological site, is a popular coastal resort.
The
temple of Hera is the oldest surviving temple in Paestum, being built in around
550 BCE. 18th century archeologists named it "The Basilica" because they mistakenly believed it to be a Roman building. A basilica in Roman times was a civil building, not a religious one. Later, an
altar was unearthed in front of the temple; it was situated externally so that the faithful, who were forbidden to enter the temple, could attend rites and
sacrifices. Small
terracotta offertory statues found around the altar establish the building as a temple dedicated to Hera.
The nearby temple, the
temple of Apollo, was built in about
450 BCE. It has been in the past variously thought of as a temple dedicated to
Poseidon or to Hera (Temple of Hera II). There are visible on the east side the remains of two altars, one large and one smaller. The smaller one is a Roman addition, built when they cut through the larger one to build a road to the
forum. Again, offertory statues around the larger altar are used to demonstrate that Apollo was the patron of the temple.
In the cental part of the complex is the
Roman Forum, thought to have been built on the site of the preceding Greek
agora. On the north side of the forum is a small Roman temple, dated to around
200 BCE. It was dedicated to the
Capitoline Triad,
Jupiter,
Juno and
Minerva.
To the nort-west of the forum is the
amphitheatre. This is of normal Roman pattern, though much smaller than later examples. Only the southern half is visible; in
1930 AD, a road was built across the site, burying the northern half. It is said by local inhabitants that the civil engineer responsible was tried, convicted and received a prison sentence for what was described as wanton destruction of a historic site.
On the highest point of the town, some way from the other temples, is the
temple of Athena. It was built in about
500 BCE, and was for some time incorrectly thought to have been dedicated to Ceres. The architecture is transitional, being partly Ionic in style and partly early Doric. Three mediaeval Christian tombs in the floor show that the temple was at one time used as a
Christian church.
All three temples have undergone some renovation and repair in recent years. Close access is allowed, but entry by visitors into the buildings is no longer allowed.
*A.C. Carpiceci and L. Pennino,
Paestum and Velia, Matonti, Salerno, 1995
*
Official site*
Fondazione Paestum*
A virtual recostruction
