"built by Elagabalus, on the slopes of the Palatine, for the worship of the Syro-Phœnician sun-god, which was represented by a black conical stone, set with gems. Elagabalus broke into the Temple of Vesta, intending to remove the Palladium to his Temple of the Sun, but the virgins, by a pious fraud, defeated his object, on discovering which he broke into their sanctuary, and carried off one of the virgins to add to his list of wives" (Lampridius).

ARCH OF TITUS, WITH THE META SUDANS, AND BASILICÆ OF THE FORUM OF CUPID.
[View larger image.]

The temple was built for the worship of the Sun. Around it was the Lavacrum, or gratuitous baths, A.D. 218–222. The temple was converted in A.D. 800 into the Church of S. Maria, by Pope Leo III. The remains of the altar can be seen at the east end; at the west end is the baptistery, in the form of a Greek cross, with an apse at the top containing the raised platform with the depressed basin of the font in which the person about to be baptized stood, whilst the minister occupied the platform above it and poured the water over his head.

On our left is

THE FORUM OF CUPID AND ITS BASILICÆ,

miscalled the Temple of Venus and Rome. The platform upon which it stands is partly the Velia ridge and partly artificial.

When a building was inaugurated after consecration it was called a templum. A delubrum was an isolated building, surrounded with an area, dedicated to religious purposes. This—because it was double, having two aspects, two distinct apses or tribunals—we call, in the plural number, delubra, or the double basilica.

The remains consist of two large tribunals, back to back, with a portion of the lateral walls and vaults. The wall in the monastery gardens is apsidal, the other is rectangular.