Caesar Dedicates a Temple to Venus: Roman Politics as Architecture
Caesar had made the vow at Pharsalus two years earlier, in 48 BC — standing on a Greek battlefield about to fight Pompey, he promised Venus a temple if he won. He won. Then he spent two years fighting his way back to Rome, through Egypt, through Africa, through Spain. When he finally dedicated the temple to Venus Genetrix — 'Venus the Mother,' ancestor of the Julian family by their own mythology — he was declaring not just gratitude but bloodline. A general had won a civil war and built a shrine to prove he'd been destined to.
September 26, 46 BC
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on September 26
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