The temple is dedicated to the deified Vespasian and his son, the deified Titus. It was begun by Titus in 79 after Vespasian's death and Titus' succession. Titus’ brother, Domitian, completed and dedicated the temple to Titus and Vespasian in approximately 87.
The Temple of Vespasian was in the Corinthian order, hexastyle (i.e. with a portico six columns wide), and prostyle (i.e. with free standing columns that are widely spaced apart in a row). It was particularly narrow due to the limited space, measuring 33 meters long and 22 wide. In a constricted space between the temple of Saturn and the Concord, a small, two story vaulted room made of brick and concrete, and lined with marble, was built against the wall of the Tabularium, and apparently was dedicated to Titus.
Titus began construction and presumably finished the foundations, made of tuff concrete, and the core of the podium, made of white marble. Domitian, however, completed the interior work after Titus’ death.
?he original inscription on the upper part of the architrave reads:
"DIVO VESPASIANO AVGUSTO S. P. Q. R."
The cella (inner) walls were in travertine, lined with marbles imported at great expense from the eastern provinces. The interior is highly ornate and the frieze depicts sacred objects that would have been used as the symbols, or badges, of the various priestly collegia in Rome. Around 200 to 205, Emperors Septimius Severus and his son, Antoninus Caracalla, conducted renovations on the temple.
Beneath the previous inscription a new one is added:
"IMPP. CAESS. SEVERVS ET ANTONINVS PII FELIC[ES] AVGG RESTITVER[ENT]"
Only the last word is saved on the frieze of the front.
If still in use by the 4th-century, the temple would have been closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire.
The temple suffered significant damage during medieval times, particularly c. 1300 (under Pope Boniface VIII), and in Pope Nicholas V's remodelling of the Forum (which involved the demolition of both angles of the temple on the Forum side and the reconstruction of its front as a fortress with corner towers). All that survives today is the podium's core (with some of its peperino lining), parts of the cella (two fragments of its travertine wall and part of the pedestal at its back for the cult statues), and three Corinthian columns at pronaos's south-east corner.
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