Where there are people there is religion, and Roman London was a bustling city, teeming with travellers from all over the Empire. It is only natural that the city should also be home to many pagan temples - some of them Roman, some of them more foreign.
The London Temple of Mithras
The Mithraeum, a temple to the solar god Mithras, is the only Roman temple in London of which it is known to which deity it is dedicated. The foundation of the Mithraeum can still be seen today, if one pays a visit to Walbrook street.
Mithraism was a Roman mystery cult of a divine hero, Mithras, appropriated from the Persians. It was greatly popular among Roman soldiers and open only to men. In London, there was a small but presumably wealthy congregation. They could afford to import fine Italian marble sculptures to decorate the temple, though they also bought somewhat cruder local sculptures made from limestone.
The Mithras temple and its community came under threat by Christians in the 3rd century. To save the expensive imported statues, they hid them under the floor boards. The Christians eventually lead an attack on the temple, and all that was not hidden was destroyed. If they survived, the Mithraists abandoned their temple after that, and it was later rededicated, probably to Bacchus, in the 4th century before falling out of use entirely.
Was the Forum Temple by London Bridge the First in London?
The site of the Roman forum of London is hidden beneath street level, less than 300 yards north of modern London Bridge. Next to it, lay what was possibly London’s oldest temple. Its structure and material indicates that it was planned and built at the same time as the forum was, around the time of the foundation of the city in the 50s CE.
The temple was typically Roman, with an, unexcavated and now destroyed, altar placed outside on modern Lombard Street. It is still unknown to whom the temple was dedicated as no inscriptions have been found, but due to its location among official buildings it has been suggested that it was dedicated to the deified Roman imperial house.
A Roman Pagan Religious District in Southwark
A great Roman temple complex, in what may well be the largest religious district in all of Roman Britain, was unearthed in Southwark in 2002. There, at the site of modern Tabard Square, two square temples, a guesthouse, and statues set up on plinths once flanked an open courtyard built for religious congregation. To whom the temples were dedicated, however, is still uncertain.
A dedication to the god Mars Camulus was found at the heart of the Southwark religious district. It was not uncommon in the provinces of Roman Europe to combine native gods with Roman gods. That is the case here, where the Roman agricultural and war god Mars has been melded with the Celtic god Camulus.
It is unlikely, though, that Mars Camulus in particular was worshipped at this temple complex. He is otherwise known only by inscriptions from France, whence the Roman citizen who made the inscription also came.
A Possible Roman Temple in Greenwich Park
In 1902 a Roman period building was discovered in Greenwich Park on top of a hill overlooking the river Thames. Subsequent excavations took place during the 1920s and 1970s, as well as briefly in 1999 by Channel 4’s Time Team.
The evidence is not conclusive, but the building discovered may have been a Roman temple. It has been difficult to discern exactly what the building looked like, but the tentative interpretations have much in common with the typical Roman temple plan, with a main sanctuary room, known as a cella, and a covered walkway, known as an ambulatory. A ditch found during the 1999 excavations may also indicate the border of a temenos, the land consecrated to divinity.
This alone does not suffice as evidence for a temple structure, but out of the five inscriptions known from the area two can be interpreted as dedications to the numen, the divine godhead, of the Roman emperor. A statue of Diana, which could have been used in cult practice, has also been found.
Ancient Sources, Medieval Historians and Archaeology Look for More
Further London temples have been suggested by ancient sources, later Medieval historians, as well as modern archaeology.
One inscription found in Southwark indicates that there was once a temple dedicated to Isis in London. Though originally an Egyptian goddess, Isis was very popular in the Roman Empire. There would certainly have been followers in an international metropolis like Roman London. The temple building itself, however, has not been identified. This is also the case of the temple to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, of which one inscription mentions the restoration.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, the Welsh 12th century clergyman, wrote about two Roman temples in London, dedicated to Diana and Apollo. He envisioned them on the location of St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster, but no archaeological evidence has as of yet supported Geoffrey's theory.
There is however, a tentatively identified potential temple at St. Dunstan’s Hill, between London Bridge and the Tower of London. More may still be found.
Sources
Burnham et al., “Roman Britain in 2003” in Britannia 35, 2004, 253-349.
EC Harris, Lifting the Lid on a Roman Secret, Press Release (July 28, 2003).
Marsden, P., Roman London, London 1980.
Marsden, P., The Roman Forum Site in London: Discoveries Before 1985, London 1987.
Morris, J., Londinium: London in the Roman Empire, London 1982.
Wallower, B., “Roman Temple Complex in Greenwich Park? Part 1” in London Archaeologist 4/2002, 46-54.
Wallower, B., “Roman Temple Complex in Greenwich Park? Part 2” in London Archaeologist 4/2002, 76-81.
Emma Oxenby Wohlfart - E P Wohlfart decided at age 14 that she was going to move to Scotland for university. Once there, she often sat in class thinking to ...
