when was the pantheon actually built?

Question

the pantheon that is standing now was built about 118 AD....however it has an inscription on the front about Agrippa, who did originally build a pantheon there, but this was destroyed in a fire, and was also fcing south (the opposite direction to the current pantheon) so i therefore cant see how his pantheon is in any way part of the current one.

I have 2 seperate sources of information (my textbook and my teacher) telling me 2 different things.

the teacher says it was built at 2 seperate dates, with the typical temple front being built first (in the time of agrippa), then the innovative dome being added later.(at thetime of hadrian)

the textbook says the whole design was built at once, when hadrian was in power.

does anyone have any idea which is correct??!?!

please don't answer if you don;t know the answer, or at least let me know if you are usure, because I'm confused enough already!! thankyou!!

No, I definately mean the Pantheon..>what has the fact it's dedicated to all gods gotta do with the way it's built?!

Answer 1

Very good question!
Pantheon was indeed build by Agrippa.
According to the inscription on the frieze of the pronaos
( M•AGRIPPA•L•F•COS•TERTIVM•FECIT, which means Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, built during his third consulate) the temple was built in 27 B.C. Cassius Dio (a Greek-Roman historian) states that it was finished in 25 (LIII.27: "τό τε Πάνθειον ὠνομασμένον ἐξετέλεσε· προσαγορεύεται δὲ οὒτω τάχα μὲν ὂτι πολλῶν θεῶν εἰκόνας ἐν τοῖς ἀγάλμασι, τῷ τε τοῦ Ἀρεως καὶ τῷ τῇς Ἀφροδίτης, ἔλαβεν, ὡς δὲ ἐγὼ νομίζω, ὄτι θολοειδὲς ὂν τῷ οὐρανῷ προσέοικεν, ἠβουλήθη μὲν οὗν ὁ Ἀγρίππας καὶ τὸν Αὔγουστον ἐνταῦθα ἱδρῦσαι, τήν τε τοῦ ἔργου ἐπίκλησιν αὐτῷ δοῦναι)". Which means : Agrippas build the building which was later called Pantheon. It was called Pantheon because of the images of many Gods (Pantheon is a Greek word meaning “All Gods”) also there were the statues of Ares and Aphrodite! But I think that it was made as dome to honor the divine Augustus ”. The above passage is not altogether clear, but it seems probable that the temple was built for the glorification of the gens Iulia (the notable Roman clan), and that it was dedicated in particular to Mars and Venus, the most prominent among the ancestral deities of that family.
The first Pantheon (which was not called pantheon then ) of Agrippa was burned in 80 A.D. and restored by Domitian. Again, in the reign of Trajan, it was struck by lightning and burned. The restoration by Hadrian carried out after 126 was in fact an entirely new construction, for even the foundations of the existing building date from that time. The inscription was probably placed by Hadrian in accordance with his well-known principle in such cases.
So as you can see Agrippa actually build the first pantheon which was destroyed by fire. Hadrian reconstructed an entirely new building!
Hope I’ve helped

Answer 2

Wikipedia says :

"Agrippa's Pantheon was destroyed along with other buildings in a huge fire in 80 AD; the current building dates from about 125 AD, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, as date-stamps on the bricks reveal. It was totally reconstructed with the text of the original inscription added to the new facade, a common practice in Hadrian's rebuilding projects all over Rome."

"Cassius Dio, a Graeco-Roman senator, consul and author of a comprehensive History of Rome, writing approximately 75 years after the Pantheon's reconstruction, mistakenly attributed the domed building to Agrippa rather than Hadrian. Dio's book appears to be the only near-contemporary writing on the Pantheon, and it is interesting that even by the year 200 there was uncertainty about the origin of the building and its purpose:"

" "Agrippa completed the building called the Pantheon. It has this name, perhaps because it received among the images which decorated it the statues of many gods, including Mars and Venus; but my own opinion of the name is that, because of its vaulted roof, it resembles the heavens." (Cassius Dio History of Rome 53.27.2)"

"The building was later repaired by Septimius Severus and Caracalla in 202 AD, for which there is another, smaller inscription." ("Pantheon, Rome", Wikipedia)

Britannica seems to concur :

"Pantheon : building in Rome that was begun in 27 BC by the statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, probably as a building of the ordinary classical temple type--rectangular with a gabled roof supported by a colonnade on all sides. It was completely rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian sometime between AD 118 and 128, with some alterations made in the early 3rd century by the emperors Lucius Septimius Severus and Caracalla." ("Pantheon (bldg., Rome, It.)", Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000)

"Of all this splendour almost nothing remained after the fire of AD 80. Hadrian undertook to restore some of it. Among his works was the new Pantheon." ("Rome : The Campus Martius", Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000)

"He completely rebuilt the Pantheon, which had been destroyed by fire in the reign of his predecessor." ("Hadrian : Artistic achievements", Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000)

A third source, Samuel Ball Platner (1863‑1921), a British archaeologist, for many years the director of the British Institute in Rome, says :

"The Pantheon of Agrippa was burned in 80 A.D. (Cass. Dio LXVI.24.2) and restored by Domitian (Chron. 146; Hier. a. Abr. 2105; cf. perhaps 2101). Again, in the reign of Trajan, it was struck by lightning and burned (Oros. vii.12; Hier. a. Abr. 2127). The restoration by Hadrian (Hist. Aug. Hadr. 19) carried out after 126 (AJA 1912, 421) was in fact an entirely new construction, for even the foundations of the existing building date from that time. The inscription (see above) was probably placed by Hadrian in accordance with his well-known principle in such cases. The restoration ascribed to Antoninus Pius (Hist. Aug. Pius 8: instauratum . . . templum Agrippae) may refer only to the completion of Hadrian's building. Finally, a restoration by Severus and Caracalla in 202 A.D. is recorded in the lower inscription on the architrave (CIL VI.896)."

"This portico was not built after the rotunda, as recent investigations by Colini and Gismondi have shown (BC 1926, 67‑92), and the capitals of its columns are exactly like those of the interior (RA 122), though the entasis of the columns differs (Mem. Am. Acad. IV.122, 142). In front of it was an open space surrounded by colonnades. The hall at the back belongs also to Hadrian's time, and so do the constructions on the east in their first form. The exterior of the drum was therefore hardly seen in ancient times."

"The podium of the earlier structure, built by Agrippa, lies about 2.50 metres below the pavement of the later portico; it was rectangular, 43.76 metres wide and 19.82 deep, and faced south, so that the front line of columns of the latter rests on its back wall, while the position of p385the doorways of the two buildings almost coincides. To the south of the earlier building was a pronaos 21.26 metres wide, so that the plan was similar to that of the temple of Concord.7 At 2.15 metres below the pavement of the rotunda there was an earlier marble pavement, which probably belonged to an open area in front of the earlier structure;8 but a marble pavement of an intermediate period (perhaps that of Domitian) was also found actually above this earlier structure, but below the marble pavement of the pronaos."

"Pantheon", A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby), London: Oxford University Press, 1929 : http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Pantheon.html

Answer 3

You mean the Parthenon? A pantheon is a collection of deities.