The podium. Exactly.
Emily, right? The podium is not there.
The podium is not there.
The staircase is not there. Why is that, Emily?
>> I don't know if it's because the land is filling.
>> Yes. >> [INAUDIBLE]
>> Yes, the ground level has risen, so that at the time
that they decide to turn the Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina
into San Lorenzo in Miranda, this is where the ground level is.
There's no podium anymore.
The podium is completely underground. As are part of the columns.
We see only the part of the, so they put the door, at the, at the bottom.
What is the bottom at that particular time.
Now let me show you the building today. It's very well preserved.
So you see what I mean by the best preserved monument to.
The best preserved temple to an emperor
and an empress in Rome, extremely well preserved.
You see its location is in the Roman Forum.
With the backdrop of the imperial Fora behind it.
The forum of Augustus, the Forum of Trajan.
In the Roman Forum, so prime real estate for this
temple, when Antoninus Pius decides to build it to his wife.
We see here the original podium,
the original stair case, the original
columns, gray granite columns, white marble capitals.
We see the originally lintel with the inscription
still preserved, to Divine Antoninus Pius, to Divine Faustina.
We see the original tufa walls of the side.
We see the lintels on this side that
also has a frieze that is preserved from antiquity.
And then we see, growing up behind it, the 17th century
Baroque church with its buttresses and with its broken arcuated pediment.
And if you look very carefully, you will see
this is, this was ground level in the 17th century.
This is the 17th century door.
This is the ancient door, down here.
I'll show you a couple of views where you can see that even more clearly.
Here's another view showing you those
great grey granite columns, the white capitals,
the 17th century door.
And then down here, the ancient door which shows you more dramatically than anything
else I've even able to show you this semester this change in ground level.
And two more views that I took that show you the same here, the 17th century door.
So you have to think of all of this underground in the 17th century.
And then, then only in more modern times was the was the temple excavated.
Temple and church excavated down to their original level.
Here's another view showing you again the
17th century doorway, the earlier doorway, the staircase.
A little baby down here of which I was happy to have for scale It
gives you a sense, once again, of how, and that makes it even more dramatic, because.
I don't know if it's a he or she she? She?
sit, sitting there, that she it
makes it even more dramatic to demonstrate to you
again since this is a lecture on bigger is better.
That this temple to Antoninus and Faustina was also
very, very, also is, very, very large in scale.