[2][3] The temple was decreed by the triumvirs Octavian, Antony and Lepidus in 42 BC after the senate deified Julius Caesar posthumously.

However it was completed by Octavian alone: he dedicated the prostyle temple (it is still unknown whether its order was Ionic, Corinthian or composite) to Caesar, his adoptive father, on 18 August 29 BC, as part of the triple triumph celebrating his victory over Antony and Cleopatra.

[4] It stands on the east side of the main square of the Roman Forum, between the Regia, Temple of Castor and Pollux, and the Basilica Aemilia, on the site of Caesar's cremation.

According to Suetonius, a conventional funeral was planned for the Campus Martius,[6] but the actual cremation, in all accounts, took place in the Forum after a rousing speech by Mark Antony.

The Regia was also, traditionally, the residence of Rome's kings: the choice of location may also reflect popular support for Caesar's "royal" status as a Dictator perpetuo.

[9]But Suetonius suggests a "divine" intervention with hints of a more mundane popular demonstration:The bier on the rostra was carried down into the Forum by magistrates and ex-magistrates; and while some were urging that it be burned in the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, and others in the Hall of Pompey, on a sudden two beings with swords by their sides and brandishing a pair of darts set fire to it with blazing torches, and at once the throng of bystanders heaped upon it dry branches, the judgment seats with the benches, and whatever else could serve as an offering.

[8] The popular enthusiasm led to the creation of an unofficial monument on the east side of the Forum, opposite the Regia, which was the site of oaths and sacrifices.

The new regime formally deified Caesar in 42, and a decree of the tribal assembly undertook the creation of the a temple in recognition of his divinity: a powerful assertion of populist supremacy.

[8] The pursuit of the Caesar's assassins was a more pressing matter, however, and work proceeded slowly if at all: It is likely that Octavian's triumviral partners did not share his enthusiasm for the Caesarian cult, which provided him with a powerful political base.

[8] In any event, the temple was not formally dedicated until 29, after Octavian had defeated his erstwhile partner Antony and assumed sole rulership of the Roman world.

The temple was finally consecrated as part of Octavian's "triple triumph" in 29, celebrating his victories in Dalmatia, Egypt, and at Battle of Actium.

It faced the long open space of the central forum, which at the time of its construction offered plenty of room for popular gatherings and the erection of grandstands.

The temple remained largely intact until the late 15th century, when its marble and stones were reused to construct new churches and palaces.

Pliny, in his Natural History, quotes Augustus as During the very time of these games of mine, a hairy star [= a comet] was seen during seven days, in the part of the heavens which is under the Great Bear.

Ancient coins with representations of the Temple of Divus Iulius suggest the columns were either Ionic or composite, but fragments of Corinthian pilastre capitals have been found on the site by archaeologists.

Comparisons with coins from the times of Augustus and Hadrian suggest the possibility that the order of the temple was changed during the restoration by Septimius Severus.

This similarity is not proved and merely based on the fact that during the public funeral and Mark Antony's speech the body of Julius Caesar was set on an ivory couch and in a gilded shrine modelled on the Temple of Venus Genetrix.

It is known that at some time the altar was removed and the niche filled in and closed with stones to create a continuous wall at the podium of the temple.

[31] Richardson and other scholars hypothesize that the filled in niche may have not been the altar of Julius Caesar, but the Puteal Libonis, the old bidental used during trials at the Tribunal Aurelium for public oaths.

The cornice had dentils and beam type modillions (one of the first examples ever in Roman temple architecture) and undersides decorated with narrow rectangular panels carrying flowers, roses, disks, laurel crowns and pine-cones.

Remnants of the decorations, including elements of a Victory representation and floral ornaments, are visible on site or in the Forum Museum (Antiquarium Forense).

It contained a colossal statue of Julius Caesar, veiled as Pontifex Maximus, with a star on his head and bearing the lituus augural staff in his right hand.