Buried intact beneath the temple is an elaborate domed rotunda from the Domus Transitoria, with marble-lined pools and paving in multicoloured opus sectile.

[2] Unimpressed by Hadrian's architectural design for the temple, his most brilliant architect, Apollodorus, made a scornful remark on the size of the seated statues within the cellae, saying that they would surely hurt their heads if they tried to stand up from their thrones.

[3] According to the ancient historian Ammianus Marcellinus, the temple was among the great buildings of Rome which astonished the Emperor Constantius II on his visit to the city in 357.

In 630, with the consent of the Emperor Heraclius, Pope Honorius I removed the gilt-bronze tiles from the roof of the temple for the adornment of St.

The vast quantity of marble that once adorned the temple has all but disappeared due to its use as a raw material for building projects from the Middle Ages onwards.

The Italian archaeologist Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani makes reference to his discovery of a lime kiln in close proximity to the temple in his work The Destruction of Ancient Rome”.

Due to the rebuilding by Maxentius, a coffered vaulted ceiling replaced the original wooden roof and the walls were doubled in thickness to take the increased load.

[6] Since the papacy of John Paul II, the heights of the temple and its position opposite the main entrance to the Colosseum have been used to good effect as a public address platform.