Who Built the Sanctuary of Venus in Pompeii? New Data from the Venus Pompeiana Project

When entering Pompeii from Porta Marina and walking towards the Civic Forum, the first public monuments encountered are the imposing buildings of the Sanctuary of Venus. This sacred complex, the largest cult site in Pompeii, occupies a high-visibility position in the south-western sector of the city and could be seen even from the ocean.

It is commonly believed that the sacred complex dedicated to the patron deity of Roman Pompeii was built by the Roman colonists and that Venus was worshipped as protector deity of Sulla. However, investigations carried out at the site between 2004 and 2007 have challenged this conventional chronology and have placed the earliest standing remains of the sanctuary to the second half of the second century BC, thereby making the case for the existence of a Samnite predecessor of the sanctuary.

Though this game-changing chronology is consistent with the surviving architectural decoration and mural painting style of the cultic buildings, it raises challenging questions regarding the historical and political context for both the foundation of the sanctuary and the motivations behind its construction. How does its dedication fit within the building program undertaken at Pompeii by the first emperor of Rome?