In the picture we see all that remains of the ancient Basilica of Neptune, situated next to the Pantheon. Imagine how easy is for everybody to admire so beautiful marble details, memories of the ancient past of the city. As a local tour guide for me is a pleasure to indicate them as the evidences of the Eternal City.

The Basilica of Neptune was always would by Agrippa (son-in-law, friend, and a proud general of Augustus), the man who even would the famous Pantheon (the first version). Since the 33 b.C. Agrippa, in the guise of construction, began to give a new face to Rome by constructing buildings or renovating temples, ports, and sewers. Using the money resulting from the campaigns of Octavian/Augustus, with the sole purpose of helping the political propaganda of the one who will become the first emperor of Rome. To have an idea about how Agrippa worked hard to enjoy his friend, Augustus, who is considered the first emperor of the roman empire, try to read the words wrote by Cassio Dione, a roman historian. "And so died Agrippa, who had distinguished himself as the noblest of his contemporaries and who had benefited from Octavian's friendship, looking to the greatest possible advantage for his princeps and for the res publica". I think that are not necessaries more words. But why a basilica dedicated to Neptune?

Because Agrippa was the tool (with his strategies, his charisma and his new techniques of war) of the military triumphs of Octavian, especially on the sea, opportunities for naval battles. In the 36 in BC he defeated the fleet of Sextus Pompey (the Pompey the Great's son), who for years had raged around the sicilian waters as a real pirate, almost throwing Rome in the hunger more acute by blocking the flow of grain from Sicily. Or how not to mention the famous Battle of Actium of the 31 b.C., when once again Agrippa, always in the guise of the commander of the fleet, he defeated at sea the naval forces of Cleopatra and Mark Antony (both, however, managed to escape). Thanks to the military victories conquered by Agrippa on the seas he received a special honor: the naval crown. For Seneca, just to have an idea, it was the "the most prestigious military decoration". Thus, it is clear the close relationship between Agrippa and the God of the Sea...

It is known that this building was partly destroyed by a fire that hit Rome at the 80 a.D., when the emperor was Titus. Moreover we know, even thanks to the drawings made by Palladio, that this particular basilica, for its architectonical map, remembers the buildings of the late empire, more than that one of the II centuty a.D. when Hadrian renovated it. And then we also know that originally the basilica should be a rectangular shaped place, having two enormous apses at the end of the long sides. A building that was originally built of I century b.C., that is partly destroyed because of extensive fires, it was reduced almost in ruins. And then today we see a deep apse and, above all, beautiful and elegant marble friezes that run for a portion of the wall near the corinthian capital. If you keep the views, you will notice the sea monsters flanking a trident, a powerful weapon of Neptune. When the details of Rome they can tell many things...