In 44 BC on the day of his funeral, Julius Caesar’s body was carried out to the Roman Forum. His will was read and then Mark Antony delivered his infamous speech, which is rumored to have included a rotating wax figure of Caesar for the for the public’s viewing pleasure. As one can imagine, this caused quite an uproar, and instead of carrying Caesar the rest of the way to the cremation site at the Campus Martius, they burned his body right then and there. The good news is, ground was now sanctified! People quickly built an altar and column dedicated to Caesar, but these were torn down practically right away by people who were against Caesar. The triumvirate started building an official temple after this in 42 BC, and it was finished and dedicated to Caesar by Augustus on August 18th, 29 BC.
Although very little is left of it now, the temple used to be a huge and grandiose building that stood on the east side of the main square of the Forum. There was a podium called a rostra at the front that was 3.5 meters tall and decorated with the beaks of ships that Augustus captured at the Battle of Actium. This was where important people would stand and make speeches to the Roman citizens. On top of that, there was another platform that was about 2 meters tall, so that the temple stood a whole 5.5 meters above the ground. From the ruins that are still there, we can tell that the columns had Corinthian capitals. Inside the cella there was a huge statue of Caesar with a star on his head that symbolized the comet that appeared in the sky shortly after his death. The Romans took this as a sign of his deity, and the simple star has been used as a symbol for divinity ever since.
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