Dionysus Temple Architectural Fragment

Dionysus Temple Architectural Fragment

View of one of the architectural fragments of the Dionysus Temple at Pergamum.

Note the bull's head and the garland wreath.  A very common decorative pattern used in Temples.  Compare for example an incense altar from Perga.

Compare how at Lystra the priests of Zeus brought "bulls and wreaths" to sacrifice to Barnabas and Paul - when they thought they were deities! (Acts 14:13).

The Dionysus Temple was first built in the Hellenistic Period (ca. early second century B.C.).  It was later rebuilt and also dedicated to the Roman Emperor Caracalla (r. A.D. 211–217) under the name the "New Dionysus."