page_title: Serapeum
section_title: Hadrian's Villa
hierarchical_section_title: Serapeum / Serapea in Italy / Hadrian's Villa
context_page_description: A serapeum is a temple or other religious institution dedicated to the syncretic Greco-Egyptian deity Serapis, who combined aspects of Osiris and Apis in a humanized form that was accepted by the Ptolemaic Greeks of Alexandria. There were several such religious centers, each of which was a serapeion or, in its Latinized form, a serapeum. An Egyptian name for the temple of Osiris-Apis was Pr-Wsỉr-Ḥp "House of Osiris-Apis".
context_section_description: Emperor Hadrian (117-138) ordered the construction of a "canopus" in his villa in Tivoli with typical imperial grandeur: an immense rectangular tank representing a canal, 119 m long by 18 m wide was surrounded by porticoes and statues, leading the way to a Serapeum.  Protected by a monumental dome, the sanctuary was composed of a public area and a more intimate subterranean part that was dedicated to the chthonic aspect of Serapis.
  To mark the inauguration of his temple, Hadrian struck coinage that carry his effigy accompanied by Serapis, upon a dais where two columns support a round canopy.  In this manner, the emperor became synnaos, a companion of the god's arcane naos and equal beneficiary of the cult of Serapis at Canopus.
caption: The canopus pool of Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, Lazio.
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