SERAPIS TEMPLE

(th century. ). From the old forum, orient direction north west by borrowing the small path along the shore on the right, until the wall of Byzantine enceinte. We will then discover the three main columns of cipolin marble from the frigidarium of Hadrian's thermal baths, lined in the sand. Then move to the southwest. The temple of Sérapis is recognizable in its four columns. The Christian living in Leptis worship their God there. The inscriptions that have been discovered are in Greek only. In Hellenistic times, the Rois kings of Alexandria made Sérapis a syncretic deity embodying the characteristics of the Egyptian God Osiris and of Greek gods like Zeus, Hades, Dionysus and Asclépios, God of Medicine. Subsequently, his cult developed in the Roman world.