The worship of Apollo never
occupied the all-important position in Rome which it held in Greece, nor was it
introduced till a comparatively late period. There was no sanctuary erected to
this divinity until B.C. 430, when the Romans, in order to avert a plague,
built a temple in his honour; but we do not find the worship of Apollo becoming
in any way prominent until the time of Augustus, who, having called upon this
god for aid before the famous battle of Actium, ascribed the victory which he
{84} gained, to his influence, and accordingly erected a temple there, which he
enriched with a portion of the spoil.
Augustus afterwards built another
temple in honour of Apollo, on the Palatine Hill, in which at the foot of his
statue, were deposited two gilt chests, containing the Sibylline oracles. These
oracles were collected to replace the Sibylline books originally preserved in
the temple of Jupiter, which were destroyed when that edifice was burned.