It is the aim of the present paper to give an analysis of this issue. Perhaps not surprisingly, as we
shall see, this will provide insight also into the broader context of the symbolic and religious world of
the Romans in Hadrian’s time. In particular, we shall show that the other large-scale project of Hadrian
near the Campus Martius area, his Mausoleum across the Tiber, was placed in such a way as to exhibit
a symbolic relationship with the Pantheon by means of a hierophany which occurred at the summer
solstice.