Note 251 — Chapter IX · THE FIRST PRINCIPATUS, B.C. 27-23

Middleton (Remains of Ancient Rome, vol. ii. pp. 126-128) seems to have given good reasons against its connection with the Thermæ of Agrippa. Lanciani (Ruins and Excavations, pp. 476-488) asserts that the structure as it now stands is of the age of Hadrian (about A.D. 129), and doubts Agrippa’s original building being of the same shape. Even the portico with its inscription—M. Agrippa l. f. cos. tert. fecit—he thinks was taken to pieces and put up again by Hadrian. The history of the building, however, cannot be regarded as thoroughly ascertained. Agrippa’s third consulship was in B.C. 27, whereas Dio places the completion of the Pantheon under B.C. 25 (53, 27). It may well have been that the external building was finished and dedicated in B.C. 27, and that the inside occupied two more years.