In front of the temple was a column used in the archaic Roman ceremony for declaring war involved hurling a spear from Roman territory towards enemy territory. However, when for the first time Rome had to declare war on a state whose territory did not border her own (i.e. Pyrrhus of Epirus), it was hard to see how this rite could be carried out. A prisoner of war was therefore forced to hold a small piece of land in the area of the circus Flaminius, where a column was raised (perhaps in wood) as a symbolical representation of the hostile territory and a spear then hurled against the column. This new procedure was then used on all subsequent occasions (the last well-known example is in 179 AD, under Marcus Aurelius). A circular area with the paving restored in front of this temple was interpreted in the excavations as the place where this column was sited, on the basis of literary references. This is now interpreted as where the perirrhanterion (for lustrali at the end of campaigns) was sited before the temple of Apollo was built. See also Temple of Bellona (Ostia) List of Ancient Roman temples External links S.Platner and T.Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, 1929 Plans of the Apollo and Bellona temples on the Comune di Roma site here and here The Roman ceremony of the declaration of war (Italian) Bellona 3rd-century BC religious buildings and structures Rome R. XI Sant'Angelo Roman temples by deity