It is a wonderful picture where, at the foreground, you can  see the columns of the Temple of Saturn that, since the V century b.C., embellish the Roman Forum. From here, trust me, you can have one of the best perspectives of the archeological Rome. 

But who really was Saturn, a mythological character so important who had a temple in the centre of the ancient Rome? He was Cronus, the greek name of the Zeus' father. Like other mythological figures the events related to Saturn are not so clear, especially because the roman and the greek myths are partly different. But what we can say is that Saturn was more important than an ordinary god. According to the myth he  had a prophecy: one of his children will kill him. So Saturn did something simple in order to avoid this fate: he started to eat each single child. But one day Rea, her wife (and sister too), would really like to protect Zeus, her youngest son. So to achieve her aim she decided to hide him giving to Saturn a small rock completely surrounded by a veil. So the titan ate it thiking that he was eating his last child. Over the years Zeus grew up and, at the end, he killed his father.

But according to the roman version of the myth Saturn was not killed but exiled. So he left Greece in order to disembark along the coasts of Lazio, the region where Rome is located. When Saturn, who is usually depicted as an old man with a long white beard, came to the territory where today  we have the Eternal City, he met Giano, a local God who lived in the hill around Rome that is called Gianicolo. So Saturn, in order to thank him for his hospitality, gave a reward to the mankind: a golden age! Generally Saturn was considered as the God who "created" a legendary age where the human being didn't have any burden. For Esiodo: "a golden ancestry of mortal human being created at the beginning of the time the immortals who lived in the Mons Olympus. They lived at the time of Cronus, when he ruled the sky: as Gods they passed the days with the souls without anguishes, so far from struggles and misery, and neither the misery old age loom over them". So the Romans indicated this sort of golden age creating a sort of connection between it and Rome, between Saturn and the place where, after this mythological age, Rome was founded.

Over the years the Romans reminded this era celebrating Saturn on December with the so called Saturnalia, the festivities related to him. During those wonderful days people shouldn't work and they used to meet each other in a convivial and collective atmosphere. They used to give presents to the others, illuminating candles (exactly as happens in the modern Christmas). At the end let me tell you something more about the temple, or what we have today. It is considered the third most ancient temple of Rome, but of the first version nothing remains today. We have marvelous granite columns from the III century a.D. and an inscription which reminds us a common fate for several ancient buildings in Rome: "SENATUS POPULUSQUE ROMANUS INCENDIO CONSUMPTIUM RESTITUIT". So the inscription is telling that the new columns were added to restore the temple of Saturn that was destroyed by a fire. So we are lucky if today we can see it...