<p>One of the earliest of the four known temples in the sacral area near Largo Argentina, Temple A was built on virgin soil <i>c</i>. 250-225 B.C. (Claridge 215). First erected as a small prostyle, tetrastyle shrine in Grotta Oscura tufa (9.5 x 16 m on a podium H. 4 m., Claridge 215), the temple was expanded and elaborated in the 2nd c. B.C. probably to bring it in line with the style of *Temple C. At this point, the building was faced with Monteverde tufa, expanded to a hexastyle prostyle temple, and received a fine peperino altar (12 x 14.5 m) built over the old staircase (Richardson 33). In its final modification, during the third quarter of the 1st c. B.C., the building acquired a new tufa podium (15 x 27.5 m) and a ring of 30 Anio tufa columns with Attic bases and Corinthian capitals (Richardson 33). The column shafts were coated with white stucco to appear as marble. In the 12th c., this temple was incorporated into the Church of S. Nicola dei Caesarini or Calcarari (‘lime-burners’), hence its fine state of preservation. This temple has been identified by Coarelli (1981, 37-46) and Pietilä-Castrén as the Temple of *Iuturna, built by Q. Lutatius Catulus (cos. 241) after his sea-victory over Carthage, and by Ziolkowski (1986) as the Temple of *Feronia vowed by L. Aemilius Papus at the battle of Telamon in 225 B.C.; neither hypothesis is entirely satisfactory (s.v. *“Area Sacra”: Largo Argentina).</p>