Capitolium: Marble Plan Temples

Twin temples are known only from a Severan Marble Plan fragment of the S slopes of the *Area Capitolina (Rodríguez Almeida, Forma pl. 23, frags. 31 a,b,c; for the placement of these fragments, see Rodríguez Almeida 1991, 34-37 with fig. 4). Nothing remains in the archaeological record since this part of the hill has been lost through landslides. The names of these temples, one a narrow apsidal temple and the other a larger hexastyle podium temple, are not shown on the Marble Plan. Sometimes they appear on modern maps but are not identified (Reusser 1993, 34 fig. 4; Coarelli 1995). However, the fact that the temples are adjacent provides a clue as to their identity, for several Capitoline temples were regarded as pairs. There are contradictory attempts to identify these temples in LTUR: *Fides and *Ops, Aedes (Aronen); *Iuppiter Tonans and *Fortuna Primigenia (Gros). Each proposal is ultimately unsatisfactory, for there is stronger evidence to place each of these temples elsewhere in the Area Capitolina. Two strong candidates for the Marble Plan Temples remain: Mens and Venus Erycina (suggested tentatively by Rodríguez Almeida 1991, 36, 39). These temples stood in Capitolio (Livy 23.32.20; Cic., Nat. D. 2.61), probably in the Area Capitolina (Coarelli, LTUR; Reusser, LTUR 240-41). They were vowed in 217 and dedicated in 215 B.C. Most importantly, they stood next to each other, separated only by a small drain (Livy 23.31.9: canali uno discretae). Livy’s description fits the Marble Plan Temples especially well, but the identification is not certain, since there are many other temples, as yet unplaced, that are known to have stood on the Capitol (s.v. Area Capitolina). However, only one of these temples is post-Augustan, the Temple of Iuppiter Custos (Conservator) built by Domitian after A.D. 81 (for a chronological list of temple dedications, see Reusser 1993, 202-9). Domitian’s temple is not a candidate for either of the two Marble Plan temples, for it is generally placed in the NE corner of the Area Capitolina (Richardson; Reusser, LTUR 131-32). Thus it is almost certain, despite the Severan date of the Marble Plan, that the twin temples existed in the Augustan period. It is not known if these temples were affected by the fires on the Capitol in A.D. 69 and 80, or even if they were restored in the Imperial period, so perhaps the ground-plans shown on the Marble Plan provide reasonably reliable evidence for the Augustan phases of these temples. Our map reproduces the Marble Plan evidence, since it is almost certain that two temples, probably Mens and Venus Erycina, did stand here in the Augustan period.