Castor et Pollux, Aedes (Circus Flaminius)

Tetrastyle, prostyle temple along the SW side of the *Circus Flaminius dedicated to Castor and Pollux, characterized by an unusual transverse cella, similar to the Tiberian Temple of *Concordia Augusta or the Temple of *Veiovis. The limited space available for the construction of the temple between the Circus Flaminius and the *Tiber may have dictated this plan, though it should be noted that no archaeological evidence of contemporaneous structures on the W side of the Circus Flaminius has been uncovered. Only three literary sources mention the structure: Vitruvius (De arch. 4.8.4: Castoris [sc. aedes] in circo Flaminio), the calendars (fasti) (e.g., Fast. Amit., CASTORI POLLVCI IN CIRCO FLAMINIO: Degrassi, Inscr. Ital. 13.2, 191, 494-96), and Plutarch (Pomp. 2.8), who mentions that a Caecilius Metellus decorated the Temple of the Dioscuri with statues and images; this person may have also donated the temple itself. Since the name of this temple is present in the fasti Amiternini and Antiati, both written before the Caesarian change of the calendar in 46 B.C., that year should be taken as terminus ante quem (Conticello de’ Spagnolis 1984). Therefore, Plutarch’s Metellus must be identified with Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius who triumphed in Spain in 71 B.C. and built the temple using war booty (ex manubiis) soon after (Coarelli 507). Early 20th-c. scholarship placed the temple roughly in the area of Monte dei Cenci (SW of the Circus Flaminius) where the two cult statues of the Dioscuri (now atop the stairs leading to the *Capitoline) were found in the 16th c.; unfortunately, Renaissance accounts offer unreliable evidence for the location of the structure, since they are both vague and contradictory (Conticello de’ Spagnolis 1984, 37-40; Tucci 234-35). A fragment of a pre-Severan Marble Plan discovered in Via Anicia depicts the temple CASTORIS ET POLLVCIS and a series of commercial structures behind it (approx. scale of 1 : 240), and was used in conjunction with the Severan Marble Plan to specify a more exact location in the SW Circus Flaminius, with the pronaos underneath the Church of S. Tommaso ai Cenci (Conticello de’ Spagnolis 1986, 92). Tucci moved the structure further E, under the Scuola Catalana, and rotated the plan in order to have the façade parallel the opposite side of the Circus Flaminius and the street of the *Porticus Octaviae and Philippi. Castagnoli proposes a location for the temple some 20-30 m E of Conticello de’ Spagnolis’ placement and W of the *Petronia Amnis. Recently, remains of the pronaos and part of the cella belonging to various chronological phases between the Republican and late-Imperial periods have been found in Piazza delle Cinque Scole between Via Catalana and Lungotevere (Ciancio Rossetto 1996; ead. 1999, 234-35). Although further excavations are necessary to identify this temple with certainty, its peculiar transverse plan (which is rare in Roman religious architecture) favors an association with the Temple of Castor and Pollux. However, the results of Ciancio Rossetto’s excavations are not yet fully published, so our map records the temple as located by Tucci.