Ceres, Aedes

Joint temple to Ceres, Liber Pater, and Libera (equated at some time with Demeter, Dionysos, and Kore: Dion. Hal., Ant. Rom. 6.17.2), usually abbreviated to ‘aedes Cereris’, located close by the *Circus Maximus (e.g., Vitr., De arch. 3.3.5: aedium species ... uti est ad circum Maximum Cereris; Pliny NH 35.154: Cereris aedem ... ad circum Maximum; Tac., Ann. 2.49: Libero Liberaeque et Cereri iuxta circum Maximum) and near the temples of *Flora and *Luna; no physical remains have been identified. Reputed for its image of Ceres, the ‘first bronze image of a divinity at Rome’ (Pliny, NH 34.15), and for the exquisite artworks displayed there (Strabo 8.6.23; Pliny, NH 35.24, 35.154-55), the temple also served as the headquarters of the plebeian aediles and housed their archive, with copies of the Senate’s decrees (Livy 3.55.13). In addition, the temple possessed the asylum Cereris, a place of refuge where bread was distributed to the poor (Varro in Non. 63.1-4 Lindsay; cf. Coarelli, LTUR I, 130). Thus, the Temple of Ceres formed a defining place of plebeian self-identification. The building had a strikingly old-fashioned appearance and Vitruvius (loc. cit.) cites it as the primary example of the Tuscan style soon before it was destroyed by fire in 31 B.C. (Dio Cass. 50.10.3; cf. Strabo 8.6.23: νεωστί, ‘recently’). Remarkably, Augustus only began its rebuilding (along with the nearby Temple of Flora, and the Temple of *Ianus at the *Forum Holitorium; RG 19-21 omits this aedes), and its rededication did not take place before A.D. 17 (Tac., Ann. 2.49: coeptasque ab Augusto dedicavit [Tiberius]), which means that this important sanctuary remained both a ruin and a construction site throughout the Augustan period. The most detailed testimony for the temple’s location comes from Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who describes it as ‘at the end of the Circus Maximus, directly above the starting gates’ (Ant. Rom. 6.94.3: ἐπὶ τοῖς τέρμασι τοῦ μεγίστου τῶν ἱπποδρόμων ὑπὲρ αὐτὰς ... τὰς ἀφέσεις). Therefore its place on the lower slope of the Aventine’s N tip, just above the head of the Circus, is agreed upon (Richardson 80; Coarelli LTUR I, 261). While an index number on our map is certainly justified, the more specific location argued by Coarelli (1988, 105 fig. 20) depends on the disputed course of the *Clivus Publicius, for which we assume — with Coarelli — a hypothetical route on the NE slope of the Aventine.