Hercules, Ara Maxima

A monumental altar to Hercules at the *Forum Bovarium, the oldest and most revered center of Hercules’ cult in Rome (e.g., Ov., Fast. 1.579-82: ... quae Maxima dicitur, aram; Dion. Hal., Ant. Rom. 1.40.6, cf. 1.39.4; Strabo 5.3.3) and also the alleged starting point for Romulus’ delimitation of the pomerium (Tac., Ann. 12.24: magnam Herculis aram). The altar’s approximate location and grand size can be deduced from Servius, who mentions it as ‘behind the gates of the Circus Maximus’ (ad Aen. 8.271: post ianuas circi Maximi) and explains the epithet Maxima by citing ‘the magnitude of the structure’ (ad Aen. 8.179: ara ... quam Maximam dicit ex magnitudine fabricae). Dionysius of Halicarnassus describes it as ‘near’ (πλησίον) the Forum Bovarium and, while judging the construction inferior, stresses the altar’s extremely high reputation; it was the place where ‘oaths are taken and agreements made for sealing business transactions’ (Ant. Rom. 1.40.6; cf. Ov., Fast. 1.581-82). The remains of a large, solidly built podium, exceeding 20 x 30 m, of Anio tufa blocks with travertine facing under the E part of S. Maria in Cosmedin (Cressedi; Krautheimer) have convincingly been attributed to the altar (Coarelli 1988, 73: “molto probabile”; Tolotti 440-41, with a purely speculative superstructure; Coarelli, LTUR 17; contra, Ziolkowski, with reference to the ‘inferior construction’ mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus). The objection by Richardson (187) that this place is “poorly located to be a turning point in the pomerium of Romulus” hardly forms a valid argument, but his conclusion that the platform “is clearly not temple foundations but a solid mass” (Richardson 187) strikes a most important point (since temples, among other buildings, typically do not show solid platforms but individual foundation walls). Our map therefore accepts, with some caution, the identification of this platform with the Ara Maxima. The altar must have formed the focal point of an agglomeration of sanctuaries to Hercules in this area (*Round Temple: Forum Bovarium; *Round Temple: Tiberis). Its connection with the Invictus epithet of Hercules is not explicitly attested and rests on the attested cult of Hercules Invictus ad circum Maximum (Fast. Alif. and Amit.: Degrassi, Inscr. Ital. 13.2, 181, 191) as well as a postulated temple of Hercules E of the altar (*Hercules Pompeianus, Aedes), combined with a series of mid- to late-Imperial Hercules Invictus inscriptions some 50 m N of it (s.v. Round Temple: Forum Bovarium).