Hercules Pompeianus, Aedes

A Temple to Hercules near the *Circus Maximus, without identified remains, was rebuilt or restored by Pompey the Great (according to both the epithet Pompeianus used by Vitruvius and Pliny’s specification in aede Pompei Magni, see below). Vitruvius mentions the temple as an example of the old-fashioned, Tuscan style (De arch. 3.3.5: aedium species ... uti est ad circum Maximum Cereris et Herculis Pompeiani, item Capitolii), so a rectangular ground-plan is certain and a rather early date for the original structure can be assumed. The temple stood by the Circus Maximus (apud circum Maximum in aede Pompei Magni: Pliny, NH 34.57, mentioning its statue of Hercules by Myron), perhaps not too far from the Temple of *Ceres (itself tentatively located) near the Circus’ W end, since Vitruvius (loc. cit.) describes both as ad circum Maximum. Without identified remains, any attempt to locate the temple more precisely remains inconclusive. Coarelli, who advocates an identification with a temple to Hercules Invictus (as does Ziolkowski), understands the aedes as a complement to Hercules’ grand altar (*Hercules, Ara Maxima) and places it between the altar and the Circus (LTUR III, 16 and 20; id. 1988, 105 fig. 20). This problematic hypothesis lacks specific evidence for the location, as the mid- to late-Imperial Hercules Invictus inscriptions Coarelli proffers were found further N at the site of the Round Temple near S. Maria in Cosmedin (*Round Temple: Forum Bovarium). Nor can the equation of the Hercules Invictus temple with Pompey’s aedes be taken for granted (cf. Richardson 188); Pompey’s motto ‘Hercules the Invincible’ (invictus) at the battle of Pharsalus (App., B Civ. 2.76) is hardly a sufficient basis (as claimed by Coarelli 1988, 80; cf. Ziolkowski 46). While the Pompeian temple “could have stood anywhere in the vicinity of the Circus” (Richardson 188), it may well be located somewhere at the Circus’ W end, near the findspots of the Hercules inscriptions and the probable site of the Ara Maxima, where we cautiously place an index number.