Iuturna, Aedes

Temple to Iuturna of uncertain appearance located in the *Campus Martius (Servius, ad Aen. 12.139), perhaps near the terminus of the *Aqua Virgo (Ov., Fast. 1.463-64). The temple was built by a Lutatius Catulus (Servius, loc. cit.) in c. 241 B.C. and dedicated on 11 January (Degrassi, Inscr. Ital. 13.2, 395). In the late 70s or early 60s B.C. C. Aelius Staienus set up before the temple gilt-bronze statues and a titulus recording the number of kings he restored to friendship with Rome (Cic., Clu. 101). Ovid gives the temple’s location at the terminus of the *Aqua Virgo (te quoque lux eadem, Turni soror, aede recepit hic ubi Virginea Campus obitur aqua: Fast. 1.463-64). Frontinus locates the end of the Virgo’s arcade ‘alongside the front of the *Saepta’ (Aq. 22.2: secundum frontem Saeptorum). Since the aqueduct entered the city, and the Campus Martius, from the N, it seems reasonable to assume that the temple of Iuturna was located near the N end of the Saepta. One problem is the interpretation of ‘hic ubi Virginea Campus obitur aqua’, which could denote where the aqueduct ‘enters’ the Campus Martius, or where it ‘circles’ it. The latter interpretation falls in line with recent excavations indicating that the aqueduct curved SW underground towards *Trans Tiberim, which it reached via the *Pons Agrippae (cf. Aqua Virgo) through subsidiary lines. If Ovid intended to say ‘here where the Campus (Martius) is circled by the aqua Virgo’, then the Temple of Iuturna may be located at the point along the Virgo where it turned SW towards the Pons Agrippae. If he had a more concrete visual reference in mind, then we must read l.464 as ‘here where the Aqua Virgo enters the Campus Martius’, which could mean where it descends below ground near the Saepta or even, as Richardson postulates (228), between the *Via Flaminia and the templum Divi Hadriani where the Virgo’s arcade crosses into the Campus proper. Seeking to label the temples of the “Area Sacra” in Largo Argentina, Coarelli (1981, 42-46) identifies Temple A as Iuturna, while Ziolkowski (1986) equates *Temple C with the nymph; however, there is no solid evidence to substantiate either claim, nor to limit our considerations for the Temple of Iuturna to the series of 4 known temples in the “Area Sacra”. Richardson (loc. cit.) advocates a more tenable position N of the Saepta, in an as-yet-unexcavated area of the Campus Martius. Although Pietilä-Castrén (47) has already raised the point that the Severan Marble Plan does not indicate any Republican temples N of the *Thermae of Agrippa, one might counter that the Severan plan probably represents the N Campus Martius as it appeared after post-Augustan construction obliterated Republican temples there. Given the evidence of Ovid and Frontinus, we have placed Iuturna’s temple just N of the Saepta (as does Richardson). This area, within the once-swampy, flood-prone depression of the central Campus (cf. Dio Cass. 53.20.1, 54.1.1, 54.25.2), would have been quite appropriate for a water goddess. The imprecise nature of our sources, however, suggests caution and thus the temple is indicated on our map only by an index number.