Round Temple: Forum Bovarium

Round temple in the *Forum Bovarium near S. Maria in Cosmedin, probably located north of the church. Torn down in the 15th c., it is known in some detail through reconstruction drawings of the Renaissance (especially those of B. Peruzzi, copied by Pirro Ligorio; Coarelli 1988, 88-89, 90 fig. 14; Cressedi), which show an exterior colonnade in the Tuscan order, possibly the result of an Augustan-period renovation (Rakob and Heilmeyer 29, who compare it with architectural elements of the Parthian Arch, s.v. *“Arcus Augusti”). This temple may have been larger than the well-preserved *Round Temple by the Tiber (Coarelli 1988, 91-92; id., LTUR 12). Its location at the Forum Bovarium near the *Circus Maximus is undisputed and must have distinguished its location from the Round Temple by the Tiber, which stood apart from the Forum Bovarium (s.v. *Muri: Forum Bovarium-Tiberis). Our map shows the vanished temple’s agreed-upon location north of S. Maria in Cosmedin (Coarelli 1988, 104-5 fig. 20; Ziolkowski 310 with map; cf. Cressedi 257 fig. 3). Found at this site was a bronze statue of a young Hercules (Nash; recovered in the Renaissance) and a series of praetorian inscriptions (the earliest dated to A.D. 193) mostly addressed to HERCVLES INVICTVS (CIL VI 312-19, cf. ILS 3402-9, except for CIL VI 316 and 319; cf. Cressedi 268). While there is general agreement to attribute the lost Round Temple to Hercules, all specific aspects of it remain open. Coarelli’s suggestion (1988, 94-92; id., LTUR 11-12) to identify it with the emended Aemiliana aedis est Herculis (Festus 282: in foro Bovario ... ubi familiana aedisset Herculis; yet Palmer 237 prefers the reading Flaminini aedes) has also been put forward by Ziolkowski (313-14), who equates it further with the Temple of Hercules Victor in foro Boario, an identification pondered by Palmer (237-39) and Richardson. The issue, which also raises questions about the identity and location of the Temple of *Hercules Pompeianus, appears unresolved.