Tarentum

Sacred precinct enclosing the subterranean altar of Dis and Proserpina, located at the extreme NW periphery of the *Campus Martius (Festus 440: [in] extremo Mart [io campo]; Zos. 2.3; Val. Max. 2.4.5; Coarelli, LTUR 21). Stressing its vicinity to the *Tiber is Servius (ad Aen. 8.63), who identifies the Tarentum with a part of the river itself. Ovid mentions the *Vada Tarenti (Fast. 1.501: vada Tarenti), which was probably the original ford where the *Via Tecta (1) crossed the river in the NW Campus Martius (Coarelli, LTUR 21) to continue N as the *Via Triumphalis. The sharp turn that the *Euripus takes in the NW Campus Martius before entering the Tiber has been interpreted as an attempt to preserve the topographic integrity of the pre-existing sanctuary of the Tarentum (Quilici-Gigli). Lanciani identified the remains under Chiesa Nuova (s.v. *Cenotaph: M. Agrippa) as the *Tarentum; this theory stood until 1947, when proven wrong by Castagnoli (152-57). The location of the Tarentum in the modern topography should coincide with the area between Via Paola, Lungotevere degli Altoviti, and the Tiber, where the official reports (acta) of the ludi Saeculares were uncovered (Romanelli, Quilici-Gigli, Coarelli 1977). These tablets were originally affixed to a marble and a bronze column erected on the site of the games (acta of the ludi of Augustus, 1.59-63; Pighi 112: eo loco ubi ludi futuri sint). The relationship that the Tarentum shared with the performance of horse races on the occasion of the ludi Saeculares and other ceremonies, and in particular with the nearby *Trigarium, is stressed by ancient sources (Festus 478; Zos. 2.2.3). One of the dupondii issued by Domitianus to commemorate the ludi Saeculares of A.D. 88 depicts a sacrifice to the Elithyiae with monuments in the background; Coarelli uses it as evidence for the existence of two temples dedicated to Dis and Proserpina on the site of the Tarentum, which may be represented on an otherwise unidentified Severan Marble Plan fragment (Rodríguez-Almeida, Forma pl. 58, frag. 672; Coarelli 1968, 34-37; id., LTUR 22; contra, Quilici-Gigli, La Rocca 43-55). Since no ancient evidence mentions a temple dedicated to Dis and Proserpina in Rome (Castagnoli), it seems that only the altar of Dis and Proserpina was located inside the Tarentum; like other subterranean altars, it was a sacred location in itself and did not need a temple. Most probably the Tarentum consisted of an open paved area (Quilici-Gigli; Romanelli; Archivio della Soprintendenza archeologica di Roma, Giornali di scavo 29-5-1967).