The Temple of Hercules Custos (Latin: Aedes Herculis Custodis) was a Roman temple dedicated to 'Hercules the Guardian'. Its location is unknown and no remains have been found, although a Temple to Hercules linked to Lucius Cornelius Sulla (the Herculem Sullanum) was noted as standing in the region of the Esquiline Hill during the late 4th century. [1]
Its history is unclear. Ovid writes that it was to the west of the Circus Flaminius - it was probably built around the same time (221 BC). It was re-built by Sulla after consulting the Sibylline Oracles. [2] [3] This consultation of the oracles and the epithet 'Custos' seems to imply it was built and/or rebuilt in response to a major crisis, though it is unknown what its nature was.
In 218 BC, the senate decreed a supplicatio in the Aedes Herculi. [4] Though there were several temples of Hercules, this probably refers to that of Hercules Custos. The decemvirs ordered a statue to be set up in the temple of Hercules Custos in 189 BC. [5]
The Circus Maximus is an ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium and mass entertainment venue in Rome, Italy. In the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and largest stadium in ancient Rome and its later Empire. It measured 621 m (2,037 ft) in length and 118 m (387 ft) in width and could accommodate over 150,000 spectators. In its fully developed form, it became the model for circuses throughout the Roman Empire. The site is now a public park.
Venus is a Roman goddess, whose functions encompass love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals, and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles.
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Liber, also known as Liber Pater, was a god of viticulture and wine, male fertility and freedom. He was a patron deity of Rome's plebeians and was part of their Aventine Triad. His festival of Liberalia became associated with free speech and the rights attached to coming of age. His cult and functions were increasingly associated with Romanised forms of the Greek Dionysus/Bacchus, whose mythology he came to share.
The Sibylline Books were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameter verses, that, according to tradition, were purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and consulted at momentous crises through the history of the Roman Republic and the Empire.
In ancient Roman religion, Concordia is the goddess who embodies agreement in marriage and society. Her Greek equivalent is usually regarded as Harmonia, with musical harmony a metaphor for an ideal of social concord or entente in the political discourse of the Republican era. She was thus often associated with Pax ("Peace") in representing a stable society. As such, she is more closely related to the Greek concept of homonoia, which was also represented by a goddess.
Juno was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counsellor of the state. She was equated to Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology and a goddess of love and marriage. A daughter of Saturn and Ops, she was the sister and wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona, Lucina and Juventas. Like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock. Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina ("Queen") and was a member of the Capitoline Triad, centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, and also including Jupiter, and Minerva, goddess of wisdom.
The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, also known as the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, was the most important temple in Ancient Rome, located on the Capitoline Hill. It was surrounded by the Area Capitolina, a precinct where numerous shrines, altars, statues and victory trophies were displayed.
The Temple of Vesta, or the aedes, is an ancient edifice in Rome, Italy. It is located in the Roman Forum near the Regia and the House of the Vestal Virgins. The Temple of Vesta housed Vesta's holy fire, which was a symbol of Rome's safety and prosperity. The temple has a circular footprint, making it a tholos.
Largo di Torre Argentina is a large open space in Rome, Italy, with four Roman Republican temples and the remains of Pompey's Theatre. It is in the ancient Campus Martius.
The Temple of Hercules Victor or Hercules Olivarius is a Roman temple in Piazza Bocca della Verità, the former Forum Boarium, in Rome, Italy. It is a tholos, a round temple of Greek 'peripteral' design completely surrounded by a colonnade. This layout caused it to be mistaken for a temple of Vesta until it was correctly identified by Napoleon's Prefect of Rome, Camille de Tournon.
Faustus Cornelius Sulla was a politician of the Roman Republic. He was the son of the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla. He started his career in the shadow of Pompey, whom he followed during the Civil War against Julius Caesar. He was killed soon after the battle of Thapsus in 46 BC.
The Temple of Veiovis in ancient Rome was the temple of the god Veiovis, built sometime in the early 1st century BC.
The Temple of Apollo Sosianus is a Roman temple dedicated to Apollo in the Campus Martius, next to the Theatre of Marcellus and the Porticus Octaviae, in Rome, Italy. Its present name derives from that of its final rebuilder, Gaius Sosius.
The Temple of Concord in the ancient city of Rome refers to a series of shrines or temples dedicated to the Roman goddess Concordia, and erected at the western end of the Roman Forum. The earliest temple is believed to have been vowed by Marcus Furius Camillus in 367 BC, but it may not have been built until 218 BC by L. Manlius. The temple was rebuilt in 121 BC, and again by the future emperor Tiberius between 7 BC and AD 10.
The Temple of Cybele or Temple of Magna Mater was Rome's first and most important temple to the Magna Mater, who was known to the Greeks as Cybele. It was built to house a particular image or form of the goddess, a meteoric stone brought from Greek Asia Minor to Rome in 204 BC at the behest of an oracle and temporarily housed in the goddess of Victory's Palatine temple. The new temple was dedicated on 11 April 191 BC, and Magna Mater's first Megalesia festival was held on the temple's proscenium.
In ancient Roman religion, a sacellum is a small shrine. The word is a diminutive from sacrum. The numerous sacella of ancient Rome included both shrines maintained on private properties by families, and public shrines. A sacellum might be square or round.
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Hercules was venerated as a divinized hero and incorporated into the legends of Rome's founding. The Romans adapted Greek myths and the iconography of Heracles into their own literature and art, but the hero developed distinctly Roman characteristics. Some Greek sources as early as the 6th and 5th century BC gave Heracles Roman connections during his famous labors.
The Temple of Hercules Pompeianus was a temple dedicated to Hercules in ancient Rome near the circus Maximus. Vitruvius (III.3.5) refers to it being decorated in the Tuscan manner. It contained a statue of Hercules by Myron. 'Pompeianus' may indicate either that it was an older building built by the Pompeius family or that it was restored by Pompey the Great. It seems to be linked to Republican-era tufa foundations discovered under Santa Maria in Cosmedin.
The Temple of Hercules Musarum was a Roman temple dedicated to Hercules Musarum located near the Circus Flaminius in the southern Campus Martius in ancient Rome.
The Temple of Honor and Virtue was a temple in Regio I of ancient Rome dedicated to Virtus and Honos. No remains survive. It is the first entry for Regio I in the regional catalogues and was sited just outside the porta Capena, probably on the northern side of the via Appia. In front of it was the Ara Fortuna Redux.