Aedes Iani | |
Location | Rome, Italy |
---|---|
Coordinates | 41°53′28.9″N12°28′48.2″E / 41.891361°N 12.480056°E |
Length | 26 metres (85 ft) |
Width | 15 metres (49 ft) |
History | |
Periods | 3rd century BC |
Cultures | Ancient Rome |
The Temple of Janus (Latin : Aedes Iani) at the Forum Holitorium was a Roman temple dedicated to the god Janus, located between the Capitoline Hill and the Tiber River near the Circus Flaminius in the southern Campus Martius. The temple was built during the First Punic War, after the Temple of Janus in the Roman Forum.
The temple was built by Gaius Duilius in 3rd century BC after the 260 BC Roman victory at Mylae. [1] [2] It was probably built over an earlier shrine. [3] [2] Allegedly, [4] the Senate was forbidden from meeting in the temple because their decree that the Fabii should go to the siege of Veii was made in a temple of Janus, although some scholars consider this apocryphal. [2] There were annual festivals at the temple on the Portunalia (17 August), [5] [6] the day of its initial dedication. [2]
During the early imperial period, Augustus began a restoration of the temple that was completed by his adopted heir Tiberius on 18 October AD 17. [1] [2] Augustus provided the temple with an Egyptian Greek statue of the god by Scopas or Praxiteles, [7] probably Scopas's Two-Headed Hermes (Έρμης Δικέφαλος, Hermēs Diképhalos; Hermes Dicephalus). [8] [2] Thereafter, its annual festival was held in October. [9] [2]
The temple is known to have stood near the Roman vegetable market ( Forum Holitorium ) "at" or "beside the Theatre of Marcellus" (ad [10] or iuxta theatrum Marcelli) [11] [lower-alpha 1] and "outside the Carmental Gate" (extra portam Carmentalem). [14]
There are known to have been three contiguous temples from the Late Republic on the west side of the Forum Holitorium in the area of the current church of San Nicola in Carcere. The early 3rd-century Severan Forma Urbis Romae & Lanciani's 20th-century revision make these temples (from north to south) the Temples of Hope, Piety, and Juno Sospita. Other sources make the northern temple the Temple of Janus, the central temple Hope's, and the southern temple Juno Sospita's. [15] [2] The Italian government currently considers it likely but uncertain that the northern temple was Janus's and believes the central temple was Juno Sospita's and the southern temple Hope's. [16]
The ruins of the northernmost of the three ancient temples lie to the right of the facade of San Nicola. The principal remains are seven columns in tuff, a typical material for monuments of the Late Republic and early Empire, incorporated with their architrave into the right side of the church and two other free-standing columns near the Theatre of Marcellus. This temple was about 26 metres (85 ft) in length and 15 metres (49 ft) in width before its destruction. It had a Ionic hexastyle pronaos and featured another row of six columns behind the facade and one of nine on the long side. It lacked a rear colonnade (posticum), since the peristasis of columns did not cover that side. The temple was entirely covered with peperino like the one used for the Temple of Hadrian and rested on a basement of concrete covered with travertine. The columns and capitals were made of marble as well, unlike the nearby Temple of Portunus which had a stucco covering.
Jupiter, also known as Jove, is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religion and mythology. Jupiter was the chief deity of Roman state religion throughout the Republican and Imperial eras, until Christianity became the dominant religion of the Empire. In Roman mythology, he negotiates with Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, to establish principles of Roman religion such as offering, or sacrifice.
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janus (Ianuarius). According to ancient Roman farmers' almanacs, Juno was mistaken as the tutelary deity of the month of January, but Juno is the tutelary deity of the month of June.
Nonius Marcellus was a Roman grammarian of the 4th or 5th century AD. His only surviving work is the De compendiosa doctrina, a dictionary or encyclopedia in 20 books that shows his interests in antiquarianism and Latin literature from Plautus to Apuleius. Nonius may have come from Africa.
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.
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The Forum Holitorium or Olitorium is an archaeological area of Rome, Italy, on the slopes of the Capitoline Hill. It was located outside the Carmental Gate in the Campus Martius, crowded between the cattle market and buildings located in the Circus Flaminius.
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San Nicola in Carcere is an ancient titular church and minor basilica in Rome near the Forum Boarium in rione Ripa. It is constructed in the remains of the three temples of the Forum Holitorium and is one of the traditional stational churches of Lent. The parish was suppressed in 1931 and it is now served by the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God from the nearby Santa Maria in Campitelli.
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The Temple of Piety was a Roman temple dedicated to the goddess Pietas, a deified personification of piety. It was erected in 181 BC at the northern end of the Forum Olitorium, the Roman vegetable market, and demolished in 44 BC to make room for the building eventually known as the Theater of Marcellus. It seems to have been rebuilt and its services continued well into the imperial period, although this is disputed by some scholars.
The Regio VIII Forum Romanum Magnum is the eighth regio of imperial Rome, under Augustus's administrative reform. Regio VIII took its name from the Roman Forum, the political centre of Ancient Rome.
Preceded by Temple of Hercules Victor | Landmarks of Rome Temple of Janus | Succeeded by Temple of "Minerva Medica" |