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HERCULES CUSTOS, AEDES

* a temple of Hercules, near the circus Flaminius, built in accordance with the command of the Sibyl, and dedicated on 4th June (Ov. Fast. vi. 209-212):

Altera pars Circi Custode sub Hercule tuta est: quod deus Euboico carmine munus habet. muneris est tempus, qui nonas Lucifer ante est. si titulum quaeris: Sulla probavit opus.

The reference to Sulla probably means that Sulla restored an existing temple. In 218 B.C. a supplicatio was decreed ad aedem Herculis (Liv. xxi. 62. 9), and in 189 a statue of the god was placed in aede Herculis (ib. xxxviii. 35. 4). If, as is probable, this aedes is that restored by Sulla, the original temple must have been erected before 218, probably about the time of the erection of the circus Flaminius in 221, of which Hercules was regarded as the guardian. The day of dedication is recorded in the calendars (Fast. Venus. pr. Non. Iun., CIL i'. p. 221: Herc(uli) Magn(o) Custod(i); Vail. pr. Id. Aug. (undoubtedly an error), CIL i. p. 240, 324: Herculi Magno Custodi in circo Maximo; Filoc. pr. Non. Iun., CIL i. p. 319: ludi in Minicia-sic). This last is interpreted to mean that in the fourth century the cult festival was still celebrated, and that ' in Minicia' implies that the temple was within (or close to ?) the PORTICUS MINUCIA (q.v.), that is, at the west end of the circus Maximus. With this location agrees the statement of Ovid (vid. sup.) that this temple was at the opposite end of the circus from the temple of BELLONA (q.v.), for the latter was probably north-east of the circus.

In the garden of the church of S. Nicola ai Cesarini,1 close to its south wall, are the remains of a circular peripteral temple, with concrete podium and fluted columns of tufa, sixteen in number, covered with stucco and standing on travertine bases, fragments of seven of which have been preserved (BC 1893, 191; Alt. 38-40). The masonry of this structure has been attributed to the fourth century B.C., and it is represented on the Marble Plan (FUR fr. Iio). Form and location suggest an identification with the temple of Hercules, but with no degree of certainty (AR 1909, 75-76; P1. 362; BC 1911, 261-264; 1914, 385; RE viii. 571-574; WR 223-224; Rosch. i. 2976-2980; Comment. in hon. Mommsen 266-267; HJ 533, 552; LR 457-458; JRS 1919, 179, 180; BC 1918, 127-136, a vigorous protest against this identification). Frank, however, regards it as belonging to the time of Sulla (from its material it cannot, he thinks, belong to 179 B.C.) and therefore returns to the former identification (TF 130).

1 The church has now been demolished, and the remains of both the unidentified rectangular temple beneath it (HJ 533; BC 1918, 132-136) and of the circular temple near it have been exposed to view.

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218 BC (1)
179 BC (1)
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