MATER MATUTA, AEDES
(templum,
Liv. xxiv. 47, Ovid):
a temple in the
forum Boarium (
Liv. xxxiii. 27. 4; Ov.
Fast. vi. 477-479), just inside the
porta Carmentalis (
Liv. xxv. 7. 6), ascribed by tradition to Servius
Tullius (
Liv. v. 19. 6; Ov.
Fast. vi. 480), restored and dedicated by
Camillus in 395 B.C. (
Liv. v. 19. 6, 23. 7; Plut. Cam. 5); it was burned
in 213 (
Liv. xxiv. 47. 15), and restored the next year by triumvirs
appointed for the purpose, together with the temple of Fortuna (
Liv.
xxv. 7. 6; for a possible later restoration, see below). In 196 B.C. two
arches (fornices) with gilded statues were set up by L. Stertinius in front
of the temples of Mater Matuta and Fortuna (
Liv. xxxiii. 27. 4), and if,
as is probable, these arches were part of a colonnade surrounding them
both, the temples must have been near together and perhaps had the
same orientation. In the temple of Matuta Ti. Sempronius Gracchus
placed a bronze tablet
1 (
Liv. xli. 28. 8), on which was a record of his
campaigns in Sardinia and a map of the island. The day of dedication
was that of the Matralia, Ith June (Fasti Tusc. Ven. Maff. ad iii id. Iun.,
CIL i. p. 216, 222, 224, 320; Fast. Ant. ap.
NS 1921, 98-from which
we learn that it was also the day of dedication of the temple of
FORTUNA (q.v.)).
On the north side of the modern Piazza della Bocca della Verita, a
site corresponding to that indicated by the evidence of literature, is an
ancient temple converted into the church of S. Maria Egiziaca in 872
(Arm. 612). The temple is Ionic (111. 31), 20 metres long and 12 wide,
with north-south orientation parallel to the Tiber, tetrastyle prostyle, and
stands on a podium 2.50 metres in height and originally 26 metres long.
It was pseudo-peripteral, with five engaged columns in the side walls of
the cella and a pronaos. The two free columns of the pronaos were
walled up to increase the size of the church ; but the temple has recently
been isolated and all modern accretions have been removed. The cella
walls and engaged columns, except those at the angles, are of tufa; the
columns of the pronaos, the capitals of all the columns, the architrave
and cornice, and the facing of the podium, of travertine. The frieze
was decorated with ox-skulls and garlands, but most of this decoration
has disappeared.
2 The temple faced toward the street leading up from
the pons Aemilius, and not toward the forum Boarium proper. This
has sometimes been identified with the temple of Fortuna, but it is more
probable that it is that of Mater Matuta. If this is correct, the temple
must have been restored about the middle of the first century B.C., to
which period the construction seems to point. For this identification,
see Huilsen, DAP 2. vi. 270; and for a complete description of
the existing structure, Fiechter,
Mitt. 1906, 220-279; also
Rosch. ii.
2462-2463; D'Esp.
Fr. i. 50; ZA 251-253; TF 134-136; YW 1924-5, 85;
Mufioz, Tempio della Fortuna Virile, Rome 1925; ASA 20, 21, 77;
Mitt. 1925, 321-350, for an identification of this temple with that of
PORTUNUS (q.v.), the attribution of the round temple being treated as
uncertain; and for an erroneous identification (Cybele) by Cecchelli, cf. ZA
cit. For its mediaeval history see HCh 258, 336, 590, 597;
BC 1925, 57-69, where it is identified with S. Maria de Gradellis; cf.
MOLINAE.
