NEPTUNUS, AEDES, DELUBRUM
a temple of Neptune in circo Flaminio
mentioned on an inscription of the Flavian period (
CIL vi. 8423:
Abascanti Aug. lib. aedituo aedis Neptuni quae est in circo Flaminio), and
without doubt by Pliny (
NH xxxvi. 26), who states that a famous group
by Scopas of Neptune, Thetis, Achilles, the Nereids and Tritons, Phorcus
and his crew, sea-monsters, etc., was
in delubro Cn. Domitii in circo
Flaminio. A coin of Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus (
RE v. 1331, No. 25),
struck between 42 and 38 B.C. (Babelon,
Monnaies i. 466, Domitia 20,
BM.
Rep. ii. 487. 93), represents a tetrastyle temple with the legend
Nept. Cn. Domitius M. f. Imp. This indicates that the temple was vowed
at least between 42 and 38, but it may not have been built before 32,
when Domitius had been reconciled to Augustus and held the consulship.
The group of Scopas he probably brought from Bithynia, his province.
The day of dedication of this temple was Ist December (Fast. Amit. ad
Kal. Dec., CIL i². p. 245, 335). To this temple also have been held to belong
the parts of a frieze that were preserved (though this is no proof of their
provenance) in the Palazzo Santacroce and are now in Paris and Munich
(cf. however
MARTIS, ARA). In style and execution this frieze belongs
to the second half of the first century B.C., and it evidently surrounded
either an altar or, more probably, a pedestal, in the temple. This
pedestal may well have been that on which Domitius placed the Scopas
group. Part of the frieze represents a lustratio of the army of the period
before Marius, and probably was a memorial of the victory of the
great-grandfather of the builder of the temple, who was victorious over
the Celts on the Isere in 121 and censor in 115 (for the discussion of these
reliefs, and their bearing on the date of the temple, see Furtwangler,
Intermezzi,
Berlin 1896, 35-48; Brunn, Bayr. Sitz.
Ber. 1876, 342-344;
S. Sculpt. 33-38; Sc R i. 10-14; Mon. Piot, 1910, xvii. 147-157;
AR
1909, 77-82;
OJ 1910, 95-111 ;
AD iii. 12). Remains of substructures
and of six columns of a pycnostyle temple, belonging without much
doubt to this temple of Neptune, have been found north-west of the
Piazza S. Salvatore (
BC 1873, 212-221, pl. vi.; Bursian's
Jahresb. 1873,
787-789).
It is impossible to determine whether Domitius built an entirely
new temple, or restored that which previously existed in circo Flaminio
(see
ARA NEPTUNI above; HJ 522-523; WR 227;
Rosch. iii. 203-204;
Gilb. iii. 89, 90).
