MERCURIUS, AEDES
(templum, Ovid):
a temple dedicated in 495 B.C. by
a centurion, M. Plaetorius, to whom the people had given this honour
(
Liv. ii. 21. 7, 27. 5-6; Val.
Max. ix. 3. 6). It was on the slope of the
Aventine, above and facing the circus Maximus (Ov.
Fast. v. 669; Apul.
Met. vi. 8; Not. Reg. XI; cf. Mirabilia 28;
Jord. ii. 641), near its
south-east end. ( It was dedicated on the Ides of May, which afterwards
became a festival of the mercatores (
Liv. ii. 21. 7; Ov.
Fast. v. 670;
Fest. 148;
Mart. xii. 67. i ; Fasti Caer. Tusc. Ven. Philoc. ad Id. Mai,
CIL i². p. 213, 216, 221, 264, 318; Fast. Ant. ap.
NS 1921, 96). Maia
seems also to have shared this temple with her son (Macrob.
Sat. i. 12. 19;
Lydus, de mens. iv. 52-53;
Mart. vii. 74. 5; Fast. Caer. loc. cit.). This
temple may perhaps be represented on a coin of Marcus Aurelius (Cohen,
Marc. Aur. 534; Baumeister, Denkmaler 1495
1;
Rosch. ii. 2803),
with a podium of three steps, on which stand four herms in place of
columns, supporting an architrave, and above this what looks like a
curved pediment with animals and attributes of the god. The statue of
Mercury stands between the herms. This apparently curved pediment
(cf. Serv.
Aen. ix. 406) is not necessarily so (Altm. 21-22), and in any case,
if some temples of Mercury were round, all were not (Merlin, 363). If
the coin represents the temple of Mercury, it may indicate a restoration
by Marcus Aurelius (
SHA 1910, 7. A, 7-9). It was standing in the fourth
century (Not. Reg. XI; Mirab. 28), but no traces of it have been found
(HJ 118-119;
Rosch. ii. 2802-2804;
Gilb. ii. 251-253; WR 304-305).
