CONCORDIA, AEDES, TEMPLUM
(Act. Arv. LVI, Plin.
NH xxxiv. 73, 80, 89, 90;
xxxvi. 196, Serv.
Aen. ii. 116, Notitia), delubrum (
Plin. xxxv. 66;
xxxvii.
4):
a temple at the north-west corner of the forum, said to have been
vowed by L. Furius Camillus in 367 B.C. during the disturbances that
took place over the passage of the Licinian laws. Its erection was voted
by the people immediately after their enactment (Ov.
Fast. i. 641-644;
Plut. Cam. 42). It stood between the Volcanal and the foot of the
Capitoline (Ov. cit. 637-638; Act. Arv. passim; Serv.
Aen. ii. 116; Stat.
Silv. i. I. 31; Plut. Cam. 42; Varro,
LL v. 148, 156), and the space around
it was called area Concordiae, which is mentioned only in connection with
prodigia of 183 and 181 B.C. (
Liv. xxxix. 56. 6;
xl. 19. 2; Obseq. 4).
The date of the actual erection of the temple is not known; the day of
its dedication was probably 22nd July (Fast. Ant. ap.
NS 1921, 103),
while that of the later structure was 16th January (Ov.
Fast. i. 637;
Fast. Praen. ad xvii Kal. Feb., CIL i p. 231, 308; Fast. Verol. ap.
NS
1923, 196). In 211 B.C. a statue of Victory on its roof was struck down
by lightning (
Liv. xxvi. 23. 4).
In 121 B.C., after the death of C. Gracchus, the senate ordered this
temple to be restored by L. Opimius, to the great disgust of the democracy
(App.
BC i. 26; Plut. C. Gracch. 17; Cic. pro Sest. 140; August. de civ.
d. iii. 25). Opimius probably built his
BASILICA (q.v.) at the same
time, close to the temple on the north. In 7 B.C. Tiberius undertook to
restore the temple with his spoils from Germany (Cass.
Dio lv. 8. 2), and
the structure was completed and dedicated as
aedes Concordiae Augustae,
in the name of Tiberius and his dead brother Drusus, on 16th January,
10 A.D. (Ov.
Fast. i. 640, 643-648; Cass.
Dio lvi. 25; Suet. Tib. 20, where
the year is given as 12 A.D.). It is represented on coins (Cohen, Tib.
68-70; BM. Tib. 116, 132-4). A later restoration, perhaps after the fire
of 284, is recorded in an inscription (
CIL vi. 89), which was seen on the
pronaos of the temple by the copyist of the inscriptions in the Einsiedeln
Itinerary.
After the restoration by Opimius, this temple was frequently used
for assemblies of the senate (Cic.
Cat. iii. 21: pro Sest. 26; de domo
111;
Phil. ii. 19, 112;
iii. 31;
v. 18; Sall. Cat. 46,49 ; Cass. Dio lviii.
II. 4; Hist. Aug. Pert. 4; Alex. Sev. 6; Max. et Balb. 1, cf.
Herod.
ii. 10; Prob. 11; Hermes, 1875, 290-291; Willems, Le Senat romain
ii. 159), and as a meeting-place for the Arval Brethren (see Henzen, p. 5,
for list from 63 A.D.;
DE i. 176).
Tiberius compelled the Rhodians to sell him a statue of Vesta for
this temple (Cass.
Dio lv. 9. 6), and it evidently became a sort of museum,
for Pliny mentions many works of art that were placed in it-statues of
Apollo and Juno by Baton (xxxiv. 73), Latona with the infant Apollo
and Diana by Euphranor (77), Aesculapius and Hygeia by Niceratus (80),
Mars and Mercury by Piston (89), Ceres Jupiter and Minerva by Sthennis
(90), paintings of Marsyas by Zeuxis (xxxv. 66), Liber by Nicias (131),
Cassandra by Theodorus (144) ; four elephants of obsidian dedicated by
Augustus (196) ; and a famous sardonyx that had belonged to Polycrates
of Samos
(xxxvii. 4; see also Jacobi, Grundzuge einer Museographie
d. Stadt Rom zur Zeit d. Kaisers Augustus, 1884).
A few other incidental references to the temple occur (Val.
Max. ix. 7.4;
Cass.
Dio xlvii. 2 ;
xlix. 18; 1. 8), and gifts were deposited here by order
of the senate in 16 A.D. after the alleged conspiracy of Libo (Tac.
Ann.
ii. 32). Several dedicatory inscriptions have been found among its ruins
(
CIL vi. 90-94, 30856, 30857), and three others mention an aedituus of
the temple (2204, 2205, 8703). It is represented on a coin of Orbiana,
the wife of Alexander Severus (Froehner, Med. 177-178
1), and on a fragment (22) of the Marble Plan; and is mentioned in the Regionary
Catalogue (
Reg. VIII). The structure was threatening to collapse in the
time of Hadrian I, 772-795 A.D. (
LPD i. 512, 522).
Its situation with respect to other buildings and the contour of the
ground led to the adoption of a plan which made this structure unique
among Roman temples (FUR fr. 22). Instead of having the usual
proportions, the cella of the Augustan temple was 45 metres wide and
only 24 deep, while the pronaos was only 34 metres wide and 14 deep,
and therefore did not extend across the whole front of the cella. The
back wall of the cella abutted against the front of the Tabularium, and
a very wide flight of steps led down from the pronaos to the area. So
far as investigations have been carried, they seem to show that the ground
plan of the temple of Opimius was similar to that of Tiberius (see Van
Buren,
CR 1906, 82-84, 184 f. for such an investigation, and the traces
of successive structures-II being doubtful-and compare TF 47-49).
The interior of the Augustan cella was surrounded by a row of white
marble columns, standing on a low shelf which projected from the main
wall. This wall contained eleven niches, in the central one of which,
opposite the entrance, a statue of Concord must have stood. The
exterior of the temple was entirely covered with marble, and the building
must have been one of the most beautiful in Rome.
The existing remains consist of the concrete core of the podium,
much of which belongs to the construction of 121 B.C., and is probably the
oldest known concrete in the city (
AJA 1912, 244, 245); the threshold
of the main entrance, composed of two blocks of Porta Santa marble,
together 7 metres long; a very few fragments of the marble pavement
of the cella and the pronaos; and a part of the magnincent cornice, now
in the Tabularium, together with numerous small architectural fragments.
The bases were also very fine--the only perfect example is in the Berlin
museum (No. 1013; cf. PBS ii. No. 126b-not 105d). For the cornice,
see Toeb. i. pl. vi., vii. pp. 42-51). In the podium are two chambers which
may have been store-rooms for treasure.
See also
DE ii. 572;
RE iv. 831-833;
Rosch. i. 914-916;
Jord.
i. 2. 332-339; HC 93-96; LR 288-289; Thed. 122-125, 362-364;
Middleton i. 332-338; D'Esp.
Fr. i. 83-86; DR 170-178; Mem. Am.
Acad. v. 53-77; RE
Suppl. iv. 492-494; ASA 72; HFP 21.
