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).
