HERCULES MUSARUM, AEDES
（
βωμός Plut. q. Rom. 59):
a temple of
Hercules and the Muses, erected by M. Fulvius Nobilior after his capture
of Ambracia in 189 B.C., and probably after his triumph in 187. Fulvius
is said to have done this because he learned in Greece that Hercules
was a musagetes (Eumen. pro rest. Schol. 7. 8 (c. 297 A.D.); Cic. pro
Arch. 27). In this temple Fulvius set up a copy of the Fasti with notes,
probably the first of this kind (Macrob.
Sat. i. 12. 16; for a possible
reference to this, see Varro,
LL vi. 33), and also the statues from Ambracia
of the nine Muses by an unknown artist, and that of Hercules playing
the lyre (Plin.
NH xxxv. 66; Ov.
Fast. vi. 812; cf. Ars
Am. iii. 168);
and a bronze shrine of the Muses that was attributed to the time of Numa
and had been in the temple of Honos et Virtus until this was built (Serv.
Aen. i. 8). The statue of Hercules and those of the nine Muses are
represented on denarii of Q. Pomponius Musa, about 64 B.C. (
Babelon
ii. 361; Cohen, Med. Cons. 266, pl. 34, 4; BM.
Rep. i. 441, 3602-3632).
In 29 B.C. L. Marcius Philippus restored this temple and built a porticus,
the
PORTICUS PHILIPPI (q.v.) around it (Suet. Aug. 29). The day of
dedication was 30th June (Ov.
Fast. vi. 797;
Mart. iv. 49. 13).
This temple is mentioned in Not. (Reg. IX, om. Cur.), and its site
is ascertained from a fragment (33) of the Marble Plan. It was
in circo
Flaminio (Eum. loc. cit.), that is, close to the south-west part of the circus
itself, and north-west of the porticus Octaviae, where some remains have
been found that probably belonged to this temple (Rosa, Relazione 75;
NS 1890, 31;
BC 1890, 66-68;
Mitt. 1891, 126). An inscription found
near by (
CIL vi. 1307 =i2. 615:
M. Fulvius M. f. Ser. n. Nobilior cos.
Ambracia cepit) may have been on the pedestal of one of the statues.
The regular form of the name was Herculis Musarum aedes, but Herculis
et Musarum in Servius (loc. cit.) and Plutarch (HJ 544-545 ; Bull. d.
Inst.
1869, 3-12; Comm. in hon. Mommsen 262-266;
RE viii. 574-578;
Rosch. i. 2970-2976;
DE iii. 703-704).
