HERCULES VICTOR (INVICTUS), AEDES
a round temple of Hercules in
the forum Boarium (
Liv. x. 23. 3:
in sacello Pudicitiae patriciae quae
in foro Boario est ad aedem rotundam Herculis; Fest. 242;
Macrob.
iii. 6. 10:
Romae autem Victoris Herculis aedes duae sunt, una ad
portam Trigeminam altera in foro Boario). It was decorated with frescoes
1
by the poet Pacuvius (Plin.
NH xxxv. 19), and is probably the temple
into which neither flies nor dogs were said to enter (ibid. x. 79 :
Romae
in aedem Herculis in foro Boario nec muscae nec canes intrant). The
fact that this same story is found in Solinus (i. io), who speaks of a
consaeptum sacellum, and in Plutarch (q. Rom. 90:
ἐντὸς τῶν περιβόλων),
makes it somewhat uncertain whether it was told originally of the precinct
of the
ARA MAXIMA (q.v.), or of this temple.
The passage in Festus (242:
Pudicitiae signum in foro bovario est ubi
familiana aedisset Herculis) has occasioned much discussion. If Scaliger's
emendation-
ubi Aemiliana aedis est Herculis-is accepted, the natural
inference would be that the round temple of Hercules was restored by
L. Aemilius Paullus (
Jord. i. 2. 483, n. 58; WR 275, n. 4;
RE viii. 556,
557, 558, 560;
Rosch. i. 2903, 2904, 2905, 2909). This emendation,
however, is purely conjectural (see
PUDICITIA PATRICIA). If Tacitus
(
Ann. xv. 41:
et magna ara fanumque quae praesenti Herculi Areas
Evander sacraverat) is referring to this temple, as some believe, it was
injured in the fire under Nero, but it must have been restored very soon,
and Pacuvius' frescoes must have been preserved (Plin. loc. cit.).
During the pontificate of Sixtus IV (1471-1484) the remains of a
round temple near S. Maria in Cosmedin were destroyed, but the building
is referred to by archaeologists of the period (e.g. Pomponius Laetus,
Albertinus). A drawing made a little later (1503-1513) by Baldassare
Peruzzi,
2 of the plan and fragments (Vat. Lat. 3439, f. 32; De Rossi,
Ann. d. Inst. 1854, pl. 3 ; Altm. 33-36), shows a structure not unlike the
existing round temple which is the church of S. Maria del Sole. This
temple stood just north of the Piazza di Bocca della Verita, between it
and the Piazza dei Cerchi, north-west of the probable site of the ara
Maxima (DAP 2. vi. 241, 242 sq.). The discovery of the gilded bronze
statue of Hercules, of the second century A.D. (HF 1005 ; Cons. 282),
258</258>
caused it to be identified with the aedes rotunda of Livy, an identification
assisted by the further discovery in the immediate vicinity of a series of
dedicatory inscriptions to Hercules Invictus (
CIL vi. 312-319). These
inscriptions, however, might belong to the
ARA MAXIMA (q.v.).
The relations, topographical and historical, between the different
shrines of Hercules in and near the forum Boarium, are by no means
clear, and the problems involved have given rise to a considerable literature. (For this temple and for the general subject, see especially De
Rossi, Ann. d.
Inst. 1854, 28-38;
RE viii. 552-563;
Rosch. i. 2901-2920;
also
Jord. i. 2. 479-483;
Gilb. iii. 433-434;
JRS 1919, 180; CIL i².
p. 150, 505 ; Boll. Ass. Arch.
Rom. v. (1915) 108-129.)
