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LARES, AEDES

(delubra, Ovid):

a temple of the Lares in summa sacra via (Solin. i. 23), mentioned first in connection with the prodigies of 106 B.C. (Obseq. 4), and by Cicero (de nat. deor. iii. 63 ; Plin. NH ii. 16) to locate the fanum Orbonae. It was restored by Augustus (Mon. Anc. iv. 7=Grk. x. I I:ναὸς ῾Ηρώων πρὸς τῇ ἱερᾷ ὁδῷ, and its day of dedication was 27th June (Ov. Fast. vi. 791-792; Fast. Ant. ap. NS 1921, 99). These are the only references that belong indisputably to this temple, and they indicate a site at the top of the Sacra via, that is, near the arch of Titus.

In describing the line of the original pomerium, Tacitus (Ann. xii. 24) gives four points, magna Herculis ara, ara Consi, curiae veteres, sacellum Larum, presumably the four corners of the quadrilateral. Again Ovid, under date of the kalends of May (Fast. v. 129, 130), makes this the day of dedication of an altar of the Lares Praestites : Praestitibus Maiae Laribus videre kalendae / aram constitui signaque parva deum. It was thought that Ovid here and in the passage quoted above might have been referring to the same shrine, and that May Ist was the festival day of the earlier temple, while 27th June was that of Augustus' restoration, a fact that the poet forgot to make plain; but the discovery of Fast. Ant. (which is a calendar earlier than Caesar) makes this hypothesis impossible. It is also possible that the sacellum Larum of Tacitus may be the aedes in summa sacra via, and that for some unknown reason he preferred to mark the pomerium line at this point rather than at the north-west corner. Further complication is introduced into the problem by two marble bases with dedicatory inscriptions-CIL vi. 456: Laribus publicis sacrum imp. Caesar Augustus ex stipe quam populus ei contulit k. lanuar. Apsenti; vi. 30954: Laribus Aug. sacrum-the first found near the entrance into the forum from the Farnese gardens about 1555, that is, a little north-west of the arch of Titus, a point corresponding to summa sacra via; and the second found in 1879 opposite SS. Cosma e Damiano. Whether either of these bases belongs to the aedes, or to some of the monuments erected throughout the city by Augustus (Suet. Aug. 57), has been much disputed. If the first does belong to the aedes (Richter 161), it is some evidence for the site of the temple; if not (Mommsen, RGDA 82; HJ 22), it has no value either way. The second is of no topographical value.

The relationship of these two or three shrines has given rise to much discussion, but the most probable, although not altogether satisfactory, explanation is that the aedes restored by Augustus in summa sacra via had no connection with the sacellum of Tacitus, which was at the north- west corner of the Palatine and identical with the ara Larum Praestitum of Ovid (Jord. i. 2. 420; HJ 22; Richter, Die alteste Wohnstatte des rom. Volkes 9, 10; Top. 33, 160-161; WR 171; Wissowa, Ges. Abh. 277 ff.; Rosch. ii. 1871; Gilb. iii. 424; BC 1914, 99; RE xii. 813; and other literature cited in these references). It has also been conjectured that the sacellum Larum formed part of the ATRIUM VESTAE (q.v.).

During recent excavations some ruins were found on the south-west side of the arch of Titus, which may have belonged to this temple, but reconstructions have been so extensive at this point that any certainty seems impossible (CR 1905, 75-76, 237, 328; 1909, 61; Mitt. 1905, 118-119; BPW 1905, 428-429; HC 250; DR 138-142).

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106 BC (1)
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