The Temple of Hercules Victor () or Hercules Olivarius (Latin for "Hercules the Olive-Bearer") is a Roman temple in Piazza Bocca della Verità, the former Forum Boarium, in Rome, Italy. It is a tholos, a round temple of Greek 'peripteral' design completely surrounded by a colonnade. This layout caused it to be mistaken for a temple of Vesta until it was correctly identified by Napoleon's Prefect of Rome, Camille de Tournon.

Despite (or perhaps due to) the Forum Boarium's role as the cattle market for ancient Rome, the Temple of Hercules is the subject of a folk belief claiming that neither flies nor dogs will enter the holy place. The temple is the earliest surviving mostly intact marble building in Rome and the only surviving one made of Greek marble.

Description

thumb|Jean Antoine Coussin, The Temple of Vesta or Hercules Victor, 1802 (reconstruction).

It is dated to the later 2nd century BC and was built either by L. Mummius Achaicus, conqueror of the Achaeans and destroyer of Corinth, or by the trader Marcus Octavius Herrenus in gratitude for success in business. The temple is 14.8&nbsp;m in diameter and consists of a circular cella within a concentric ring of twenty Corinthian columns 10.66&nbsp;m tall, resting on a tuff<!--not tufa--> foundation. These elements supported an architrave and roof, which have disappeared. and the other in Macrobius' Saturnalia. Though Servius mentions that aedes duae sunt, "there are two sacred temples", the earliest Roman calendars mention but one festival, on 13 August, to Hercules Victor and Hercules Invictus interchangeably.

thumb|[[C.W. Eckersberg, Vesta Temple in Rome, 1814–1816, Nivaagaards Malerisamling.]]

Post-Classical history

thumb|Map of the temple.

In the 1st century AD, the temple was hit with some sort of disaster as 10 columns were replaced with Luna marble, which is similar to the original but not an exact replica. By 1132, the temple had been converted to a church, known as Santo Stefano alle Carozze (St. Stephen 'of the carriages'). In 1140, Innocent II converted the temple into a Christian church dedicating it to Santo Stefano. The temple was recognized officially as an ancient monument in 1935 and restored in 1996.

See also

  • Hercules in Roman religion
  • Temple of Hercules Musarum and the Ara Maxima
  • Temple of Portunus
  • List of Ancient Roman temples

References

Citations

Sources

  • Alberti, Leone Battista. Architecture, 1755, tr. Leoni, James.
  • Claridge, Amanda. Oxford Archaeological Guides - Rome. Oxford University Press, 1998
  • Coarelli, Filippo. Guida Archeologica di Roma. Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milano, 1989.
  • Woodward, Christopher. The Buildings of Europe - Rome. page 30, Manchester University Press, 1995.
  • Loar, Matthew Hercules, Mummius, and the Roman Triumph in Aeneid 8.” Classical Philology, www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/689726.
  • Detailed photographs of the interior and features of the building
  • High-resolution 360° Panoramas and Images of Temple of Hercules | Art Atlas

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