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 p303  Aedes Jovis Statoris

Articles on pp303‑305 of

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby):
A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,
London: Oxford University Press, 1929.


Iuppiter Stator, aedes (templum, ἱερόν): a temple vowed, according to tradition (BC 1917, 79‑84), by Romulus at the critical moment in the battle between the Romans and the Sabines when the former had been driven across the forum valley to the porta Mugonia (Liv. I.12.3‑6; ps. Cic. orat. pr. quam in exilium iret 24; Ov. Fast. VI.794; Dionys. II.50; Flor. I.1.13; de vir. ill. 2.8). The epithet stator appears in Greek as ὀρθώσιος (Dionys.) and στήσιος (App. Plut.) This temple was never built, but in 294 B.C. the consul, M. Atilius Regulus, made a similar vow under similar circumstances in a battle with the Samnites, and erected the temple immediately afterwards (Liv. X.36.11, 37.15). Livy explains that no actual building had been put up by Romulus, but fanum tantum, id est locus templo effatus — an attempt to reconcile fact with what had evidently become the popular tradition (Cic. Cat. I.33; ps. Cic. loc. cit.). Its site is variously indicated — in Palatii radice, ps. Cic.; ante Palatini ora iugi, Ov.; ad veterem portam Palatii, Liv.; παρὰ ταῖς καλουμέναις Μουγωνίσι πύλαις, Dionys.; ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς ἰερᾶς ὁδοῦ πρὸς τὸ Παλάτιον ἀνιόντων, Plut. Cic. 16; cf. Ov. Trist. III.1.32; Liv. I.41.4; Plin. NH XXXIV.29; App. B. C. II.11), and Not. places it in Region IV. It is represented on the relief of the Haterii (Mon. d. Inst. V.7) as hexastyle, of the Corinthian order, and facing the clivus Palatinus.

Cicero called the senate together in this temple (Cic. Cat. II.12; ps. Cic. loc. cit.; Plut. Cic. 16), which was probably not unusual; and in  p304 it was kept what was evidently a bit of liturgy composed by Livius Andronicus (Liv. XXVII.37.7). The day of dedication is given by Ovid (Fast. VI.793) as 27th January, but this may perhaps be that of a later restoration, and not of Regulus' temple (WR 122‑123). In fact, we learn from Fast. Ant. ap. NS 1921, 111, that either this temple or that in the porticus Metelli was dedicated on 5th September; and, as Hemer. Urb. (cited below) associates that temple with that of Juno Regina, the reference in Fast. Ant. may be taken to be to the temple now under discussion. Two inscriptions of the later empire (CIL VI.434, 435) probably belong to this temple, and it is mentioned in the fourth century (Not.).

Just east of the arch of Titus, a site corresponding with the literary references, are ruins consisting of a large rectangular platform of concrete, on which are some enormous blocks of peperino and travertine (Hermes, 1885, 412). On this foundation the mediaeval turris Cartularia was built (for the explanation of this name, see Rend. dei Lincei 1912, 767‑772; AJA 1913, 569),​1 which was not torn down until 1829. This foundation has generally been identified as that of the temple of Iuppiter Stator of the Flavian period (LR 200; HC 250‑252; CR 1905, 75; BC 1903, 18; 1914, 93; 1917, 79‑84; TF 89; DR 178‑182; RE Suppl. IV.480, 481). Some tufa walls, recently excavated close to the north-east side of the arch and beneath its foundations, may have belonged to the temple at an earlier date when its position was slightly different (YW 1908, 23; CR 1909, 61), but the supposition is very doubtful. Others have sought it on the area Palatina, but wrongly (HJ 22).

For a republican inscription on some blocks of tufa there (not on our site), see CIL I21009 = VI.29842 (cf. 36615). It bears the names of two Greek artificers Philocrates and Diocles. See HJ 20‑23; Rosch. II.682‑684.

Iuppiter Stator, aedes (templum, Pliny): a temple which, with that of Iuno Regina and the enclosing Porticus Metelli (q.v.), was built by Q. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus after his triumph in 146 B.C. (Vell. I.11.3). It is referred to as aedes Iovis Metellina (Fest. 363) and aedes Metelli (Plin. NH XXXVI.40; CIL VI.8708). It was inside the porticus Metelli (Vitr. III.2.5), close to the circus Flaminius (Macrob. III.4.2; Hemer. Urb., CIL I2 p252, 339), and its exact site is known, beneath the church of S. Maria in Campitelli. The temple of Juno was just west of this, on the opposite side of the Via della Tribuna di Campitelli. It is not stated in so many words by Velleius (loc. cit.) that Metellus built both temples, but this is the natural inference from the passage. He is also said to have been the first to build a temple in Rome entirely of marble, and this statement probably applies to both structures. In front of the temples Metellus placed Lysippus' equestrian statues of Alexander's generals, and in them were a number of famous works of art (Fest. 363; Plin. NH XXXVI. 24, 34, 40). According to Vitruvius (III.2.5) the temple of Jupiter was the work of Hermodorus of Salamis (RE VIII.861‑862), and was an example of a peripteros with six columns across the front and rear and eleven on the sides. The space between the columns was equal to that between the columns and the wall of the cella. As there were no inscriptions on the temples (Vell. loc. cit.) and evidently representations of a lizard and a frog among the decorations (σαύρα, βάτραχος), the legend arose that the architects were two Spartans, Saurus and Batrachus; and further that, as the decorations in the temple of Jupiter belonged to that of Juno, and vice versa, the statues of the deities had been set up in the wrong cellae by the mistake of the workmen (Plin. NH XXXVI.42‑43; RE III.145). The idea that an Ionic capital now in S. Lorenzo fuori le Muraº has anything to do with these temples has generally been abandoned (HJ 539, n87).​a

After 14 B.C. Augustus either rebuilt the porticus Metelli, or replaced it by the Porticus Octaviae (q.v.), and presumably restored the enclosed temples at the same time. That of Jupiter is mentioned on an undated inscription of the empire (CIL VI.8708: aedituus de aede Iovis porticus Octaviae), and it is included under the rubric Aedes of Region IX in Not. (om. Cur.). The temples are also represented on a fragment (33) of the Marble Plan, that of Juno as hexastyle prostyle, and that of Jupiter as hexastyle and peripteral but with ten columns on a side instead of eleven, as Vitruvius says it had (see above). This discrepancy may perhaps be explained as due to some changes made by Augustus' restoration. Lugli (ZA 229) maintains that, like the porticus Octaviae, they were restored by Severus.

The existing ruins of both temples are concealed for the most part by modern houses in the Via di S. Angelo in Pescheria, and consist chiefly of substructures and walls of travertine and of brickwork, with fragments of marble columns and entablature. Three fluted columns of white marble belonging to the temple of Juno, 12.50 metres in height and 1.25 in diameter, with Corinthian capitals and entablature, are visible in No. 11 of that street. Of the history of these temples after the fourth century, nothing is known (HJ 538‑540; Rosch. II.684‑686. Cf. also Bull. d. Inst. 1861, 241‑245; Ann. d. Inst. 1868, 108‑132).


The Authors' Note:

1 In brief, it derived its name not from the fact that it ever contained the papal archives, but from its proximity to the building in which they were kept, which was itself situated on the Palatine. Cf. also Roma VI (1928) 97, 98.

The obvious meaning of the building's name is "Tower for Charters" or "Cartularies". Platner is refuting the opinion that the pontifical archives were kept there; an opinion held by Rodolfo Lanciani (at some length) and by Christian Hülsen.


Thayer's Note:

a Here's the capital in S. Lorenzo. The frog couldn't be clearer; the thin, discreeter lizard is recognizable by its wavy tail.


[image ALT: missingALT. It is a detail of an Ionic capital in the church of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, in Rome, discussed in the text of this webpage.]

Photo © John Ferry 2019, by kind permission.


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Page updated: 24 Sep 19