Hercules Musarum and the Porticus Philippi in Rome

Bibliographic Data

ID4534226
AuthorsL Richardson (0000-0002-6213-785X, corresponding author), L Richardson L Richardson
Year1977
Volume81
Issue3
Pages355-361
Publication date1977-07-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9114 • E-ISSN: 1939-828X
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/503009
OpenAlexW2330515434
LanguageEN
Citations received13

The temple of Hercules Musarum in the southern part of the Campus Martius has been neglected, in part because no remains of it are visible today, in part because the cult is an anomaly. Yet it was an important building, originally founded as a victory monument by M. Fulvius Nobilior, the conqueror of Aetolia and friend of Ennius, and rebuilt with great splendor by L. Marcius Philippus, Augustus's step-father. It appears on the Severan Forma Urbis Romae with only small and unimportant lacunae, and the main problem must be interpretation of this plan in the light of the testimonia. Examination of the sources suggests Fulvius Nobilior's temple was to the Muses alone and may not have been architecturally significant; all that we really know is that it contained a set of statues of the nine Muses and a small bronze aedicula ascribed to the time of Numa. Philip's rebuilding, on the other hand, made it a major temple of surprising subtlety and complexity, with focus both forward and back. The cult of Hercules Musarum, which Philip probably grafted on to the old cult of the Muses, may have been the invention of Q. Pomponius Musa some forty years earlier

Ancient history · Art · Art history · Cult · Interpretation (philosophy) · Political science · Politics · Victory · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Classics · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Law · Philosophy

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