Temple of the Faunus

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The Temple of Faunus , Latin aedes Fauni , was a sanctuary dedicated to Faunus on the western tip of the Tiber Island in Rome .

It is the only surviving temple of God in Rome. He was praised by the plebeian aediles Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Gaius Scribonius Curio in 196 BC. They financed the construction with penalties imposed on three leaseholders of the public pastures, pecuarii , for fraud committed. The temple was consecrated two years later in 194 BC. By Domitius in his function as praetor urbanus , namely on the Ides of February, i.e. on February 13, two days before the beginning of the Lupercalia , the main festival of the god.

According to Vitruvius , who is the only one to have a very unlikely cult community with Jupiter, the temple was a four- pillar prostylus . Why the temple was built on the Tiber Island, although its most important cult image was in the Lupercal on the Palatine Hill, is unknown. So far, no remains of the temple have been found on the Tiber Island.

literature

  • Faunus, Aedes . In: Samuel Ball Platner , Thomas Ashby : A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome . Oxford University Press, London 1929 ( online ).
  • Lawrence Richardson Jr .: A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1992, p. 148 (Faunus Aedes) .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Titus Livius 33, 42, 10: aediles plebis Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus et C. Scribonius Curio [...] aedem in insula Fauni fecerunt ; see also Walter Eder : Scribonius I Republican Time 3. In: Der Kleine Pauly (KlP). Volume 5, Stuttgart 1975, Sp. 53-53 .; Lawrence Richardson Jr .: A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1992, p. 148 (Faunus Aedes) erroneously cites Gaius Scribonius Libo.
  2. ↑ Titus Livius 34, 53, 4.
  3. ↑ Ovid , Fasti 2, 193-194.
  4. ↑ Vitruvius 3, 2, 3.

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 27.6 "  N , 12 ° 28 ′ 33.6"  E