The Round Temple in the Forum Boarium

Gentle Readers,

This post was composed by our own Audrey Eccles. Enjoy this neat but enigmatic temple!

In 146 BC Rome took over Greece which caused Roman architecture to be greatly influenced by Greek architecture. In the late 2nd century BC, right around this Greek influence, the Temple of Hercules Olivarius was said to be built. Unfortunately, architects are not exactly sure if this was actually the Temple of Hercules Olivarius or who actually made it, but a cult statue found near the temple makes reference to Hercules Olivarius, which leads people to believe the temple was dedicated to Hercules Olivarius. Because of this confusion, the temple can also be referred to as the Round Temple by the Tiber since it is in fact right next to the Tiber River. Rome is connected to Hercules by a story of how Hercules was bringing cattle back to Greece and happened to pass through Rome. He ended up defeating a monster, Cacus, that was terrorizing their city and for that, the Romans loved him. The temple is located in the Forum Boarium, which happens to be a cattle market, so the similarity to the cattle market and the story of Hercules and the cattle does not seem to be a coincidence. Below you can see a bird’s eye view of the Forum Boarium, the temple, and the Tiber River. The temple is located toward the bottom, middle area of the map and is represented by a gray circle. You can see why the temple is also referred to as the Round Temple by the Tiber because of how close they are together and you can see that the temple is in the Forum Boarium, which leads to the reasoning behind why it is the Temple of Hercules Olivarius.

The Forum Boarium (Cattle Market). The Round Temple to Hercules Olivarius (?) is at the bottom, next to the Tiber.

You see the Greek influence most obviously in the shape of the temple. The temple is a tholos temple, which means round temple. This structure comes from the Greeks so even though we don’t know who made the temple, it is certain that it had to be a Greek architect. There are 20 columns around making it peripteral and they are all Corinthian style. You can see the temple as it is today below, but the roof is a modern construction, however.

Round "tholos" type of temple.

You can also know that this temple was made by a Greek architect because the original marble used was Pentelic marble, also known as Greek marble. However, there was a fire which caused eleven of the columns to be destroyed according to John W. Stamper in his book The Architecture of Roman Temples (70). These columns were then reconstructed in the imperial period and made out of the Luna marble. Architects realized this because of the different marbles and because the designs of the columns were a little bit different. A fun fact about this temple is that it is the oldest surviving completely marble building in Rome. Some of the columns you see today also had to be reconstructed in the modern period. In the first picture below you can see a close up of the columns and although it is hard to tell, the columns are made slightly differently. The second picture below shows the modern reconstruction of the columns and how the columns were found. This shows what the architects believe the columns originally looked like.

In conclusion, the Temple of Hercules Olivarius is famous because it proves how much of an influence the Greeks had on Roman architecture.