Temple of Castor and Pollux
The Roman Forum. The Temple of Castor and Pollux (495 BC).
The Temple of Castor and Pollux (Italian: Tempio dei Dioscuri) is an ancient temple in the Roman Forum. It was originally built in gratitude for victory at the Battle of Lake Regillus (495 BC). Castor and Pollux (Greek Polydeuces) were the Dioscuri, the "twins" of Gemini, the twin sons of Zeus (Jupiter) and Leda.
The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and his allies, the Latins, waged war on the infant Roman Republic. Before the battle, the Roman dictator Aulus Postumius Albus Regillensis vowed to build a temple to the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux) if the Republic were victorious.
According to legend, Castor and Pollux appeared on the battlefield as two able horsemen in aid of the Republic; and after the battle had been won they again appeared on the Forum in Rome watering their horses at the Spring of Juturna thereby announcing the victory. The temple stands on the supposed spot of their appearance.
The archaic temple was completely reconstructed and enlarged in 117 BC.
If still in use by the 4th century, the temple would have been closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire. The temple was possibly already falling apart in the 4th century, when a wall in front of the Lacus Juturnae was erected from reused material. Nothing is known of its subsequent history, except that in the 15th century, only three columns of its original structure were still standing.
In the 18th century English architect Dance had "a Model cast from the finest Example of the Corinthian order perhaps in the whole World", as he reported to his father.
Today the podium survives without the facing, as do the three columns and a piece of the entablature, one of the most famous features in the Forum.
The octastyle temple was peripteral, with eight Corinthian columns at the short sides and eleven on the long sides.
Left: Santa Maria Antiqua, 5th century, Byzantine style.
Rome. 2007
Temple of Castor and Pollux
The Roman Forum. The Temple of Castor and Pollux (495 BC).
The Temple of Castor and Pollux (Italian: Tempio dei Dioscuri) is an ancient temple in the Roman Forum. It was originally built in gratitude for victory at the Battle of Lake Regillus (495 BC). Castor and Pollux (Greek Polydeuces) were the Dioscuri, the "twins" of Gemini, the twin sons of Zeus (Jupiter) and Leda.
The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and his allies, the Latins, waged war on the infant Roman Republic. Before the battle, the Roman dictator Aulus Postumius Albus Regillensis vowed to build a temple to the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux) if the Republic were victorious.
According to legend, Castor and Pollux appeared on the battlefield as two able horsemen in aid of the Republic; and after the battle had been won they again appeared on the Forum in Rome watering their horses at the Spring of Juturna thereby announcing the victory. The temple stands on the supposed spot of their appearance.
The archaic temple was completely reconstructed and enlarged in 117 BC.
If still in use by the 4th century, the temple would have been closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire. The temple was possibly already falling apart in the 4th century, when a wall in front of the Lacus Juturnae was erected from reused material. Nothing is known of its subsequent history, except that in the 15th century, only three columns of its original structure were still standing.
In the 18th century English architect Dance had "a Model cast from the finest Example of the Corinthian order perhaps in the whole World", as he reported to his father.
Today the podium survives without the facing, as do the three columns and a piece of the entablature, one of the most famous features in the Forum.
The octastyle temple was peripteral, with eight Corinthian columns at the short sides and eleven on the long sides.
Left: Santa Maria Antiqua, 5th century, Byzantine style.
Rome. 2007