Geoffrey67
Temple of Castor and Pollux
These three columns- one of the most famous features in the Roman Forum- and a piece of the entablature, are today, along with the podium not seen in the photo, the only surviving elements of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Jupiter and Leda which cult had come to Rome from the area of Southern Italy colonized by Greek settlers known as Magna Graecia.
The temple was originally built in gratitude for the victory of the Roman army, under the command of the dictator Aulus Postumius Albinus, over the Latin League led by the expelled Etruscan former king of Rome Tarquinus Superbus, at the battle of Lake Regillus (495 BC). According with the legend, Castor and Pollux appeared on the battlefield as two able horsemen in aid of the Romans. 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 and was finished by Postumius’s son in 484 BC.
In Republican times the temple was a meeting place for the Roman Senate and, from the middle of the 2nd century BC, the front of the podium served as a speaker's platform, being used to this purpose- among many others- by Julius Caesar who pleaded from this very place his agrarian reform in 59 BC.
During the imperial period the temple housed the office for weights and measures, and was a depository for the State treasury.
The archaic temple was completely reconstructed and enlarged in 117 BC by Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus after his victory over the Dalmatians. Gaius Verres again restored it in 73 BC.
In 14 BC a fire ravaged most of the Forum and destroyed the temple. It was Tiberius, the son of Augustus by a previous marriage of Livia and the eventual heir to the imperial throne, who rebuilt it in 6 AD.
The remains visible today are from the temple of Tiberius, except the podium, which is from the time of Metellus.
The temple was still standing intact in the 4th century, but nothing is known of its subsequent history, except that in the 15th century, only three columns of its original structure were still standing. The street running by the building was called in fact via Trium Columnarum.
Temple of Castor and Pollux
These three columns- one of the most famous features in the Roman Forum- and a piece of the entablature, are today, along with the podium not seen in the photo, the only surviving elements of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Jupiter and Leda which cult had come to Rome from the area of Southern Italy colonized by Greek settlers known as Magna Graecia.
The temple was originally built in gratitude for the victory of the Roman army, under the command of the dictator Aulus Postumius Albinus, over the Latin League led by the expelled Etruscan former king of Rome Tarquinus Superbus, at the battle of Lake Regillus (495 BC). According with the legend, Castor and Pollux appeared on the battlefield as two able horsemen in aid of the Romans. 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 and was finished by Postumius’s son in 484 BC.
In Republican times the temple was a meeting place for the Roman Senate and, from the middle of the 2nd century BC, the front of the podium served as a speaker's platform, being used to this purpose- among many others- by Julius Caesar who pleaded from this very place his agrarian reform in 59 BC.
During the imperial period the temple housed the office for weights and measures, and was a depository for the State treasury.
The archaic temple was completely reconstructed and enlarged in 117 BC by Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus after his victory over the Dalmatians. Gaius Verres again restored it in 73 BC.
In 14 BC a fire ravaged most of the Forum and destroyed the temple. It was Tiberius, the son of Augustus by a previous marriage of Livia and the eventual heir to the imperial throne, who rebuilt it in 6 AD.
The remains visible today are from the temple of Tiberius, except the podium, which is from the time of Metellus.
The temple was still standing intact in the 4th century, but nothing is known of its subsequent history, except that in the 15th century, only three columns of its original structure were still standing. The street running by the building was called in fact via Trium Columnarum.