The Aedes Aemiliana Herculis in the Forum Boarium: New Considerations

Abstract

One of the most important areas of ancient Rome was the Forum Boarium, where the cult of Hercules was especially prominent. This article examines ancient and Renaissance sources about one of the temples dedicated to the demigod in this area: the Aedes Aemiliana Herculis. Current scholarship identifies this temple with a building destroyed under the papacy of Sixtus IV (1471–1484). An unpublished letter written by Leonardo Agostini to Leopoldo de’ Medici on 27 February 1666 along with closer examination of Renaissance written sources suggests that this temple stood in the area in the proximity of Via S. Giovanni Decollato and not in the area of the granary of Ottavio Gracchi as previously believed. It is also clear that the Neapolitan architect Pirro Ligorio mistakenly attributed to this temple the architectural decoration of the Basilica Aemilia in the Forum Romanum, misleading modern scholars.