The Great Altar of Unconquered Hercules () stood in the

Forum Boarium The Forum Boarium (, ) was the cattle market or '' forum venalium'' of ancient Rome. It was located on a level piece of land near the Tiber between the Capitoline, the Palatine and Aventine hills. As the site of the original docks of Rome () ...

near the

Tiber River The Tiber ( ; ; ) is the List of rivers of Italy, third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the R ...

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

. It was the earliest

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

location of Hercules in Rome, possibly originally dating as early as the 6th century . Its foundations possibly lie beneath the present church of

Santa Maria in Cosmedin The Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin (; Latin: Santa Maria ''de Schola Graeca'') is a minor basilica, minor basilican churches of Rome, church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to the Mary, mother of Jesus, Virgin Mary. It is located in the rione (neig ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Legend

Roman tradition held that

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

completed his 10th labor in

, driving the cattle through Rome around the location of the latter cattle market (). It made the location of the altar the place where Hercules slew

Cacus In Greek and Roman mythology, Cacus (, derived from κακός, meaning bad) was a fire-breathing giant and the son of Vulcan (Plutarch called him son of Hephaestus). He was killed by Hercules after terrorizing the Aventine Hill before the foun ...

and ascribed its creation to

Evander of Pallene In Roman mythology, Evander (from Greek ' meaning "good man" or "strong man": an etymology used by poets to emphasize the hero's virtue) was a culture hero from Arcadia, Greece, who was said to have brought the pantheon, laws, and alphabet of ...

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

's ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

'' includes a passage where Evander ascribes the origin even earlier, attributing it to Potitius and the Pinarii.

History

The altar was the earliest

location for Hercules in Rome, predating the circular Temple of Hercules Victor and possibly originally dating as early as the 6th century . The altar was destroyed during the

Great Fire of Rome The Great Fire of Rome () began on 19 July 64 AD. The fire started in the merchant shops around Rome's chariot stadium, Circus Maximus. After six days, the fire was brought under control, but before the damage could be assessed, the fire reignit ...

in the year 64 but was rebuilt and stood at least until the fourth century. The rites at the Ara Maxima were unique within the cult of Hercules in that they were performed in the Greek fashion () with uncovered heads. Surviving sources also state on the authority of

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...

that women were excluded from the ceremonies at the altar and from partaking in the sacrificial meat.

Present location

A tentative identification of a

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

platform in the crypt of

with the foundation of the altar has been made by Filippo Coarelli and other archaeologists.Claridge, A. ''Rome''. Oxford University Press, 1998, pages 256-258.

Notes

References

External links

Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'' 1929
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