#ForumBoarium
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anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
On #EpigraphyTuesday our attention is drawn to this cylindrical #altar to #Hercules, from the #ForumBoarium, used for many centuries as the base for a famous #bronze statue of the god. It dates to about June of 81 CE, as the #inscription tells us. #AncientBluesky 🏺
ALTAR TO HERCULES VICTOR, 81 CE. CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS "HERCVLI VICTORI POLLENTI POTENTI INVICTO D(ono) D(edit) L(ibens) M(erito) · C **[...]**S FRONTO **[...]**AIOR Q(æstor?) DEDICAVIT III I(dus) IVL(ias) L(ucio) VETTIO PAVLLO ET T(ito) IVNIO MONTANO CO(n) S(ulibus)" "To Hercules the Victorious, the Mighty, the Powerful, the Unconquered, [Caius ...s] Fronto, the [---]ior, Quaestor, gave this gift willingly and deservedly; dedicated on the third day before the Ides of July, in the consulship of Lucius Vettius Paullus and Titus Iunius Montanus." This short, damaged inscription has a lot to unpack. The first three lines are punching hard with praise for Hercules Victor, here in the Forum Boarium a mercantile god, but its monumental squarish epigraphy veers off its central axis with the name of the dedicator, C. Fronto. The dedication date, 13 July 81, coincides with the end of the Ludi Apollinares, and a huge parade through the Forum Boarium, so Fronto's new altar would get attention. The altar itself is a beautiful object, cylindrical and with fine relief decoration of garlands supported by clubs, the emblem of Hercules, and with various cultic objects below, like a large wine-cup with two handles and a light relief of vine leaves. Around the sides are other objects. The two consuls named, Paullus and Montanus, were suffect consuls, that is, replacements after the ordinary consuls resigned. This was a common practice that helped give the top republican job to more candidates than a yearly change would permit. We know these suffect consuls took over in 81, in the final months of the reign of Titus, giving us a very specific date for the dedication of this altar.
May 12, 2026 at 7:48 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
He simply sourced his materials from the ruins of the surrounding #ForumBoarium. To understand the wild, choked landscape he was operating in, we can look to this 1530s sketch by Maarten van Heemskerck, which shows the church nestled amongst a chaotic mess of half-buried ancient monuments.
MAARTEN VAN HEEMSKERCK. THE VELABRUM WITH THE ARCH OF JANUS AND S. GIORGIO IN VELABRO, 1530s. STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN, KUPFERSTICHKABINETT ​An ink drawing on toned paper showing a chaotic, semi-urban Roman landscape overgrown with vegetation. On the left stands the massive, medievally fortified Arch of Janus Quadrifrons. To the right, the portico and church facade of S. Giorgio in Velabro sit low in the basin, partially obscured by mounds of dirt and ruined stone walls. A colossal, headless torso drawn on the reverse side of the page bleeds through the paper into the center background, appearing like a phantom of antiquity hovering over the Velabrum.
July 5, 2026 at 7:15 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#PhallusThursday in the #CapitolineMuseums presents us with an eye-level #phallus of the splendid C1 BCE cult statue of #Hercules from the round temple in the #ForumBoarium. The god's muscular gilded bronze thighs frame his genitals in a show of strength, but not to intimidate. #AncientBluesky 🏺
CULT STATUE OF HERCULES OLIVARIUS, C1 BCE (?). CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS The cult of Hercules in the Forum Boarium stretched back to before the foundation of Rome itself. His connection with the area was mythological: the giant Cacus terrorised the area from the Aventine to the Capitoline until Hercules killed him. But this place was the Cattle Market, and Hercules had another role, the protector of commerce, equivalent to the Phœnician god Melqart. His round temple was the first to be built entirely of Greek marble, around 100 BCE, in his role as patron of olive merchants. This statue, once the sacred image of the god, had to be reassuringly strong, but his phallus is canonically small, to show that his passions did not get the better of him. A close look reveals that his foreskin is the ideal length for Greek beauty standards (about 1/3 of the length of the rest). This is a statue for international commerce.
March 13, 2026 at 1:05 AM