| Description Part of a temple appears in the left side of the fragment. The walls of the temple and the surrounding columns are rendered with double lines and with squares, as is common for temple structures on the Plan. Both walls and columns are recessed and would have been filled with red paint. A thin line, parallel to the temple side, traverses the fragment and separates the temple from a triangular cluster of tabernae. A diagonal veining line is visible on front
Identification: Temple of Mars? E. Rodríguez-Almeida has pointed out that this fragment and the joining fr. 238b (now missing) show a peripteral temple with an unusual arrangement of rooms: Rather than displaying the cella and pronaos typical of a Roman temple, this temple consists of a deep cella through which there is access to an adyton, much in style with Greek temples (Rodríguez-Almeida 1991-92, pp. 12-16). The lack of a podium further emphasizes that the style of the temple is Greek, not Roman. Note that in the drawing of this fragment in AG 1980, pl. 43, the right wall of the temple incorrectly continues up and off the edge of the piece instead of turning left to create the upper right corner of the adyton. This is a serious error, as it implies that there was an opisthodomos behind the adyton, which the digital photograph reveals there is not. Rodríguez-Almeida was able to locate this fragment within slab VIII-8 (Stanford slab IV-6), based on its smooth back, texture, and veining direction, and he suggested that the temple depicted in frs. 238a and b was positioned perpendicular to the Circus Flaminius and therefore must have held the ancient designation "in circo." Based on the Greek style of the temple and on its orientation in relation to the Circus Flaminius, he argued that it is to be identified with the Temple of Mars "in circo," remains of which have been unearthed underneath the church of San Salvatore (Rodríguez-Almeida 1991-92, pp. 12-16; see LTUR III, fig. 156). That the San Salvatore remains are those of the Temple of Mars was also argued by F. Zevi in 1976 (F. Zevi, "L'identificazione del tempio di Marte "in circo" e altre osservazioni" in Mélanges J. Heurgon II [1976], pp. 1047-1064). The Temple of Mars was built ca. 138 BCE for D. Iunius Brutus Callaicus by the architect Hermodorus of Salamis (LTUR III, p. 226). According to Pliny (HN 36.26) the temple held a colossal seated statue of Mars and a nude Venus, both by Scopas (LTUR III, pp. 226-7).
Significance Frs. 238a and b were key to Rodríguez-Almeida's identification of the remains of the Temple of Mars underneath the church of San Salvatore. If Rodríguez-Almeida's location of these fragments in slab IV-6 and his identification of the temple depicted in them is correct, he seems to have proven that the ancient designation "in circo" could be applied to buildings that were perpendicular to the Circus Flaminius, not just to those that were aligned with it.
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