Temple of Concord

41°53′35″N 12°29′03″E / 41.89293°N 12.484245°E / 41.89293; 12.484245 Template:Ancient monuments in Rome

The Temple of Concord in the ancient city of Rome was a temple dedicated to the Roman goddess Concordia at the western end of the Roman Forum. The temple was built in the 4th century BC as a promise towards peace after a long period of civil strife within the city. It was destroyed and restored multiple times in its history, and its final restoration, between 7-10 AD under Roman Emperor Tiberius, is described in Pliny the Elder's Natural History. In approximately 1450 AD the temple was razed and turned into a lime-kiln to recover the marble for building.

History

Roman literature states that it was first vowed by Marcus Furius Camillus in 367 BC to commemorate the Leges Liciniae Sextiae of Lucius Sextius Lateranus and the resulting reconciliation between the patricians and plebians after the Aventine Secession. This early foundation date is strongly disputed, however.^{[citation needed]}

It was a frequent focus for fostering harmony in the Roman state, both through its first rebuilding in 121 BC (after the murder of Gaius Gracchus), and through its occasional use for meetings of the Senate, especially in times of civil disturbance (Cicero delivered his fourth Catilinarian oration here).

It was again restored between 7 and 10 AD by Tiberius as Augustus's heir, better to use the limited available area on the site. He probably rededicated it in AD 12. This restoration was distinguished by its opulent marble and rich architectural ornamentation, and Tiberius's housing of numerous Greek paintings, sculpture and other works of art there (listed in Pliny's Natural History), making it something akin to an art museum .

Architecture

Backed up against the Tabularium at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, the architecture had to accommodate the limitations of the site. The cella of the temple, for instance, is almost twice as wide (45m) as it is deep (24m), as is the pronaos. In the cella a row of Corinthian columns rose from a continuous plinth projecting from the wall, which divided the cella into bays, each containing a niche. The capitals of these columns had pairs of leaping rams in place of the corner volutes. Only the platform now remains, partially covered by a road up to the Capitol.

Empire

The main temple in the Forum in Rome seems to have been a model for temples to the goddess elsewhere in the empire - a reproduction of this temple was found in Mérida (Spain), during the excavations of the town's forum in 2002.

Sources