View source for Great Altar of Hercules

{{Short description|Altar for sacrifice to Hercules in ancient Rome}}
{{infobox ancient site
|name=Great Altar of Hercules
|image=File:SoutherCircusFlaminiusInRomeByGismondi.jpg
|caption=The Forum Boarium and [[Temple of Hercules Victor]] in [[Italo Gismondi|Gismondi]]'s [[Il Plastico|scale model of imperial Rome]], visible near the lower edge of the photograph, [[Museum of Roman Civilization]]
|coordinates={{coord|41.88813|12.48163|format=dms|type:landmark_region:IT|display=inline,title}}
|map dot label=Altar of Hercules
|map_label_position=bottom
|map_type=Italy Rome Antiquity
|map_overlay=Roma Plan.jpg
|map_caption=Shown within Augustan Rome
|map_size=270
|image_size=270
|mapframe-frame-width=270
|mapframe=yes
|mapframe-caption=Click on the map for a fullscreen view
|mapframe-zoom=12
|mapframe-marker=monument
|mapframe-wikidata=yes
}}
The '''Great Altar of Unconquered Hercules''' ({{langx|la|Herculis Invicti Ara Maxima}}){{efn|[[Tacitus]] and [[Juvenal]] both refer to the altar as "great" ({{lang|la|magna}}) instead of "extremely great" or "the greatest" ({{lang|la|maxima}}).}} stood in the [[Forum Boarium]] near the [[Tiber River]] in [[ancient Rome]]. It was the earliest [[Cult (religion)|cult]] location of Hercules in Rome, possibly originally dating as early as the 6th century {{smallcaps|bc}}. Its foundations possibly lie beneath the present church of [[Santa Maria in Cosmedin]] in [[Rome]], [[Italy]].

==Legend==
Roman tradition held that [[Hercules]] completed [[Labors of Hercules|his 10th labor]] in [[Italy]], driving the cattle through Rome around the location of the latter cattle market ({{lang|la|[[Forum Boarium]]}}). It made the location of the altar the place where Hercules slew [[Cacus]] and ascribed its creation to [[Evander of Pallene]]. [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'' includes a passage where Evander ascribes the origin even earlier, attributing it to [[Potitius]] and the Pinarii.<ref>Virgil, ''Aeneid'', Book VIII, l. 270.</ref>{{efn|See Winter for further treatment of the various [[foundation myth]]s for the altar in surviving sources.<ref>James G. Winter, ''The Myth of Hercules at Rome'', University of Michigan Studies, No. 4, 1910.</ref>}}

==History==
The altar was the earliest [[Cult (religion)|cult]] location for Hercules in Rome, predating the circular [[Temple of Hercules Victor]] and possibly originally dating as early as the 6th century {{smallcaps|bce}}. The altar was destroyed during the [[Great Fire of Rome]] in the year 64<ref>[[Tacitus]], ''Annals'', Book XV, §41.</ref> 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 ({{lang|la|ritu Graeco}}) with uncovered heads.<ref>Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'', iii.6.17;</ref> Surviving sources also state on the authority of [[Varro]] that women were excluded from the ceremonies at the altar and from partaking in the sacrificial meat.<ref>Celia E. Schultz, "Modern prejudice and ancient praxis: female worship of Hercules at Rome" ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' '''133''' (2000:291-297) pp 292ff.</ref>

==Present location==
A tentative identification of a [[tuff]] platform in the crypt of [[Santa Maria in Cosmedin]] with the foundation of the altar has been made by [[Filippo Coarelli]] and other archaeologists.<ref>Coarelli, F. ''Il foro boario dalle origini alla fine della repubblica''. Edizioni Quasar, Rome, 1992, vol. 2:61-77.</ref><ref>Claridge, A. ''Rome''. Oxford University Press, 1998, pages 256-258.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Hercules in Roman religion]]
* [[Temple of Hercules Victor|Temples of Hercules Victor]] and [[Temple of Hercules Musarum|Hercules Musarum]]
* [[List of Ancient Roman temples]] & [[List of ancient monuments in Rome|ancient monuments in Rome]]

== Notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
*[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Ara_Maxima_Herculis.html Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'' 1929]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Altar Of Hercules}}
[[Category:Temples of the Forum Boarium|Hercules]]
[[Category:Rome R. XII Ripa]]
[[Category:Temples of Heracles]]
[[Category:Roman altars]]