Temples of Cybele in Rome

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Contents 1 Circus Maximus 2 Almo 2.1 Sources 3 Palatine Hill 4 Sacra Via 5 Vatican Hill 6 Source

List of temples in Rome dedicated to Cybele.

[edit] Circus Maximus

A shrine of Cybele in the circus Maximus, mentioned in the Notitia (Reg. XI), and by Tertullian (de spect. 8: frigebat daemonum concilium sine sua Matre: ea itaque illic praesidet Euripo). The reliefs representing the circus (cf. HJ 138, n68) and a mosaic (at Barcelona, cf. ib. n69) represent Cybele sitting on a lion on the spina of the circus, just east of its centre (HJ 131, 40; RE III.2574; Rosch. II.1667‑1668).

[edit] Almo

Annually, on 27th March, the sacred black stone of the Magna Mater was brought from her temple on the Palatine to where the Almo brook (now called the Acquataccio) crossed the via Appia south of the porta Capena, for the ceremony of "lavatio" (washing). Although there are numerous references to this ceremony, it seems to have constituted a "locus sacratus" or sacred place rather than a permanent building, as supported by the lack of archaeological evidence for it.

[edit] Sources

(Cic. de nat. deor. III.52; Ov. Fast. IV.337‑340; Mart. III.47.2; Stat. Silv. V.1.222; Lucan I.600; Sil. Ital. VIII.363; Ammian. XXIII.3.7; Vib. Sequester 2;1 Fast. Philoc. ad VI Kal. Apr., CIL I2 pp260, 314; Pol. Silv. Fast. Rust. ib. p261; ib. VI.10098 =33961 = Carm. epig. 1110; Prud. Peristeph. X.160; HJ 215.

[edit] Palatine Hill

Main article: Temple of Cybele (Palatine)

[edit] Sacra Via

A tholos, adorned with frescoes, at the top of the Sacra via, where the clivus Palatinus branched off to the south (Mart. I.70.9‑10: flecte vias hac qua madidi sunt tecta Lyaei3 | et Cybeles picto stat Corybante tholus). Its approximate site is also probably indicated by the Haterii relief on which, to the immediate left of the arch of Titus, is a statue of the Magna Mater seated under an arch at the top of a flight of thirteen steps (Mon. d. Inst. V.7; Mitt. 1895, 25‑27; Altm. 71‑72; Rosch. II.2917). Spano believes the arch to be a Janus erected at the four cross-roads near the meta sudans — perhaps on or near the site of the arch of Constantine. He does not even quote the passage of Martial (Atti Accad. Napoli XXIV. (1906, II.) 227‑262). A passage in Cass. Dio (XLVI.33.3: ὣσπερ τό τε τῆς Μητρὸς τῶν θεῶν ἄγαλμα τὸ ἐν τῷ Παλατίῳ ὄν (πρὸς γὰρ τοι τὰς τοῦ ἡλίου ἀνατολὰς πρότερον βλέπων πρὸς δυσμὰς ἀπὸ ταὐτομάτου μετεστράφη)) is generally supposed to refer to this temple.

[edit] Vatican Hill

A shrine on the right bank of the River Tiber, near the racecourse of Caligula (Gaianum), known from several inscriptions p326(CIL VI.497‑504) on fragmentary marble altars, dating from 305 to 390 A.D., all but one of which were found under the façade of S. Peter's in 1609 (Severano, Sette Chiese, 95; cf. also NS 1922, 81; DAP 2.XV.271‑278; JHS 1923, 194).4 This shrine is probably the Frigianum (Phrygianum) of the Not. (Reg. XIV). If an inscription on an altar at Lyon of the time of Hadrian (CIL XIII.1751: L. Aemilius Carpus IIIIIIvir Aug. item dendrophorus vires excepit et a Vaticano transtulit) refers to this shrine, it would indicate that this was an important cult centre (RhM 1891, 132; HJ 659; Rosch. II.2917).

[edit] Source

• Platner and Ashby