Temple of Minerva Medica

For the well-preserved ruin from the 4th century, see Temple of Minerva Medica (nymphaeum).

The temple of Minerva Medica (akin to the temple of Apollo Medicus) was a temple in ancient Rome, built on the Esquiline Hill in the Republican era,[1] though no remains of it have been found. Since the 17th century, it has been wrongly identified with the ruins of a nymphaeum on a nearby site, on account of the erroneous impression that the Athena Giustiniani had been found in its ruins.[2]

Its position in the regionary catalogue, between the campus Viminalis and the temple of Isis Patricia, points to a site in the northern part of Region V. But hundreds of votive offerings, including one in which the temple is attested,[3] were discovered in the Via Curva (the modern Via Carlo Botta), just west of the Via Merulana, and this may be the better location.[4] Some tuff walls, resembling favissae, were also found there.

References

  1. ^ Cicero, De divinatione II.123: sine medico medicinam dabit Minerva, and CIL VI.10133, 30980.
  2. ^ HJ 360; LS III.158‑161.
  3. ^ 30980.
  4. ^ BC 1887, 154‑156, 192‑200; 1888, 124‑125; Mitt. 1889, 278; HJ 353; Rosch. II.2989; Cons. 305‑312 and reff.

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