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Forum Boarium Location
of the Temple of
Ceres, Liber, and Libera
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Some
scholars argue that the remains of a podium under the Church of Santa
Maria in Cosmedin in the Forum Boarium belong to the Temple of Ceres, Liber,
and Libera. This identification has been made on the basis of inscriptions
found nearby an adjacent portico dated to the fourth century A.D.
The inscriptions provide the names of the praefecti annonae, the
administrators of the grain supply under the Empire. On the basis
of these inscriptions, the portico has been identified as the statio
annonae, the headquarters of the administration of the grain supply
in the imperial period. Since we know that the aediles plebis
administered the grain supply under the Republic, and their office was
in the Temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera, Rickman
has suggested that the administrative offices of the annona were
simply moved to an external portico when the space available in the temple
grew too small.
There are numerous problems with this theory.
First, since the portico is much later than the podium of the building
to which it is adjacent, its function is not necessarily related to this
building. Even if the portico is functionally asssociated with the
building, its identification as the statio annonae is in doubt.
The inscriptions mentioning the praefecti annonae may have nothing
to do with the portico itself. Perhaps they were simply set up in
this area or were brought in from elsewhere and reused here. Since
literary evidence points toward a location on the
Aventine for the Temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera, the ambiguous
archaeological evidence for a Forum Boarium location should be rejected.
Source: Barbette Stanley Spaeth, The Roman Goddess Ceres
(Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press 1996) 40.