The temple on the square and the south side of the square with its link to the theatre are not the subject of these pages. These will be discussed briefly, but one feature is of great importance, a relief and inscription on a column.
The temple
Several authors have expressed surprise that the temple on the centre of the square is facing south. The doors are opposite the back side of the high, blind wall of the stage building of the theatre. One would expect them to face the Tiber and the "monumental" entrance of the square on the north side, consisting of eleven passages between big piers, largely blocked in the second half of the first century or in the second century. This solution creates a sense of "intimacy".
But there is more. With this orientation, one would also expect the temple to be on the north half of the square, opening up for the flanking porticos as much as possible. It was moved to the south half however. The intimacy is thus greatest at the south end of the flanking porticos. Here - but after the Domitianic period - we find, on the west side and at the lower level, the flax workers and rope makers, and on the east side people who were active locally and regionally, in and for the harbours themselves: again the flax workers and rope makers, leather workers, suppliers of wood (for ships?), grain measurers, and suppliers of fuel for the lighthouse and mortar for building from Terracina. It seems that these local and regional guilds sought the intimacy, close to the theatre, leaving the remaining part to the shippers from around the Mediterranean, who would come and go.
The deity or deities worshipped in the temple have been a matter of dispute until today.[1] The inscription on the altar found in the Shrine of the Altar of the Twins (CIL XIV, 51) may inform us indirectly that the temple was dedicated to the Imperial concern for the food supply of Rome (Annona Augusta, Mars, Venus). It shows at least the important role of the Annona Augusta on the square.
The area around the temple consisted for the most part of almost pure clay, so it was probably a garden. It was reconstructed as such by Dante Vaglieri.[2]
The south side of the square
The south side of the square was formed by the back side of the stage building. In front of the back wall, at a distance of some metres, is a long row of marble columns resting on tufa bases.[3] Pensabene has argued that the inscribed bases for statues, found mostly reused in the main corridor of the theatre and now scattered all over the square, originally stood against the back wall of stationes. He suggests this, because the backside of all bases is unfinished.[4] However, the back rooms of the stationes are a dark, unlikely spot for statues. Also, there is no clear relation between the inscriptions and individual stationes. A better option would be the south side of the square. The statues may have been standing against the back wall of a corridor on this side, behind the row of columns.
The frumentarii
On the upper part of one of the columns is a relief of the Genius of the Castra Peregrina with an accompanying text mentioning two frumentarii, specialized soldiers from Rome. The great height of the relief above the ground (over two metres; see photo) causes surprise. At this spot the gaze of passers-by was directed upwards, towards the heads of the statues standing behind the columns. A possible explanation for the high position of the relief is, that it was now brought in the same line of sight.[5]
In the separate discussion of the column we conclude that frumentarii may well have been responsible for the practical aspects of the reorganization of the Square of the Corporations by Commodus and Septimius Severus, talking to the Imperial and local administration, and to local and overseas guilds of shippers and merchants.
(1) Extensive summaries of the temple, the room with the Altar of the Origins of Rome, and its counterpart in the south-east corner of the square can be found in Van Haeperen 2019 ("Fana, templa, delubra"). On the temple decoration: Pensabene 2007, 198-212.
(2) Shepherd - Olivanti 2008, 78-82.
(3) For some reason Calza believes that the columns were re-erected by Lanciani in the wrong position (Calza 1929, 108), even though Lanciani says he found their tufa bases (Lanciani 1881, 111).
(4) Pensabene 2007, 421, 427. On the inscriptions most recently: Branse 2018 and 2020.
(5) Assuming of course that the excavators replaced the column in the correct position, facing the square. Turned inwards it would have been in the dark and virtually invisible. The distance between the bottom of the marble column-and-base and the bottom of the aedicula in which the Genius is standing is 2.10 m. Photo: Manuel Vanni.