![Volcanal 001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Volcanal_001.jpg)
The Shrine of Vulcan ( it, Volcanale), or Vulcanal, or Volcanal, was an 8th-century BC sacred precinct on the future site of the
Roman Forum
The Roman Forum, also known by its Latin name Forum Romanum ( it, Foro Romano), is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient ...
in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, modern
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
. Dedicated to
Vulcan
Vulcan may refer to:
Mythology
* Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
, the Roman god of fire, it was traditionally considered to commemorate the spot where the legendary figures
Romulus
Romulus () was the legendary foundation of Rome, founder and King of Rome, first king of Ancient Rome, Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus ...
and
Tatius
According to the Roman foundation myth, Titus Tatius was the king of the Sabines from Cures and joint-ruler of the Kingdom of Rome for several years.
During the reign of Romulus, the first king of Rome, Tatius declared war on Rome in respon ...
concluded the peace treaty between the tribes known as the
Latins
The Latins were originally an Italic tribe in ancient central Italy from Latium. As Roman power and colonization spread Latin culture during the Roman Republic.
Latins culturally "Romanized" or "Latinized" the rest of Italy, and the word Latin ...
— on the
Palatine Hill
The Palatine Hill (; la, Collis Palatium or Mons Palatinus; it, Palatino ), which relative to the seven hills of Rome is the centremost, is one of the most ancient parts of the city and has been called "the first nucleus of the Roman Empire." ...
— and the
Sabines
The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome.
The Sabines divid ...
— on the
Quirinal
The Quirinal Hill (; la, Collis Quirinalis; it, Quirinale ) is one of the Seven Hills of Rome, at the north-east of the city center. It is the location of the official residence of the Italian head of state, who resides in the Quirinal Palace ...
and
Esquiline
The Esquiline Hill (; la, Collis Esquilinus; it, Esquilino ) is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. Its southernmost cusp is the ''Oppius'' (Oppian Hill).
Etymology
The origin of the name ''Esquiline'' is still under much debate. One view is ...
. This famous merger of the hill-villages was said to be the foundation of the Roman state.
Description
The original Vulcanal was an open-air altar on the slopes of the
Capitoline Hill
The Capitolium or Capitoline Hill ( ; it, Campidoglio ; la, Mons Capitolinus ), between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the Seven Hills of Rome.
The hill was earlier known as ''Mons Saturnius'', dedicated to the god Saturn. Th ...
in Rome in the area that would later become the
Comitium
The Comitium ( it, Comizio) was the original open-air public meeting space of Ancient Rome, and had major religious and prophetic significance. The name comes from the Latin word for "assembly". The Comitium location at the northwest corner of the ...
and
Roman Forum
The Roman Forum, also known by its Latin name Forum Romanum ( it, Foro Romano), is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient ...
. It was located in the open here, between the hill-villages, in the days before Rome existed, because the fire god was considered to be too destructive to be located anywhere near an occupied house. (He was mainly worshiped in order to avert fires.) It contained a
lotus tree
The lotus tree ( grc-gre, λωτός, ''lōtós'') is a plant that is referred to in stories from Greek and Roman mythology.
The lotus tree is mentioned in Homer's ''Odyssey'' as bearing a fruit that caused a pleasant drowsiness, and which was sai ...
and
cypress tree
Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the la ...
long honored as being older than the city of Rome itself. According to literary sources, the site originally featured a sculpture of a four-horse chariot (''
quadriga
A () is a car or chariot drawn by four horses abreast and favoured for chariot racing in Classical Antiquity and the Roman Empire until the Late Middle Ages. The word derives from the Latin contraction of , from ': four, and ': yoke.
The four- ...
'') celebrating Romulus' victory over the Caeninenses (citizens of
Caenina) — and said to have been dedicated by Romulus himself. This was later supplemented with a statue of that king, inscribed with Greek letters and celebrating his deeds. Other monuments erected here from the earliest times included a statue of
Horatius Cocles
Publius Horatius Cocles was an officer in the army of the early Roman Republic who famously defended the Pons Sublicius from the invading army of Etruscan King Lars Porsena of Clusium in the late 6th century BC, during the war between Rome and Cl ...
and another standing on a column and representing an actor who had been struck by lightning during the games in the
Circus Maximus
The Circus Maximus (Latin for "largest circus"; Italian: ''Circo Massimo'') is an ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium and mass entertainment venue in Rome, Italy. In the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and lar ...
. Behind the excavated foundation of the altar of Vulcan are traces of a flight of steps, cut into the tufa of the Capitoline Hill, which lead up to the vestibule of the
Temple of Concord
The Temple of Concord ( la, Aedes Concordiae) in the ancient city of Rome refers to a series of shrines or temples dedicated to the Roman goddess Concordia, and erected at the western end of the Roman Forum. The earliest temple is believed t ...
, just to the northwest.
History
In addition to its function as a place of worship, the Vulcanal became the Assembly place during the
Roman monarchy
The Roman Kingdom (also referred to as the Roman monarchy, or the regal period of ancient Rome) was the earliest period of Roman history when the city and its territory were ruled by kings. According to oral accounts, the Roman Kingdom began wit ...
in the days before the ''Comitium'' and Old Rostra (''Rostra Vetera'') existed. According to longstanding Roman tradition, the Vulcanal served as the speaker's platform at this time, a function much later assumed by the immediately adjacent Rostra. The archaic site had long been reverently preserved when, in 9 AD, the Emperor
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
refurbished it with a new marble altar (discovered in 1548 and now in the
Naples Museum
The National Archaeological Museum of Naples ( it, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, italic=no, sometimes abbreviated to MANN) is an important Italian archaeological museum, particularly for ancient Roman remains. Its collection includes wo ...
). The Emperor
Domitian
Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavi ...
(''r.'' 81-96 AD) did likewise, presenting a new marble-faced altar and sacrificing a red calf and boar. Later in the Imperial period, the Vulcanal area suffered by being very much narrowed and partly done away with altogether by building operations associated with the enlargement of the Temple of Concord, the construction of the adjacent
Arch of Severus
The Arch of Septimius Severus ( it, Arco di Settimio Severo) at the northwestern end of the Roman Forum is a white marble triumphal arch dedicated in 203 A.D. to commemorate the Parthian victories of Emperor Septimius Severus and his two sons, ...
, and other public works.
Location
The precise location of the Vulcanal within what is now the west end of the Roman Forum is not completely settled. Two sites have been seriously proposed.
Giacomo Boni, who excavated extensively in this area in 1899–1905, established a site about 40 meters to the southwest of the ''
Lapis Niger
The Lapis Niger (Latin, "Black Stone") is an ancient shrine in the Roman Forum. Together with the associated Vulcanal (a sanctuary to Vulcan) it constitutes the only surviving remnants of the old Comitium, an early assembly area that preceded t ...
'' as the Vulcanal. This is just behind the ''
Umbilicus Urbi'' and the (future)
New Rostra (''Rostra Augusti''). Boni uncovered a small shrine here that had been cut directly out of the natural
tufa
Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertine. ...
and had tufa blocks defining a precinct area (identified from literary sources as the ''Area Volcani''). This excavated site is about 13 by 9 feet, but the original Vulcanal is thought to have been somewhat larger. Boni's identification of this spot as the Vulcanal stood virtually unchallenged for over 80 years.
In 1983, however,
Filippo Coarelli
Filippo Coarelli is an Italian archaeologist, Professor of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the University of Perugia.
Born in Rome, Coarelli was a student of Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli. Coarelli is one of the foremost experts on Roman antiquitie ...
associated the Vulcanal with the site (also uncovered by Boni decades before) that by Imperial times had become known as the ''Lapis Niger''. This archaic (8th century BC) sacred site may have been more or less contemporary with the Vulcanal. An altar (known as "Altar G-H" to archeologists) had also been found here and Coarelli suggested that the Vulcanal may not only have been associated with it but may have been identical with this shrine. (According to him, the altar identified by Boni as the Vulcanal was actually the ''Ara Saturni'', or
Altar of Saturn). Coarelli's hypothesis has received a mixed reception. While a number of authorities believe he is correct, other experts continue to insist that Boni's site is the correct one. For example, Richardson's authoritative ''A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome'', published almost 10 years after Coarelli's work, has this to say:
The Vulcanal was distinctly higher than the forum...and Comitium... e kings and magistrates transacted public business there...public assemblies were regularly held there.... twas also big enough to include a bronze aedicula
In ancient Roman religion, an ''aedicula'' (plural ''aediculae'') is a small shrine, and in classical architecture refers to a niche covered by a pediment or entablature supported by a pair of columns and typically framing a statue,"aedicula, n." ...
.... All this taken together indicates that originally the Vulcanal covered the lower slope of the Capitoline along the stair that extended the line of the Sacra Via
The Via Sacra (, "''Sacred Street''") was the main street of ancient Rome, leading from the top of the Capitoline Hill, through some of the most important religious sites of the Forum (where it is the widest street), to the Colosseum.
The road ...
up the hill, an area later covered by the Temple of Concordia
The Temple of Concordia ( it, Tempio della Concordia) is an ancient Greek temple in the Valle dei Templi (Valley of the Temples) in Agrigento (Greek: Akragas) on the south coast of Sicily, Italy. It is the largest and best-preserved Doric templ ...
.[Richardson, ''Op. cit.'']
See also
*
List of monuments of the Roman Forum
This list of monuments of the Roman Forum (''Forum Romanum'') includes existing and former buildings, memorials and other built structures in the famous Roman public plaza during its 1,400 years of active use (8th century BC–ca 600 AD). It is ...
References
{{Roman Forum
8th-century BC religious buildings and structures
1st-century BC religious buildings and structures
1st-century religious buildings and structures
Religious buildings and structures in Rome
Ancient Roman religion
Roman Forum
Topography of the ancient city of Rome
Rome R. X Campitelli
Roman temples by deity
Vulcan (mythology)