The demolition of the old quarter between the streets of the Teatro Argentina, via Florida, via S.Nicola de’ Cesarini and corso Vittorio Emanuele over some few years, between 1926 and 1929, brought unexpectedly to light one of the most important archeological complexes of the city. This was a vast paved square where four temples may be found, indicated by the first four letters of the alphabet, identified by Porticus Minucia Vetus and founded by Marco Minucio Rufo following the triumphs over the Scordisci in 107 b.c.
Excavations, conducted hurriedly without following any scientific criteria makes it hard to study and understand the different building stages and the
development of the area – one of the rare examples we have of Republican architecture.
We can however see the main stages. At the beginning the earliest temples, temple C (end of IV and beginning of III Centuries b.c.), temple A (middle of III Century b.c.) and temple D (beginning of II Century b.c.) were built on the original plan of the territory, each separate from the other. Later there was a general rise of the area of 1.4m. probably following the fire in 111 that destroyed the city. At the end of the ii Century b.c., a volcanic tuff paving was laid down joining the three temples to temple B, built during this period, in a sole complex surrounded on at least three sides by a colonnade.
Other paving, at a higher level and made of travertine was then laid down in the era of Dominiziano (which evidently occurred following the fire in 80 a.d. that destroyed the Campo Marzio).
A piece of the Forma Urbis Severiana with the Mini inscription was correlated with a piece where the representation of the temple in via delle Botteghe Oscure, the work of Lucos Cozza, had already been found, demonstrated the existence to the east of the Area Sacra, according to Coarelli, of the Porticus Minucia Frumentaria probably built by the Emperor Claudio, as an extension of the Porticus Minucia Vetus to be identified as mentioned with the Area Sacra of largo Argentina.
We therefore have to consider obsolete the theories advanced over a number of years by Marchetti Longhi, the director of the excavations, on the identification of the four temples while the most valid hypotheses remain those of Castagnoli that identify temple C with the temple of Feronia, an antique italic divinity, built by Curio Dentato after his victory over the Sabines in 290 a.d., the temple A with Iuno Curritis built by Q. Luyazio Cercone, perhaps following the victory over the Falerii in 1241 or according to Coarelli, that of Giuturna built by Q. Lutazio Catulo, after the triumph over the Cartaginesi in 241.
A proposal to attribute temple B to Fortuna was already made by Boyance while for temple D, Coarelli proposes the identification with the Lares Permarini located on the Prenestino calendar in the Augustinian era in ports – (cu MI) NUci(a).
When the area was being arranged again by Munoz, the four temples were brought back to their primitive isolation by demolishing, among others, a large part of the elevation of a complex of buildings in brick, built between the temples and connected to them, to define the waters and aqueducts office, whose construction seems to go back to the era between Claudio and Caligula and whose walls reach in a height of two floors some places.
The medieval period was the time when few excavations were made and where important remains were brought to light. In particular, it is discovered from the scarce documentation of the excavations that around the VIII-IX Centuries, a castrum was built on this area, surrounded by walls built by salvaged blocks. The remains of this fortification were almost entirely demolished during excavations as in the Medieval structures of the church of S. Nicola de’ Cesarini built on the remains of temple A.
When the Area Sacra was adjusted after demolishing, apart from following the urban ideas and scientific knowledge of the era, this increased deterioration of those structures that were preserved until our century thanks to their being surrounded by Medieval and Renaissance buildings. The fact that they were sited below street level compared to the surrounding streets affected by heavy traffic of vehicles, penalizes the area transforming it into a kind of traffic island, with all the negative consequences of atmospheric pollution on antique structures in a bad state of dilapidation.
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