Temple of Minerva Medica

By the Editors of the Madain Project

The temple of Minerva Medica, probably similar to the temple of Apollo Medicus, was an ancient Roman temple on the Esquiline Hill of Rome. It was built most likely sometime during the late Republican period.

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Overview

Its exact location and ruins are no longer known. Since the 17th century CE, it has been wrongly identified with the ruins of a decagonal nymphaeum on a nearby site, on account of the erroneous impression that the Athena Giustiniani had been found in its ruins.

Possible Location

circa 100 BCE

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, were discovered in the Via Curva (the modern Via Carlo Botta), just west of the Via Merulana, and this may be the better location. Some tuff walls, resembling ritual trenches known as favissae were also found there.

References

Cicero, De divinatione II.123: sine medico medicinam dabit Minerva, and CIL VI.10133, 30980.
MacDonald, William L. The Architecture of the Roman Empire, Volume II: An Urban Appraisal. Yale University Press, 1986.
Jord. II.130‑131.
Pierre De La Ruffinière Du Prey. "Soane and Hardwick in Rome: A Neo-Classical Partnership." Architectural History, vol. 15, 1972, pp. 51–114. JSTOR. Accessed 7 Feb. 2025.
Hans Georg Wehrens: Rom – Die christlichen Sakralbauten vom 4. bis zum 9. Jahrhundert – Ein Vademecum. (Rome - The Christian sacred buildings from the 4th to the 9th century - A Vademecum), publisher Herder, Freiburg 2016.
Ball, Larry F. The Domus Aurea and the Roman Architectural Revolution. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Anderson, James C. Roman Architecture and Society. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
Richardson, Lawrence. A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
Claridge, Amanda. Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. Oxford University Press, 1998.
Platner, Samuel Ball, and Thomas Ashby. The Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press, 1929.
Coarelli, Filippo. Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide. University of California Press, 2007.
Ward-Perkins, John B. Roman Imperial Architecture. Yale University Press, 1994.
Nielsen, Inger Hjorth. "Richard Wilson and Danish Artists in Rome in the 1750s." The Burlington Magazine, vol. 121, no. 916, 1979, pp. 439–49. JSTOR. Accessed 7 Feb. 2025.
Durm, figs. 306‑308, 313, 339; Choisy, pl. X. i. pp82‑84; Sangallo, Barb. 12; Giovannoni in Ann. d. Società d. Ingegneri, 1904, 165‑201; LS III.158‑161; JRS 1919, 176, 182; RA 182‑188; cf. HJ 360, n44, for references to other illustrations and plans).
Wilson Jones, Mark. Principles of Roman Architecture. Yale University Press, 2000.
Gorski, Gilbert J., and James E. Packer. Roman Architecture and Urbanism: From the Origins to Late Antiquity. Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Temple of Minerva Medica

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