Sanctuary of Hercules Victor (Tivoli)

Tibur was located at the head of the Aniene valley where the river falls 160 m into the Roman countryside and which was a pass on the main route for trade and human travel between the Apennine plateaux of Abruzzo and Apulia, rich in cattle, and the fertile Roman Campagna.[5] Aided by fortifications on the surrounding ridges the pass determined the function and prosperity of the city from the 9th century BC.[6]

Much of this important route is dotted with places of worship of Hercules: from Sulmona to Alba Fucens, from the temples along the upper Aniene valley to those downstream from Tibur at the springs of Aquae Albulae, Settecamini, the area of San Lorenzo,[7] to the Temple of Hercules in Ostia Antica, the terminal station of the salt trade.[8] This is because Hercules was the patron deity of hard work, of loyalty in trade (as in the 10th labour, the capture of the oxen of Geryon, during which the hero "reclaimed" the Forum Boarium from Cacus) and of commercial and financial transactions.

Tivoli was identified with the cult of Hercules by virtue of its strategic position and it venerated him as a warrior god (Hercules Victor or Invictus) for a victory over the Aequi,[9] as Hercules Saxanus (as protector of travertine mining), and as protector of trade and of flocks, a fundamental activity for the original city economy.[10]

The cult was one of the most important in Latium and common to many civilisations of the Mediterranean. Unlike the Greek Herakles, revered above all as a semi-god, the Italic Hercules is mainly a deity, protector of all civilising activities related to the centuries of urbanisation (8-7th c. BC) from reclamation to deforestation, regulation of waters and to businesses with all their implications. He also had the function of chthonic divinity[11] typical of territories rich in wells, sinkholes and rising springs, such as near Tibur.

As a cult possibly originated in Tivoli, tradition has it that the cult of Hercules Victor was exported to Rome in the late Republican age by the legendary Marcus Octavius Herennius,[12] a wealthy oil merchant, perhaps identifiable with that Herennius who was a musician (tibicinus) and then Magistratus Herculaneus at the Tiburtine sanctuary. He had the circular Temple of Hercules Victor or Invictus (or to Hercules Olivarius) built in the Forum Boarium in Rome.

From recent surveys and excavations, the first sanctuary started in the 160's BC had terraces similar to the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia in nearby Praeneste, with a trapezoidal plan similar to the temple of Jupiter Anxur in Terracina. A collapse of the structure led to interruption of the work which was resumed a few decades later with a completely different plan. In this second phase, the main modifications were:

• The entire rear part of the limestone hill and terrace was levelled by removing an enormous amount of land and, in the space created, the theatre was built[13]
• A section of the "clivus tiburtinus" (the last stretch of Via Tiburtina) which, in the original project skirted the side of the complex, was incorporated into a tunnel, the via tecta, which joins the oldest structure to the majestic second phase complex on the north side, whose structures rise more than 40 m from the banks of the Aniene and which is the best preserved part of the sanctuary.

Via tecta

In late republican and imperial times the traffic that crossed the city of Tibur (and therefore the sanctuary) had increased to the point that it was necessary to set up rest and sorting camps for wagons and herds, with related assistance and health control services, upstream and downstream of the bridge (the Roman bridge probably fell in the great flood of 105 AD[14]) which crossed the Aniene near the temples of the Acropolis (also built at the beginning of the splendour of the city, II-I century BC). The rest camps upstream (towards Abruzzo) were probably in Crocetta, about 2 km from the city; those downstream from the clivus tiburtinus almost reached the Lucan bridge. These lands were all owned by the sanctuary.

The sanctuary was also offered the "tithe" of every transaction made within it. The exchanges that took place within it and therefore the movement of money, or flocks within it was huge. The "tithe" was paid in money or in kind (10% of the flocks). In the latter case, the specialised workers kept the flocks or herds in the large rooms on the north side of the via tecta reselling them as soon as possible at competitive prices. In addition to this commercial part, the heart of the complex was represented by the Temple. After all, one of the reasons for the numerous constructions of sanctuaries in various cities of Lazio (Tibur, Praenestae, Terracina, Gabii, etc.) and other locations in central Italy was in fact to attract pilgrims, who also brought wealth. The pilgrims brought offerings in money and in ex-voto which, often in gold and silver, were periodically removed and melted down, while those in terracotta were crammed into votive pits. Pilgrims needed accommodation and food, or cash loans, and for this the complex offered paid inn services and banking services.

Another source of income for the sanctuary was the thesauri or alms boxes, placed in strategic points at the exits of the city, especially on the paths that allowed travellers not to go through the via tecta to enter or exit Tibur.

Moreover, as the wealth and power of the Sanctuary increased, rich merchants or politicians, senators, proconsuls, generals were keen to make donations, to win the benevolence of the priests and the divinity, because they would be counted among the benefactors of the "fanum", gained prestige, or simply would be remembered.

The wealth accumulated in a few decades meant that Octavian used the treasure of the sanctuary, which was still part of the public treasury, to prepare the army for the battle of Philippi. Nonetheless, the riches of the Tiburtine sanctuary continued to increase, due also to the functions of lending money (which was reserved to the "curator Fani", the only one who could practice usury without committing sacrilege) and to direct commerce, especially the oil trade with the island of Delos, one of the most powerful trading centres in the Mediterranean.

The prestige and wealth of the sanctuary reached its peak in the imperial era, probably under Hadrian (117–138 AD) who had his governing palace nearby.

In the 4th century, between the edicts of Milan (313) and of Thessalonica (380) the activity of the sanctuary decreased. The raids throughout the Aniene valley aimed at destruction of pagan temples and shrines by bands organised by Basilian monks based above the Villa of Nero at Subiaco also wrought damage. The Codex Theodosianus (391–2) stopped all pagan religious activities, even if the civil authorities kept social and organisational activities alive in the sanctuary (local festivals, social and recreational activities, sports, etc.)

In the 5th century it is probable that looting began, indicated by many statues being hidden often far from their original location (for example in the pit of the auleum of the theatre).

During the 5th and 6th centuries the sanctuary's possessions were taken, usurped, donated, occupied and eventually became the property of the Tiburtine Church which, from the 10th century onwards, used the Charta Cornutiana from the 5th century, recently found to be a forgery,[15] to claim the right of ownership.

Temple podium travertine covering

Hercules on lionskin from fountain

At the rear centre of the temenos is the temple with its podium which is partly preserved only in the southern part. The temple was 18.5 m high and with its high podium was 25 m high overall and dominated the landscape; with its gabled roof painted yellow it was visible from Rome.[16] It is octastyle, "peripteral sine postico" i.e. the cella was surrounded on three sides by a colonnade with eight columns on the main facade and ten on both sides. At the back an exedra framed the colossal statue of Hercules.

The podium was 6.50 m high and was completely covered on the outside with elegantly molded travertine, as can be seen in the preserved section on the left side of the temple where steps of travertine, smooth and up to 24 m long, the upper one molded like a frame, make clear the grandeur of the temple. An ancient "thesaurus" (offering box) was also found right next to the base. The two accessible underground rooms of the podium, one of which had an access with a ladder (as can be seen from the reliefs by Thierry of 1863), were perhaps used as a votive deposit and oracular room.

At the front facing west towards Rome, a staircase with two flights connected the temenos with the temple. On either side of the stairways were monumental fountains (the one on the right was fairly well preserved) inside which was placed a circle of miniature statues of the hero from which a beautiful statuette remains of young Hercules portrayed seated on a rock covered with his lion skin.

On the west side, between this staircase and the wall of the theatre opposite, was a space of less than 2 m, unusual for such a large structure, especially in case of crowding on the temenos which could occur. This anomaly can be explained by a collapse of the structure, originally shorter and steeper, which forced the builders to reconstruct a longer and shallower staircase over the collapsed part with supporting arches.

The theatre has unusual features: its slope is quite shallow compared to Greek theatres and to that which Vitruvius stated in his De architectura, to the point that some archaeologists have hypothesized that it is not a theatre, but a semicircular staircase that was used to distribute pilgrims along the temenos. But the presence of 3 vomitoria (exits for the spectators), the scaenae frons and the pit of the auleum (the curtain made with fabrics and wooden slats that was lowered at the beginning of the show), as well as the two aditus, the entrances for the public, have dispelled any doubts about it. The anomalous slope is thus explained by the need to build the cavea respecting the two floors that had remained free from landslides, that of the scena (originally the last terrace of the substructure) and that of the temenos and the podium of the temple.[17]