TheTemple of Honor and Virtue (Latin:Aedes Honoris et Virtutis) was a temple inRegio I of ancient Rome dedicated toVirtus andHonos.[1] No remains survive. It is the first entry for Regio I in the regional catalogues and was sited just outside theporta Capena,[2] probably on the northern side of thevia Appia.[1]In front of it was theAra Fortuna Redux.[3]
It was first dedicated solely to Honor on 17 July 234 BC byQuintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus after his victory over theLiguri.[1][4] After thebattle of Clastidium in 222 BC,Marcus Claudius Marcellus vowed to dedicate a temple to Honor and Virtue, a vow he renewed after thecapture of Syracuse. In 208 BC he tried to fulfil the vow by rededicating the existing temple to Honor, but thepontifical college forbade it, since onecella could not be dedicated to both gods as - if a prodigy occurred in it - they would not know which god to sacrifice to in thanks.[5] Marcellus instead restored the temple of Honor and built a newcella opposite it to Virtue, turning the existing temple into a double temple.[1]
This new double temple was dedicated by Marcellus' son in 205 BC.[1][6] It housed several art treasures looted fromSyracuse by Marcellus,[7] though these had largely vanished by the time of Livy.[1][8] It also housed theaedicula Camenarum, the ancient bronze shrine thought to date back to the time ofNuma Pompilius, which was later transferred to thetemple of Hercules Musarum.[1][9] The temple was later restored byVespasian and decorated by the artists Cornelius Pinus and Attius Priscus.[1][10] It is last mentioned in the 4th century, in the regional catalogues.[1] If still in use by the 4th-century, it would have been closed during thepersecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire.