Temple of Castor and Pollux
You’re standing with the Tempio dei Dioscuri in the Roman Forum, a temple built from the story Rome told about its own survival. It was vowed during the crisis before the Battle of Lake Regillus in 495 BC: Aulus Postumius Albus Regillensis promised a shrine to the Dioscuri—Castor and Pollux, the “twin” sons of Zeus and Leda—if the Republic won. Afterward, legend puts the twins right here on the Forum, watering their horses at the Spring of Juturna, as if victory needed a public announcement. Sometime later, a Postumius son dedicated the temple on 15 July, the ides of July, 484 BC. In the Republican era it even worked as a meeting place for the Senate, and from the mid–2nd century BC the front of its podium became a speakers’ platform. Then, in imperial times, the temple held an office for weights and measures and stored the state treasury. …
AI-generated from open data and cross-checked, with review where noted. How we write narrations
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