Alternate names: None

The Porticus Deorum Consentium is the modern name for a religious sanctuary excavated in 1833-34 and restored in 1858. The place was mentioned once in the ancient sources, where it was called a temple ("aedes deum consentium," see Varro, De Lingua Latina 8.71). The modern identification was made possible by the find of an inscription recording the restoration of the statues of the gods by Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (CIL VI.102), praefectus urbi in 367 A.D. The cult may date to the Second Punic War (Livy 22.10.8, recording a lectisternium offered to the gods of the cult) and was dedicated to the twelve divinities who ruled over mankind. In 174 B.C., the censors built a porticus linking the Temple of Saturn to the Senaculum (Livy 41.27.7); Richardson (p. 313) speculates that this may have constituted the first phase of the sanctuary. If so, the temple precinct was much bigger than it came to be. Its reduction in size may have occurred as it yielded ground to temples constructed in the same area after 174, including the Temple of Concord (first phase: 121 B.C.; second phase, 10 A.D.) and the Temple of Vespasian (ca. 80/85 A.D.) Be that as it may, the actual remains of the Porticus date to the Flavian and Hadrianic period. In this phase, the sanctuary was nestled between the Temple of Saturn, the Temple of Vespasian, and the Tabularium. It was a platform structure, with seven vaulted tabernae on the lower level facing the side of the Temple of Vespasian. Above was a trapezoidal plaza, paved in marble, on two sides of which were eight tabernae made of the same brick. These tabernae are organized into a group of five and a group of three which meet at an obtuse angle. These rooms probably had a utilitarian, not religious, function, possibly as offices of the nearby treasury in the Temple of Saturn (Pensabene, p. 80). In front of the tabernae are twelve columns with Corinthian capitals carved with trophies on four sides and rosettes. The capitals have been dated to the Hadrianic period. They sat atop columns of unfluted cipollino marble (five of which are modern restorations in travertine) over which ran an entablature. It is assumed that statues of the twelve gods of the cult were positioned in the intercolumniations.

Porticus Tabularium