in
Gismondi's
model,
Museum of Roman Civilization After celebrating his
triumph for his 146 BC
victory at Scarpheia during the
Achaean War,
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus constructed a
portico around
M. Aemilius Lepidus's
Temple of Juno Regina, near the
Circus Flaminius in the southern
Campus Martius and erected a new
Temple of Jupiter Stator beside it. He decorated both with equestrian statues of
Alexander the Great's generals brought back from Greece. This portico was known as the () or ().
Augustus refurbished the portico and its temples and rededicated it to his sister
Octavia the Younger sometime after 27 BC.
Cassius Dio stated that this was done in 33 BC from the spoils of the war in
Dalmatia out of confusion with the adjacent
Portico of Octavius (), which was similarly refurbished and rededicated by Augustus and his stepbrother
L. Marcius Philippus. Besides the temples, the portico included a
Greek and
Latin library erected by Octavia in memory of her son
Marcus Claudius Marcellus, an assembly hall (), and lecture rooms (). Whether these were different parts of one building or entirely different structures is uncertain. The
Roman Senate met in the curia. The whole is referred to by
Pliny the Elder as the works of Octavia (). The portico and its buildings burned in AD 80 and were restored, probably by
Domitian. After a second fire in 203, they were restored by
Septimius Severus and
Caracalla. It was adorned with foreign marble and contained many famous works of art, enumerated in
Pliny's
Natural History. The structure was damaged by an earthquake in 442 when two of the destroyed columns were replaced with an archway that still stands. The church of
Sant'Angelo in Pescheria was built on its ruins , the name commemorating the portico's medieval and early modern role as a fish market. The building, which lies in the
Sant'Angelo rione, represented the center of the medieval
Roman Ghetto. ==See also==