Vulcanal

Map (1926) of the western end of the Roman Forum: the Volcanal is indicated between the Arch of Severus and the stairs of the Temple of Concord, just northwest of the Umbilicus and Rostra.
The site identified by Boni as the Vulcanal is today protected by a modern gray roof. The excavation is just off the southwest corner of the Arch of Severus and adjacent to the truncated masonry cone of the Umbilicus Urbis. The ruins of the (mostly reconstructed) Rostra Augusti are visible just beyond.

The Shrine of Vulcan (Italian: Volcanale), or Vulcanal, or Volcanal, was an 8th-century BC sacred precinct on the future site of the Roman Forum in Rome, modern Italy.[1] Dedicated to Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, it was traditionally considered to commemorate the spot where the legendary figures Romulus and Tatius concluded the peace treaty between the tribes known as the Latins — on the Palatine Hill — and the Sabines — on the Quirinal and Esquiline.[2] This famous merger of the hill-villages was said to be the foundation of the Roman state.[3]

  1. ^ Coarelli, Filippo (1983), Il Foro Romano, 1: Periodo arcaico, pp 164 ff.
  2. ^ Grant, Michael (1970), The Roman Forum, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; Photos by Werner Forman, pg 214.
  3. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, II, 50, 54.