SATURNUS, ARA
a very ancient altar, which the antiquarians dated from before the Trojan war (Fest. 322: in imo clivo Capitolino ... ubi ara dicata ei deo ante bellum Troianum videtur), and even ascribed to Hercules (Dionys. vi. I. 4; i. 34. 4:τὸν βωμὸν ...ὃς ἔτι καὶ νῦν διαμένει παρὰ τῇ ῥιζῃ τοῦ λόφου κατὰ τὴν ἄνοδον τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγορᾶς φέρουσιϝ εἰς τὸ Καπιτώλιον; Macrob. i. 8. 2: habet aram et ante senaculum; cf. Solin. i. 12). The site of the altar is described in exactly the same words as that of the later temple (see below), and as it was standing when Dionysius wrote, it must have been very close to the temple, and have been preserved until the great changes of the early empire in this part of the forum caused its removal. It is not possible to decide on which side of the temple it was (for the literature see AEDES SATURNI).