Tarentum_(Campus_Martius)
Tarentum (Campus Martius)
Ancient Roman precinct in Campus Martius
In the topography of ancient Rome, the Tarentum or Terentum was a religious precinct north of the Trigarium, a field for equestrian exercise, in the Campus Martius.[1] The archaeological survey of the site shows that it had no buildings.[2]
The Tarentum gave its name to the ludi tarentini ("Tarentine Games"), the archaic ludi that became the Secular Games; the name is perhaps less likely to have come from the place Tarentum in Apulia.[3] The location of the Tarentum is indicated primarily by the discovery in 1930 of the inscribed record of the Saecular Games (acta) held in 17 BC, which traditionally took place there.[4] It was the precinct within which the underground Altar of Dis and Proserpina was located.[5]