A fine antique Grand Tour model of the Temple of Hercules. Constructed in patinated bronze. It is a model of the temple as it would have been when it was built in the 2nd century BC. Italian circa 1860. 4 inches high and 3.25 inches in diameter ( 12 cms by 8.125 cms). The Temple of Hercules Victor ('Hercules the Conqueror') (Italian: Tempio di Ercole Vincitore) or Hercules Olivarius is an ancient edifice located in the Forum Boarium close to the Tiber in Rome. It is a monopteros, a round temple of Greek 'peripteral' design completely encircled by a colonnade. This layout caused it to be mistaken for a temple of Vesta until it was correctly identified by Napoleon's Prefect of Rome, Camille de Tournon.[1] Dating from the later 2nd century BC, and perhaps erected by L. Mummius Achaicus, conqueror of the Achaeans and destroyer of Corinth,[2] the temple is 14.8 m in diameter and consists of a circular cella within a concentric ring of twenty Corinthian columns 10.66 m tall, resting on a tuff foundation. These elements supported an architrave and roof, which have disappeared. The original wall of the cella, built of travertine and marble blocks, and nineteen of the originally twenty columns remain but the current tile roof was added later. Palladio's published reconstruction suggested a dome, though this was apparently erroneous. The temple is the earliest surviving marble building in Rome. Its major literary sources are two almost identical passages, one in Servius' commentary on the Aeneid (viii.363)[3] and the other in Macrobius Saturnalia [4] Though Servius mentions that aedes duae sunt, "there are two sacred temples", the earliest Roman calendars mention but one festival, on 13 August, to Hercules Victor and Hercules Invictus interchangeably.[5] By 1132 the temple had been converted to a church, known as Santo Stefano alle Carozze (St. Stephen 'of the carriages'). Additional restorations (and a fresco over the altar) were made in 1475. A plaque in the floor was dedicated by Sixtus IV. In the 17th century the church was rededicated, to Santa Maria del Sole ("St. Mary of the Sun").