It was first vowed in 296 BC by Appius Claudius Caecus during the third Samnite War, in the area of the later circus Flaminius, outside the pomerium but close to the Servian Wall, allowing it to accommodate extraordinary meetings of the Senate which involved foreign embassies from non-allies or returning or departing generals, neither of which were allowed within the pomerium - for example, the farewell to the proconsul on his departure for his allotted province.

The temple – long considered lost – was identified with the remains of a podium recovered in the 1930s building works to enable the nearby Theatre to be seen in isolation.

These remains belong to a reconstruction in the Augustan period which is not mentioned by the literary sources but is probably related to the transformation of the area during the construction of the Theatre at that time.

However, when for the first time Rome had to declare war on a state whose territory did not border her own (i.e. Pyrrhus of Epirus), it was hard to see how this rite could be carried out.

A circular area with the paving restored in front of this temple was interpreted in the excavations as the place where this column was sited, on the basis of literary references.