Pompeius' Temple of Hercules

In an article published in this journal several years ago, Dr B. Rawson put forward the suggestion that the temple of Hercules associated with Pompeius' building activity should be assigned to an early period in his career, either 79 or (more likely) about 70 B.C. If the latter, she connects it with a competition between Pompeius and Crassus to secure the mantle of military prowess as the heir of Sulla, manifest in the lavish sacrificial feast given by Crassus in 70 B.C. which she says he made at the festival of Hercules Invictus on 12 August, in thanks for the military success which the god had secured for him in the recent slave war, and which was designed to steal Pompeius' thunder as the games celebrating his Spanish victories were due to begin a few days later on 15 August (Cic. Verr. i 31).