Like the Odeion of Agrippa, the Temple of Ares (fig. 3) has been identified by Pausanias' commentary.  The reestablishment of the classical temple in the Agora has been dated from ceramic evidence in its foundations to the end of the first century B.C.E.   Unlike the Odeion of Agrippa, the Temple of Ares was not a new construction.  It was a fifth-century Doric peripteral temple, possibly from Acharnae,   that was taken apart piece by piece and moved to the Agora near the new Odeion.  The temple is very similar in style and plan to the Hephaisteion, which stood behind it on the Colonos Agoraios, the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, and the Temple of Nemesis at Rhamnous.  W. Dinsmoor Sr. proposed that all four temples were constructed by the same architect, because of their similarities in plans and style and that all were completed before the beginning of the Peloponnesian War.   Recently M. Miles has challenged that scenario, suggesting that the temples were probably completed during the last quarter of the fifth century B.C.E. and that they need not all have been designed by the same architect.

The structure is thought to have been transferred to the Agora ca. 15 B.C.E. for several reasons.  Pottery dating from either the end of the first century B.C.E. or the early years of the first century C.E. was found in the packing beneath the remains of the building’s foundations.   During the transfer, masons' marks were used to order the blocks of the temple, and these particularly deep and large marks exhibit a classicizing tendency that many scholars (and all of the excavators) agree should be dated to the end of the first century B.C.E. or beginning of the first century C.E.   In fact, many of the excavators believe the temple was transplanted sometime between one to six years after the completion of the Odeion.   The formal relationship of the temple to the Odeion also should be considered, since the two buildings were placed almost exactly at right angles to one another.   This orientation suggests that they were planned at the same time.

The new purpose of the classical temple in the Agora has been considered by many scholars.  The consensus is that there was some type of relationship between Ares and Augustus himself or, more likely, with Gaius Caesar.   Augustus’ association with Ares, especially after his vow to avenge his father’s murder, was well known, as was Julius Caesar’s claimed descent from Ares and Aphrodite.  Nevertheless, no clear evidence for a cult of Ares and Augustus has been found at Athens.  A thank offering on a statue pedestal from the deme of Acharnae (IG II2, 2953) is dedicated to Augustus and Ares, but it is not known whether the offering was a record of the community’s blessings for the "rescue operation" that saved their ancient temple, or possibly just for the fourth-century marble altar that accompanied the temple in the Agora.    The statue base from the Theater of Dionysus which names Gaius the "New Ares" is the best evidence that the Temple of Ares was associated with Gaius.  The evidence for the Ares/Augustus association in Athens is "varied."   Bowersock’s analysis of Gaius’ departure from Rome and arrival in Athens is quite convincing and it has been followed by a number of scholars.  But with the imperial family’s link to Ares and the city of Athens’ disassociation with the god, it seems almost certain that Agrippa, Augustus, or some non-Greek with close imperial ties authorized the temple’s move, probably in relation to a program restoring temples and shrines in Athens.   This restoration program in Athens might parallel the well-known program of temple reconstruction in Rome about which Augustus boasted in his Res Gestae (19-21).