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p489 Sacella Silvani

Article on pp489‑490 of

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby):
A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,
London: Oxford University Press, 1929.

Silvanus, sacella: shrines of the essentially rustic deity Silvanus (WR 2.13), erected by private individuals or collegia in Rome during the empire, p490 several of which have been located by the discovery of inscriptions (Rosch. IV.854‑857). These are:

(1) in Region III (probably), in the via Merulana, near the so‑called Auditorium Maecenatis (CIL VI.30930).

(2) in Region V, near the Lateran (VI.580).1

(3) in Region V, near the present railway station and that part of the Servian agger which was called monte della Giustizia before its removal (VI.3716 = 31013, 3697 = 30940; BC 1873, 89).

(4) in Region VI, near the south-east corner of the thermae Constantinianae, on the site of the present Banca d'Italia (VI.31020‑31022; NS 1887, 108‑109; BC 1887, 162; HJ 420).

(5) in Region VI, near the hemicycle on the south-west side of the thermae Diocletiani (VI.3714 = 31007).

(6) in Region VI in the horti Sallustiani, near the porta Pinciana, in the via Ludovisi (VI.310,2 583, 640,3 30985, 31025; BC 1887, 223‑224; 1888, 402; NS 1887, 275. To this shrine may refer Hist. Aug. Tac. 17.1: in templo Silvani), probably under the title Silvanus custos.a

(7) in Region IX, on the site of the present church of S. Marco (VI.626).4

(8) in Region XII, near the north-west side of the thermae Antoninianae, on the slope below S. Balbina (VI.543, 659; HJ 189; Merlin 324).

(9) in Region XIV, near S. Cosimato (VI.692).

(10) in Region XIV, between the ponte Sisto and the Villa Farnesina (VI.31024; BC 1880, 133; NS 1880, 141).

(11) in Region XIV, in the horti Caesaris (VI.642 (A.D. 97), 31015; Rosch. IV.866; HJ 646).

Five other inscriptions (VI.576, 589, 610, 656, 679) clearly refer to shrines of which the location is unknown;5 while others contain no indication of any shrine, but belong apparently to statues only (Rosch. IV.856‑857; cf. Plin. NH XV.77: simulacrum Silvani (ante aedem Saturni)). These are: (1) in Region VI, at the north-west corner of the thermae Diocletiani, near S. Susanna (VI.635 = 30805); (2) in Region VI, on the Pincian near the Villa Medici (VI.623; HJ 446)6; (3) in Region XIII, on the Aventine near S. Saba (VI.673, 31012 = EE IV.755; BC 1878, 29); (4) in Region XIII, within the limits of the emporium (VI.3710 = 31002, 3718 = 31018; BC 1872, 140, 166).

The Authors' Notes:

1 The provenance of this inscription is quite uncertain, as it was first recorded as seen in the Campana collection. It is now in Paris (CIL VI p3005).

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2 There is some uncertainty as to its provenance; cf. CIL VI p3004; IG XIV.1000.

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3 The provenance is equally uncertain, as the inscription was first copied in the house of Paolo Capranica in the fifteenth century.

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4 This inscription was used in the pavement of the church, so that its original provenance is quite uncertain.

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5 CIL VI.657, 658, found near the Via Ostiensis in an estate of the Mattei, probably come from Grotta Perfetta, •a mile to the south-east of S. Paolo fuori le Mura.

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6 See Horti Aciliorum.

Thayer's Note:

a For more focused details on this temple of Silvanus on the Viminal and the inscription reporting it, see my note to Letter XXXII of Smollett's Travels Through France and Italy.

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p489 Sacella Silvani

Article on pp489‑490 of

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby): A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press, 1929.

The Authors' Notes:

Thayer's Note:

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby):
A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,
London: Oxford University Press, 1929.