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 p148  Templum Deae Suriae

Article on p148 of

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


Dea Suria, templum: a temple of the 'Syrian goddess' (Atargatis, the paredros of Hadad) situated on the right bank of the Tiber. Suet. Nero 56 calls Nero 'religionum usque quaque contemptor praeter unius Deae Syriae'; but this is not sufficient to prove the existence of the temple at that time; and we must pass on to the mention of it, under the corrupt form templum Iasurae,​1 in the time of Alexander Severus (Chron. 147). The provenance of the inscriptions relating to this cult — CIL VI.115 (= 30696; Cap. 92), 116, 117, 32462 — is uncertain.

The goddess is also represented on a base which bears a dedication to Jupiter Heliopolitanus (CIL VI.423; Amelung, Kat. Vat. I p280, n. 152), found in the temple of the latter divinity (q.v.), which was superimposed on the lucus Furrinae, where a dedication in his honour under the Syrian name Hadad was also found (Mitt. 1907, 230; for the identification, see Cumont, Religions orientales dans le paganisme romain 165; RE VII.2163; viii.57); so that she was actually worshipped there. But we know that Syrian deities were also worshipped on the Via Portuensis, where the rest of the inscriptions may have been found (HJ 645‑646). See RE IV.2236‑2243; Mitt. 1907, 248‑249; DE II.1466‑1473; WR 359‑361; Rosch. IV.1641‑1642; PT 123.


The Authors' Note:

1 Jordan, Hermes, 1872, 314‑322.


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