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 p548  Aedes Veiovis

Articles on pp548‑549 of

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

Veiovis, aedes (templa, Ovid): a temple on the island in the Tiber, the evidence for the existence of which consists of an emended text in one passage in Livy (XXXIV.53.7 (194 B.C.): et in insula Vediovis⁠1 (for MSS. Iovis) aedem C. Servilius duumvir dedicavit; vota erat sex annis ante Gallico bello ab L. Furio Purpurione praetore, ab eodem postea consule locata); the assumption that through ignorance of the facts Ovid used Iuppiter for Vediovis (Fast. I.293‑294:

and another assumption that the entries in the Calendar (Fast. Praen. ad Kal. Ian., CIL I2 p231: [Aescu]lapio Vediovi in insula; Fast. Ant. ap. NS 1921, 83: Aesculap(io) Co[ns]o Vediove) refer necessarily to a temple of Vediovis. In the same way another passage in Livy (XXXI.21.12), where he is speaking of L. Furius Purpurio at the battle of Cremona in 200 B.C., may be made to refer to the same temple by reading: aedemque Vediovi (for the MSS. deo Iovi) vovit si eo die hostes fudisset. These emendations, and therefore the existence of the temple, near that of Aesculapius, are accepted by most scholars (cf. HJ 635; WR 236; Jord. Comm. in honor. Mommsen 359‑362; Gilb. III.82‑84; Mommsen, CIL I2 p305), but not by Besnier (249‑272), who refuses to accept the identification of Vediovis and Iuppiter and explains the reference in the calendar by a sacrifice to Vediovis in the temple of Iuppiter Iurarius (q.v.). See Veiovis in Capitolio fin.

Veiovis, aedes: (templa, Ovid): a temple of Veiovis inter duos lucos in the depression between the arx and the Capitol (Vitr. IV.8.4; Gell. V.12.5), dedicated on 7th March (Ov. Fast. III.429‑430; Fast. Praen. ad Non. Mart., CIL I2 p233, 311; Fast. Ant. ap. NS 1921, 89). According to Vitruvius (loc. cit.) this temple was peculiar in having 'columns added on the right and left of the flanks of the pronaos' (tr. Morgan). It contained a statue of the deity with arrows in one hand and a goat by  p549 his side (Gell. V.21.11; Ov. Fast. III.443), in the form of a youthful Jupiter with whom he is identified by Ovid, loc. cit. 437‑439; cf. Fest. 379). It is possible that it is this statue (or another in the same temple?) that is mentioned by Pliny (NH XVI.216: Nonne simulacrum Veiovis in arce e cupresso durat a condita urbe DCLXI anno dicatum?), who used 'in arce' incorrectly (Jord. I.2.115‑116; Gilb. II.100; WR 236; for the date of foundation of this temple, see Aedes Veiovis in Capitolio.

Veiovis, aedes, in Capitolio: Livy states (XXXV.41.8): aedes duae Iovi eo anno (192 B.C.) in Capitolio dedicatae sunt. Voverat L. Furius Purpurio praetor Gallico bello unam, alteram consul: dedicavit Q. Marcius Ralla duumvir — a statement so improbable that it is generally assumed that the reading of the source — aedes Vediovi. . . dedicata — became in Livy's text aedes duae Iovis. . . dedicatae, and that this error was accompanied by another which attributed the foundation of two temples in Capitolio to Purpurio, the Aedes in Insula (q.v.) and the Aedes inter duos Lucos (q.v.), which on the authority of this passage was vowed by Purpurio in 198 and dedicated by Ralla in 192. All the attempts hitherto made to reconcile Livy's statements involve a more or less drastic treatment, and the question of the temples of Vediovis in Rome cannot be determined until further evidence has been produced (see Jord. Comm. in hon. Momms. 359‑365; Top. I.2.47, 111‑112; Gilb. III.82‑84; Mommsen, CIL I2 p305, 311; WR 236; Besnier, 249‑265).

The Authors' Note:

1 The form 'Vediovis' is frequently used.

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