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Isis

Collecting all the entries on pp283‑286 of

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

(pp283‑285) Isis, aedes: see separate page.

Isis: a temple to which there is only one reference in ancient literature (Hist. Aug. Tyr. Trig. 25: Tetricorum domus hodieque extat in monte Caelio inter duos lucos contra Isium Metellinum pulcherrima). The third region in the Regionary Catalogue is called Isis et Serapis, and on the Haterii relief (Mon. d. Inst. V pl. 7) is an arch with the inscription Arcus ad Isis (q.v.). This arch is evidently on the via Labicana. From this evidence it is clear that a temple of Isis and Serapis stood in Region III, near the via Labicana, important enough to give its name to the region. It was also called Isium, and was built or restored by some Metellus. There is no indication of the date, but it was probably after the beginning of the empire, and perhaps as late as the second century. In the time of Constantine the name continued (Not. Reg. III). The name of this Isis appears on one inscription that was found in the via Labicana near the baths of Trajan (CIL VI.30915; Isidi Lydiae educatrici valvas cum Anubi et ara Mucianus Aug. lib. proc.; PT 134).

The temple was in the south-east part of the region, but its exact site is difficult to determine, for architectural and sculptural remains which may well have belonged to such a shrine have been found scattered over a considerable area of this section, from the via Labicana north to beyond the via Macchiavelli (BC 1875, 245; 1186, 208; 1887, 132‑136; 1889, 37‑39; NS 1887, 140; 1888, 626; Athenaeum, 1888, 855; Mitt. 1889, 279‑280). The most probable site, however, is between S. Clemente and SS. Pietro e Marcellino, near the western end of the latter, where credible authorities state that in 1653 ruins of a temple decorated in Egyptian style were found (for references, see HJ 304, n. 49).1 This point p286 must then have been just inside the boundary of Region III (HJ 304; LR 360; BC 1915, 115‑122; DAP 2.xiii.295‑296).

Isis Athenodoria: mentioned only in the Notitia (Reg. Xii), and presumably a statue of Isis by the Greek artist Athenodorus (c. 100 B.C.), which may perhaps have given its name to a shrine in which it was placed. The site of the monument was probably near the baths of Caracalla and the via Appia, but fragments of sculpture found in this vicinity cannot be identified with certainty (HJ 197; Gilb. III.112; BC 1914, 351‑352; RE II.2047; IX.2132, and literature there cited).

Isis Curiana: a possible shrine of Isis built by Q. Curius, the existence of which depends on a conjectural emendation of a corrupt reading — phocis Curiana — in Cicero ad Att. II.17.2 (Hermes 1898, 341; 1908, 642; WR 351). If there was a temple of Isis Curiana, it may be referred to in Arnobius (II.73) and Tertullian (Apol. 6; ad nat. I.10).

Isium Metellinum: see Isis (2) in Reg. III.

Isis Patricia: a shrine or statue of Isis in Region V, known only from Not. If it stood in the Vicus Patricius (q.v.) and was in Region V, which is supposed to have been wholly outside the Servian wall, it must have been not far from the porta Viminalis. This would imply that the vicus Patricius extended beyond the line of that wall (HJ 371).

Isis Pelagia: a shrine (aedes?) of Isis, the protectress of sailors, known only from one inscription (CIL VI.8707: aedituus ab Isemº Pelagiam; WR 354).

Isis et Serapis in Capitolio: shrines (τεμενίσματα) of these two divinities, said to have been destroyed by order of the senate in 48 B.C. (Cass. Dio XLII.26.2). Earlier action of a similar kind is recorded (Arnob. II.73; Tert. Apol. 6; ad nat. I.10; Cass. Dio XL.47; Val. Max. ep. I.3.4; cf. Isis Curiana), but whether it concerned these particular shrines is uncertain. That temples of Isis were again built on the Capitoline is certain (CIL VI.351, 2247 (= I2.1263), 2248 (= I2.986); Suet. Dom. 1; see Jord. I.2.47; Gilb. III.110; Rosch. II.401; WR 353‑353; BC 1896, 272). See Obeliscus Capitolinus.

The Authors' Note:

1 See Add. p. xxii (the treatise is probably by G. P. Bellori). The drawings are at Windsor, in the volume marked Bassirilievi Antichi, VI.60 sqq. — now Inv. 8614, 8617‑8622. Cf. Vat. Lat. 9027, f. 96 (Schreiber in Sächsische Berichte, 1885, 123).

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Isis

Collecting all the entries on pp283‑286 of

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

The Authors' Note:

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