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 p434  Puteal Libonis

Article on p434 of

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

Puteal Libonis or Scribonianum: * a stone kerb, like that of a well, built around a spot in the forum, that had been struck by lightning, by a certain Scribonius Libo, to whom the senate had entrusted the business of looking up such spots and enclosing them in this way (Fest. 333). It was a resort of moneylenders (Pers. 4.49, and Schol.; Cic. pro Sest. 18; Ov. Rem. 561) and near the tribunal of the praetor (Hor. Ep. I.19.8, and Porphyr., Sat. II.6.35), the arch of Fabius (Pers. Schol. loc. cit.) and the porticus Iulia (supra, 73). It is shown on coins (Babelon, Monnaies, Aemilia 11; Scribonia 8),​1 and perhaps the round base from Veii in the Lateran Museum is an imitation of it (Benndorf unde Schoene, Die antike Bildwerke d. Lateran. Museums, No. 440; HF 1210; CIL XI.3799). Six blocks of travertine lying near the arch of Augustus, which seem to belong to a circular kerb, have been identified with this puteal, but without any good reason (Jord. I.2.210, 403‑404; Gilb. III.159; HC 160; Théd. 147‑148; DR 72; RE Suppl. IV.511; BC 1914, 104). It has also been suggested with very considerable probability that it is the early well found in the basilica Aemilia, or porticus Gai et Luci (AJA 1913, 24, 27; 1928, 165‑177; HFP 34).

The Authors' Note:

1 Babelon dates them about 54 B.C., while Grueber (BM Rep. I.419, 3377‑3385) puts them about 71 B.C., following De Salis. For a restoration of the latter by Trajan, see Babelon, II p584, No. 47.

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SEE ALSO:	Smith's Dictionary: Puteal
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