[image ALT: Much of my site will be useless to you if you've got the images turned off!]

p551 Venus Erucina

Two articles on pp551‑552 of

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

Venus Erucina: a temple on the Capitoline, probably within the area Capitolina, which, together with the temple of Mens (q.v.), was vowed by the dictator Q. Fabius Maximus, in accordance with the instructions of the Sibylline books, after the defeat at Lake Trasumenus in 217 B.C. (Liv. XXII.9.10, 10.10), and dedicated by Fabius as duovir in 215 (Liv. XXIII.30.13, 31.9). The temples of Venus and Mens were separated by a sewer (Liv. XXIII.31.9; cf. Varro ap. Philogyr. ad Georg. IV.265). It is altogether probable that this is the temple known during the empire as aedes Capitolina Veneris, in which Livia dedicated a statue of an infant son of Germanicus (Suet. Cal. 7), and Galba a necklace of precious stones (Suet. Galba 18; Jord. I.2.42; Gilb. III.101; cf. however, Mommsen, CIL I2 p331; Becker, Top. 404).

Venus Erucina, aedes (templum, Ovid; ἱερόν, Strabo, Appian): a temple of the Venus of Mt. Eryx in Sicily (Ov. Fast. IV.872; Rem. Am. 550) vowed during the war with the Ligurians by L. Porcius Licinus when consul in 184 B.C., and dedicated by him as duumvir in 181 (Liv. XL.34.4). It was outside the porta Collina but not far from it (Ov. Fast. IV.871; Rem. Am. 549; Liv. XXX.38.10; App. B. C. I.93; Fast. Arv. ad IX Kal. Mai., CIL I2 pp214, 215, 316; Strabo VI.2.6 (p272)), and probably on the west side of the via Salaria, perhaps near the present Via Belisario. Festivals were celebrated here on 23rd April, the Vinalia (Ov. Fast. loc. cit.; Fast. Ant. ap. NS 1921, 94), and on 24th October (Fast. Praen., cf. Hülsen in DAP 2.XV.326 sqq.). According to Strabo (loc. cit.), it was a copy of the temple at Mt. Eryx, and surrounded by a noteworthy porticus. This seems to have been a resort of questionable characters (Ov. locc. citt.; cf. CIL VI.2274: sortilegus ab Venere Erucina). As this inscription contains the only post-Augustan reference to the temple, it is not unlikely that during the empire it was called the temple of Venus Hortorum Sallustianorum (q.v.), which name occurs on three inscriptions. The gardens of Sallust extended as far as the via Salaria, and it p552 has been held (but wrongly) that the so‑called Ludovisi throne may have belonged to the temple (HJ 415‑416; Gilb. III.91; WR 290; Mitt. 1889, 270‑275; 1892, 32‑80; HF 1288 (see II. p78); BC 1914, 397).

Images with borders lead to more information.
The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.)

The Dictionary's table of bibliographical abbreviations is here;
it includes links to those complete works that are online.

UP TO:

[image ALT: Link to Platner and Ashby's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome]

Platner
& Ashby

Topographia
Urbis

Rome

LacusCurtius

Home

p551 Venus Erucina

Two articles on pp551‑552 of

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

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