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

p554 Venus Verticordia

Article on pp554‑555 of

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

Venus Verticordia, aedes: a temple built in 114 B.C., in accordance with instructions of the Sibylline books, to atone for a case of incest among the Vestals and a prodigium that followed the acquittal of two at the first trial (Obseq. 37 (97); Lydus de mens. IV.15; Ov. Fast. IV.157‑160; p555 cf. Oros. V.15.22). The epithet referred to the power of the goddess to turn the mind from lust to purity (Ov. loc. cit.; Val. Max. VIII.15.12). The day of dedication was 1st April (CIL I2 p314; Ov. Fast. IV.133 ff.; Lydus, loc. cit.; Macrob. I.12.15). Servius speaks of a fanum Veneris Verticordiae in the vallis Murciae (Aen. VIII.636), but seems to be confusing the shrine of this goddess with that of Venus Murcia. This may show that the former was near the latter; if not, there is no indication of its location. The statue of the goddess is shown in coins of about 46 B.C. of M. Cordius Rufus (BM Rep. I.523.4037‑9).

About a century earlier Sulpicia (RE VII.246), the wife of Q. Fulvius Flaccus, consul for the fourth time in 209 B.C., is said to have been selected, in accordance with the Sibylline books, as the most chaste woman in Rome, to dedicate a simulacrum to Venus Verticordia (Val. Max. VIII.15.12; Plin. NH VII.120; Solin. I.126), but what relation this statue may have had to the later temple is not known (WR 290‑291; Pr. Myth. I.446; Gilb. III.92).

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

p554 Venus Verticordia

Article on pp554‑555 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.