ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

temple vows were made in context of a battle, there was also no time for the general toconsult the senate or priestly colleges on his deity of choice.The senate allowed thisindividual initiative in the vowing of temples because the location, construction, anddedication of the temple were in the hands of the senate itself. 133For the general, thechoice of deity may have depended on a sense of religious obligation on the part of thegeneral or from a familial predilection for a particular deity. Stambaugh notes that "justas surely, [manubial temples] demonstrated the prestige of the builder, his ability tobenefit the city and his desire to beautify it, and they contributed effectively to the publicrelationscampaigns of these generals as they rose to political prominence." 1Theaudience for such public-relations campaigns was, of course, the Romans in Rome, butthe process of vowing a temple and negotiating the stipulations of its location gave thegenerals, and hence the colonial commissioners who had undertaken this process,experience which would help them shape the religious space of the colonies.There is a record of specific affiliations with particular gods for threecommissioners. The first example is M. Fulvius Flaccus, whose religious influence onPisaurum occurred through his brother's censorial grant of a temple of Jupiter in thecolony. Second, P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica (founder of Aquileia, 183-1) had ties to theIdean Mother (204) and vowed games to Jupiter while on campaign in Spain in 193There is no evidence that the general gained permission from the senate before leaving on campaign.There is evidence of a temple built without permission of the senate, however: Ziolkowski (1992), p. 235.Cf. Orlin (1997), p. 4.133 Orlin (1997), pp. 8-9. "The means by which the Romans erected new temples thus sheds important lighton the relationship between individual initiative and collective responsibility in republican Rome."134 Stambaugh (1978), p. 583. This is shown in particular by the habit of inscribing the dedicator's name onthe temples and embellishing them with spoils from significant campaigns.