ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

In addition to these politico-religious actions, the Latin colonists built severalsmall temples and shrines in the northern part of the South Sanctuary as well as a piscina07shrine, Marsyas dedication, and a temple in the forum.These structures were not allbuilt or even planned at the moment of colonization, but arose over the course of the nextfew centuries. The gods venerated in them include Hercules, Mater Matuta, MagnaMater, Mens Bona, Marsyas, and Venus Verticordia/ Fortuna Verilis, none of which arethe gods of the Roman state even if most of them have strong Roman precedents.Perhaps the first of the new temples built in the Latin colony was the so-calledItalic temple, which was at the northernmost reaches of the South Sanctuary. The smalltemple (15 x 7.2m) was oriented on a north-south axis in line with the construction of theORbuildings in the new forum.It faced into the existing sanctuary, but was separated fromit by the temenos wall." Ultimately, the construction of the basilica on the southern sideof the forum required the demolition of this temple in the Augustan period, when a newsmall temple was built to the west. 100Torelli finds the placement of this templesignificant: it defined the border between the South Sanctuary and the new forum of thecolony. 101Such a placement also indicates, according to Torelli, that the deity veneratedin this temple was not immediately identifiable with the Greek gods already worshippedin the sanctuary. Based on this separation and the find of statuettes of babies in97 See Pedley (1990), figure 3 for a map of the city. See also Torelli (1999a), pp. 48-49, although thereferences to the map of the south sanctuary throughout Torelli's text are confused.98 Greco, D'Ambrosio, and Theodorescu (1996), p. 69.99 Torelli (1999b), p. 61.100 Torelli (1999a), p. 61. Cf. Greco, D'Ambrosio, and Theodorescu (1996), pp. 65, 68-70.101 Torelli (1999a), p. 62174