ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

evocatio from Veii.By vowing a temple to a goddess already well housed, AemiliusLepidus emphasized his own dedication to the needs of the state, as demonstrated by hisallegiance to one of the patron goddesses of the city. 16By vowing a temple that would beplaced outside the pomerium, rather than merely offering games or an extravagantdedication at the Capitoline temple, Lepidus reminded his audience of the foreigndimension of the goddess, echoing her Italic connections as well as reminding them of thesimilar temple built by Camillus, the conqueror of Veii. Thus, he borrowed the role ofsavior of Rome for himself.We should view the capitolium in Luna in light of Lepidus' dedication of a templeto Juno Regina in Rome. Ten years into his efforts to calm and reshape Northern Italyand three years after visually advertising his devotion to the needs of the Roman state,Lepidus headed the commission to found Luna. It is no coincidence that the two greattemples in Luna honor, in part, the two goddesses to whom Lepidus built temples inRome, Diana and Juno Regina. It is possible that Lepidus himself suggested theconstruction of the Luna temples, but it is also possible that the colonists, as his newclients, decided to honor their patron through choosing the goddesses he, himself,favored.15 Richardson (1992), pp. 215-217.16 Orlin (1997), pp. 72-3. "To drive home the point [Lepidus] vowed the two temples. This was indeed adramatic statement, but one which called attention to the gods, to the state, and to Lepidus' position inrelation to them, and only after that to his personal accomplishments." Orlin dismisses the older theoriesthat Lepidus felt a special debt to both Diana and Juno, that he gave his campaign drama through religionthat it lacked through military prowess (Pietila-Castren (1987), p. 104), that the temple for Juno was meantas a companion to the recent temple to Jupiter Stator (Richardson (1992), p. 216), and that Juno wasrecommended to Lepidus by the pontiffs (Weigel (1982-3), pp. 188-189). I think the latter theories are welldismissed, but in a polytheistic society, there is no reason why a person cannot have a special connection tomore than one deity.198