ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

terracotta antefix continued to spread into the Transpadane region through the firstcentury even as temple decoration in Rome privileged Hellenistic marble schemes.Torelli attributes the prevalence of the potnia theron terracotta sculpturaldecoration to a bid for Latinitas in the pre-Social war climate.In the middle Republic,the potnia theron motif sprung from Capua and Falerii and could be found also inEtruscan sanctuaries at Volsini, Tarquinia, Clusium, and Volterrae.So, for this period,the use of these terracotta figures on colonial temples served not as a connector to thepolitical status of the Latins, but as a tie to the culture of central Italy for colonists in aforeign environment. The figures also tapped into the Latin notion of the cult of Diana asa safe meeting place for rival communities. It is not yet the Latin status that is important,but the function of the deity in building communities. The use of potnia theronarchitectural detail may not necessarily allow the secure identification of Diana orArtemis temples in each of these colonies, but it does suggest that the temples to whichthe decoration belonged partook of the protection at the boundaries which the potniatheron deity symbolized. Thus, for Northern Italy especially, Fontana posits that theseantefixes advertised Rome's role as protector against the incursions of the Gauls andLigurians to the colonists living in Bononia and to the Roman allies. 32Diana also appears, as did Juno and Minerva, in the sacred area south of thecitizen colony of Pisaurum (184).Harvey noted that the Diana of the inscription is29 Torelli (1999b), pp. 123-4.30 Ibid.31 Blazquez Martinez (1953), p. 266.32 Fontana (1997), pp. 236-7.33 CIL I 2 376: cesula / atilia / donu(m) / da(t) diane. Note the rare archaic dative -e ending, which is alsoattested at Tusculum and among the Marsic people. {CIL I 2 368-81 = CIL I 2 3, pp. 878-9; Degrassi, ILLRP203