ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

JupiterCults of Jupiter, too, are not prominent in the colonies, although they occur morefrequently than those of Mars. Beyond the capitolium at Luna, there are literary noticesof an altar or temple in three mid-Republican colonies (Ariminum, Minturnae, andPisaurum), a temple in a fourth (Potentia), and inscriptions for a fifth (Paestum). Theliterary references to Jupiter are from Livy, so it is impossible to tell if the cult wasRoman or not through the Romano-centric viewpoint of the author. Nonetheless, thissection discusses these references as well as contemporary Italic cults to Jupiter beforereturning to the issue of the ver sacrum.In 217 BCE, C. Flaminius, a consul designate, ordered troops to muster inAriminum (268) on the Ides of March and surreptitiously left Rome without performing11 Sthis religious duties there.Upon entering office, Flaminius was supposed to performvows on the Capitol, visit the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on his first day ofoffice, proclaim the Latin Festival and the annual sacrifice to Latin Jupiter, and takeauspices before leaving for his province with all pomp and circumstance. Although thesenate recalled Flaminius, he chose to enter into his office in Ariminum instead andperformed his sacrifice there:Paucos post dies magistratum iniit, immolantique ei uitulus iam ictus e manibussacrificantium sese cum proripuisset, multos circumstantes cruore respersit;fugaprocul etiam maior apudignaros quid trepidaretur et concursatiofuit. Idaplerisque in omen magni terroris acceptum. Livy 21.63.13-14.A few days afterwards he entered upon office, and whilst offering his sacrifice,the calf, after it was struck, bounded away out of the hands of the sacrificingpriests and bespattered many of the bystanders with its blood. Amongst those ata distance from the altar who did not know what the commotion was about there1,8 Livy 21.63 f.224