ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

Temple Vowing and Dedicating in RomeThe early city of Rome had two main centers: the Capitoline hill and the forum, eachwith its associated temples and shrines. This is not to say that these were the onlyreligious locales in Rome, however; Rome's number of shrines and temples wereaugmented regularly through, among other things, the dedication of manubial templesarising out of a general's vow on the battle field and funded by war booty. The politicaland social character of the Roman state specifically fostered such unique features of thecity, according to Zanker. 110Unfortunately for the generals, the ultimate authority tobuild a temple did not rest on the fact of their vows but on the permission of the senate asgranted by the Roman people. 111The people of Rome held this right and responsibilitythrough the lex Papiria, a late fourth century law that forbade any temple to beconsecrated without an order of the plebs.The existence of governmental regulation arising from such a critical time in thedevelopment of the Republican senate suggests that temple building was a powerfulpolitical and social tool for the Roman elite. This is confirmed by literary and epigraphicevidence. In 205, Marcellus was not allowed to dedicate a single-cella temple to Honosand Virtus for the stated reason that it would be impossible to achieve a correctinterpretation and mitigate a prodigy if there was uncertainty about which deity to110 Zanker (2000), p. 26.111 Livy 9.46.6-7, Cic. Dom. 136, Leg. 2.19 Cf. Ando (2003), p. 8 notes that the Roman people also grantedthe senate the authority to decide claims of divinity as in the case of Amphiarios at Oropos.112 Cic. Dom. 127-128. Cf. Muccigrosso (2006), p. 186 and n. 27.33