A Study of the Topography and Municipal History of PraenesteMagoffin, Ralph Van Deman
History
A Study of the Topography and Municipal History of Praeneste
Magoffin, Ralph Van Deman
Palestrina (Italy)
[Footnote 101: This upper temple is the one mentioned in a manifesto of
1299 A.D. made by the Colonna against the Caetani (Cecconi, Storia di
Palestrina, p. 275, n. 29). It is an order of Pope Boniface VIII, ex
Codic. Archiv. Castri S. Angeli signat, n. 47, pag. 49: Item, dicunt
civitatem Prenestinam cum palatiis nobilissimis et cum templo magno et
sollempni ... et cum muris antiquis opere sarracenico factis de
lapidibus quadris et magnis totaliter suppositam fuisse exterminio et
ruine per ipsum Dominum Bonifacium, etc. Petrini, Memorie Prenestine, p.
419 ff.
Also as to the shape of the upper temple and the number of steps to it,
we have certain facts from a document from the archives of the Vatican,
published in Petrini, l.c., p. 429; palacii nobilissimi et antiquissimi
scalae de nobilissimo marmore per quas etiam equitando ascendi poterat
in Palacium ... quaequidem scalae erant ultra centum numero. Palacium
autem Caesaris aedificatum ad modum unius C propter primam litteram
nominis sui, et templum palatio inhaerens, opere sumptuosissimo et
nobilissimo aedificatum ad modum s. Mariae rotundae de urbe.]
[Footnote 102: Delbrueck, Hellenistische Bauten in Latium, under Das
Heiligtum der Fortuna in Praeneste, p. 47 ff.]
[Footnote 103: Cicero, De Div., II, 41, 85.]
[Footnote 104: Marucchi wishes to make the east cave the older and the
real cave of the sortes. However, he does not know the two best
arguments for his case; Lampridius, Alex. Severus, XVIII, 4, 6 (Peter);
Huic sors in templo Praenestinae talis extitit, and Suetonius Tib., 63:
non repperisset in arca nisi relata rursus ad templum. Topography is all
with the cave on the west, Marucchi is wrong, although he makes a very
good case (Bull. Com., 32 (1904), p. 239).]
[Footnote 105: Cicero, de Div., II, 41, 85: is est hodie locus saeptus
religiose propter Iovis pueri, qui lactens cum lunone Fortunae in gremio
sedens, ... eodemque tempore in eo loco, ubi Fortunae nunc est aedes,
etc.]
[Footnote 106: C.I.L., XIV, 2867: ...ut Triviam in Iunonario, ut in
pronao aedis statuam, etc., and Livy, XXIII, 19, 18 of 216 B.C.: Idem
titulus (a laudatory inscription to M. Anicius) tribus signis in aede
Fortunae positis fuit subiectus.]
[Footnote 107: This question is not topographical and can not be
discussed at any length here. But the best solution seems to be that
Fortuna as child of Jupiter (Diovo filea primocenia, C.I.L., XIV., 2863,
Iovis puer primigenia, C.I.L., XIV, 2862, 2863) was confounded with her
name Iovis puer, and another cult tradition which made Fortuna mother of
two children. As the Roman deity Jupiter grew in importance, the
tendency was for the Romans to misunderstand Iovis puer as the boy god
Jupiter, as they really did (Wissowa, Relig. u. Kult. d. Roemer, p.
209), and the pride of the Praenestines then made Fortuna the mother of
Jupiter and Juno, and considered Primigenia to mean "first born," not
"first born of Jupiter."]
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