Now assuming for a moment that the myth was thus imported, is it impossible that the anomalies of the cult should be foreign also? That one of them at least which stands out most prominently is a peculiarly Semitic institution; tithe-giving in its systematized form is found in the service of that Melcarth who so often appears in Hellas as Herakles[831]. The coincidence at the Aventine of the name, the myth, and the practice, is too striking to be entirely passed over—especially if we cannot find certain evidence of a pure Italian origin, and if we _do_ find traces of all three where Phoenicians and Greeks are known to have been. We may take it as not impossible that the _ara maxima_ was older than the traditional foundation of Rome, and that its cult was originally not that of the characteristic Italian Hercules, but of an adventitious deity established there by foreign adventurers. ID. SEXT. (AUG. 13). NP. FER[IAE] IOVI. (AMIT. ALLIF.) DIANAE IN AVENTINO. (AMIT. VALL. ANT. ALLIF.) SACRUM DEANAE. (RUST.) NATALIS DIANES. (PHILOC.) VORTUMNO IN AVENTINO. (AMIT. ALLIF.) HERC[ULI] INVICTO AD PORTAM TRIGEMINAM. (ALLIF.) CASTORI POLLUCI IN CIRCO FLAMINIO. (AMIT. ALLIF.) FLORAE AD C[IRCUM] MAXIMUM. (ALLIF.) All Ides, as we have seen, were sacred to Jupiter; and it does not seem that there is here any further significance in the note ‘feriae Iovi.’ Though there was a conjunction here of many cults, this day was best known as that of the dedication of the temple of Diana on the Aventine, which was traditionally ascribed to Servius Tullius. There are interesting features in this cult, and indeed in the worship of this goddess throughout Latium and Italy. For the most famous of all her cults, that of Aricia[832], I need only refer to Mr. Frazer’s _Golden Bough_—the most elaborate and convincing examination of any ancient worship that has yet appeared. Of the goddess in general it will be sufficient to say here that whatever be the etymology of her name or the earliest conception of her nature—and both are very far from certain—she was for the old Latins second only to Jupiter Latiaris in the power she exercised of uniting communities together and so working in the cause of civilization. This was the ease with the cult on the Aventine, as it was also with that at Aricia[833].